Chef Chao

Been a patron of Chef Chao ever since I was a child. Almost four decades later, it is still my favorite Chinese restaurant even after moving out of state. Now, it is a must visit stop every return to our old stomping grounds. Great service (Thank you Kenny and Johnny as always) and excellent food.

I have been going to Chef Chao for around 30 years. It is the best Chinese food on this side of the hills, and in my opinion, as good as any I have had in Oakland or San Francisco (and that is a lot). Great atmosphere, service and continuity of ownership.

Anyone who rates this restaurant low has major issues and possibly dead taste buds. We've been going there over many years and the food and service is always excellent. One of the "must do" things our out of town visitors insist on is to go back and eat at Chef Cao while they are here!

Rick Chapman

We’ve been coming here for over 30 years and it is the best Chinese food we have ever had. We moved out of state 6 years ago but visit regularly and always include Chef Chao with our family. We have not been able to find anything close to as good where we live now. We also always love visiting with Johnny and Kenny, who have been there the entire time we’ve been coming.

Rene S

This is an old favorite that we will be going back to more often. The food is fresh with great flavor.

James Sampair

We had an excellent experience at Chef Chao. The service was excellent. The food was even better. We love the green bean fries especially! This is our first time here and we will certainly be back!!

Michal Strahilevitz

I love this place. Whenever I'm organizing a lunch or dinner for students, this is where I take them. The food is quite good and the service is absolutely fabulous. Also they take special requests if anyone has food allergies.

Leticia C Scapinelli

I love this restaurant. The food is really yummy, and the price is fair. The staff are super nice. I totally recommend it.

Alex Lindsey

I had their General Tso's chicken with a side of steamed rice, and it was super good! The amount was enough to fill up up and I still have about a lunch portion left. Definitely plan on coming back. You know a place is good when you're willing to drive 30 minutes to eat there.

Matt Byrom

Everything I've had on the menu as long as I've been going here, which is approaching 25 years now, has been wonderful. The staff is very pleasant also, and a few of them are pretty funny too. If you go for someone's birthday, they have a selection of hilarious silly hats for the person to wear for timeless photos.

Scott

Been a patron of Chef Chao ever since I was a child. Almost four decades later, it is still my favorite Chinese restaurant even after moving out of state. Now, it is a must visit stop every return to our old stomping grounds. Great service (Thank you Kenny and Johnny as always) and excellent food.

Peter Kierstead

Loved it. The service was great, our drinks never stayed empty but the service was never intrusive. There is a kids cocktail menu which is pretty cool. The onion cake appetizers were great and served with very pungant chinse hot mustard. Our entrees were delicious but definitely required rice which is ordered separately. The honey orange fish filet was amazing and I will definitely come back to order it again.

David R.

Best Chinese food for miles around. I've been coming here many years. It's fast friendly service with Kenny and his friends. No msg! The atmosphere is cozy with comfortable seats and plenty of parking. Everything tastes fresh and hot!

Geoff B

I have been going to Chef Chao for around 30 years. It is the best Chinese food on this side of the hills, and in my opinion, as good as any I have had in Oakland or San Francisco (and that is a lot). Great atmosphere, service and continuity of ownership.

Scott Bevan

Anyone who rates this restaurant low has major issues and possibly dead taste buds. We've been going there over many years and the food and service is always excellent. One of the "must do" things our out of town visitors insist on is to go back and eat at Chef Cao while they are here!

Classy establishment with good service. Food was okay for me. The spicy sichuan beef had no detectable spiciness to it and was more breading than beef.

We had a wonderful lunch here. Thoroughly enjoyed this family run restaurant.

Super friendly staff--Bill was our waiter. Food was great with exception of crab dumplings... they tasted like mozzarella cheese in wonton-- could not taste a bit of crab...

Richard Frank

We had a wonderful lunch here. Thoroughly enjoyed this family run restaurant.

Oliver Gothe

Classy establishment with good service. Food was okay for me. The spicy sichuan beef had no detectable spiciness to it and was more breading than beef.

My boss raved about this place. I don’t get it. It’s a nice restaurant but the food is not better than China Moon across the street. Especially the fried rice. It’s ok.

Thomas Taylor

Very bland, very plain food. We ordered and not sure why it came with no salt or spices. I won't do this again

I used to love this place and ate here all the time when I lived in Moraga, but it's seriously gone downhill. We ordered $95 worth of food, which was way too much for what we ordered. The person taking my order got two dishes wrong. The food was the absolute worst Chinese food I've had in my life. The egg drop soup had zero flavor, nobody wanted to keep any leftovers because it was that bad.

Food was super salty and expensive now. I picked what looked like one of their more authentic dishes, the Szechuan Beef, believing I could try something new. When I started wolfing down the food I felt the meat was way too salty. This was much different than what I experienced before. I think they changed owners or chefs. Looks like one place is off my list.

I ordered by phone, the person who took my order did not understand, when I picked up my food it was not what I expected, the person who served me was very rude, I told him that I would pay cash, it was $49. I only had $45. and I told him that I would pay $45 cash and the rest on my debit card and he did not want to agree to my request and forced to use my card to pay the total amount, in that case the person said that he would charge me $3 or $4 more, he do not wanted to give me a receipt for my transaction and later when I checked my account they had taken more than what they told me $58, my complaint is not about the extra money they charged but the way they treated me, what they charged seemed unfair to me and The food is not really delicious. It is a place where I will never return.

Spent $192 on a takeout order, they wanted us to prepay before making, didn’t go over the order because it was “too long” for them to recite (the cashiers words), went to pick up at the allotted time, they handed me 2 bags of food, didn’t go over the order (again), I asked for a receipt, they gave me a receipt with just the total cost on it, not itemized, came home, missing 2 pork orders (2 of each, so 4 boxes total), the orange chicken and lemon chicken ordered tasted the same, the only difference is they put lemon slices on the “lemon chicken”, had a plate with a scoop of rice and a scoop of veggies (which was not ours and it just looked like someone’s leftovers), called them to talk and get the rest of the pork order, the cashier said they were closing and to call and speak to the manager the next day. It has been 3 days and nothing has been made right. Never going here again.

Mariela

I used to love this place and ate here all the time when I lived in Moraga, but it's seriously gone downhill. We ordered $95 worth of food, which was way too much for what we ordered. The person taking my order got two dishes wrong. The food was the absolute worst Chinese food I've had in my life. The egg drop soup had zero flavor, nobody wanted to keep any leftovers because it was that bad.

Rina Rosales

I ordered by phone, the person who took my order did not understand, when I picked up my food it was not what I expected, the person who served me was very rude, I told him that I would pay cash, it was $49. I only had $45. and I told him that I would pay $45 cash and the rest on my debit card and he did not want to agree to my request and forced to use my card to pay the total amount, in that case the person said that he would charge me $3 or $4 more, he do not wanted to give me a receipt for my transaction and later when I checked my account they had taken more than what they told me $58, my complaint is not about the extra money they charged but the way they treated me, what they charged seemed unfair to me and The food is not really delicious. It is a place where I will never return.

Prell T

Spent $192 on a takeout order, they wanted us to prepay before making, didn’t go over the order because it was “too long” for them to recite (the cashiers words), went to pick up at the allotted time, they handed me 2 bags of food, didn’t go over the order (again), I asked for a receipt, they gave me a receipt with just the total cost on it, not itemized, came home, missing 2 pork orders (2 of each, so 4 boxes total), the orange chicken and lemon chicken ordered tasted the same, the only difference is they put lemon slices on the “lemon chicken”, had a plate with a scoop of rice and a scoop of veggies (which was not ours and it just looked like someone’s leftovers), called them to talk and get the rest of the pork order, the cashier said they were closing and to call and speak to the manager the next day. It has been 3 days and nothing has been made right. Never going here again.

Zacarias Marcos Almeida

Food was super salty and expensive now. I picked what looked like one of their more authentic dishes, the Szechuan Beef, believing I could try something new. When I started wolfing down the food I felt the meat was way too salty. This was much different than what I experienced before. I think they changed owners or chefs. Looks like one place is off my list.