Kirin - San Francisco

When I think about Chinese food I can go to 9/10 times its Kirin. Best way to describe this place is probably great middle tier Chinese restaurant . There is nothing fancy about this place at all but the food is why you come here anyway. Sweet and sour pork in particular is probably better here then most if not all other places in Mountain View. The lunch specials are particularly good deal as you get tofu soup, egg roll, friend rice and one of the dishes from lunch menu (obviously its sweet and sour pork but i do occasionally go for peeking beef or Mongolian beef). Personally, I stay away from porridge and sesame chicken as they are honestly just not that good here and sesame chicken in particular is way too sweet. In all this place is all about what you order and it wont break the bank while giving you very generous portions. I have been coming here for over 15 years now and have only had 2 not so great experiences and they had to do with me getting wrong item or the service.

What? Only 4 stars, 5 stars is a perfect experience for the Exceptional and we had a great lunch. Starting with Rainbow Salad (PRE ORDER RECOMMENDED), Wintermelon soup, salt n pepper pork chops (ask for fork n knife), green beans n chicken, tofu with mushrooms, beef strips, clay pot mixed meats, chow lo mein (skinny noodles), and hot tea n hot water. Good food, regular service, and had to ask for tea. Owner and staff are Chinese speakers. English is not well understood. For an exceptional five star experience, I recommend Nicks In Honolulu Hi.

Very good Chinese food. Fair price and good customer services. I recommend it. Give a try and find out if the food is good or alright?

Nothing wrong with this place exactly. Just standard pricing, perhaps even a little pricey, and I 've had better versions of everything I tried. The hot and sour soup for example was slightly below average, and the pork in it was gristly and actually detracted from the dish. For that pleasure we paid around $12. The Mongolian beef tasted like it came from Panda Express. The clay pot with chicken, fish, and tofu was basically a ton of tofu with some extremely fishy fish. Didn 't taste any chicken at all. The only decent fish was the salt and pepper chicken wings. Overall, I wouldn 't waste your money here. There are better Chinese restaurants.

My friends and I have been going to Kirin (SF) for years and always order the same things- salt and pepper everything! We always call the day before and order the wintermelon soup in advance and place a order for the rainbow salad. But, there seemed to be some miscommunication and there was no wintermelon soup!!! Oh no, what do we do now!?! How the heck can you forget when we called the day before?!?!? Kirin was a good neighborhood Chinese restaurant and has no claim to be gourmet or fancy . No frills. Unfortunately I don 't know if it has to do with lack of business or pandemic, but, I honestly think the food has slowly gone downhill. Don 't get me wrong, most items were good including beef w/ asparagus and salt and pepper wings. I hate to say it, but, I think they used old crab that was previously cooked and reheated? I 'm sorry, the meal I last had was not quite worth a 300 dollars. You will lose good customers like me if you overcharge and think you got away with it.