Jinweide Lanzhou Hand-Pulled noodle House — Restaurant in Millbrae

The name of the restaurant makes it sound like a place where you can get organic and healthy snacks, but it's really misleading as the desserts served aren't something that I would classify as "healthy" - also, they serve food as well, so I'm not sure why there's a "dessert" in the name. Anyway ... we came here two times during our visit to San Francisco, and left both times feeling rather meh.

Service: There's only two waitresses running back and forth to service the customers. There were quite a few parties standing outside waiting for a spot and they didn't have time to address the parties because they didn't have time to clear the tables in order to seat them. They were making the desserts, getting things for the customers ... not sure what they were doing, but a lot of things were done too slow. Another big mistake was that both times we came, something was wrong with the order. The first time, they had given our dessert to another table that had ordered after us. And apparently that was the last one so they offered to give us half of our dessert since they had enough for half a bowl ... haha what? Do we get charged half price? Needless to say, we didn't take their offer. The second time, I believe they forgot something that we had ordered and we had to remind the waitress that we were waiting on one more dish.

Ambience: Nothing too special. There's seating around the kitchen area where you can watch them make crepes as well as booths and tables. Lighting is bright and with the TVs on, just a typical Hong Kong restaurant.

Food: I tried their curry fishballs, soy sauce chicken wings, stir fried noodles, and the curry chicken. I thought the curry chicken tasted the best out of all the savory dishes that I tried. It had good flavor and a good amount of chicken. Unfortunately there wasn't enough rice, but oh well. The fishballs, wings, and the noodles were just okay.

Dessert: My sister really wanted to get the strawberry brownie parfait. Lots of strawberry ice cream, corn flake cereal, cookies, whipped cream, chocolate fudge. I think we had more fun taking pictures of the dessert than eating it because it was too sweet and had too many things going on. The crème brulee was good. I think that was the best dessert I had at this place, and I wouldn't say it is considered to be 100% healthy! It was sweet and had a good crisp on top. I also tried the grass jelly with QQ tapioca. It was okay, but I could have made the dessert myself. I thought it came with boba, but I was sadly mistaken.

tl;dr - Overall, I would say it's a decent HK eatery, but I wouldn't recommend anybody to come here for their western desserts. They specialize in their Hong Kong desserts, and I would suggest sticking to that. And the curry! Prices were okay. They are open late,...

The word Ramen comes from Chinese Lamian. Just like Japan, Lamian is meant as a fast food for blue collar originally. Anyways the word literally means pulled noodles and a good pulled noodles had a certain chewiness that's very difficult to immitate using machines. Anyways the best lamian originated from a province called Gansu and interestingly this restaurant claims to be from that region. Note that many of the people who makes lamian in China are Muslim Chinese so you normally won't find pork there. This place is decorated just like a typical lamian place from China even the bronze statue looks right. The place is big enough and decorated just right so it does bring some nostalgia. One complaint I typically have about lamian place even in China is the lack of meat and the lack of variety of meat in the lamian. Because it was meant as a cheap fast food for blue collar so the noodle is the main point of the dish. The meat is just to add flavor which is in direct contrast to noodles from the south including Taiwan where what's in the soup including the meat is the focus. This restaurant doesn't have the 二细 or secondary thinness choice of the noodle which is a letdown but I'd recommend the thick (not the super flat one just the normal thick one). The soup I'd recommend the non spicy one if you want authenticity. Overall it's a good addition to Millbrae downtown and it's good enough even if it's nothing special. I would recommend it if you like noodles or are nostalgic about Lanzhou lamian. I like the lamb kebabs though because there is a mix of fat and lean lamb so it's good. This place also uses that annoying 20+% tablet...

I am personally very skeptical of all the five star reviews here. If you have been to any other hand pulled noodle place, you can tell that this place is not deserving of five stars.

First, the portion sizes are horribly wrong. It feels like I’m eating half of the portion that it’s meant to be. Second, the broth is not much of a broth at all. There seems to be some sort of like a powdery substance that has been added to enhance the flavor of the broth, but there’s almost no flavor of richness that’s coming from the beef broth itself. Third, there is basically nothing in the soup itself besides the small amount of noodles. There were a couple pieces of beef that was provided along the side, with almost no garnishes or pickled veggies, despite me having ordered them. It felt like someone gave me a sample of their actual order at best.

Rather than me explaining all the things they are doing wrong, I strongly implore the owners and the cook to go take a trip to Ox Nine in San Mateo and order their soups. See how their food is portioned, see what their prices are. See what makes a good hand pulled soup good. You only have one chance to make a good impression, and to me, they have failed.

I live around here and I want new restaurants to succeed but these restaurants need to adapt to the changing times. If there are far superior restaurants providing the same meal, they have no chance of succeeding despite what a smattering of planted reviews might say to the contrary. Oh, and please simplify your menu, there’s just too...