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Chef Mings (Chinese cuisine)  $

 9
JaT Rating

61 Washington Street, Santa Clara, 95050  (Directions)


408-984-6688


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Nondescript exterior opens up to clean interior with plenty of veggie items


Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 730
Reviewed: 6/26/2007
Rating: 9
My photo gallery 		What can I say? Its been a good couple of weeks. Another 9 rating from me for Chef Mings. From the outside, the place looks... well... old. Not necessarily rundown, just old. I enter and it still looks kind of old inside. A country theme, almost. Its loaded with white folks in there, so my guess is that its not totally authentic. My heart drops a bit, but this place is a wishlist request, so there has to be something here. And the fact that they have a large vegetarian selection is a good sign for me.

I am quickly shown a table and scan over the menu. The service here was super quick, all around. I settled on the veggie egg rolls to start with and Eggplant in Hot Garlic sauce for my lunch special.

The wait was very short til my soup and salad arrived. The soup was run of the mill. Salad was actually pretty good. The sweet dressing was tasty and the little chip things were nice. Before I could finish this, my eggrolls arrived, piping hot.

Maybe it was because I wasn't sharing the dipping sauce with anyone this time, but these egg rolls were super good. Very fresh ingredients inside, and greasy but not overly so- just right. The sweet dipping sauce of course (used liberally) was perfect.

There was a bit longer of a wait for my main dish, so I had time to look around. This place was super spotless. The wait staff was unstoppable in their pursuit to serve everyone. As soon as a plate was empty or a glass half full, they were there in an instant. At any one moment, there was at least 1 or 2 wait staff in the front area of the restaurant where I was eating. Impressive. No dead bugs in the corners, no gnawed corners to any of the tables. Carpet was well kept and spotless.

My main dish arrived, with a cup of rice, and it was huge. The portions here are definitely above average. I dump it into my plate (all of the rice, and half of the eggplant dish cause the entire serving would not fit on my plate). All I can say is that it was nearly perfect. My only complaint would be that it wasn't spicy enough. The spice was there, but not very much. The garlic flavoring was subdued and perfect. Eggplant was fresh and chewy. I devoured it fast, even though I was most certainly getting full by this point.

I am really anxious to return here to try more of their vegetarian dishes. As I was leaving, I grabbed a menu at the desk, and must have had 4 or 5 of the employees thanking me and wishing me well, all smiles. Wow, I felt like family. While the food here is super good, the service and cleanliness take it over the top. If you like places like Tau Tau or Hyang Won, (or if you want tasty chinese vegetarian) you will appreciate the food here.
 
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capnhank ate...

chow fun, broccoli cashew, veg chicken w/tangerine

“Yum! The hot & sour soup was a little bland, but everything else was top notch. The veg "chicken" is actually mushrooms and my wife (a serious mushroom hater) loved it. Best service around, too. Kudos!”

4/29/2008 9:35:12 AM

array ate...

chinese veg

“this is the best Chinese Veg restaurant I've been around bay area. they also make non-veg dishes, but their veg is very good, I really like theri veg clam, the first one on veg menu”

8/1/2007 1:30:22 AM