Lily Kai

Simply put, this place is amazing. Friendly staff, great food, and a beautiful restaurant. Would recommend this place to anyone looking for quality and delicous food.

The best Chinese restaurant I’ve ever experienced, hands down. The food quality and consistency is unmatched by any other.

tasty fresh savory chinese food! what a great find in petaluma… i little off the beaten path but worth the drive… its in an industrial business area and the complex coming from the freeway is pretty hidden… use your gps!
we had some outstanding har gow (shrimp dumplings) which were excellent… the eggplant veggie dish was a little oversalted but it was the sauce… the eggplant was lovely… the mongolian beef was spiced perfectly and was tender with green onions! all of the above paired so well with the black tea infused w lavender… mmmm…I need to go back! they have sooo many other choices to try!

So disappointed. Dishes had very little chicken or beef. Spicy dishes had no spice. Trying new place next time :(

I wish I would have taken a picture. This review doesn’t even do justice. Been here a handful of times and my family goes even more often and loves it. I will NEVER go again. We had two dishes last night that had completely, like I mean completely, fully pink, raw chicken in our chow mein and fried rice. The outside, very edge, was basically seared and the inside was completely raw. Not just undercooked… RAW! They made us new dishes without meat, and still charged us. What makes this extra scary is the very first time we went to eat there, my husband got violently sick from food poisoning. Really scary. We had 3 toddlers eating with us… we just hope we caught it before they ate any.

Exactly average. It does the job of an Americanized Chinese food place. Service is spotty and inconsistent, and it’s not unusual for the bill to come out incorrect.

Are you serious?! Chinese food with no MSG, Free Range Chicken, and Organic Brown Rice! This place was pretty awesome. I have been waiting to find a chinese restaurant like this! If you are going by yourself please go during lunch, I went at dinner and it felt weird being there by myself. I am in Petaluma on business and didn’t know what else to eat. But yeah the food was bomb and quality is there!

This is easily the best Chinese food me and my husband have ever had. I don’t live in this area, which is sad because I don’t like the Chinese restaurants where I live. Today I just tasted what I’ve been missing. If I could I would visit this place often. The Szechuan Eggplant dish was absolutely the best Eggplant of all time. Most people don’t know how to cook Eggplant properly (leaving it bitter and chewy). But this was divine and melts in your mouth. They also served us a very fragrant Jasmine tea which was wonderful. The food seemed light (not greasy) and very fresh. The portions were generous. We ordered 2 dishes plus rice, spent $ 25, and it could have fed three people, maybe four. We left smiling and happy.

I don’t know why I gave Lily Kai only four stars last time. I was young and naïve. Now, two years older, I appreciate Lily Kai more than ever. The food is still excellent and the owners and waitstaff are as friendly and welcoming as ever. The veggie fried rice and chow mein comes chock full of hearty, big pieces of broccoli, asparagus, bok choy, carrot, you name it. Their specials are always amazing. My party had the spicy curry chicken and shrimp and they said it was excellent! The seafood noodle soup was great, the base was thick with egg and glass noodles and the scallops tasted so fresh. Wonderful meal this time, a wonderful meal every time. We haven’t had better Chinese food in Sonoma County. You can’t beat Lily Kai!

Typical shopping center Chinese fare for people willing to settle for mediocrity — the bland leading the bland.

We have been going to Lily Kai for years. It is our go to place for Chinese food in Sonoma county. They treat us like family. The first night of the year of the Fire Monkey we decided to have a proper celebration. Working with Lily we constructed an eight course meal. Starting with Happy Family appetizer plate. What a treat with a special chicken, jelly fish and delicious sliced pork. Next the seafood soup with scallops, shrimp and fish, Peking duck, Whole steamed fish, Buddha vegetables, broccoli beef, long life noodles and special red bean paste dessert. Everything was exceptional. Plus one of our waiters had us singing a Chinese New Year song. Gung Hay Fat Choy! Thank you Lily and all your staff!

This is a very good place to get Chinese Food but timing is everything you may have to wait twenty minutes. But for me it was worth the wait. All of the food I ordered was fresh and well presented. I really didn’t think the wait was twenty minutes? I was with a friend and were surprised when they called us. I was super hungry so I thought I would order Four plates took two plates home and ate for two more days, I like leftovers! We had Orange peel chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, Chicken Chow Mein and Vegetable Chow Mein and an Arnold Palmer to drink. What more can I say everything was great, please try this restaurant you won’t be disappointed and it is worth the wait.

I have eaten here 50+ times, mostly takeout, and I have never been disappointed. For various reasons, I usually avoid Chinese food restaurants, but in my experience, Lily Kai uses very fresh ingredients and they don’t overcook, over grease, over starch, over sweeten, or use MSG. Besides the consistently delicious Chinese-​American food, they have never messed up an order, their time estimates for pickup are spot on, and I’ve found the staff to be hard working and absolutely delightful. The prices are also very reasonable for the quality and size of the portions.
I tend to order and recommend the Mongolian Beef, Vegetable Fried Rice and Vegetable Chow Mein. The Pork Potstickers are huge and very meaty, and the Crispy Spring Rolls satisfy my fried food craving, while offering a nice dose of fresh veggies inside. For me, it’s a staple for takeout in Petaluma.

My husband and I enjoyed dinner at this restaurant. The food is delicious, light, and fresh. We ordered chow mein to share, fried prawns with sweet and sour sauce and hot mustard, and a small egg flower soup. The portions are hefty, way more than we could finish at one seating, and extremely inexpensive for the quality and quantity you get. Despite the restaurant being quite busy, service is fast and friendly. We will return.

Great service. Delicious food. You can tell it’s all made with quality ingredients. Amazing Chinese food!

I was so disappointed! Ordered manchurian beef and orange chicken after reading all these wonderful reviews… to only experience a bland soggy dish going in the trash. The manchurian beef was so flavorless and doughy. The chicken wasn’t as bad but I wish both dishes were fried longer… I ate as much as I could but the beef was definitely a waste. The steam rice was the only thing delicious. I’m so sad because of my high hopes!

I wish Lily Kai delivered because the times when I want Chinese take out is when I feel the laziest! Their food is so good though that I don’t mind getting my shoes on and heading out the door to pick it up. I’ve been pleased with the dishes I’ve ordered and I think I’ll keep them as my go-​to Chinese take out place. Love their crab rangoons and noodles! I also love their manchurian beef!

The word has been out for a while that the best Chinese food in the area is Lily Kai. It seemed reasonable to assume that Lily Kai is Szechuan style as this is more popular with the locals. Szechuan style is mostly sautéed dishes with lots of chili and oil and hence spicier compared to Cantonese, which is usually not as spicy with more emphasis on steamed and fresh food. Without any expectations, we walked in and noticed that the service was very un-​Chinese. The host was warm, welcoming and promptly sat us by even pulling out a chair for me! Have you experienced that in a Chinese restaurant? I would describe the décor as clean, classy in a simplistic way with tasteful mahogany colored chairs and white tablecloths. The condiment bottles were spotless with no unsightly stains. Our server was a true-​to-​life polite Chinese gentleman, giving us time to browse the menu without being pushy, soft spoken and attentive to our needs. Browsing the menu, it was clear that Lily Kai is for the most part Szechuan albeit Americanized to some extent.
As always, my benchmark in a Szechuan restaurant is Hot and Sour Soup ($ 6.75). I looked for simplicity in taste expecting nothing fancy or complicated. Lily Kai’s version was peppery, vinegary and free from additives like MSG. Spicy and sour flavors always hit the spot on a nippy evening and also whet the appetite! It was nice the soup wasn’t too sour to the point I couldn’t keep my eyes opened! (³⁄₅)
We ordered an entrée that was a combination of 2 entrees. Spicy Szechuan Eggplant combined with Hot and Spicy String Beans ($ 9.25) was stir-​fried in spicy garlic sauce and sounded like a winning combo. The crunchy al dente string beans offered a solid contrast to the softer eggplant texture. As is typical with Szechuan flavors, the taste was by no means subtle. It was characterized by bold and robust flavors that you almost needed lots of rice to accompany every bite. Being overly sweet was another mild setback but it might be the way locals prefer. (⁴⁄₅)
Orange Roughy ($ 15.85), a rare find in a Chinese restaurant, is prized for its moist, mild and delicate flavors. Lily Kai’s version by steaming it Cantonese style in sweet soy, oil, ginger and scallions was a good way to cook except that the fish was a frozen piece of filet and not as delectable as live from a tank. As a result, that was some amount of brininess but nothing the jar of garlic chili cannot fix. Personally, I prefer steaming a live fish, as a frozen piece of filet can never match the natural sweetness of a fresh fish. (3.5÷5)
Singapore Noodles ($ 8.95) is a dish of rice vermicelli seasoned with curry powder and stir-​fried with prawns, char siu (BBQ pork), chicken, eggs, onions and bean sprouts. I was so surprised and impressed I almost fell off my chair! This isn’t my favorite noodle dish and I ordered this in Lily Kai only for lack of other better noodle choices. Imagine my shock, as Lily Kai’s execution was stellar on several counts. Firstly, good wok hay is an essential prerequisite for any stir-​fry noodle dish. I will assume their stove has high BTUs to generate the wok heat needed and the chef had the wok skill. I wasn’t impressed with the wok hay in the eggplant stir-​fry! Next, the curry powder used was delicious with no old and musty smell. Finally, the plump prawns and slightly burnt BBQ flavor of the char siu blew me off! WOW! (⁵⁄₅)
All in all, I can understand Lily Kai is in business to cater to the kind of food most in demand in the area. Being Americanized is not necessarily a bad thing if this is what it takes to bring the crowd into their doors!

I have eaten here several times, and they never disappointed me. Their food is not greasy or salty, and always fresh. In noodle dishes and fried rice menu, they include plenty of meat and juicy shrimp. And their price is not more expensive than other Chinese restaurants.
We had pork buns, seafood soup, cashew chicken, and combination fried rice in this visit. Everything tasted good, but we especially liked seafood soup. It had great flavor and very good seafood. I was also impressed by the tea they served. No other Chinese restaurants serve Lychee tea (at least in this area). Its flavor is like a flower. I bought it on the way home.
I have been in many Chinese restaurants, and a lot of them have too greasy, salty dishes, and overcooked meat and seafood. I see some other restaurants in town also have 4 stars, but it’s not fair judgment. In my opinion, many people can’t really taste good Asian food.
I recommend this restaurant strongly to people who love Chinese food. And I want to go back every time I visit Petaluma.

Darling Mother likes to have lunch here after a morning out.
The service can be interesting. Last time we were here, DM had finished her entrée before anyone noticed I hadn’t been served. Our waiter didn’t pass our table once in 15 minutes. I worried that my plate was sitting under a heat lamp, shriveling into a rendition of dried shrimp. It hadn’t been. It hadn’t even been started. We ended up taking it to go.
The food is decent, nothing to knock one’s socks off, but nothing that isn’t pretty good. Everything seems fresh, and I guess the lunch service is due to volume. DM likes the prawn lunch specials and the chicken lettuce wraps. I like the basil chicken, the spicy pork and the hot and sour soup. I do think Sonoma County is past ready for a more gourmet Chinese offering somewhere. That would make everyone step up their games, right?