Ah Lin Restaurant

Love this place for great, fast delivery.

I ordered green onion pancakes, salt and pepper prawns, beef and broccoli, hot and sour soup, dumplings. They were all awful. Way too salty, way too rancid oily. My husband, daughter and I could not eat this food. I actually put the whole order in the compost.

probably the best sweet and sour sauce in the city, this is the first place in the city that can make sweet and sour sauce, most places make it too sour by adding too much vinegar
I had sweet and sour pork, i only got two pieces of bad meat,
most places uses cheap old meat and all the pieces taste hard or sour
two thumbs up for the pork, it was in small pieces and not over cooked, most places cook it the day before then reheat it
plates are a bit small,

Tasty food for a good price and very good delivery service. Wish they had weekend delivery for lunch.

This place is great! We were looking for a $ Chinese place and this is going to be our go-​to. It feels clean, the food is delicious and the service is prompt. We are so impressed by the humble chef in the back as he created such fresh noodles. We love the pot stickers and the vegetable chow fun.

This is a local gem with SF history! The food is always good, delivery is fast and the order is always made exactly as specified in any instructions. They have a diverse menu and I’m a huge fan of their «Salt and Pepper» anything! **Ask for it spicy! (Note — they add an awesome ingredient — fried ginger!)

Horrible place, don’t stop by. Trust me
Wackiest customer service and the lady demanded a tip afterwards.

I’ve been coming here for years; the past couple of visits have been poor. My last visit which was tonight was the last straw. I ordered chicken and it came as shrimp. I was in a rush and didn’t check it. When I called back, the lady there said that I messed up and that I should just eat it.
leaving the restaurant without checking the order is my fault. The behavior of the proprietor, however, is unacceptable
so if you are in the, order-​what-​you-​want; eat-​what-​you-​get mood, I recommend this place

We were late on our way to see a play and were afraid we wouldn’t have time to eat. We told the hostess this and she rushed our order. The food was very good and reasonably priced. We had the House Special Prawns and Sunflower Beef.

This review is regarding their ordering/​delivery. I ordered and paid online. After about an hour, I called to see if there was a delay. The person who answered said they never received the order and would not charge my credit card (we’ll see how that works out). She said she was the owner and knew nothing about how the website ordering worked. Great system.

The flood is rather bland. The chow mein noodles were soggy and had no flavor. It seemed as if they’d been sitting in water for days and the life/​flavor had been drained out of them.
The beef with broccoli was okay. The mushroom with snow peas was yummy but overall the food was bland.
I ordered from here for delivery from Eat24. I’d research Chinese restaurants more before ordering. I would not order from here again.

Ah Lin is ahh gross! Zero flavor, no taste.
I don’t mean to be an online bully, however we were extremely disappointed. Please trust me when I say that Panda Express is better.
Case in point, general tsao chicken was soggy even after we immediately picked it up. Chowmein was soggy, and not even tasty, c’mon…who can mess up chowmein? Apparently Ah Lin can.
Sesame chicken is Blah, no flavor. And the vegetable mushu was mediocre and had a mexican restaurant tortilla (we weren’t seeking a fusion restaurant.)
Not worth the calories or your money. The person who took our order seemed nice so I feel bad with the 1 star, but this review is for the disappointing, flavorless food.
I guess when you go to the doctor and they ask you to say Ahhh, just don’t say Ahh Lin.

What! That’s right, they forgot the fortune cookies in my togo order.
Also, wonton soup was blah, and I got sick later.
sweet and sour pork was good.
Fried rice is average, good amount of chicken.
We can do better SF

Pros: hot, fresh, lots of vegetables, fast delivery and super friendly
Con: bland and underseasoned, dry
Yes, I understand that they don’t use MSG. But everything was bland, underseasoned, undersauced.
I ordered «spicy garlic chicken» and it basically tasted like broccoli beef without enough sauce or garlic. The chow fun had no sauce or additional flavor except the vegetables and basil. The fried rice had pieces of thin strips of chicken, but they were a little bit dried out.
I’m not a picky eater. I like vegetables. I like the idea of no MSG. But the food tasted like it was sauteed with a tiny bit of oil and soy sauce. Um… I could cook that myself at home.

Don’t think I can continue to support this restaurant anymore based on how they’ve been treating me the past several times I’ve been there. I was basically a regular up until the day I overheard the cook and the waitress talking about the fact that I always order the same thing whenever I go there. They made me out to be some sort of weirdo or something instead of appreciating the fact that I gave them frequent business.
In my opinion this place caters more to customers with a preference for Americanized Chinese food (or an American palate) and there just weren’t many dishes on their menu that suited my personal taste preferences. Their food really is nothing special.
I had always been a very polite customer and generous tipper towards them, so it was really uncalled for, for them to make these comments, thinking that I probably couldn’t understand or hear what they were saying about me. Also, when I’ve dined there, I observed that they are pretty rude to people who call in their orders. Their phone greetings are:“What do you want!” Instead of, «Hello, what would you like to order?»
Probably the only customers that they treat well on a consistent basis are some groups of regulars that they know on a first name basis and greet with fake hugs/​kisses. These groups are made up of yuppie types that most likely work at the same place and meet there often for lunch. Needless to say, these groups (of 2 or more people) get treated very well when they eat there. You all can have Ah Lin. They probably laugh at and talk bad about you too, as soon as you leave.
I feel that I shouldn’t have to be a part of one of these cliques or large groups in order to get good or respectful customer service. I will be spending my hard-​earned money elsewhere since Ah Lin apparently doesn’t appreciate my continued patronage.

I’ve recently moved to Noe Valley and one of the only regrets I have is that Ah Lin does not deliver this far!
I used to live on Bush street, literally 500 yards from Ah Lin and I enjoyed many a meal of take out from there.
Recommendations:
The sesame chicken — its not fried! instead its little pieces of chicken sauteed with sesame seeds laid on top of a bed of julienned carrots, squash and onions. So refreshing and it certainly at least feels healthy!
Hot and sour soup — classic, well done. Note that the small soup is huge and actually serves 2 – 3 people
Moo Shu Pork — they are very generous with the fun Chinese ear mushrooms that make this dish so entertaining.
I dont know what it is about this place but I never feel as full and gross as I usually do after eating take out Chinese food. I’m going to continue to tell my self that they just make it that much healthier at Ah Lin.

UGH! So disappointed in this food and delivery service. I have been on the hunt for good, vegetarian items from Chinese Delivery. I read the review for Ah Lin and was hoping that this would be my «go-​to» Chinese place… i was wrong.
I ordered delivery on a Saturday at 6pm. I ordered a large container of hot and sour soup (i asked for it medium spicy), vegetarian chow fun and veggie egg rolls. at 7:45pm my food FINALLY arrives.
I think with my Eat 24 coupon code, it all came out to $ 21. All the food arrived hot so that was a plus.
I received 2 large containers of hot and sour, egg rolls with a tiny amount of sweet and sour sauce and my «vegetarian chow fun» that had ground meat in it. It looked like someone had cooked it with beef and then realized it was veggie and took out most of the meat. HOW GROSS!!! I took a bite and found a chunk of meat stuck in my teeth. Disgusting. Besides that, it really had no flavor. So soy flavor or spices… I did taste a bit of ginger but that was about it.
The Hot and sour soup was awful. It really had no flavor. I had to add soy sauce and siracha to give it any flavor.
The egg rolls were really the only saving grace. They were hot and crispy and with veggies and tofu.
Unfortunately, the egg rolls won’t save this place for me. I won’t be coming back

I was hankering for Chinese last week and ordered from Ah Lin through Grubhub, completely not realizing I had ordered from here before and had a poor experience. Well, I’m actually glad I gave them another shot because this time was not horrible. Now don’t go jumping to any conclusions, I’m not saying it was good, but it wasn’t awful. I ordered a bunch of food and ate it over 3 days. Don’t judge me.
Here’s what I had:
Eggrolls — 4 stars. Tasty. Ask for extra sweet & sour sauce.
Mushu chicken — 3 stars. Ok, not the best. The crepes/​tortillas/​whatever were too stuck together to use effectively.
Sizzling rice soup — 2 stars. I have been on the hunt for sizzling rice soup in the city than can rival little shin shin (in Oakland). This was not it.
String beans with tofu — 4 stars. Spicy and delicious. Best thing I ordered.
Delivery was within the hour estimate but the driver was extremely rude. I put in the special instructions that there is no intercom or buzz up at my building, so just ring once and I’ll come down. He rang and I immediately started down. He continued to ring the doorbell continuously as I was walking down the 3 flights of stairs and when I opened the door he just shoved the food and paper at me without saying anything, and then left. –1

1. This is a review of delivery from Ah Lin Restaurant.
2. Easy to order on
3. Delivery — Order was placed at 1:42 PM. The delivery was made at just after 2:00 pm. 20 minute delivery time is very quick. The delivery person was not very friendly. There is no delivery fee.
4. Order Minimum — The required minimum delivery is relatively low ($ 15).
5. Mongolian Beef — This was pretty bland. I added the requested hot sauce. There were no veggies in the Mongolian Beef. The noodles were very hard. This was not a very good rendition of Mongolian Beef.
6. Chicken with Green Beans — The green beans were relatively crisp. There was not very much chicken though. The overall flavor needed more zip.
7. Brown Rice — The brown rice was properly prepared.
8. Delivery Error — I ordered and paid for 3 7-​Ups. There was one Sprite delivered. It was room temperature. There were no 7-​Ups delivered.
9. Packing — The entrees were packed in easy to reseal plastic containers. The container for the chicken was open but luckily it had not spilled. The rice was stored in a traditional Chinese carry-​out container. The Sprite was packed just next to the hot food. So, one half was actually even warmer than room temperature.
10. Prices — Their overall cost is in the middle for Chinese food delivery.
Brown Rice
2 $ 1.25
String Beans Chicken
1 $ 8.25
Soda
3 $ 1.35
Choice of: 7up
Mongolian Beef
1 $ 8.50
Subtotal: $ 23.30
Tax: $ 2.21
Total: $ 25.51
11. Overall, the food was mediocre and the order was not delivered correctly. The delivery was fast though.
12. Fortune — «You will soon witness a miracle.»
13. Lucky Numbers — 10, 21, 32, 36, 40, 44

We ordered delivery from here on a Saturday night and it took roughly 1.5 hours for our food to arrive. Fortunately, our food was still hot when it came.
Mixed vegetables with tofu
–This was probably the best dish out of all the dishes we ordered. They listened to my request for this dish to be made with less oil and less salt so this vegetable dish was very light and healthy. I liked that they used soft tofu instead of the typical fried tofu in this dish too. There was a variety of vegetables including asparagus, broccoli, peas, cucumbers, carrots, and mushrooms too.
Roast duck
–I was really craving roast duck so I was excited that they had this dish on their menu. When I opened the box, it looked quite delicious. However, after my first bite, I realized the duck had been fried more so than it had been roasted. The skin of the duck was way too crunchy, lacking the light crispiness of a typical roast duck. The meat was quite dry also, lacking the juiciness of a good roast duck.
House special chicken
–We ordered this dish because it was mentioned multiple times on Unilocal as a favorite dish. However, I wouldn’t recommend getting this dish as takeout because all the fried batter just absorbed all the sauces and made the chicken soggy. The sauce was tasty though.
Green onion pancakes
–This was complimentary with our order of $ 30 and over. Luckily, it was free because this dish was simply subpar. The pancake was too fried and tasteless. The peanut sauce that came with it didn’t really complement the pancakes either.
Hot and sour soup
–This soup was nice and light but lacked the spiciness factor. Good portions and the soup was full of ingredients including mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu, etc.
Overall, the food was mediocre. I’ve had worse and I’ve had better. No one dish stood out to me but my meal did satisfy my craving for Chinese food. The prices are reasonable… the total cost of our entire meal including tips and tax was $ 37 or so. It’s a good option for Chinese delivery and I do appreciate the different specials they offer when you spend over $ 15, $ 30, and so on.