May Flower Chinese Restaurant

It serves Americanized Chinese food, which isn’t quite to my liking.

It is sad to say that this restaurant is officially closed after opening for 11 years. The owner was sharing that they used their own sauce to create the meals. I enjoyed the pan fried noodle seafood. The sauce did not required MSG to taste better. It was like a homemade meal. My step daughter only had been here once & for the last time. My hubby would miss eating here since he loved the Mongolian lamb dish. Farewell!

Wow, this is as bad as it gets in terms of customer service. They are closing in two weeks and obviously don’t want to make money anymore.
We wanted to bulk order dim sum x, y, z of each and they repeatedly came with new requests to change our order (only if you buy 20 we will make etc.) to finally not wanting to do this whole business at all, ‘yeah yeah, we can’t do this delivery yeah yeah’ (in the same style as previous poster quoted there «uh huh» totally fits into this pattern). Ok if you don’t want the 150 $ tell us before we spent 1 hour figuring out tediously with you how to manage it.
Quite impressive, I’m usually very tolerant with customer service. But this was unbelievable. But understandable now that they are closing they can be as shitty as they want to be.
Don’t go there before they close, please. There are so many other restaurants closeby. This place just doesn’t make sense anymore and it seems they just want to close right now instead of in two weeks.
Oh and the food was pretty shitty as well, you don’t want to know what’s in there …

it has a strange smell in the whole restaurant, which I think is a sham of Chinese. the food there are not very good and expensive, and there are only 1 waiter there, very slow. I will never go again.

Back when I was a Berkeley undergrad *sigh…memories* this was my boyfriend and I’s to-​go place for some bomb ass chinese food. Though I moved from one apartment to another pretty much every year, I always lived close to campus, so I was always within Mayflower’s delivery zone (YES!). That being said, I never actually physically stepped inside the restaurant itself :/​sad (and probably sketchy) I know, but hey, at least I can vouch for their good delivery service. I don’t recall them ever coming late, and from what I remember it was like 30 – 40 mins tops (though I could be wrong and it could have been a lot shorter!).
In my opinion, they had the best chinese food in Berkeley. I always ordered either the orange chicken, lemon chicken, sesame chicken, or kung pao with their pan fried noodles, and the food was always warm/​hot and on point. The pan fried noodles were brought to my house in a plastic container but wrapped in foil to preserve the heat, and the noodles were actually still crispy even by the time they got to my apartment! Which is a definite plus in my book.
I remember hearing that the chicken they use in their dishes is vegetarian fake chicken… Was this true? Cuz this place had some of the best (fake?) meat I’ve ever had in chinese food! The chicken was actually white and looked like it came from the breast bone. Anyways, I haven’t been here in a long ass while and I’m seeing some posts mention that they remodeled the place, and that it looks nice. Maybe its about time I finally stop by and eat at the restaurant!

Found a gross hair in our food (wrapped around some broccoli). When I called to complain, the hostess said it wasn’t a hair from someone there! I’m posting the picture. Will never go back.

I was jonesing for some dim sum, so my friend indulged me and gave in to dim sum! for dinner. I know this is not the norm as dim sum is usually just served as a snack, usually at lunch time. So, we had to check it out!
They do serve dim sum all day! We ordered the shu mai, sticky rice in lotus leaf, shrimp dumplings, steamed chinese broccoli and General Chicken. The dinner specials were priced at such a deal! Great for students! It came with fried rice, an egg roll, broccoli and our entrée. The waitress was kind enough to split the hot and sour soup between us so we had a nice sampling of everything.
The steamed chinese broccoli was cooked just right with a touch of flavorful oyster sauce. The lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice was tasty seasoned with some veggies and meat. Not sure what was in there but it was good.
Their menu offerings included standard chinese fair, but something for everyone including some great veggie dishes. It was difficult to decide, so I may have to go back for noodle soup or my fav sizzling rice soup!

Dim Sum Dim Sum Dim Sum! Cant really speak on their other food items, (except definitely stay away from the hot & sour soup… yuck). But for Dim Dum, its not bad at all! They used to have a more extensive menu before they renovated, but considering this area doesnt have many Dim Sum options (especially all day), I d say go for it!
:)

I like the Mongolian Beef very much. DO NOT UPGRADE TO FRIED RICE! THe fried rice was rice and egg only!

This place gets 5 stars just considering how often I go to the place. The best/​most authentic Cantonese food I’ve been able to find near campus. $ 7 all-​day specials including salad and hot and sour soup.
I ventured outside the daily specials recently cause I was craving tofu + seafood clay pot. I’d usually go to Oakland Chinatown for this type of thing, but given time constraints, gave this a try. It was delicious.

So I think this place recently down-​sized because now they just have a bakery and boba.
The place looked pretty sparse and you could tell they had just added a wall. They had the basic bakery stuff, like pork buns, sesame balls, and pineapple buns, but not much else. They probably had about 20 things to choose from.
I grabbed a pork bun ($ 1.35), two sesame balls ($ 1.10 for both), and taro milk tea ($ 2.25) with boba (plus $ 0.50).
An older woman and a young guy with his bag on (like he was about to leave), took 5 minutes, debating in Chinese, to decide how much my stuff would cost. After they figured that out, I stood there awkwardly for another 5 minutes as the guy left and the woman made my boba.
In that time, I ate the BBQ pork bun. It was kinda weird because the little meat was scattered in the bread, like confetti, rather than being concentrated in the middle. An interesting experience.
When I finally got my boba, it didn’t have boba in it, but I just took it since it took 10 minutes to complete a transaction that should have taken 2.
The sesame balls were pretty typical, but the taro milk tea was extra purple and thus too sweet. I’m sure the lady put in about double the powder, so I drank half of it then refilled it with water. Honestly, I liked the extra flavor and being able to get double milk tea, but it wasn’t worth the time and hassle, so I won’t be coming back.
I won’t be surprised if this place closes within the next month.

Mayflower is an awesome Chinese restaurant — especially for vegetarians! They have amazing imitation meat… that has awesome texture. I seriously feel like I’m eating meat and often can’t even taste the difference. The best dishes I would say are the sweet and sour vegetarian chicken and the kung pao veggie chicken.
The service is also amazing… the owners are always so nice and courteous. This is where I continue to go in order to treat myself. I’m so glad I discovered this place in Berkeley!

Best thing about this restaurant: they have Chinese dishes in an area where decent Chinese food is hard to find (and no, I don’t consider 1.57 Chinese take out food «decent»). If you’re craving some jook or chow fun, this place can satisfy that craving.
Just don’t expect refined cooking here. It’s a no-​frills, regular old Chinese food kind of restaurant. Not too different than what you might cook at home, if you had the energy to go shopping, look up a recipe and cook it up. But who has time for all that?

I have only been here for the dim sum, and it was surprisingly good! At first it looks like just another below average Chinese restaurant in Berkeley, but once the food came out it was clear that these guys knew what they were doing. Every dish came out piping hot, too hot to even eat right away, but I guess that’s not a bad problem to have. My two favorite dishes were the har gao and steamed pork ribs. The steamed pork ribs were the best I’ve ever had ANYWHERE. No joke. They were seriously just the most meaty, tender, and flavorful pork ribs I’ve had at any dim sum restaurant.
So why only three stars? While the dim sum that they offer is all good, they don’t offer a wide selection of dishes that I’d expect at most dim sum places, even very common ones such as shrimp rice rolls. Safe to say I was dying a little on inside when I scanned the menu 5 times, only to find that they weren’t on there. Nonetheless, it is still a solid place to get dim sum. Anddddd I forgot to mention that dim sum is served ALL DAY! It felt weird eating dim sum at 7 in the evening, but I wasn’t complaining.

4 stars, Ting S.?! Why yes. Here’s why:
The Legendary Josh M. took me here one day for a group lunch, and although I wish I could say his other areas of reasoning may be misguided, his food opinions are always spot on. Understanding the restaurant’s proximity to campus, and therefore gauging my expectations accordingly, I simply hoped for a glimmer of recognizable authenticity in the food.
I was told there was dim sum available all day (although not cart-​style), and was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was this true, but items were made fresh to order. I didn’t detect a hint of freezer burn in anything, and portions were true to what you would find in a real dim sum house. There was a nice representative sample of dim sum, including chinese buns and congee. Everything, including the congee, was good! The rice wrapper on the shrimp dumplings was slightly thicker than it should be, but hey, that was hardly a deal breaker.
As others have mentioned, there is also a nice selection of lunch specials, and your usual selections of fried rice, noodle soups, chow mein, and chow fun. And because it’s Berkeley, a vast array of vegetarian «meat» dishes.
It’s a typical Chinese place in that the menus might be sticky, the carpets faded, and attentive service favors compatriots, but our large group was served quickly and efficiently, with no griping about split checks. I appreciated the genuine service of keeping our teapot filled while a few of us lingered long after we finished eating in the true style of dim sum.
The best part? NO MSG! This alone shoots them up a star as I happily embrace this deviation from authentic Cantonese cuisine.
(hint: it’s a Cantonese-​style place. stick to the Cantonese dishes and you’ll be a happier diner)

Dim sum all the time. Not the best by any means, but if you missed your morning dose of dim sum, you can always come here.
The dim sum portions are a little on the smaller end, but hey, it’s pretty much here or nothing if it’s late in the day. Can’t really compare to legit places in chinatown, but it’s good enough to satisfy a random dim sum craving.

So. This place has horrendous service.
But. It is cheap. And the food is good. I cannot complain.
My friend and I swung by here for dinner because I had heard that their daily specials run all day long. UHH-​MAZING.
I ordered the EGGPLANT WITH CHICKEN daily special with brown rice for $ 5.95. The dish came out hot and steaming, and the eggplant was soft and delicious! The sauce wasn’t too thick or salty, which I like with my eggplant. The brown rice was kind of dry, unfortunately. The hot & sour soup that comes with the meal was decent. The egg roll was edible but not enjoyable. The whole meal was very filling though.
My friend ordered the HOT & SPICY CHICKEN daily special with brown rice for $ 5.95. Luckily, the dish wasn’t too spicy, so I got to try a piece of the chicken, which was fatty but oh-​so-​good. They also have a good ratio of chicken to onions. My friend said he could have made this at home though, haha.
Food took about 5 minutes to come out. BUT. It took the waitress 5 minutes to come over to our table to take our orders, even though my arm was losing circulation from having been extended in the air for so long. I will give her our gratitude for refilling our tea pot (they have THE BEST tea pots – the spigots don’t leak!), but…
It took me 2 minutes to flag her down for water, another 3 minutes to flag her down for the check, and then an additional 4 minutes to have her take our payment! Good thing we got fortune cookies. Seriously, this woman was SO GOOD at avoiding eye contact with me! My friend thinks she doesn’t like my face. Why is he my friend.
All-​day specials for $ 5.95 before tax, and both the Eggplant with Chicken and the Hot & Spicy Chicken were good! Large portions! Ridiculously slow service, but ridiculously awesome prices! If you want cheap vegetarian food, go to Long Life Vegi House, but if you’re craving some cheap meats, come here!

The most disgusting meal I’ve ever seen. No, I’m not kidding. I’ve had plenty of mediocre meals, and a few bad ones. I’ve never seen anything like this.
Chinese, for some reason, is always a disappointment with few exceptions. Thai is so much better. But I’d seen this one before, and wanted to try its range of vegetarian meals.
The order took a full 45 mins to come (we had to be somewhere 15 mins later); I don’t know the name of the meal, but it’s the fat noodles with prawns. The problem was, it had a thick layer of uncooked egg on top. Incredible, and almost made you sick looking at it. I tried a tiny bit, and couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth all evening, and was ill just thinking about it.
When the second part of the meal finally came after another 5 mins, peanut fried tofu came, that proved to be bland, and barely edible itself. The waitress was unhelpful and rude.
So, if you’re on University, try Plearn Thai. It’s fantastic. Their version of the same meal is one of the best I’ve ever had. Avoid this place. Shocking.

It is surprising for me to see how a restaurant like Great China has over one hour waits and Mayflower is half full at the most. This place is actually pretty good. The menu is diverse (dim sum all day!) and all the food is super fresh and affordable.
I do think that the more Americanized Chinese dishes are not the best here, so maybe people are not ordering the right dishes. What Mayflower excels at is soups and fried rice. Their hot and sour, egg drop, and beef soup are simply top notch. If you just want a sample, they do serve a cup of the soup of the day with their lunch and dinner specials. Their fried rice, while simple, is perfectly done and surprisingly addictive.
Their dim sum is also good. It takes a while to come out compared to the other dishes (so plan accordingly), but on the upside it is super fresh. Their shu mai, shrimp balls, bbq pork buns, and sesame balls can definitely go head to head with the best of China town.

Mayflower looks like a typical neighborhood eatery with the typical chinese décor.
menu: dimsum and cantonese food
sampling: sliced bbq pork/​roast duck with brocculli over steamed rice (5.50 munch voucher, regular 8.25)
–just a few pieces sliced pork, kind of dry, not jiuicy and a few pieces of skinny roast duck also dry. didn’t look at all like the picture near the register.
–brocculli had a funny taste. it gave me a tummy ache.
–overall, food didn’t seem a day old, not that fresh.
foodnotes:
–service not a problem
–eatery computer problem. they couldn’t verify code. wanted me to come back. i said no, they relented and took some basic info.
–am sure the rest of the menu is ok .this munch offer wasn’t good.