365 Gellert Blvd. (near Serramonte Boulevard, behind Bank of America)
Daly City
Tel. (650) 992-9000
This sprawling restaurant in a utilitarian shopping center greets diners with a "moon gate" leading to the lobby lined with dozens of fish tanks that hold the restaurant's stock in trade. Few Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area offer the consistency of this huge Daly City restaurant, dim sum parlor and teahouse owned by Willy Ng. Longtime chef Kam-Chiu Leung sources the freshest seafood for the Cantonese specialities. Even with 450 seats, diners can find it hard to get a table at peak times without a reservation, especially for dim sum. The menu goes on for pages, and multicourse banquets are a specialty.
Specialties: Dim sum; all seafood, including live shrimp; crab, abalone or geoduck two ways; roast squab; roast suckling pig.
Lunch & dim sum 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sun; dinner 5-9:30 p.m. Sun-Fri. until 10 p.m. Sat.
From four-star spots to cozy neighborhood joints, these are Michael Bauer's picks for the best in Bay Area dining.