Yi Yuan Szechuan

Dan Dan noodles — tastes amazing and has a spicy kick to it with a slight peanut flavor.
Xiao long bao — they’re okay. They’re subpar compared to other XLB places I’ve eaten.
Side note: every dish smells and tastes amazing BUT they need to devein the shrimp dishes that they serve! I almost threw up when I opened one up and saw that they weren’t deveined. It’s one little extra step that I know they can do! I took off two stars for this because 1) it’s just plain disgusting 2) it took way too long to devein the shrimp.

Fresh noodles made by hand! Very HOT Chili food!!! Tell the waiter if you can’t handle spicy stuff!!!

Standing out front right now. I ordered my togo food 50 minutes ago. The place was half full with no one eating, the guy keeps saying «we busy, we busy» sure but no one is eating and I’m still waiting.

Was very impressed by their quick service on a very busy father’s day weekend. The food was still up to par though a couple of the dishes we had were a tad salty. The beef hand pulled noodles are still the best and their chicken wings are awesome !

Great variety of dishes, all delicious. The service is awesome with their friendly, welcoming staff. They are very accommodating with large groups, even on short notice. My daughter plays on a softball team and we’ve often brought the entire team on a moments notice. It’s great for celebrating special occasions. We frequent this restaurant often.

This place was definitely a gem. All the food was authentic, flavorful, spicy and perfectly cooked!

Food was super tasty and even though they were short staffed, the customer service was amazing.

I love Yi Yuan. Boiled fish in hot chili oil. Hand stretched noodles. Sesame scallion pancakes. Beef patties. So much specialty Chinese food deliciousness! They’ve also get fantastic Korean-​style jianjiangmien. So awesome. This was one of my favorite local restaurants when I lived in Burlingame. Now I live in Montana and I have absolutely no access to this kind of food, so this place has taken on an almost mythical quality. I come here every time I visit the Bay Area, and I dream about the food when I’m at home.
Be warned that this is a Szechuan place. Lots of the dishes have copious amounts of chili and Szechuan peppercorns. It’s mouth on fire, lips numb, smack yo mama delicious. If you can’t handle hot, there are plenty of other dishes that don’t have heat but are loaded with flavor.

This is for take out:
— Braised Beef Tendon hand pulled noodle soup: Noodles are chewy, nice portion of sliced beef tendons and flavorful broth. I will try the spicy beef hand pulled noodle next time.
— Green Onion Beef Roll: The pancake is chewy and slightly crispy on the outside, stuffed with cucumber, green onion, beef slices and light plum sauce. The fresh ingredients standout and not over-​powered by the sweet plum sauce. YUMMY!
— Hot and Sour Soup: Love H & S soup. H & S soup needs enough tartness to bring out the flavor with white pepper to spice things up. This soup was perfect — nice balance of (bold) tartness with spicy. Kudos to the chef!
Comparing local Szechuan restaurants, this is by far my favorite Szechuan restaurant. Friendly service, clean dinning room (HUGE PLUS!!!) and great food! It’s very unusual to find a Chinese restaurant with a clean dinning room! Thanks Unilocalers!

This is only for the spicy beef hand pulled noodle soup (medium spicy) — perfect blend of noodles, ample amount of stewed beef and loads of tasty broth. I ordered chow mein and smoked pork fried rice to go since the bowl of noodles was so good…
More to come after we gobble the take out down tonight!
Great find after coming out of SFO. Thanks Unilocalers! Too bad they don’t have the Shanghai pan fried buns today because the noodle guys are off on Mondays.

⁵⁄₅ Dan dan noodles are the best I’ve had yet!
⁴⁄₅ Beef pancake roll is really good as well– a bit greasy though
3.5÷5 Cumin lamb– good flavor, but wish there was more!
3.5÷5 Langzhou Beef Ramen
3.5÷5 Fish Szechuan soup
I always try get something new, but Dan Dan is my fave!

I just happen to have spotted this place while driving down el camino in Millbrae. I went there for lunch this past Monday to try the place out. No too busy as it was a Monday after all.
The food was actually pretty good, a little more on the spicy side since its Szechuan Cuisine. None the less, I liked it. Spicy-​ness was just right. I was able to taste the flavoring of what I ordered. Overall, dishes were well balanced, not too overwhelming or underwhelming with the flavor.
I would definitely come back again.

Exceptionally great food! It wasnt much to look at, but wow the food was terrific, and the staff was really friendly and on top of it.
I was there last week for a family dinner (we were 9) and couldnt have had a better experience.
We tried so many things, I cant even remember them all, but the stand outs were:
green beans
dumlpings
dan dan noodles
I’ll be back next time I fly in from sfo. Actually, I might even make a special trip to come here. It was sooooo good!

I came here on the spur of the moment because one of my buddies and endeared mentors came here the day before and highly recommended it. Love the ambience of restaurant because it feels like mainland China. I’ve lived in HK and China for almost a decade and have tried the plethora of Chinese cuisines and I have to admit yi yuan does a great job in creating authentic cuisine and using fresh ingredients. We ordered xiao long bao (do not order, not their strength) beef pulled noodles, beef pancake roll (order this one, thumbs up) and baked Sichuan duck, (good one but on the greasy side).
The owner was very adamant we leave a review and treated us very nicely despite the Unilocal nazi attitude. It worked I guess and I do want to help their business. I hope to try other dishes to see how deserved they are of their Michelin recommendation. Remember stick to Sichuan specialties and don’t waste $ on Shanghai or even Lanzhou dishes.

2016米其林餐廳評鑑
It’s a great Chinese restaurant. the service is good and food is tasty:) highly recommend!

This place seemed pretty promising from other reviewers and the fact it was Michelin recommended, so I had pretty high expectations. My experience was average and I don’t really see what the buzz of this place is about… yet. I am willing to try other menu items to form a more complete assessment.
Price: Ordered the Unilocal recommended Dan Dan noodles and a bowl of the beef soup. For one person they actually can lower the cost of the item that was originally intended to serve two. Total meal was $ 14 plus tax. Very reasonable. Did I feel like got great food? Not so much.
Quality: The noodles were just soaked in the sauce and made the noodles just soggy as heck. There was not a good ratio of veggie and meat like in other places, and my interpretation of this dish is that it’s supposed to be light. The beef soup didn’t have much beef, and their variation has carrots. Never had that this style of Cantonese west lake beef soup. I’ll pass on this.
Service. Took 5 – 7 mins just to get seated. No one was manning the front of the house around 5pm! At least 2 – 3 other folks were also waiting. Once seated, service was great.

Currently in a Szechuan phase where I am just a sucker for spicy food. Found this on Unilocal with decent amount of great reviews and decided to give it a try. Ever since then… I’ve probably been back here 4 times because it’s just one of those higher quality szechuan food around the bay. It is also a 2016 michelin award recommended restaurant which I find pretty impressive. Street parking is available on the street and there’s also a free public parking lot to the side of it which is often full. There is never a wait here which i do appreciate as oppose to the Dim Sum
On my most recent visit… we decided to order the Princess Fish Fillet which is a special menu item I actually created at this restaurant. It is normally princess chicken wings but i requested fish fillet instead. They were really weirded out at my request the first time but eventually got use to my requests. It tastes a little like San Tung in San Francisco. Sweet honey like sauce… mmmmmm. We also got the chili wontons which tasted really great and authentic. Perfect Appetizer to start the meal. We also got the Kung Pao Chicken which consisted of chicken, water chest nuts, cucumbers, etc etc topped with spicy sauce.
I usually also get the Szechuan style pork which is SOOOOO good. It is mixed with cabbages which i highly recommend. I sometimes even order a to go order for later but i do regret it after eating. It’s greasy … and lots of flavor.
Overall I really do like the food here. Whenever I crave spicy, i crave yi yuan szechuan!

Second time having Szechaun cuisine and it was so much better than my first experience back in San Jose. The restaurant wasn’t too busy when we went which was around 1:45. I was on a time crunch since I was on my lunch break.
Seated fairly quickly and food came out within 15 minutes. We ordered chili wontons, princess fish fillet, and kung pao chicken. The chili wontons were really good. The princess fish fillet is normally listed on the menu as ‘princess chicken wings’, but my boyfriend ordered us his special rendition of it. You can request for it to be fish fillet and it comes in the same sauce. The waitress was a little confused about it when we ordered it, but after saying that he had ordered many times before, they made it for us with no hesitation. It was yummy and had a tangy flavor! The kung pao chicken was more saucy compared to other Chinese restaurants. but I mean, this is a Szechaun restaurant and everything literally has chili oil. but I’m not complaining because everything was yummy. I love love love water chesnuts and they had a bunch on the kung pao chicken!
I would definitely go here again to try other things. The dan dan noodles looked good.
*There’s a mini lot near the restaurant and street parking available on El Camino!*

This place just makes me feel too happy, every. single. time. Comfort food at its best.
Have been here over 10 times now in one month– and have not gotten tired of the food at all. Recommended to literally every co-​worker at work too, I like the food here and feel proud to represent them that much!
Came back again today and went off the usual order with the Seafood Ramen Noodle which was fantastic. It looked bland and unflavorful at first but it could not have been more misleading, there is a bunch of inherent flavor in the broth. Reminiscent of a chicken ginger soup. Lots of extra fish pieces, shrimp, octopus and the amazing hand-​pulled noodles fresh from being made in the kitchen. Amazing. Would definitely order this again, it is not as oily as the Beef Noodle Soup or the «Hand-​Pulled Noodles» which is their famous dish– both amazingly tasty in their own regards though you can see the oil in it floating around the broth.
Also got my pea shoots which I get every time along with the leek /​scallion pancakes– fresh and delicious. Just like home cooking but much tastier (just don’t tell my mom I said that).
Also got the very American-​ized walnut shrimp, which was great though the sauce was a bit heavy for me. Wish it was less saucey.
Will be coming back soon– everytime I am craving good… nay– GREAT Chinese food, Yi Yuan pops into my mind and I find myself wandering Millbrae in search of their fantastic food.

«Dude, you must be in a serious Unilocal rut.»
«Ha. You can tell?»
«Your last several reviews include a golf course and a movie theater and you’ve only posted about 20 places in the last few months. Come on, I thought you were Elite!»
Wow, way to call me out, man! What can I say though? It’s been hard keeping up with Unilocal over the last few months with a couple of colds, a stomach flu, and that pesky «work» thing always getting in the way. However, thanks (???) to my friend, I’m now properly motivated to get back on track. Plus, I have to agree — I’m pretty sure people aren’t necessarily going to theaters or golf courses based off of Unilocal reviews. So, taking his cue, back to restaurants!
Although the reviews for Yi Yuan have been mostly positive, I can’t say I’m on that same bandwagon… yet. Not that our food was bad; in part, we probably just didn’t get the «right things». As a Szechuan restaurant, dishes are generally more spicy than mild. However, since we were grabbing a bite before dropping off one of my relatives at the airport, we had to keep our order on the basic side so that he wouldn’t have problems on his flight.
– SCALLION PANCAKE…$ 5.95
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It doesn’t approach my favorite (Dumpling Empire in SSF), but this wasn’t too shabby! While the flavor wasn’t quite there for me (needed more scallions), I liked how the texture was still crispy despite the pancake’s thickness. Plus, the portion was pretty generous as well.
– HOUSE SPECIAL CHOW MEIN…$ 10.95
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Pretty decent overall. There was a good mix of goodies in the dish and I liked how it wasn’t super oily. However, the flavors didn’t really stand out in any particular way. It might sound harsh to say, especially since it wasn’t majorly flawed, but the dish felt a little generic to me.
– SMOKED PORK FRIED RICE…$ 10.95
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More solid than spectacular, but it had potential. Although the dish was decently flavorful, it could have packed a stronger punch. Specifically, more of the smokiness and meatiness from the pork. Also, maybe it’s just me, but there seemed to be a lot of peas buried in there.
– XIAO LONG BAO…$ 8.95
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Our table’s favorite! It’s hard not to like a decent XLB, but the skins had just the right thickness and I liked how meaty (yet still light) the filling was. Plus, the soup and filling were quite flavorful. It’s a shame there wasn’t any minced garlic to cut through with that fresh finish, though.
– SHEN JIAN BAO — Pan Fried XLB…$ 7.95
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The one I was most excited for disappointed us the most. Unlike with the XLB, the skin was super thick and the filling/​soup was disproportionately light, creating a mostly empty core. Though, I’m not sure if more filling would fix the problem; the taste of it wasn’t as good as the XLB’s.
Given their relative popularity and mostly positive reviews, as well as what we ordered, I imagine this review doesn’t reflect the best that Yi Yuan has to offer. Had we ordered Szechuan favorites like Dan Dan Mien, Poached Fish in Hot Chili Oil, or Cumin Lamb, I’m sure our experience would have been quite different. However, until I get the chance to come back and try those things, THREE AND A HALF stars rounded down for now.