Tam's Cuisine of China — Restaurant in Pacifica

Terrible service! I requested Kung Pao shrimp and asked waiter to omit certain vegetables from order. I double checked what vegetables came with dish and waiter showed me in menu what came with it. When dish came out, I noticed multiple veggies that came in it that I can't eat and wasn't listed on the menu. I politely asked waiter if I could get dish prepared again without the extra vegetables and the waiter responded rudely saying I did not ask for the veggies to be removed from dish. He then walked away with my dish in a pouting fashion saying I'll only give you shrimp and peanuts and that's it. There were other parts of the dish I still wanted, but figured it wasn't worth the argument as situation was starting to get a little weird. Waiter then brought my Kung Pao back, which was a 3rd of the size of original, with no sauce. Almost seemed like a knee jerk, revengeful response for me asking for the dish to be redone. I then went to management to say I wanted to simply leave without paying for service as the treatment and service to my wife and I was both terrible and embarrassing. Management was very rude saying that's the way the dishes are if you request changes to them. At this point, I told manager, fine, we're eating the food and we're immediately leaving and never coming back. He then told my wife and I to get out. As I passed manager, I told him, you guys are terrible. He responded: "yes, you are".

Bad food, bad service, with immature and disrespectful behavior. Save your time and money and eat somewhere else.

PS - Not even worth mentioning during that terrible experience, however there was a black hair on table cloth as we sat down...

I called in an order and asked if they are still doing a lunch special. They said yes, and then they pointed me to the website and I said I will take the most popular chicken dish. He said $20.88, I was confused, the website says $11.00, but hey I like supporting businesses in the neighborhood.

When I go to pick it up, I say I'm picking up the chicken lunch special. He says "combo or rice"? I am once again confused as I see only one order to be picked up. "I say what is the difference? I am not too sure, I called in 10 minutes ago"

Guy goes on to educate me on the difference and I say, oh you should probably update this on your website. He goes "no, its pretty clear". Like man, you pointed me to your out-of-date website in the first place. Typically I wouldn't be too concerned with a family owned businesses website, but he was the one that guided me there. It was one of the weirdest experiences. He was not mean, but just seemed stubborn and likely that he had worked on the website and took offense when I told him it needed updating. At the very least, update the pricing. For some folks picking up, I can see this being shocking upon payment.

Foodwise; it was aggressively ok. Extremely expensive for a lunch special. The chicken was tender, fried rice was fine. No big complaints other than a lunch plate being...

I've been coming to Tam's for years and love their food. Mostly take out as I live a few blocks away. The couple that runs the place are super good people and care about the quality of the food. They make all their sauces (even the hot chili oil, which is excellent, they also make all their own sauces for the mains, not coming out of a jar or something - real Chinese chefs in the kitchen!).

One of the things that I really care about is consistancy. And the food there is very consistent, using good ingredients. I know folks complain about prices (everywhere, all the time, whith good reason...), but, as we all know when we pay at Safeway etc, ingrediants, especially good ones (even rice) is expensive these days. They give very generous portions and it's a meal you can count on, time and time again. highly recommended, even after eating there for 20+ years! I'm about to order my usual take-out: Sizzeling rice soup, combo fried rice and pot stickers. It'll last me and my wife (who's a very picky eater) 2-3 meals. It's a deal in my opinion!

Support your local restaurants! I have lots of friends that come from 1/2 moon bay or SF to get take out...