Chef Lee

If I could give less than one star I would. When my friend and I walked into the place it was completely empty. No music on, TV wasn’t even plugged in. Dead silence, which was a little off-​putting.
The entire meal was awkward due to the fact that the male waiter would not leave us alone. I love being well taken care of but this was out of control, to the point that we finally had to say something towards the end because the guy wouldn’t leave us alone to enjoy our meal. He continually hovered over our shoulder and watched us eat and would come to the table as soon as we finished a pot sticker or egg roll and would put another on our plate. Same thing with any plate that arrived on our table. It felt like we were being rushed even though nobody else was in the place.
The food was mediocre at best. Overlooked mostly and the honey walnut prawns were terrible (and $ 12). The food was all greasy and soggy.
We will not be returning.

This place was the worse I’ve ever been to. My daughter and I were in the area and decided to give this place a try. When we got there, the place was empty and cold. We decided to sit down anyway (big mistake). Not only did the waitress stand and watch us eat, but the chef came out and stared at us also. I felt like an animal at the zoo. The food was no better, I am still not sure that I ate chicken. It had a texture that was like eating chunks of fat. The other food ordered was bland, but somewhat edible. When I told the waitress about the chicken, she was not willing to give me a refund. Because they never had a customer while we were there, I have a feeling they will take that chicken and feed it to someone else.
I hope that this place will go out and try some real Chinese food! They could really use a Kitchen Nightmare intervention. There is no way in hell that food will keep them in business. I also encourage them to buy a computer and act like their doing something, anything beyond standing and watching their customer eat (play some Candy Crush or something!!). Anyway, I will never eat there again!

We decided to dine in and the place was empty, with the exception of a couple that made an order to-​go. The service we received on our visit was great. The waitresses were prompt and nice. My water glass was never empty and the food came out quickly. The food was good, not the best ever, but still good.

To be fair, we tried this place 3 times, twice for takeout and once dining in for lunch. The dining in was OK but both times take out was lousy. I really wanted to like this place since Peking Tokyo was not my favorite — and my favorite appears to have been taken over by someone else… the last few times we have been there the food was not as good. So I wanted Chef Lee to be my new, favorite Chinese place.
OK, so regarding Chef Lee: The last time we had take out we ordered a vegetarian dish which had snow peas, cabbage and black mushrooms. The snow peas were overcooked and greasy & the mushrooms huge, rubbery — so unappetizing I could only take a bite and I was done. The chow mein, which was seafood, was sparse of shrimp and the noodle was overcooked & it was generally just very bland. The salt/​pepper shrimp was OK but had tiny slices of garlic that were not cooked well. I don’t like raw garlic. Not very salt and peppery, either.
My favorite, crabmeat puffs, were mostly the puff. Not much crabmeat to them. I was hugely disappointed!
Add to that, they don’t give you much of anything with your meal. When we got home we found a small amount of hot oil and something red but no hot mustard or soy sauce. Who doesn’t supply soy sauce?
Lastly, they were offering 10% off your meal if you dined in. But the ambiance in that place will make you want to turn and run. The décor is… confusing. And there is just nothing warm about it at all. It’s like a big cafeteria in a rest home.
The girls that greet you are nice and I’m sure helpful but they seem to hover and I guess that just made me uncomfortable. Every time I looked up the girl was staring at us.
They need to get a new cook and jazz the place up. I think they have a great location and the opportunity to improve if they read these reviews and make some changes. Their predecessor was in business a very long time, after all.

I came here expecting some cheap Chinese food that was oily and fast. And that’s what i got. The portion sizes are A-​OKAY i guess. This place just opened up, and i guess the owner is not familiar with how to run the restaurant i guess. But it looks like it’s improving! All the one star reviews might be a bit harsh, but it’s not a 5 star restaurant of course! but it has potential to improve. but it isn’t a one star restaurant in any way for they have pretty good customer service, and the food is just average. might come back in a few months and review it again since the owner is trying to get the hang of things.

This place is pertty nice and quite… I went there with three of my friends, I worte the comments yesterday, but I dont know where did it go… Anyway, the food were fine, not like wat ppl said online, no offense to others, if you dont like then u dont have to go there… I went to different Chinese restutants, they all taste the same, the only problem is Chef Lee’s prices were cheaper than what I expected, hey guys, u dont have to trust me or anything, just trying to there and say a word or two for this place. Unilocal please do not filter my comment again!!!

This chinese restaurant wasnt that bad. For me it was good, my family and I visited there when its grand open. Every time we decide to have some food outside, Chef Lee is our first choice. We compare the price to other chinese restaurant, you cant really say it is expensive. I believe their price was in average. I like their hot and sour soup, they are not too spicy, spicy and sour taste balance. Also their honey walnut prawns, it is really good, my brother doesnt like shrimp and other sea food stuff, but he likes this main dish. They have really good service too, they know how to serve customers. Anwyays this is a good place for me to have my lunch and dinner. If you never been here before, i wiil suggest you to come and give it a shot.

My husband and I went to Peking Tokyo for 24 years, and were so sad to see it go, loved that you could get sushi and Chinese under one roof! Picked up a takeout menu for Chef Lee right after they opened and right away noticed that the prices were about 25% higher than Peking Tokyo. Finally decided to try their food last night and OMG — what a disaster!!! Salt and Pepper Shrimp tasted like frozen shrimp balls that had been fried 2 days ago, cold, hard and just plain disgusting. We also ordered brocoli beef and BBQ pork chow mein, I didn’t eat the BBQ beef last night, but tried a little this afteroon for lunch and became sick to my stomach within minutes. I called them last night to complain and told them I would be in for refund today. Obviuosly we will not be patronizing this place ever again.

Very disappointing. Such a convenient spot for a good restaurant. Too bad I won’t want to go back. Possibly the worst Chinese restaurant ever. Nothing is authentic. The buffet looked common and terrible and spartan, so we ordered from the menu. My partner paid 50 cents more for white chicken and received texturized, paper thin, one inch squares that were like skin. The broccoli was not just purposely undercooked, but almost uncooked. Too much five-​spice. The steamed rice was of poor quality and texture. Very bland. Weak tea is from a tea bag. May be what they used to call tourist food in the 1950’s. The décor is out of date.

I wish I had checked the Unilocal reviews before we made the mistake of ordering take out from the newly opened Chef Lee. We were a fan of Peking Tokyo for years (until we discovered Ming’s and Zen) and thought we should give the new owner’s here a try. The staff (possibly the owners cuz the place was barren — not a single customer at the dinner hour!) were nice enough, but the food is awful. Given the lack of customer’s I can only assume the food is sitting around awhile before it’s sold. We ordered pot stickers which were just barely edible, sesame chicken which tasted tough and overcooked, and moo shoo pork which was fairly tolerable. I would usually just suck it up and eat the food, but I ended up eating half and throwing the rest away. Perhaps if they had done better marketing to get customer’s in the doors initially they would be able to turn the food more efficiently and might have a chance of it being fresh when served. UGH… sorry to say we are crossing them off our list!

I ate here with my family about a week ago and I have to say that it’s pretty good for the price. Although it was a bit oily. But that’s a problem I see in many Chinese restaurants. Next time ill be sure to tell them to add less oil. I can definitely see myself coming back here for some lunch. :D:D

We gave this place four chances and ordered something different each time. Unfortunately, I can’t say we like the place. For one thing, they charge an extra dollar if you want white chicken meat; tacky! I’ve tried the general’s chicken and sesame chicken and both of them had more batter than actual chicken. Half of the pieces were so tough I couldn’t cut them with a steak knife (JA Henckel, seriously). My mom has ordered egg fu yung twice and the first time she said it was very good, the best she has ever had. The second time she ordered it the recipe was completely different and didn’t taste the same. We’ve also tried Mongolian chicken and that looked more like ground chicken and half of the container was onions. I’ve noticed with other dishes too that they seem to use a lot of cheap fillers to make it seem like you’re getting a lot. The honey walnut prawns were about the only decent thing but they were $ 12+ and not worth the price.
All in all I think this place is over priced and the food is terrible.

Szechuan chicken did not taste too bad, could have used more fresh ingredients such as vegetables. Wonton was stale, tea was good. For the price i can’t complain, will try other places in future.

Yay! I am a fan Chef Lee.
I have had Chef Lee lunch specials a few times. I think their food has tasted fresh and what Americanized Chinese food should taste like. I really enjoyed their fried rice, it has a nice flavor.
I think the new remodel looks lighter and brighter than it did when PT was there.
I am suspect of the one star reviews, they seem to be from people with no pictures and with very few if any reviews written. I am glad the one star reviews didn’t keep me away from trying this place out.

Simply poor. Food tasted plastic, as though it were just out of the packaging. We ordered Gen chicken (I actually had a physiological reaction to it, from presentation to taste) and beef chow (no) fun. It is the worst restaurant I’ve been to in a long time.

My wife and I decided to give this place a try, since it’s a new place and we both like to support local business. Décor wise, we noticed Styrofoam cups staked on top of cabinets at the rear of the establishment. These could have been placed into the cabinets to keep out of sight, thus removing the clutter. Some of their signs were merely taped up including the traditional Chinese banners (some were in nice frames but two were not).
On to the food. We ordered a combo platter that was pork fried rice, a shrimp dish, orange chicken and Hot n Sour soup. Let’s start with the soup; there were two kinds of tofu. Fresh bright white and dingy day old that was squishy. Grisly meat, some of which was undercooked and what seemed to be some kind of organ meat. The soup’s flavor was off. Left-​over fried won ton they served with the spring rolls, as they tasted very stale. They served a red syrup along side, not a red sauce. The orange chicken tasted like the stuff you can get from the freezer section at Nob Hill. Not all that flavorful too.
In the end, we won’t be going back here.

I think Peking Tokyo went downhill during the last five years, so we quit going there, but tonight we ordered a take-​away for the first time from Chef Lee. They forgot to include the Lemon Chicken order, so we had to go back for that. They don’t even have a vegetable section on the menu! I wanted vegetable fried rice and I got vegetable steamed rice (which is better for me, but not what I ordered). None of the food was delectable or enticing in any way. we won’t be back.

As many Unilocalers have already reported Chef Lee recently took over the well establish Chinese/​Japanese restaurant Peking Tokyo. The shoes it’s been left to fill are enormous when you take into consideration that Peking Tokyo had served the community for over a quarter of a century. 25 years is an amazing long run for a restaurant. Chef Lee unfortunately isn’t doing a very good job of pleasing the community (based on current Unilocal reviews).
I personally don’t have high expectations when it comes to authentic food in the city of Martinez. It’s been my experience with Mexican and Chinese food, that convenience is a priority over authenticity. I didn’t think much of Peking Tokyo and as far as I can tell Chef Lee is providing a similar service. Maybe it’s the appearance that is throwing people off. Chef Lee’s ambiance is inviting and clearly structured for a sit-​down traditional meal. However, the food that is being served is far from authentic. The food presented to patrons is more along the lines of a fast food restaurant like Panda Express. Chef Lee’s establishment appearance may be deceptive, but its prices are not.
I entered Chef Lee expecting greasy, cheap Chinese food and I got it. I was actually in the mood for that kind of food. If you are an individual that thinks fried rice, egg rolls and fortune cookies are authentic Chinese food, then this is the place for you. If you are an individual that orders Chinese food off the menu and occasionally enjoys a shark fin soup, then this is not the place for you (and you suck for endorsing shark mutilation). I ordered the sweet and sour chicken lunch special and received the following:
–Egg flour soup
–An Orange wedge
–Plenty of fried chicken drowning in red syrup (not sauce)
–A scoop of Fried Rice
–A triangle fried piece of flour
I ordered the meal to go and was warmly welcome by the staff. They even provided a glass of water while I waited for the food to be cooked. The total for the meal came out to $ 7.60. When the need for greasy food strikes me again I’ll pay Chef Lee another visit.
Cheap — Chinese Fast Food

This place used to be called Peking Tokyo Restaurant. I called for take-​out and went there thinking I was going to Peking. There was a sign in the window that said it used to be and when I asked the lady about it she said it was a new owner.
I’ve only ordered from this place twice, first time when it was Peking Tokyo and then tonight under the new ownership. I have to say I remember the food tasting better the first time. So, not sure if there are new cooks/​chefs now because the food didn’t taste as good as the first time. It wasn’t horrible, couple of the dishes were a little greasy, it was just okay. They gave me a 10% discount, not sure why, maybe because it was a Wednesday or because of new ownership. Anyhow, that was nice.