Red Maple Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in West Valley City

As a San Franciscan, and has been a long Utah resident, traveled to many states both business and vacation; tasted-sampled and have had phenomenal authentic Chinatown dim-sum/Chinse dishes; this is how I would rate Red Maple.

A nice store front presentation and once inside, a decent and fair rated entrance area. We were promptly seated by a friendly, highly likeable waitress who made us felt very welcome.

Dim-Sum: Shrimp (aka: Har-Kow) white dumplings up to bar, texture/taste uthentic (I asked for red chili oil) to go with them.

For lunch (ala carte): Sweet & Sour Chicken Bentox box - Chicken were too thick and chunky, and while the chicken morsels were moist in texture, too thick to bite into. Small chunks would have been perfect to let the sauce drench into it. The fried rice, cabbage salad & the chow mein (texture-taste were just very okay, not great as should be) chow mein was spaghetti boiled, soy sauce added, not chow mein, shouldn't take the short cut when making chow mein (disappointing, unexpected) neither of the side dishes were good. In whole, the bentox box of Sweet & Sour Chicken bentox not good. Didn't eat it. We left it as it is, didn't take further bite (We could have notify the waitress of the issues, but we didn't make a fuss).

The Sweet & Sour Chicken (both the sauce and chicken morsels) and the side dishes need some work.

Hot and Sour Soup - 5 star

Dim-sum: turnip cakes, chives steam/pan fried dumplings with chopped shrimp inside; authentic both in tastes/textures (5 stars).

Singapore noodle dish (4 star) I have had excellent Singapore noodles in Vegas and some other restaurants in the Utah valley; San Francisco; the flavor should be strong, rich curry flavor. The Singapore noodles could have added a bit more seasoning, this is what was missing from the actual flavor of this dish. Singapore Noodles is not spicy from the get go) its more of a flavorful dish. The shrimp were in good texture and a generous portion.

They have more and full versions of dim-sums on the weekends we came on a weekday, less variety.

They have 2 big, live lobster 🦞 tanks. If you're a lobster lover, you want it here, freshly cooked (not frozen).

Please work on the chow mein (do not use spaghetti noodles to boil and add soy sauce, mix them up....this is not Chow Mein. Chow Mein has diced cabbage, carrots, green onions, use real, authentic Asian chow mein noodles) this is where I deducted a few stars among other reasons (side dishes should be perfect to compliment the main dish in the Bento Box). Cut up chicken to a small-med size chunks, not Godzilla bite size. Too thick.

The waitress service was amazing and perfect. She was very nice, friendly, sweet and very likeable and serviced us. She repeatedly returned and gave us a fresh plastic jug of ice and water.

In short, Red Maple is okay depending on what you order. It's a hit or miss dishes.

The man cashier by the front area of cash register could smile a bit and show friendliness. He was a robo-cashier and might be the owner.

We came here for a birthday lunch because coworkers recommended that this place is top dog and amazing. It was okay, but our group knew we will not...

This evening was my first time dining at Red Maple. Partially because I was looking for a different Chinese restaurant but I also had a good review from one of my coworkers. For the most part, I rate this as 5-stars overall. The service, right about 5 PM MDT, was prompt and very attentive. The server who tended to my table was very polite and did a great job with keeping my glass full and ensuring my food was nice and fresh. I splurged a little bit at my visit had had both a dinner combination plate as well as some dim sum in the form of BBQ pork buns. Overall, the pork buns were very soft and fresh and the pork was taste and a little sweet. Being a bit of a dim sum novice, I won't go into heavier detail but I enjoy BBQ pork buns. For the combination plate, I tried the Pon-Pon chicken which is a little spicier take on sweet and sour chicken. They serve the combination plate in a large Bento-styled box and it comes with your entree, your choice of soup (egg blossom or hot-and-sour), two cheese wontons, an egg roll, fried shrimp, salad, ham fried rice and lo mein. For a $20 plate, this is definitely a fest to be had. The egg blossom soup...is different compared to the egg drop soup most places serve. The broth is definitely thicker than I expect but it was brought out nice and fresh and overall I enjoyed it. The salad is pretty good and was well-tossed in the house dressing they have which I think is based on a ginger dressing you might find in many Oriental restaurants. The cheese wontons here are in my opinion the best I've had in Salt Lake County and the egg roll is decent. BTW, they do have Chinese mustard on the side which I enjoyed because of all the places I've been to in the area, this is the only that served Chinese-styled mustard. The shrimp was nice and crunchy and delicious...though I prefer the sweet and sour sauce that comes with the plate over the ketchup served on the side to dip my shrimp in. The lo mein and rice are good, about what you expect almost everywhere and I like the fact the lo mein isn't overly heavy from any sauce. The real start is the entree. I every much enjoyed the Pon-Pon chicken. It was nice and fresh when it was served, the chicken was crispy on the outside and just right on the inside and the Pon-Pon sauce was very enjoyable and best yet, unlike some places I've eaten Chinese food, the chicken wasn't drowning in suace and had just the right amount of sauce on the chicken. Overall, I enjoyed my meal there and just some advice...if you get the dinner combination plate, that's all you need. I barely finished the plate because it IS a feast. My only critiques with regard to Red Maple are mainly 1) I would like to see some hot teas offered for the choices in soft drinks. I will drink sodas with Chinese, but I personally prefer hot tea when I enjoy Chinese food. Also 2) I am surprised that General Tso's chicken isn't offered on one of their dinner combination plates. Just bear in mine this is based on first impressions from my first time here. But food aside, the service is really top-notch from the Chinese places I've been to so if you're looking for a different Chinese place to try, give Red...

Red Maple in Taylorsville used to be my go-to Chinese restaurant. I was a loyal fan for years—even during the pandemic, I ordered takeout regularly. They had the best authentic Chinese dishes in town. But I hadn’t been back for a couple of years, and recently decided to return when I gave a friend a ride home who lives nearby. We all agreed to stop by, nostalgic for the good old Red Maple days.

It was a Saturday around 2 PM, still dim sum time. We ordered a variety of dim sum and dishes from the menu, expecting to be impressed like before—but sadly, almost everything missed the mark.

Let’s start with the cheung fun (rice noodle rolls)—we tried both shrimp and beef. The skin was thick, hard, and nothing like the silky texture it should have. The pai gwut (spare ribs) were extremely fatty—over 60% of each bite was just fat. The niu bai ye (beef tripe) was drowning in ginger—like they got a truckload of free ginger and decided to use it all at once. The tofu dessert was bland, not sweet at all. The char siu bao (BBQ pork buns) were dry and hard.

We ordered kong xin cai (water spinach), expecting fresh, crisp greens. What came out looked pale and was mostly stems. It wasn’t stir-fried—it tasted like it had been boiled in the same hot water pot used to pre-cook everything in a typical Chinese kitchen. Disappointing doesn’t even begin to cover it.

The server did check in a few times but didn’t seem to notice we barely touched our food. Instead, they kept pushing more dim sum off the cart, now on “buy one, get one free.” We figured maybe we just picked the wrong dishes, so we gave it another shot.

We ordered ham sui gok (deep-fried glutinous dumpling), which arrived completely flattened—I honestly couldn’t tell what it was at first! But since I’ve always liked that dish, we still gave it a try and wanted to pick wu gok (taro dumpling) as the free one. The server refused, saying he wanted to take that one home himself… so we picked something else.

Ironically, the most deformed dish—ham sui gok—ended up being the best one on the table.

I’m sad to say it, but Red Maple just isn’t what it used to be. I really wanted to love it again, but unless things improve drastically, I probably won’t be back...