Ming’s

Mings is closed down. It is now a parking lot for Palo Alto Audi next door. Luckily the cars in the lot are nice, shiny, and look high class. I’ll give the place a 5 star rating anyway, summing up past experiences that the food used to be delicious.

Mings was fantastic! Never had a bad meal here and the service was tops. It was our favorite place for big family and friend dinners. It was the place we went to celebrate things. Please re-​open!!! I read horror stories about the location being turned into a car dealership. No!!! Find a new location if you have to, but please don’t close forever.

It is NOT closed for good: A Bay Area tradition since 1956, our beloved landmark Ming’s Chinese Cuisine and Bar in Palo Alto, CA will close at the end of Sunday, December 28, 2014 for exciting changes!
After careful consideration, we felt the time was right to make a change to better serve the needs of the local community. A redevelopment project kicks off in spring 2015 with plans for a Staybridge Suites hotel and a smaller 150-​seat Ming’s restaurant. Part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group, Staybridge Suites is an extended-​stay hotel with home-​like comforts such as fully-​equipped kitchens.

CLOSED– You have to be kidding me!
It was a LANDMARK!
THEY INVENTED THE PU-​PU PLATTER per the owner… which latter spread all the way to my local Chinese place in Brooklyn, NY, which was my fav when I was kid.
Even though I went only once in a blue moon (since I lived in Modesto), it was consistently one of the best Dim Sum places in the area.
It was even favored by my Chinese in-​laws & their relatives, and that is saying alot.
It was not cheap, but it had quality Dim Sum. You could tell the number of upscale Chinese by the huge number of BMW’s in the huge lot.
I cannot believe that they sold out to a crappy hotel chain… Staybridge no less.
Well I guess they made a ton of money & are in theory suppose to open a 150 seat
smaller version of Ming’s in the next several months.
Whether the same people & cooks, will run it and continue to make great Dim Sum is questionable at best. People who frequent a Staybridge are most likely looking for bargain Americanized Chinese food &
not Chicken Feet!
Besides, no longer can large groups come here.
It so sad… now where am I to go in the Bay Area… most of the other places are ridiculously overcrowded & no great shakes.
I am so sad!
I am also sad that I did not do a Unilocal review years ago, while it was still open… but at over 400 reviews, what could I have added?

Rumor has it that Ming’s is temporarily closed for two years while they renovate and build a hotel. I should have written this review sooner, but I guess it will be a good tribute.
This was the favorite dim sum place for my friends and me in the area. I’ve seen some mixed reviews here, but the dim sum was always excellent in my opinion. It’s the best way to get some great food fast. I’m not an expert on dim sum, so I don’t know if this is «authentic» or «the best» but I like it.
The service here is no nonsense. I wouldn’t call it friendly or warm, but I wouldn’t call it unfriendly either. They are here to get the job done. They do it fast and well.
This is a big place and can get busy for lunch or on the weekends. Dim sum starts at 11am and we’ve been know to be waiting at the door.
Some of my favorite dishes:
— Singapore noodles
— Shanghai dumplings
— Onion pancake
— Shrimp and walnuts
— Pork shu mai
— Various fried things
I don’t know where I’m going for dim sum from now until Ming’s opens again. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Let’s hope that after they close this Sunday and will reopen in about two years (as a restaurant within the hotel that will take the place of the existing Ming’s) that they will have a better chef.
Looking forward to visiting again in 2 years. But since the new restaurant will only accommodate 150 people not 500+, expect long waits or hope you can make a reservation.
I wish them well as I loved the «Old» Ming’s from about 17 years ago.

I don’t often go to Ming’s on Embarcadero near 101, as it is out of the way from my residence in Sunnyvale.
I do remember often going to Ming’s for lunch with my workplace employees up in Menlo Park. Ming’s is very good for large parties of 50+ people, as they have a huge capacity of over 500 people.
Our entire company unit of 50 people would celebrate a successful ending of a project, by making reservations and go over to Ming’s for lunch, eating their delicious dim sum pork buns, and shrimp dumplings, and other delicacies.
The place was pricey, but the company paid!
The surroundings reminding me of a Chinese palace, with architecture patterned after the Far East, just like you see in those old James Bond movies –not exactly authentic, but good ambiance nevertheless.
My favorite dish is Ming’s beef, very delicate and tender, and yet with a crunchy texture to melt in your mouth, together with green onions.
Their Peking Duck is also a favorite, although I’m not a duck fan –I always envision Mama duck leading a parade of baby ducklings across the road, not as road kill to eat!
Their Chinese chicken salad is to die for. Last time I ordered enough for 8 people. My sister in Berkeley demanded that I make a stop a Ming’s for the salad, before coming over to Berkeley –you couldn’t get Chinese chicken salad like that –iceberg lettuce sliced up with dry rice noodles for crunchiness, tender chicken strips, and a bit of horseradish to give it kick. Lots of kick –you need a fire brigade to put out the flames!
I also remember Ming’s as the spot where my son’s wedding was held over a decade ago. Exceptionally well organized for a hundred people. I remember, because I had to sell 500 shares of Apple stock at $ 30 each to finance the endeavor.
Wow, if my son had not gotten married, I would still have those shares of Apple and be on top of the world at the equivalent of $ 800 a share today, before the 7 to 1 split!
Ming’s web site announced they will close for good on Dec 28, 2014. It’s like a death in the family. I will miss them, but not as much as those 500 Apple shares!

Is Ming’s closing? Ming’s is an institution that would be sorely missed but I really feel for the employees. An employee at Ming’s told me that they will close on 12/​28/​2014 –so that’s AFTER Christmas. I was in shock but I’m thinking the employees are busted up about this. I mean losing your job during the holiday season?
I looked around online and it looks like there’s been ideas out there in the past for building a new complex on that property. From what I read online past ideas for new complexes included a new spot for Ming’s but it would be much smaller. What with Edgewood Plaza having been re-​vitalized maybe this is a good thing and it will bring even more needed services and life to that area of EPA and PA? They told me the employees were only recently informed and I’m not sure exactly when they were told. I’m guessing the owners have more than enough resources to carry them through some down time.
I like their food. They have really good dim sum and I always loved their turnip cakes, chow fun and their Chinese broccoli. Yes, good food but I have to side with the employees on this.
I do have to add that one thing I never liked about Ming’s is the funky old carpeting. New carpeting would have really freshened up the place.

Mings is closing down on December 28^th 2014 to transform into a extended stay hotel and smaller restaurant. I would recommend staying away from this restaurant as the employees seem a bit bitter since they won’t have jobs come the new year.
I understand you want to wipe your ass hole with hundred dollar bills but fucking take care of your loyal staff while under construction.
«What a nice Christmas gift. — Mings employee

After my wife and I were done at Byers Eye Institute, we felt so hungry. When we were waiting for the green light to get on to North-​bound 101, we found Ming’s on the right, just across from the said Stanford eye clinic. Parking lot was spacious enough and it was at the peak of lunch and bit boisterous.
The restaurant name must be a Chinese family name, but it reminded me of Ming Dynasty and my expectations were so high. Didn’t wait too long but was led and seated at a table for two. A huge lunch crowd was already there. Before ushering us in, we were asked if we wanted Dimsum, and we said no because we had another place to go to get our daily job done.
We ordered oolong tea for two and Monday’s lunch special: Ming’s Beef with Snow Peas, which comes with a hot spicy soup and a chicken salad. It was not a cold day, but the hot soup was very much comforting. One thing I didn’t like about the soup was sesame seed oil, without which I though it would taste better.
After the tea and soup, the main dish came out relatively fast, which we liked that because were starving. Wow, the portion of beef was big enough to satisfy anybody and was soft enough. I knew the meat was tenderized in the usual Chinese way. The beef was bite-​sized, though my wife complained each bite was a little too big. It was okay with me.
I am not an aficianado of salads, but the chicken salad was below my expectations. Iceberg lettuce was chopped finely with coarsely crushed sesame seed sprinkled. Besides, chicken breast was salty. While Dimsum carts were around, we didn’t feel like trying any for the day as our portion was large enough. We decided to try Dimsum next time we come in.
Next time we will try dinner instead of lunch special.

The ha gow had no flavor. I’ve had better at ranch 99.
The vegetables, mushrooms and tofu wasn’t great either.

My first mistake was showing up at 11am and the second was ordering the Dim Sum…
‘Do they take reservations?’ you ask? I don’t know. I called the main number listed on both their website and Unilocal and was sent to some automated answering system that transferred me to another system that ultimately hung up on me. What?! I was trying to make a reservation for a group of seven at 11 AM. At the very least you would think that I could leave a voicemail for somebody to call me back. Nope! This was not the case. No place to leave a voicemail know where I could make a reservation. Not even through Unilocal or OpenTable. WTF?!
Okay. So no place to make a reservation. So, our new plan was — all seven of us would show up at 11 AM right when they open and hope for the best. So, that’s what we did. All seven of us showed up at 11 AM and there are plenty of open tables for us. Great. But wait! Despite having a ton of empty tables they were completely not ready for us. Even with barely anybody in the restaurant and a bunch of employees around we had to wait several minutes to be seated. So, we were finally seated and greeted by a very nice lady. That’s when my boss said that we would just be interested in dim sum. I said ‘okay’, I’ll go with the flow, don’t normally do dim sum, but let’s do this. Big mistake. The service, the selection, and the quality of the food were all poor.
The lady serving us could barely speak English. We literally had to point to the things on the cart that we wanted. Okay. No big deal. But, the selection was pretty bad at least for the first 30 minutes we were there. It was obvious that they weren’t ready for anybody at 11 AM. We started munching on the few selections they had available. A few of them were okay and a few of them were really bad. One bite of a few of the dim sum pieces and I was done. Thankfully, after 30 minutes they started bringing out some vegetables which we’re actually pretty good. I recommend the seaweed and the green beans. Yummy.
A good way to circumvent all of this is to show up later, say 11:30 AM or later. And do not get the dim sum and order something from the menu. No guarantees that the food is going to be good from the menu, but it’s obvious that people really enjoy this place because it was completely packed by noon.
I will say, after I left Mings, I was really wondering why it was so popular. I won’t be returning anytime soon.

We stood there waiting to be seated and they did not acknowledge us so I had to ask to be sat. And, when I did he replied «fine» as if we where bothering him. Service was terrible. Never got to try the food because no one ever came to serve us so we walked out.
The 1 star isn’t even deserved.

For lack of options in the area during work hours, I end up at Mings and pay for some overpriced Chinese food with moderately fancy décor. I have been here for lunch and dinner and although it hits the spot for an immediate craving I would not say its worth the price if you have other choices. The dim sum sometimes is luke warm and carts are not always frequent.

My friend told me this place has the best Chinese Chicken Salad, ever.
Those words were like a double dare for me to drive all the way to Palo Alto just to try it.
Challenge accepted.
Unfortunately, the salad, which tasted like mustard, had very little dressing, and was mostly dry with some dry peanuts and some dry noodles. See a pattern here? I do, it’s called «dry.»
I ordered the sweet and sour chicken power lunch as well, and wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I’d be since, according to the recent Unilocal reviews, this place has been receiving 2 stars from a lot of folks.
I thought the sweet and sour chicken was actually okay. It wasn’t heavily breaded, and the sauce was good. The rice (mixed with veggies) wasn’t dry (thankfully), and it was better than plain rice in my book.
The service was slow though and I had a waiter who was constantly arguing with a waitress as to who should service which table. He also took away my tea, and forgot to give it back. And at $ 1.25 for a pot of tea, I expected a refill.
This place is pretty pricey, about $ 20 with tax and tip for an otherwise okay Chinese lunch that I could have gotten at Panda Express for half the price.

Ming’s is the epitome of mediocre Chinese (Cantonese) food. There are a few items that straddle the line between northern and southern cuisine, but on a whole it’s definitely more southern. I have to say I was rather disappointed, especially as this restaurant is located in Palo Alto and I’d heard good things about it in the past (though admittedly, that was years ago).
I appreciate that there’s a private parking lot, although the entrance loops around towards the side facing the street away from the parking lot. Service was more formal than I expected, and the waiters all wore bowties and vests. The décor is traditional but is very apparently dated, and I was not a fan of the somewhat sticky seats and dingy lighting. I also found quite a bit of food that hadn’t been wiped up properly in between the booth seats I was sitting on, and that was really unappetizing.
One thing that irked me was that the server told us (after we told him we wanted to order a particular dish, I might add) that the menu price for that dish was incorrect, but the higher price he was telling us was correct because it had been updated in the computer. I understand that sometimes the menus can be dated, but I feel that it is irresponsible practice to not alert the customer to these changes right off the bat, or to perhaps just take some time to put a sticker over the incorrect price.
The tea here is probably the worst I’ve ever had at a Chinese restaurant, and even now I’m mystified as to why it tasted so bad. It was definitely from a tea bag, but the water itself was somewhat bitter, and the whole combination was stale and lukewarm. The condiments present on each table contained fresh mustard and chili sauce (
) though, and I rather liked the contraption used.
Fish maw and crab meat soup:
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This soup pales in comparison to Mayflower’s variation, and it was a tad salty. The consistency was a bit more watery than I’m used to, but that isn’t a huge deal because I’m fine with less starch used to thicken it. I found maybe three or four pieces of crab shell, and I have mixed feelings about that. It’s nice to know that it’s real crab meat, but unpleasant to chomp on shell while sipping soup.
Scallops and onions atop sizzling plate:
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I found this dish interesting, as I’d never had scallops covered in sticky rice skin (the kind used in those shrimp dumplings in dimsum) and then sizzled on top of a hot plate before. It wasn’t bad, but the sauce was again overly salty and unevenly splashed on top. My advice is to eat this while it’s hot, as when the temperature cooled, the elastic skins turned rather hard and much too chewy. The scallops themselves retained very little seafood flavor, which made me suspicious of their freshness.
Ming’s dry braised beef:
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As one of their more popular dishes, we of course had to give this dish a try. The beef itself was cooked very, very well, and it was tender while still elastic. My gripe with this dish is the absence of any flavor on the meat, and I eat my steaks without any condiments, so this usually isn’t an issue. If you blindly taste-​tested this, I’m not sure that you would know that it’s beef.
Spinach sauteed with thousand year egg:
(
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The cook on the spinach was pretty spot on, and it wasn’t poached overly-​much as to become soggy. The thousand year egg was of the harder variety (so no soft, sticky centers here), and it was a nice complement to the spinach.
Egg white and dried scallop fried rice:
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This dish was cooked well, although the portion was pretty small. It’s a ubiquitous dish in Cantonese restaurants, and they’re pretty standard all across the board. Ming’s didn’t make the best I’ve ever had, but it wasn’t the worst either.
Ming’s is also one of the few Chinese restaurants that doesn’t offer complimentary dessert at the end of the meal, which isn’t really a big deal in itself, but I think it would benefit from a sweet coax for its customers at the end. The prepackaged fortune cookies (
) do little to uphold its boast of possible splendor from days past.

Came here for a business lunch on a Monday afternoon and it was surprisingly busy! Regardless of the full house fluttering in as it got closer to prime time lunch, our waitress was very attentive and catering to our needs!
Food was great! I highly highly recommend the sizzling pepper beef as I had never ever had such tender pieces of beef in my life!
Of course, I had to compose myself … I mean it was a business lunch after all!

Wifi, good place for meetings where you can use a laptop. Clean, good selection. Smaller location compared to other large dimsum places. Not much selection in palo alto, all the places on University are more expensive with less selection.
Enjoy it while it lasts, closing soon for new hotel!

Something has gone horribly wrong at Ming’s. I have been coming here since I was child. They started out in a small place on El Camino. It was always my favorite. An elegant exotic place to visit. I was always thrilled at the prospect of dinner at Ming’s.
I came today for a business lunch and it was beyond abysmal. We all had the lunch special Ming’s Beef. It started with Hot and Sour Soup that was so disgusting, I left the bowl intact. No one bothered to ask of there was a problem… Any thoughts, Mings?
The Ming’s Beef and Fried Rice is not how they used to make it. This used to be their famous signature dish. It used to be very tender and moist with a delicious rich sauce. The beef is now cut in large dry slices almost like reconstituted beef jerky. We asked for knives (we could have used a chain saw) since the chucks were large, dry and tough. It is not fried rice but rather plain white rice with some questionable green bits. No sauce on anything. Nothing… It was like eating cardboard with sawdust on the side. No one finished their food. No one was asked if we’d like a container for everything we left on the plates.
The servers helper was very nice. Here’s the big rub… at 2:30, they turned off the lights! There were at least six tables with diners. We had an I pad on the table, talking and still drinking tea and beer. Since we settled the bill, I guess they were finished being polite. We were under the impression they stayed open all day.
Not the place for discussing business. I was very embarrassed to have recommended our lunch meeting here. Certainly not the place for gourmet Chinese cuisine. Since the largest portion of the large space is completely empty, I think it’s time they make some fast changes.
Will not be back.

Dim Sum was great. Lunch dish was ok.
My husband and I went here for lunch on a weekday. We are not exotic Dim Sum people so we weren’t sure if we should go 100% in on Dim Sum. We ordered a complete Kung Pao chicken meal (includes soup, dish, rice, and salad). The Kung Pao was sweeter than I usually have it. The salad was delicious and fresh.
I thought the Dim Sum options were great. I found myself wanting more than I could eat. Next time I would do 100% Dim Sum. I would come back.

I recently had a dinner meeting with a friend at Mings last month. We started off with an order of pan fried pot stickers. They were pretty good. The wrapper was kind of thick, but it had a good chewy texture and the filling was plentiful. The best thing we had were the salt and pepper spareribs. They were salty and had enough kick to make me sweat without being too hot that I couldn’t eat them. Our sautéed pea leaves and plain rice were just what we needed to round out our meal.
After our meal, we met with Mings’ contact person to go over some final details for my friend’s wedding the following week. Jack was very accommodating, answering all of our questions and reassuring us that everything would be exactly the way we wanted. He seemed flexible and ensured that all of the details would fall into place the day of the event. We went over the floor map, timing of the wedding reception, and all of the special menus. In addition to the banquet menu, we hashed out the details of the «Sweetheart Table» (bride & groom), the kids’ table, and special menus for the vegetarian guests.

We came here on a Saturday night with close family friends. They invited us, along with 10 of their other friends, to a Chinese banquet! They know the owner personally, and many of the dishes were personally selected by her.
Here are the dishes that I can remember:
— Handmade pork dumplings
— Fried fresh crab (legs and body) special
— Sweet and sour soup
— Chicken dish with lettuce wrap
— Lightly fried taro layered with duck
— Vegetables with mushroom
— House made XO sauce
— Beef niu lan (radish and beef tendon stew)
— Fresh, tender sea bass
— 8 treasures rice dessert
— Red bean dessert
Our favorites were the fresh crab (sooooo delicious), the lightly fried taro with duck, and the tender sea bass. They were all well executed and flavorful — perfect Chinese banquet style food.
I definitely recommend this restaurant for formal or fancier events so that you can capitalize on the banquet menu!
Unfortunately, the restaurant is going to undergo renovations from 2014 – 2016. But in 2016, I’ll be back…