Gum Wah — Restaurant in Oakland

Our usual place (Joy Luck) was closed! So my Grandpa wanted to go two storefronts down to Gum Wah. It's a big restaurant with lot of seating. Like Joy Luck restaurant, Gum Wah is what Americans would call a hole in the wall (or to me, normal). Before I ordered I saw what others were eating. It all looked so good. It was lunchtime and most people ordered lunch special items. We got chow fun with prawn, rice porridge fish filet, yin yang fried rice, bitter melon lunch special and some typical beef string bean lunch special. The chow fun was amazing. I loved it! It was so flavorful. It's the saucy style chow fun I like too. The rice porridge was tasty. It had plenty of fish and 1 whole egg (1000 yr old). Bitter melon was good for bitter melon. The yin yang fried rice was the dish I ordered, and it wasn't to par. I was kind of sad. The rice seemed old/dry. The tomato sauce did not have much taste. I think I was unlucky! I give this place 5 stars because I would get the chow fun again. Another customer had the black bean chow fun... I wanted it... Would...

This is my go to for Chinese porridge. Some porridge places are sheisty with the meat or other fillings in their porridge, but not this place. They give you a good amount of toppings at a really good price. And of course they boil the heck out of that rice, and so you get beautiful cooked down pieces of rice swimming in watery rice broth. Topped off with ginger and cilantro. It's pure class. Classy congee made in a hole in a wall. Dunk in pieces of the youtiao (donuts/cruller) and you're golden! My favorite is the sampan, but all of them are pretty yummy.

Other exceptional items:

Roasted duck Roasted pork Shrimp crepe rice roll Duck won ton and egg noodle soup Beef stew and...

Totally amazed that Gum Wah opens at 8:30am!

Grabbed lunch with pops here one late afternoon. We had the craving for roast duck. We walked into an empty restaurant with plenty of seating available.

They have a pretty standard Cantonese/Hong Kong menu.

We had...

Combination Meat Rice Plate (Soy Sauce Chicken, Roast Duck, Beef Brisket) Chinese Broccoli Roast Duck Wonton Noodle Soup

Everything was delicious!

Pay with cash, because paying with credit takes super long.

Service is good and quick.

Place is clean.

Prices are super...