Pepper King

Posting here because Peak Point does not have a Unilocal yet. But I believe this place is the same owner or management.
The service is always bad… The first time I ate here, the waiter spilled our soup on the table and did not even offer to bring us a new one.
We went to the soft opening of Peak Point and the waiter rudely cut me off while I was ordering. This place didn’t have hot pot and their food was filled with msg. Everything was so sweet and salty. I am once again disappointed.

The gist of what follows: if you see bugs in the place or they mess up your delivery, TAKE PICTURES!
I gave this place a shot largely because of their delivery hours. I ordered three items, two of which had onions in the recipe, and asked in very clear terms that they hold the onions. I’d give them 2 – 3 stars for missing this and instead delivering the two dishes more or less packed with onions, but it gets worse.
I also ordered a Coke and they didn’t deliver that.
I ordered egg rolls and those came without any sauce. Oh, and two were burnt and two were under-​cooked, in a very mysterious 2×2 pairing.
It gets better.
When I contacted Eat24 about the problem the next day, some idiot at Pepper King wanted to *see the food* or at least pictures of the food. So much for customer knows best. Do people really lie about this stuff?
I only had enough of the one dish left to take a decent picture (starving, I picked out the onions in what I ate, and my friend ate the rest). Upon receipt of the image they said they would send one of the dishes out (the next day?!) but they couldn’t believe me about the other dish without a picture. Instead they apparently believe that they missed my instructions for the one dish, but, miraculously, not for the other — I have clear proof of the instructions I typed in, so that’s not up for debate. What are the chances then, that they cooked half the food right?
And in any case, why treat a customer like a liar?
Anyway, the food was decent-​ish, if greasy — especially if you like onions — but the service was obviously terrible. They should be embarrassed. I «get» cheapness but this is disgusting.
OH AND CHECK OUT THE 5-​STAR REVIEWS!
I’m usually not bored or curious or whatever enough to read so far down the list of reviews, but in this case once I saw even just one with 5 stars, I thought, this should be interesting.
I’m talking about Yu, Yiling, Ranfu, Zeny, Haohang… and that’s as far as I could make it. Several of these are obviously edited versions of the others, by which I mean that they’re unambiguously fake. If you need further proof, you might want to notice that for most of these reviewers, this is the only review they’ve ever posted. If you discount all this ratings fraud, you’ll find that this is the rare case of a restaurant that actually *earns* 1 – 2 stars. That’s pretty bad, folks.

Location: conveniently on Telegraph and Dwight– if you live on south side and are too lazy to get to Chengdu, this is a suitable fit! Street parking only but right next to the 1/​1R stop.
Service: pretty bad. Only two servers at Sunday dinner?! They were struggling to take orders, serve drinks, bring food, and manage everyone by themselves. They really need to get that reorganized.
Food:
–classic dry cooked green beans: SOOO SALTY. We were prepared for typical salty green beans so we asked for less salt. It was so salty that it dried out my tongue. It was still really good but way too salty.
–boiled beef in hot oil/​water: really good. we get this at every Chinese restaurant and I would say this is the most intense numbing one I have had. Chengdu is #2. This dish also takes a really long time to come out– probably means it’s fresher! Be careful of the peppercorns!!!

I was craving the spicy kick from szechuan food and always passed by this place and thought I’d stop by. It was kinda grimy in the store, it doesn’t look like they mopped their floors in forever, and if they did, they used the same mop or rag on the tables. I should have known right then and there that it’d be better to walk away but I decided to be bold. The lady working there did not care to be there. I had to talk to the boba worker from t. tea to get my order and it was the girl that had to call the woman from the other side of the room to get the order.
I got the twice cooked pork with rice to go. It was kinda stunning how quickly it came out? I feel like it just cooks in a vat of hot oil and it get plopped onto the to-​go container. There was so much oil. so. much. oil. a week later and I still feel like it hasn’t left my body…
it tasted good enough, but its decorated with this mystery meat and celery, two things I abhor. I think I’ll pass for sure…

I used to eat at Pepper King quite often — the food is rather oily and tends to be expensive but it used to be a good place to eat fatty Chinese food. In fact, until recently I hadn’t had any noticeably poor experiences with this establishment, and was surprised by the number of poor reviews at the time.
However, this last time I went with some friends to pick up some take out and we waited an hour because they ran out of rice. What kind of Chinese restaurant runs out of rice! It was nowhere close to closing time and the restaurant was not packed at all — how on earth can management have such poor logistics that they run out of rice, and then neglect to tell us until we asked about our food 30 minutes after ordering. I was with 3 other Chinese speaking friends, so this isn’t even a language-​barrier issue that I had previously suspected might have been the cause of previous complaints about service.
Moreover, after we received our food, not only did they absolutely skimp out on rice, but they forgot one of our meals! We had to wait an extra 20 minutes because they managed to completely forget an order. Are you kidding me?
It’s a shame that won’t be coming back here any time soon, since the food was not bad at all (the Shanghai soup dumplings were particularly good), and T-​Tea sharing the space was super convenient for picking up boba. But until the service can consistently be better quality, I will not be returning. For Chinese restaurants with similar food quality and far superior service, I would recommend either Great China or Chengdu.

I used to eat here often, but after today’s experience, not going back.
Went in, had to ask to be seated, the restaurant was NOT busy at all. Then we ordered honey walnut prawn and garlic stir fried string beans.
We had to ask to get utensils and bowls. The rice came out mushy, and then they continue to forget the string beans and we had to remind them. Then the beans came out undercooked and tasted soapy. We ordered the exact same dish before so we know what it tasted like.
We told the waitress to take it back and potentially restir fry it she came back saying garlic is supposed to taste soapy with attitutde… anyway…not going back.
This review comes from someone who went there quite a few times before.

My first Unilocal review!
I’ve been here too many times to count. Food is affordable, fast, and most importantly, delicious! I’m not too familiar with the authenticity of the dishes here but my friends who are experts in szechuan food love this place (at least for the dishes that are szechuan style). Portions here are great as well. Bonus, they have an area dedicated to making tea drinks. I absolutely love their earl gray, honey, and wintermelon milk teas here. Communication with the waiters/​waitresses is sometimes an issue, but overall they are friendly, warm, and engaging. Cleanliness has never been a problem; I really think they’ve stepped up their game.

First time go there, I love Chinese food and like to try new places.
The environment was so good, kind like higher modern style decoration and very clean. Also front entrance was a little bar which selling milk tea, there is a cute server over there.
Me and my friend ordered the mix cauliflowers, Spicy crawfish which is my favorite, the food taste all good and traditional.
Service good, the waiter was a nice guy and check up our tables asking our comments about the food and refill waters too.
Definitely will come again!

Some of the reviews for this place are ridiculous. I can’t really comment on the cleanliness of this place because I only dined here once, and there were definitely no bugs or flies. The servers and owner and mainland Chinese and speak mandarin, they are definitely friendlier to their own people, but they still treated everyone else with respect.
Onto the food, it was great. A very authentic Sichuan (not Szechuan) taste, we ordered the Ma La Tang, which is like a spicy hotpot but with all the meat and veggies fully cooked for you. It was properly spiced and made our mouthes numb, a true stamp of Sichuan authenticity.

That is soooooooo good!!! spicy food！！！
I love it sososo much！best spicy food in berkeley！
I gona back for boiling fish and beef combo！
come there if you like spicy food！

I’m sorry but having two encounters with bugs in this restaurant is not ok. I WISH I TOOK A PIC OF THEM. Anyways, I came here one time during lunch and one of the waitresses handed me a glass of water that had 3 flies in it. 3! I told the waitress and she took the glass away, only to bring out the check moments later. The audacity.
Another instance of bug was when my girlfriend and I came here for dinner. We went up to the front to ask for to go containers. The man behind the counter brought some typical chinese to go boxes but one of them had a cockroach!!! that tried to jump out! The man immediately closed the box and laughed along with the other waitresses, trying to play it off. Nope. I did not find that humorous at all.
In terms of taste, the food is actually quite decent. I had better but this place is surprisingly one of the better sichuan places I went to in the bay area. But still, having this many bugs in the restaurant is just not ok.
Oh and why on earth do they have a fly zapper right above a dining table. Absolutely backwards thinking and disgusting for anyone to eat right under it. Thankfully, that table is always empty and I hope it stays that way.

Workers are extremely disorganized. The front counter is a complete mess. I had to wait 40+ minutes for a pork chop rice plate, which is supposed to come with rice but then they How does a restaurant /​tea house run out of boba at 9:00 PM on a holiday?
Don’t get the lemon black tea, it’s disgusting.

Our waitress didn’t bring us water until halfway through the meal, and when she did, it was in UNWASHED CUPS THAT OTHER PEOPLE HAD USED.
We had to get their attention to be seated. We had to get their attention to order. We had to get up and ask for silverware. We had to get up and ask for plates. We had to get up and ask for the bill. Twice. And when we came up the third time, she said «Oh, I’m not working right now.» I’m not kidding.
The food itself was passable. The unwashed cups, though – totally disgusting and unsanitary. Skip this place.

Time: 1:32pm/73°F sunny
Purpose: I was supposed to hit up T. Tea located inside Pepper King. From there one thing lead to another. I end up sitting down ordering a meal then a drink from T. Tea.
Ambiance: Place is a 48 seater with family size and large group seating. The rest are standard four seater tables with glass top and inserted menus. Chili tassels hung throughout the place for décor. There are five flatscreen tv with four in front and one in back only two were on. Communal table with high/​short seats near entrance. Sliding window for warmer days, but no sidewalk seating. Very standard asian restaurant set up most décor left over from HV days.
Staff: Short older asian lady about early 50s greeted me. Same lady took my order and brought out food. Another younger lady was there sharing counter space, but she only does the drinks for TTea. Everything was perfect up to the point when I was done. Lady came and place check on table. No biggie right? She came back 3 – 4 times within a 10 minute span. I felt rush and hurry. On her last trip over, I said not yet as I wanted to sit a few minutes. She sat back down watching me on my phone. Now, I’m profusely mad. Got up pay the bill sat back down just to get her off my back. Place had only three people not sure whats the rush about. She didn’t go home or take a break. Didn’t like the service at all. Hard on cash like its their only livelihood.
Cleanliness: Grade C-​, table tops were filthy with grease and oil smears. Menu had stains leeching through were you can read other side without flipping page. Chairs were rocky and unstable. Fly trap zaps with audible loud pop buzz made me jumping out of seat couple of times.
Eats/​Drinks: Lunch hour special, spicy eggplant chicken over rice $ 7.95. Two mounds of rice was plenty and nicely cook. Dish was super oily. I had to tilt dish just to separate oil from being soak up by the rice. Most places uses red chili peppers for this dish. Here slice jalapeño is use making a not so spicy flavor. I can tell they use oil base chili sauce as plate was cover with orange oil pods. Chicken pieces were dark didn’t have more than four pieces on order. Eggplant were soft paste consistency almost couldn’t pick up with fork. Had better than this and not oily. Will not order again. Stomach issues after an hour later.
Main Features: All day specials from $ 7.95−8.99 (only listed options).
Products/​Services: Vegetarian, claypot, deep fried, soup, fried noodle/​fried rice, chow fun, mein, appetizer, house special, combos, seafood, beef, chicken, fish, lamb, pork, sizzling platters. Assorted soda, tea, juice. Water policy wasn’t follow through. Glasses of water were brought out without asking. The note on table said customers needs to request for it.
Punch Lines: Sub standard, plenty of seats, tv, private venue area, sliding window, snooty service, off putting, not as great, go elsewhere, pretentious, student budget, harried staff, no mannerism.
Tradeoffs: Menu list more than adequate offerings, but only half are NEAR authentic, the rest americanized Chinese food.
Final Thoughts: Place like this wouldn’t make it in Chinatown. Only reason it survive all these years is the students coming in for cheap quick eats. Back when it was Happy Valley it had all the makings of a good restaurant. Since new owner took over all they want MONEY out of you. Don’t come if you want to catch up on reading the paper or simply relax. They’ll rush you to order as well as for payment.

Soggy rice, warm beer, dirty beer mug, half cooked greasy eggplants,
no hot tea. Ain’t going back.

This restaurant just renamed itself but still has pretty mediocre service. The waitress was scrambling for things and at one point had to ask another waiter to fill in for her. If you can’t fulfill all of the tasks with the amount of people you have now, then hire more! They also did not have enough clean utensils for us to use.
I went with a group of friends so we all ordered individual dishes but shared amongst one another. We ordered the Szechuan Lamb and a Szechuan mixed pot. The lamb dish was delicious with rice but ferociously spicy. The spice meter is HIGH. The mixed pot had too many flavors going on and was not good. I also ordered the Spicy House Chicken which was filled with chicken bones. All the spicy dishes tasted the same and lacked originality.
My two other friends ordered a Beef Fried rice and a Noodle, which they said were good.
I have mixed feelings about this restaurant. But, if you’re craving spicy lamb, give this place a go. For other Asian dishes, Pepper King is mediocre.

Came here for dinner tonight. Food and price were mediocre, but at least the waiter was attentive and food came out within five min of ordering.
FOOD
Chicken slices in spicy garlic sauce — under appetizer category. My bf enjoyed it but I thought it was mediocre. The chicken meat was not bad but I didn’t enjoy the bone in the center. The sauce wasn’t too spicy (but I tolerate a lot of spiciness) but I found the vinegar taste to be too strong. Probably won’t order again.
Twice cooked pork — ordered it because fellow Unilocalers said it was good. Ehhhh definitely had better. It wasn’t spicy enough for me and twice cooked pork SHOULD be spicy. I also found the meat slices to be way too thin which I wasn’t a fan of. At least they gave you a good amount of bean curd!
Broccoli sautéed with garlic — enjoyed it because I love vegetables. However it was super oily and it got to be a bit too much because it was so oily.
Overall food is mediocre, price was about $ 30 so pretty mediocre price and the portion sizes were fair. Not too small but not a large portion either. Don’t think I’ll be back… probably will head to Chengdu style.

Upon coming in on a Tuesday around 630, there was no one. Immediately got a little skeptical.
In the front there were two guys giving out samples of tea trying to get people to come in JD try their pearl tea drinks but nobody seemed to bite and unfortunately it was a bit of a turnoff from the restaurant, but I understand coming from he location, they’re trying to get the students’ business.
Anyhow when we opened the menu, it was quite extensive. A little confusing as it seemed like the it was mixes from a previously owned restaurant perhaps, but after ordering the cumin lamb, chili chicken, and the hot and sour beef soup, definitely went back in the positive direction.
The food definitely not bad at all and the lady was pretty attentive and available even with the number of people slowly coming in for tea later on into our dinner.
Worth a try.

I think this restaurant is new (or now has new management). In any case, it looked new, and had many TVs, which gave the place a sports bar vibe.
My boyfriend and I ordered the twice cooked pork and spicy Szechuan beef. The beef pieces were very soft and came in a bowl of spicy sauce and bean sprouts (strong peppercorn taste which was great). The sauce was great with white rice (we ordered 2 cups). The twice cooked pork was surprisingly oily but had a good flavor. It came stir-​fried with onions, peppers, and tofu slivers, and I appreciated the variety in the dish.
Our food came out pretty quickly. One thing I didn’t like was that they served us the white rice first — it cooled while we were waiting for the other dishes (~ 5min). If the dishes could be served around the same time that would be nice. The service and food was great though. I will definitely be coming back here again — I can’t say for sure whether this food is authentic because I’m an ABC, but I can say that I thought it was great.

If you love real traditional Chinese food, go there! If you want to hang out with your friends, go there! The price is also affordable, the environment is so nice. I will definitely go back again with my friends, cause we had a pretty good time there!