San Wo Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in San Diego

We were in San Diego because our cousin suffered three mini strokes when he arrived in San Diego and was hospitalized. We were looking for a restaurant that served good food at reasonable prices so we could take out our neohew's family as a thank you for giving us a room to stay in while we were in San Diego. The guy at the hospital gift shop told us about Ranch 99 and how they had a little mall like shops inside which Sam Woo was housed in. He said that would be a good place to take the relatives for a thank you dinner. We decided we would try it out at lunch time to see how the food was and to see how far it was from the house where we were staying. Omg! Hadn't had food like that in a long while. Good Cantonese cooking is hard to find where we live so we savor places that have good Cantonese food.The menu was extensive and had lots to offer. We had the pea sprouts leaves stirred fried with garlic and oil, fried rice with salted fish and a combo plate of their roast duck and soy sauce chicken. We gobbled up on the pea sprout. It had good heat, cooked just right and had the wok hei flavor. Omg that was our favorite dish. The salted fish fried rice was so good with good flavor that popped with every bite. The duck and the chicken were tender and flavorful. Wow! Everything we ate was so very good and the two of us finished up everything. It left such an impression on us that we came back the next day to try different dishes. This time we had the beef stew won ton soup, pea sprout leaves with garlic and oil, and fish porridge. When our cousin was discharged from the hospital we went there to have dinner. He was hungry for some good food after eating hospital food for a good six days. That night we ordered West Lake Soup which was served very hot and so very delicious. It had minced beef, mushrooms ,cilantro ,green onions and beaten egg. Omg! Nice to know a place that can make that kind of soup. We ordered clams with black bean sauce, pea sprout leaves with garlic and oil and beef stew clay pot. Everything was so good. Each dish had it's own distinct flavor and the dishes came out temperature hot. Service is good and the food comes out quickly. It's not a fancy place but the food is delicious. It is a cash...

Sam Woo, next to 99 Ramch on Clairmont Mesa, one of the decent, authentic Cantonese restaurants in San Diego.

Not elegant with classy service, but big portions with a price that's not representative of the "California premium." For a Chinese restaurant in the US, I think it's a strong B+. And they now accept Venmo & Zelle so for lazy me that rarely carries cash, that's a big plus!

Ranked from favorite to least: Beef brisket with turnip: very well done - meat was appropriately tender, marinated maybe a touch too sweet, but not having had a good version in a very long time, it was very satisfying. A strong B+.

Garlic gailan: very nicely done. Veggies were fresh and crunchy, served very hot with decent "wok hei". A touch light on the garlic but the quantity given was quite generous. Another strong B+.

BBQ pork & duck with rice: Duck was done well - among the best I've had in the US. What I had yesterday was as good as Eastern Dynasty or Taste of HK amd that was a nice surprise. The BBQ pork was also quite nice. Not tender enough and the flavor not strong enough to make it to the "great" level but quite good. A solid "B."

Yeen yeung fried rice: Haven't had this in ages! The white sauce side was a touch underseasoned, and although appropriately generous in the amount of shrimp, they could have been fresher. The sweet & sour sauce side was done better and the fried rice itself had good flavor although a touch too wet. Nonetheless, a good showing and a solid "B."

BBQ pork fried noodles: the noodles were fine. Maybe a little too much sauce and I prefer a bit more crunchy parts on top, but decently well done. The problem with this dish was the stale tasting BBQ pork. I forgot to follow the cardinal rule of never ordering something with BBQ pork that's not freshly chopped. I assume they used left over BBQ pork because I tasted the "previously frozen / refrigerated" flavor, and the texture was quite off. Despite the very generous portion, I can only give this a "C".

Given the convenient location - being next to 99 Ranch - I will definitely...

As stated by Kevin below, the restaurants service is not so great. However, its not just the food to go section, the entire restaurant has issues because the morale is very low there, the poor waitresses often verbally abused by the manager there (he is the guy waiter there). Complaining to the manager is not the way to go, I seen him yelled at customers, he may actually be the restaurants service problem. I have seen it myself on 2-3 different occasions the past month or so, yelling at two different waitresses. I haven't seen those two poor ladies after that. The way the manager was abusing them they probably quit. As a customer, seeing people being verbally abused like that:

A) It made me as a long time customer feel very uncomfortable eating there. Feel bad for the poor ladies working there. B) I think its illegal to verbally yelling at employees like that in front of customers....isnt there law against that ?? C) It's not professional.

I don't care how great a deal their food is, watching people getting yelled at while I'm trying to eat my lunch/dinner is bad, and just weird. I hope the owner, the Chueng family look into this...perhaps replace that manager, the guy doesnt seem to be doing anything other than yelling at people (customers included)......or at least protect yourself from being reported. I'm boycotting Sam Woo BBQ for now....Don't go there, it's not avery good environment and the food is not that great either, often too greasy. I hope this helps customers and future customers decide if Sam Woo is the type of place you...