Chef Liu

Ordered the xiao long bao (8 count) and beef noodle soup. The xiao long bao is not marinated like the soup dumplings at Lan Zhou in Chinatown, but I do like that the vinegar sauce comes with shredded ginger. The wrapping of the dumpling was somewhat sticky — normally shouldn’t be like that so I took away one star. I also ordered the red braised beef noodle soup– noodles were similar to udon and came with pieces of beef and bok Choy. It was a little underwhelming — not much flavor, which is why I docked another star. I expected the beef to at least be more flavorful. Service is good here and I received complimentary tea.

I was craving soup dumplings so after reading reviews, my hubby and I decided to come and try it out. After sitting for 20 minutes and watching customer after customer get served while the staff passed us by on several occasions, it dawned upon us (as evidenced by the frowns and shrugs by the waiter) that we weren’t welcomed at this establishment.
Tip for the owners: Atlanta is a melting pot and this city is full of skin tones, colors, and ethnicities; perhaps you should learn the rich history of the city you chose to make your home and accept everyone into your business. You’ll find that our money spends just as well as anyone else’s. SMDH

The dish deep fried eggplant with shrimp is good. 4.5* The batter is nice and crispy and the sweet, sour, and spicy sauce is great for the rice.
The skew lamb is a 4.5*. It could use more cumin covering it. The taste and texture are perfect.

There are a myriad of Chinese restaurants in Atlanta — so many that I often forget about Chef Liu, especially because it’s tucked away in a small plaza/​shopping center on Buford Highway.
Here are the dishes that I usually get or have tried:
1. Beef Noodle Soup — pretty tasty. The noodles are chewy and the beef broth has a lot of rich flavors.
2. Xiaolongbao — soup dumplings! I know these aren’t a common find in Atlanta and probably incomparable to the dumplings in New York, but Chef Liu is a pretty solid option for soup dumplings in Atlanta. The dumplings (8 per serving) arrive steaming hot and the skin isn’t too thick — pick these dumplings up gingerly, since they’re more likely to break — so it’s a yummy bite. I wish there was a little more soup in the dumplings, but it’s still juicy.
3. Pan Fried Pork Bun — these are small buns that have been filled with pork and pan-​seared on the bottom. A bit oilier than the soup dumpling option, since those are steamed, but these are a doughier and still delicious, especially if you’re looking for a dumpling with more texture variety (crispy bottom, chewy exterior.
4. Pepper Beef — this was the dish that took me by surprise. When you first think of pepper beef, you’d probably imagine the peppered steak/​beef dishes, where a heavy black pepper sauce is used in the dish. This is a really sweet and savory (kind of reminds me of a Chinese version of galbi) beef dish that is sauteed with green and red bell peppers, not the black pepper seasoning. The strongest flavors are garlic and soy sauce, but it’s balanced well with a sweetness. Peppers are still crunchy and flavorful when the dish is served. I’d definitely order this again.
5. Mongolian Beef — probably one of the better mongolian beef dishes I’ve tried in the area. Sweet, savory, loaded with lots of garlic, onions and green onions. Some of the cuts of meat are super thick though — they were hard to chew at times, but the flavor itself was delicious.
Overall, pretty tasty food. Next time I come back, I definitely want to try other dishes as well!

Chef Liu meets all the criteria for a great Chinese restaurant — flavorful food, fast/​polite service, highly reasonable prices (when I go with a large group, we order a ton of dishes to share family-​style and usually pay less than $ 15 when we split the bill) and dingy fluorescent lighting. Chef Liu is the gem of Buford Highway, my go-​to spot for food that reminds me of my heritage and of home. Some dishes the restaurant does well:
— soup dumplings
— normal steamed dumplings
— cold sesame noodles
— scallion pancakes
— Mongolian beef
— eggplant

I have never had a dumpling so good! They are amazing! The cool part is the broth is inside the dumpling. You then put the dumpling in a spoon and add a vinegar soy sauce to the top and enjoy! Yummy! We also had the lamb skewers which were spicy and sometimes a bit to chewy but still very good.

Oh my goodness, their dumplings and cakes!!! Tried a couple of other things that were all good but I go back for the dumplings.

Looking for xiao long pao (sho Ron po in Japanese; I’m half Japanese …) and found them. Delicious. Hand made as are the pork buns and the Sui jiao or jiao zhu which are the dumplings. Very good and very authentic Chinese.
Positives: very fast and friendly service. Great taste (authentic not westernised in my view and not overpowering). Tea served on sitting down. All food very fresh off the wok.
Negatives :none.
Hints: ask what is hand made and try that. It looks like try have very clear home made Dodd in this restaurant.

Location: off Buford Hwy in the Pinetree Shopping Center
Fav Item: Xiaolongbao is life
— Positives: My one and only favorite Chinese place off Buford HWY. Service is quick and sweet. Food never fails to satisfy.
— Negatives: n/​a
— Overall: love this spot, usually eat here 4 – 5 times a year. I hit the bakeries near by for dessert!

Really good Chinese restaurant if you are looking for authentic Chinese «snacks» or appetizers.
I have been here twice with my Chinese colleague so I never have to worry about what to order. We come with a group of 4 or 5 and order about 10 different «snacks» as he calls them and each person only ends up paying around $ 14 which is really great. My favorites here are the steamed pork buns, cucumber salad, beef lung, dumplings, and lamb kabobs. I would recommend avoiding entrees here and ordering many appetizers.
I can’t really speak much on the service because my friend spoke Chinese with our waiter the whole time but from a foreigner perspective he looked very friendly. :)
All in all I really like this place, If you want authentic Chinese food I would definitely recommend Chef Liu

This place has potential… But I probably wouldn’t come back for anything. We ordered scallion pancakes, «General tso chicken», spare ribs in spicy salt, beef chow fun, xiao long bao (soup dumplings), long li fish, young chow fried rice…
The bad stuff – General tso’s tasted like sweet and sour chicken, spare ribs had a lot of fat, scallion pancake was thick and dense, soup dumplings meat was gross and the wrapper wasn’t good, beef chow fun was oily and tasted sweet. the soup dumplings took forever to come out, I wonder if they make them fresh. Doubtful though!
The good stuff – long li fish was soft and tender and the fried rice was decent. I think if I go back I’ll ask for less oil in these two dishes

Wish I could like this place more.
Parking is good. It’s in the same area as Honeybits. Plenty of parking! May have to park a little further away if it’s during a busy time.
Space — Pretty big. On the outside, Chef Liu looks small, but when you enter, you see a ton of tables and seats.
Service — Since I come here during random times, I’ve never waited too long. But I can only imagine during the rush time, it gets crazy.
Food:
Yay for complimentary tea. I love their tea. It’s great for a cold day and if you’re sick.
Soup Dumplings: They are OK. Doesn’t really have taste. The soup also leaked out. Meh. The Dumpling skin wasn’t very fresh either. The meat inside wasn’t great either. I think the meat was old. I’ve had better Soup Dumplings and I barely eat them.
Green Beans — This was decent. I liked the way they cooked it! I wouldn’t mind getting this again. Nice side item.
Vegetable Buns — the outside buns were good. Soft and warm. The vegetables inside were OK. Tasted weird. Like they added a strange sauce. But they had lots of stuff on the inside.

Years ago when Chef Liu first emerged they were located in the little shack in the middle of the same plaza (where the Little Cesar’s is now). Back then, it seemed like this place was amazing for a lazy weekend Chinese breakfast with Chinese pancakes, fritters, and soy milk. However, it seems like now each time I go it’s kind of a disappointment.
I usually only come for a weekend brunch. The quality seems to have gone down. I guess once you get really popular it’s harder to create the same quality as before. Only the breakfast dishes stand out. The noodle dishes don’t feel authentic for some reason. The regular meal dishes aren’t spectacular as well. We usually have an order of soup dumplings, albeit not the best. Still searching for a good soup dumpling place in Atlanta.
The service is quite terrible. It usually takes a while for us to be seated, get our order in, and get our check. The servers are usually not friendly and it’s rare to see any of them smile.
They do have really good frozen homemade dumplings you can purchase to cook at home.
Although it’s a low rating, I think we’ll continue to come back occasionally until there’s a better Chinese breakfast place around.

Dang, this place has gone a little down since my childhood. One of the very few Chinese places my family would go to and a favorite among my friends.
The food is still good, but they have lost me on the really, REALLY dried portion of rice sent to my table. As a fellow Asian, I know what rice is supposed to feel, smell, look like.
I was really taken aback by getting a pot of the rice from the bottom of the rice cooker, lukewarm and dry. I called it to the server’s attention and she looked confused and kind of shrugged. Girl, no. Take that crap back.
She brought out a steaming, fluffy pot after I kept pushing. Smh.
It was BF’s first time eating the soup dumplings too. They were over cooked or had sat there because the skin of the dough were weird. Sigh.
I think I may stick to Bo Bo Garden from now on.

Same shopping plaza as bo bo garden. Came on a Sunday afternoon for brunch with 4 people and was sat quickly.
Service was definitely rushed even though the placed was barely packed.
Ordered hot tea and was disappointed that it was warm and lacked flavor.
Got the garlic pork, steamed dumpling buns, fried rice with beef and pepper steak. The steamed dumplings were very good but honestly tasted like the frozen pork buns I can get from my Asian market.
My favorite dish was the pepper steak but when I think of steak, I think of juicy thick slabs of steak, not thinly cut pieces of beef.
A tad bit expensive for the quality so I’d rather walk down the plaza and spend the same amount for better Chinese food.

This restaurant is a hidden gem on Buford highway tucked away on the left of this huge shopping plaza. There menu is definitely a more of a traditional family style menu with an array variety of pork buns, steam and pan fried.
Me and my lovely partner order the house special fried rice, pepper steak, pan fried pork buns and snow pea tops I think that’s what they are called.
The food was very delicious, and had a very authentic home cooked feel too it as if someone one invited you over for dinner. The translation was very clear once we ate the food. It felt like I was eating home cooked food from someone’s mom and loved it. The food pricing was very fair, I recommend eating here with family or when you just wanting some home style Chinese cooked food. I will definitely be eating there again

Okay, ever since living in d.c. and only being a few hours away from beautiful nyc I became totally addicted to xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. They are only found in restaurants that serve authentic asian food (usually shanghainese). Okay away from that here’s why I give chef liu’s 3 stars.
We waited a good 20 minutes to even have our drink orders taken (there were only 2 other tables) and the owner and employees were just staring at us every time they came around to serve the table in front of us (we had the corner table. Very cramped, that wall of tables next to the windows. My husband sat on the side of the table since the tables only had enough room for one person between them.) eventually the lady came to serve us. There’s a pretty wide language barrier. Thank goodness for picture menus lol.
Anyway the fried rice and chicken and broccoli was very good. And the sweet rice ball is very good as well. Its like a cinnamon sugar funnel cake inside sticky sweet rice.
As for the xiao long bao, it was disappointing. Out of 3 entire orders (21 dumplings) maybe 6 or 7 had soup. And those were very good. Also, there were no cabbage leaves so the dumplings stuck to the bottom of the baskets. Maybe thats why so many of the dumplings had no soup, with the majority flat like pancakes with meatballs.
Well maybe we’ll visit again. Hopefully the bao will be better.

Came here to eat for lunch with a couple of buddies after a soccer game. Decent food, non-​existing service.
It’s located in the Pinetree Shopping Center on Buford Highway and offers plenty of parking. It’s your typical Chinese restaurant set up. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of decoration and vibe.
It wasn’t busy so we got seated right away. I generally like to order seafood combos but I’ve noticed that you kind of have to be careful when you order this particular item at some Asian restaurants. For Chef Liu’s seafood combo, it didn’t include that much variety of seafood as it contained more imitation seafood than anything… And they won’t sub out or anything like that. Bummer… and I really wanted to try that dish. We eventually settled with three dishes:
— Xiao Long Bao:
Small steamed buns (also commonly known as soup dumplings/​buns). These were really good here. I haven’t had these up until a month ago. I’ve only had this dish at two other locations, and Chef Liu’s was the best I’ve had so far.
— Smoke Duck Bean Sprouts:
Nothing too special about this dish. I think it was a little too overpriced considering the small amounts of meat we got compared to the vegetables in the dish.
— Jajangmyeon:
A Korean Chinese dish with noodles that comes with a dark soybean paste, mixed with pork and vegetables. Pretty good here, but again… a lot of noodles and very little meat.
Service was absent at this place. The server would come to take our order, bring us our food, and never show back up. The restaurant was not busy so I can’t justify why they weren’t attentive. I had to personally go up to the server to ask for more water, our check, and a to go box… Not cool.
Overall, xiao long bao were pretty good enough for me to want to make a future stop at Chef Liu. I just hope the service is better next time.

This place is exactly what I’ve been searching for. Authentic Chinese food where I can order 3 – 4 new dishes each time to share with my husband and not break the bank. I am not an expert in authentic Chinese cuisine, but I am very satisfied each time I eat here.
We’ve tried the beef noodle soup, sesame cake pork appetizer, crispy pork spare ribs, shanghai juicy pork buns, fried pork puns, steamed and fried pork dumplings, and another one of their fried rib dishes. We were very pleased with each. The beef noodle soup isn’t as good as Lan Zhou’s, but to be able to get that and a multitude of other foods with it makes Chef Liu more appealing to me.
The sesame cake pork appetizer is huge and only $ 4. Needless to say it was my lunch for the next day. The shanghai juicy pork buns are pretty good, but if you don’t eat them immediately, a small hole will form in each and the juice will leak out. The dumplings are pretty good, nothing to rave about, but the rib dishes are something to talk about. They’re little bite size bits of spare ribs with bones in them that are fried to perfection. The batter they use for frying is different than your ordinary frying batter, so it gives it a unique taste. If you don’t mind eating around and spitting out some bones, it’s a nice treat.
I was hesitant at first to come here because of all of the reviews regarding their service. However, I found it to be similar to a typical authentic Asian restaurant. They will seat you immediately and were very attentive when we came in through the door. They’ll come over to your table quickly after you’re seated to take your order. However, if you’re not ready within 2 – 3 minutes of being seated and ask for them to come back, you’ll most likely have to flag them down. This is done by raising your arm up, index finger extended, and making direct eye contact with one of the waiters/​waitresses. Mission accomplished when they either nod at you or come over.
Tea is traditionally served so if you want water — which I recommend — you’ll have to ask for it, ideally when they come to take your food order.
They’ll bring your order out as each dish is ready, so your «appetizer» may come out last, but it’ll be hot.
If you have very little patience and want the waiters/​waitresses to be extremely attentive, this is probably not the place for you. If you are however or you’re looking to practice your patience skills, then by all means come in. There is ample parking out front!

Just a quick update that Chef Liu’s is still good. It had been a while — we ordered 3 apps and 2 entrees for our party of 4, and it was plenty of food. The only complaint was the order of food that arrived — we got our entrée then app then entrée then app. (Then we were still hungry so we ordered another app.)
SHANGHAI JUICY STEAMED PORK BUNS (8) — $ 6.95
Maybe not like like they serve in NY Chinatown but I haven’t been so these tasted good to me. Soup still intact. Try not to put the entire dumpling in your mouth — or at least wait until they cool down a little … I made the mistake twice :) I’m guessing this is probably one of their most popular items.
LEEK PIE — $ 2.95
Still yummy esp. if you like leek but they look smaller than before. We managed to share the one order with no problem :)
PAN FRIED PORK BUNS (6) — $ 5.75
Probably should’ve skipped these b/​c the buns were pretty bready plus we probably didn’t need to eat more pork. Still good though and they were piping hot.
EGGPLANT WITH GARLIC SAUCE — $ 8.95
This is another must-​order. That sauce is so addicting and great with rice too.
SPICY FISH AND TOFU — $ 12.99
My personal favorite — almost always get this dish at Szechuan restaurants. Just wish there was more fish than tofu. Some leek action too. This sauce tastes great with rice too.
Overall happy we returned. It had been a while esp. with so many other new Chinese restaurants popping all over. Still divey ambiance, still good food.