Fortune Star Chinese Restaurant

My first visit last week was a pleasant surprise. Decided to give this a chance as I couldn’t find parking at the restaurant next door that I am more familiar with. Ordered the fortune star chicken and a braised pork claypot dish. The first dish came with good fresh ingredients and not salty as I had requested. Modern deco with new and clean tile flooring and some booth seating.

Great service! We were seated quickly and the food came in less than 10 minutes. I ordered the mixed seafood clay pot and it was fantastic. They do not skimp on the good stuff at this restaurant. I’ve eaten at so many Chinese restaurants that give you just a tiny bit of actual seafood and fill the rest of the plate up with rice. Not the case here. I only wish that they had more variety in the veggies they put into the mixed veggie shrimp dish.

I wouldn’t say the food is super good but it wasn’t bad. We got there around nine o clock just enough time to eat before they close. Ordered eleven dishes including a soup for nine people. I was super hungry like usually but I didn’t mind going to a restaurant to eat which also meant Unilocaling haha. My two favorite dishes out of the eleven that I think people should give a try would be the salt and pepper tofu with eggplant and the sweet & sour spareribs. Those two dishes were by far my favorite. Everything else was ok or ehh. The worst would be the chicken & pig stomach with wasabi. I thought it was smashed avocado on the pig stomachs and chicken at first till I took a bite, let me just say, my nose starting burning. I don’t really like wasabi and seeing so much smeared on the meat and going into my mouth was absolutely gross. Other than that, everything else would be fine. Also ordered two steam rice and food came super quick. Service was okay as well.

I was hesitant to try this place because of the reviews but it was delicious! We have tried every Chinese restaurant from San Mateo to Belmont and this by far is the best… even better than Little Shanghai which was our favorite. This is located next to Silver Lake (which is ok but the service is horrific and its really expensive). We ordered the Tofu Chicken, Crispy Eggplant over Garlic Sauce (OMG! flavor heaven), the fried rice with the white and red sauce, and chicken chow mein for the little guy… all of it was awesome. And the price is extremely reasonable.

3.5 stars, but I will round up this time because I did not have as negative of an experience as it seems other have. It looks like most of the lower star reviews here are due to service. I believe this restaurant has been through a series of management changes so I don’t even remember when the most recent time I came before this experience was. I will say though, I did not experience any of the service problems that others seem to have had. I was seated quickly, tea was brought over, and they came quickly to take our order. Chinese restaurants aren’t particularly known for their service, but I thought the wait staff was fine.
The food is nothing spectacular, but is reliably good and the prices are reasonable. With nearby Silver House which has a loyal customer base for years, they have some great deals to reel people in. Most notably, I think is the lobster noodle — not the most colorful or visually appealing that I have ever seen, but I think for around 12 dollars (might have been a couple bucks more or less), you get a healthy amount of noodles AND lobster, so you can’t really complain. Everything else was pretty affordable, with the exception of the crab entrée we got — either the market price has gone up or they charge heavily for some of their seafood. Flavorwise, I thought some of the other foods were a little bit heavy on the oil, but nothing that a little bit of dabbing with your napkin can’t fix. Judging from their menu items, I think they also cater to a non-​Chinese customer base, which might also be a good strategy to help them stay afloat.
As a tip, parking can be tricky around El Camino around lunch and dinner time. You will have better luck on the side streets and Fortune Star has a small lot behind the shop reserved for customers — about 6 spots!

Good food but took them a long time to bring water. They brought only 1 glass of water for the entire time we were there even though we kept asking.

The food here is actually really delicious. I ordered the silk tofu with veggies and adored every single bite. The restaurant was not at all crowded and we were seated immediately. Service was nice and very speedy. They speak both mandarin and Cantonese.
You also get a little bowl of complimentary soup. Delicious!

I called for delivery to my hotel. There was a $ 35 minimum, but I ordered anyway. When I got the order, the fried rice was cold, the wontons were dripping grease and the egg rolls were slightly Burt on the outside, and gooey on the inside. I would never recommend this place to anyone.

To locate your business one door away from your competition is a dumb move. You need not be a rocket scientist to figure that. But in reality, stranger things are known to happen and Fortune appears unperturbed, as they seem to be holding their own against Silver House, an old established Chinese restaurant one door away. Curious to unravel Fortune’s secret, we dropped in on a whim only to find a simple matter-​of-​fact answer. It was their food! (Duh!)
The façade is unattractive but is not dilapidated or unkempt. As we walked in, the cleanliness of the floor, the tabletops and condiment trays were immediately eye catching. Next, the warm and cheerful color scheme on the walls added to the pleasant vibe. I also noticed there were no live seafood tanks or a roast meat counter for roast ducks and char siu (BBQ pork). Perusing the menu, it was immediately apparent they were very old school where traditional Chinese dishes abound. I selected 3 ancient entrees that I remembered chowing down as a kid in NYC’s Chinatown. Here is the lowdown.
The dinner started with a delightful bowl of complimentary house soup (lai tong). The soup was slow boiled with pork bones until the essence of the marrow dissolved and spilled their sweetness into the broth. The accompanying pieces of daikon radish and carrots were melt-​in-​your-​mouth soft. I would have preferred the soup boiling hot instead of lukewarm. Can’t really complain however, as it was free!
Maybe I have been eating unhealthy all my life for I am a sucker for chicken skin! Labeled simply as Crispy Chicken Chinese Style ($ 9.95), a whole chicken was poached, dipped in vinegar and sugar, dried and deep-​fried until the skin was crispy. No, that wasn’t Fortune’s recipe but that of my late mom’s. But I can’t imagine their recipe from being too different. The key to the taste besides the crispy skin was the side of five-​spice salt that you can gently rub on to the skin and meat. In days of old or in Asia even today, the chicken was actually served with the head and the rear end but not anymore here in Fortune! What prompted me to order this? I haven’t had crispy chicken in a long time, as it is now more common to see empress chicken or soy sauce chicken. Also, it was one of the most anticipated dish in our wedding dinner but I am not saying how long ago that was! I have to dock one star though out of respect for my mom! (⁴⁄₅)
Flounder is a flat fish ($ 13.95) with both eyes on one side of the head. The fish was deep-​fried as opposed to steamed which is healthier but pricier. Again, I haven’t had this dish in years. The whole fish was drizzled with sweet soy and fried so that one can savor even the tiny bones on the fringe of the fins. When expertly fried, they were edible, in fact every bit as tasty as the meat. They morphed into crunchy needles that I would say taste better than your tiny potato chips! (⁵⁄₅)
Steamed Pork Patty with Salted Duck Egg ($ 10.95) is another classic Chinese comfort dish that brought back childhood memories. It had strong savory flavors from the pork patty with a touch of saltiness from the delicious salted duck eggs. It was best to eat this with rice. Most Chinese prefer half fat meat as fat is where the taste is. (⁵⁄₅)
Being our first time, it may be possible we lucked out and ordered all 3 hits. Only time will tell with future visits where the misses are. Nonetheless, I feel that in the long haul and being the underdog, the proximity of their neigboring competitor will still hurt them.

Good for the bay area. Better if you order off the specialty/​chinese menu.

Bringing it old school.
That’s how they play here. A friend invited and hosted a group of friends for a Saturday catch-​up luncheon recently here. He’d brought the fried chicken wings to me as a pre Warrior game substitute for French fries… yes, that WORKS! ;)
With a party of six adults and one child, we each chose a dish and «worked around it» from there. Here’s what we had:
1) Hot & Sour soup (
) — Nothing beats a hot, spicy cup of soup for these chilly Bay Area mornings we’ve been having. Decent rendition for a Cantonese restaurant.
2) Pot stickers (
) — Crispy and tasty, not store bought quality stuff.
3) Tomato beef pan fried noodles (
) — Haven’t had this for a while and the color brightness reflects how delicious this was. The sauce wasn’t overly sweet and the noodles were crunchy and still temperature hot.
4) Shrimp chow mein (
) — Probably my least favorite, but likely because the other dishes elevated the bar for this meal.
5) Green onion pancake (
) — Also, comped to us, how can you complain about warm bread!
6) Stir fried string beans (
) — Like the chow mein, didn’t really stand out as some of the other dishes outshined this. No complaints here.
7) Yin Yang fried rice (
) — Not all Cantonese restaurants offer this dish (Great Eastern and Hing Lung (RIP)) so this was my menu choice. Not the best I’ve had (Hing Lung takes the trophy on that one), but it was good.
8) Deep fried chicken wings, regular (
) — At the Oracle parking lot, these were tasty and crunchy. What a difference, having them HOT and crispy. Probably my second favorite of the dish as it wasn’t overly salty.
9) Mustard green and pork belly clay pot (
) — Looking at the picture, you’ll notice that he didn’t skimp on portions. Flavors were good, but just wished the pork was braised just a little longer so it was more tender.
10) Golden egg prawns and pumpkin (
) — My friend’s favorite as this also is not commonly offered. The salted egg batter was not overly salty and the fry was perfect and dry.
11) Deep fried chicken wings, spicy ()
— Not a big fan of this as it’s hard to beat those San Tung wings flavor wise. Decent rendition, but not my favorite.
12) Steam black bean pork patty (
) — How can something so simple be so GOOD! Just look at the ingredients as you’ll wonder too. The sauce was delicious and the texture and flavors of this dish were highly addictive! Just give me a pot of rice and this… sigh.
Our gracious host is related to one of the waitresses Jenny who happens to be the chef’s sibling. And the chef is cooking it his way (Chung Shan) and style! Only two other small tables were occupied when we arrived around noon and it was about half full by the time we left… sleeper alert! They have a small parking area behind the restaurant which made it all the more convenient.
The thing that stays lodged in my memory is that pork dish. I asked Jenny what tenderizer or how he marinated the meat to make it so perfect in texture; she said that he literally pounded the meat by hand until it was ready. Now, that’s what I call putting your heart and soul in your food! Will be back and you don’t need to ask what my first dish will be.

Our family is here almost every Sunday and we sometimes order take-​out on a busy weeknight. The food is always delicious and it comes at such a great value. The service is always very friendly, and we have recommended them to all our family in the area. They are also very clean. We used to go to Silver House next door. We are so happy we decided to try Fortune Star out, we haven’t been back to Silver House since.

Worst food and delivery service EVER! first of all ordered from eat24. I’ve been using them for a while now. I never ever tip on a card. Because the person receiving the tip gets taxed on it. So therefor I always tip in cash. But when the deliver guy gets here he says «you didn’t tip me» ha well buddy now you’re really not getting anything because that’s rude! Second of all the orange chicken I ordered was HORRIBLE! I ate 2 pieces that were straight fried flour in orange sauce and one that tasted like it was rebattered and refried. 0 stars if it was an option.

This is one of my favorite restaurants in San Mateo.
Been eating here for years, and no MSG and plus they are Eat24, too!

Nice interior and parking is usually relatively easy. The quality didn’t disappoint but I did go when it was not crowded.

I been to this restaurant a few times with my parents, and most of the stuff is just ok. Here are some of the foods I personally enjoy there:
Crispy Eggplant — deep fried pieces of eggplant dressed in a spicy sweet glaze. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s definitely the best thing I’ve eaten there.
Salt & Pepper chicken wings — like your typical Chinese restaurants. Can’t really lose.
Fish filet with mixed veggies — I think they use rock cod mixed with garlic veggies. Great flavor.
The staff is really nice. When it’s busy, you have to be a little patient with them as they’re normally only two servers working at a time. A big plus is that they take reservations on those busy holidays.

The foods were delicious, we enjoyed them all. The service was very fast and the servers were friendly even the the dinning room were full.
We have a good time.

I am writing this review to remember to NEVER order from here again. I ordered fried rice, no onion and no egg + another order of fried rice with extra onion, Ma Pao tofu w/​o onion and egg rolls:
* Both orders of rice had onion
* Veggies in the rice HAD to have come from a frozen package, as they were completely hard and flavorless
* Rice was steamed and sticky with no appearance of getting fried, except for a few charred black pieces; it tasted like it was microwaved
* Ma Pao tofu had just as many onions as tofu
* Order took more than an hour to receive
* My partner did eat the egg rolls so I guess there is that

A pretty good chinese food place near the highway
The place doesn’t look much from the outside, but when you go in, and order some of the dishes, you’ll see that the food offered at this place is actually pretty decent, and of fairly high quality. The $ 9 Lobster noodles doesn’t hurt either. I got the «sweet and sour ribs», which is supposed to be pretty standard, and they did it quite well – the ribs were the right amount of sweetness and softness.
From the menu it looks like they have other items that look interesting. Will definitely visit again!

4.5 stars
I swear they made that sign just to draw me in. Well, it worked. Their «$ 9.99» lobster noodle sign on the window sold me and me and my whole family were there the next week for lunch.
Lobster noodles: I have to admit, they were pretty damn good. They give you one whole cut up lobster on top of a plate of noodles. The lobster was well flavored and the noodles we’re pretty unseasoned, but that way, you can tasted the lobster-​ness in your noodles. I would totally get this again, especially at that price. Winner!
We also got the salt and pepper pork ribs. They were delicious as well. I only know of this one place in SF that makes it perfectly and have been trying to find a place closer to home that makse the same and no where else comes close execpt this place! Another winner!
Garlic Green Beans: Love the garlic and it was super flavorful. The heathiness of it was drowned in a ton of oil and sauces. Nevertheless, it was still good.
Chicken: I forgot which chicken this was, but it was pretty good as well. It was super flavorful but not super tender (my mom said it was not suppose to be tender…) but it would go really well if we had rice.
Overall, I really like this place. We got good service, but maybe because my mom speaks Chinese like the servers do… But the food is good and resonably priced. I will definitely be back for their $ 9.99 lobster noodles.