Dong Lai Shun

A ridiculous place. Food is great, but the owner seems like not interested in maintaining his business. All the food were not there and was prepare from scratch. Many dishes are not in stock. Service is terrible. The owner who is the only server is like my boss when I was dining. His face is like written “accept and eat, or go”… Two stars are for the meat, food and dip dish quality. Otherwise it should be zero star.

Another Chinese restaurant to join the ranks of mediocre Chinese restaurants in Mountain View. The only consistency to the cooking here is the disappointment from plate to stomach. Outside of the wonton soup, there's rarely an instance where the meal tastes particularly bad (albeit rather oily). It's just so subpar for the price you pay. $18 for thin flaps of salt and pepper fish fillet? Of which only enough to serve 1 person? $12 for the wonton soup (recent $3 price hike out of nowhere) where the wonton's pork tastes partly sour, as if it had been left out long enough for the fat to gelatinize into a slime? In a sense, perhaps the lack of quality in Chinese restaurants in Mountain View is a saving grace of sorts. It keeps the standards down and no one is the wiser.

They were really bad last year as reflected by many reviews. If I had written a review at that time, it would be 2 stars at the best. I went there last month and found it was drastically improved. The food is authentic and just awesome, largely due to new chefs. The service is incredible. If they can sustain in this way, they have a chance to be one of the best authentic Chinese food in town.

5 stars for the eggplant in garlic sauce - the best I've had in recent memory - perfect texture and flavor. The beef noodle soup (non spicy one) was a really simple dish but the beef was excellent quality and tender and flavorful. My toddler enjoyed the soft noodles and the beef and soup. I think my picky mother would enjoy it too. The hot and sour cucumber (on the hot pot menu) was really good - flavorful and you can taste the slight numbing from the Szechuan green peppercorns. I thought the dish could use a smidge more salt but my husband enjoyed it as is. They were very accommodating about making dishes non-spicy for my toddler, and the staff were super nice. Frankly that is a refreshing distinction these days! We all enjoyed the crispy orange chicken. I look forward to trying more dishes and the hot pot! I was worried about the price but we found it quite reasonable for the amount of food that we ordered.