Chef Zhao Bistro (San Mateo)
Sichuan on South El Camino, with twice cooked pork done with garlic bolt and beef poached in hot oil. The kitchen also runs a second room in Mountain View.
Why go
The dish list is the case, and it is a house-style one. The operator names Chongqing Chili Chicken, Mapo Tofu, Cumin Lamb, Twice Cooked Pork with Garlic Bolt, and Spicy Hot Oil Boiled Beef.
1 Garlic bolt in the twice cooked pork is the tell: it is the green shoot the plant throws before it flowers, and using it in place of leek keeps the dish on the Sichuan side.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the twice cooked pork with garlic bolt, the one dish on the operator's own list that names a specific vegetable.1
- Avoid: driving to the wrong Chef Zhao. This is 2450 South El Camino Real; the other one is on Moffett Boulevard in Mountain View.1
Good to know
- Which door. Two rooms trade under this name and Jeff's pin is on this one.1
- On outside opinion, I have none to give you. I could not find a newspaper or a guide that has written about either door, so the dishes above are the operator's list and nothing more.
Verdict
listed — The evidence is one page written by the business about itself, and it amounts to a dish list. That list does say something real, because twice cooked pork with garlic bolt and hot oil boiled beef are house-style Sichuan cooking and not the sweetened version, but a menu is a promise and nobody has checked it in print. The rung will move the moment a reviewer eats at this door and says which of those dishes is worth the drive.