Ohlone Yen Ching Restaurant & Lounge

Soup was great but ever thing else was not that good at all. What happen to good service, if there are 3 people at the table you should bring 3 glass of water! Simple!!!

This place is out of business. Sadly, I went there last Friday and it has closed its doors permanently. The owner of the music shop next to it told me that it could no longer afford the high rent. Too bad, I have been coming here since the early 1990s for their beef noodle soup and za zia mien.

I started coming here in 1996 under different ownership. Regardless, this is still my fave Chinese restaurant. Must order: fried rice & (what do they call it here? Vanilla Prawns? Candied Prawns? Seems like each restaurant has a different name for it).
We had my college graduation dinner here because it was my fave restaurant. That night, though, we don’t know what it was or where it came from, but there was an unholy odor that was unbearable. It may have been coming from the bathroom or the kitchen, they are right next to each other, but it made you lose your appetite if you went back there. This is no longer a problem, but sometimes I still wonder… and hope that it wasn’t coming from the kitchen.
Reduced a star because the last time I stopped in, they wouldn’t sell me crab rangoons. They said that not enough people order them, and that the crab & cream cheese mixture goes to waste, so they stopped offering them. BOO! Make the filling in smaller batches! Crab rangoons rock!

I just bought Jam-​Bbong and Jah-​jang myun for my sisters birthday. It was over cooked. the soup was spicy but tasteless. Horrible Service! They didn’t give us kim-​chi, onion and sauce, no spoons, chopstick and napkins. Also food was over cooked. When we called them to tell them about what happened. They said we were suppose to ask them for it in a rude way. Other restaurants give it to their customers as service! They told us to pick it up in a rude way also. ever since they got a new owner its not doing so great. what happened?!

Ambiance: Very strange colors and pretty bare walls. The tables and chairs are stereotypical Chinese restaurant styles. But it’s comfortable and spacious. Their tableware is in need of a major overhaul; it’s apparent that many of the dishes have suffered through years and years of abuse. The sticky silverware could have used another dishwasher cycle.
Service: We were there early so the only ones there for lunch. Our dishes came very fast. The service was okay, pretty much stayed away our entire meal. The one glitch was that when I tried to pay with my credit card, she said that her machine was acting up that day (maybe they had a busy breakfast but we were the first ones there for lunch) without even attempting it.
Food: We came here with the goal of having their hand-​pulled noodles. We ordered a Shanghai noodle dish and a beef chow fun. With two hungry people and another not so hungry, we decided to order an appetizer plate to round it out. We chose the fried won tons. Unfortunately, those would have been more aptly named fried won ton skins. Not much to say about those except they are greasy and hollow. With the sauce it’s not too bad for what it is. The texture of the noodles were nice and chewy. The Shanghai dish came with a load of minced/​diced produce but was a bit lacking in flavor. The beef chow fun’s noodles had a similar elasticity that makes the hand-​pulled noodles so yummy, but the texture of the beef and the flavor of the dish overall made it only a bit better than average.
Conclusion: The food by itself could have earned itself three stars from me, but the other factors pulled it down to a two. If you don’t care about the other stuff, the quality of the noodles are not too shabby.

I’ve been coming to Yen Ching for YEARS, back when the place was still owned by another family. We came here regularly as a family to enjoy their beef noodle soup, seafood noodle soup, mushu pork, chicken fried rice, hot and sour soup and fried bananas. Their noodles are hand-​pulled (YUM) and their soup is tasty! They have the best chicken fried rice! It’s greasy and comes in a huge pile of fragrant deliciousness. The hot and sour soup is classic… definitely good if you’re in the mood for a piping hot bowl! They USED to have really good zha jian mein but now it’s filled with onions.
Whatever entrees you order, top off the meal with fried bananas (they used to light them on fire in front of you!) and you’ll be smiling from ear to ear. Or clutching your tummy in happiness.
One more great thing about Yen Ching– they’re open on Christmas!!! I’ve had Christmas dinner from here on more than 1 occasion. This place will always be my go-​to Chinese restaurant when I visit Fremont.

We recently moved to the area and have been busy developing the rotation. Well, we can check off chinese food as Yen Ching fits the bill. Their style of cuisine is casual, American style chinese food; their ingredients are fresh, and their portions, generous. I love mongolian beef and tend to use this dish as a barometer of how good a chinese restaurant is, and the mongolian beef here was definitely tasty, some of the best I’ve had in awhile. We also had the dumplings to start off, as recommended by a friend, and the chicken with black bean sauce, all very good dishes. Prices are on par and service was good. Can’t wait to come back and try the rest of the menu.

Their Yushong Beef/​Pork dish is absolutely fantastic! And at the lunch special price it’s a great deal! Specials go until 2:30pm!

ahhhhhhhhhhhh! this is the MOST torn i have ever felt writing a review! as far as cleanliness, customer service and food goes by American standards, this place gets an A++ and 4 – 5 stars.
buuuuut… if i am honest with myself, by Chinese standards, they only 3 stars, and that even depends on what you order.
i AM excited that they have hand-​pulled noodles, and i am additionally excited by the fact that QQ is not the only place in the fremont area that serves them. yeah yeah yeah, QQ is better as far as texture is concerned, but these are yummy, too. this restaurant serves more dry noodle dishes than soup noodles (whereas QQ seems more well-​known for their soup noodles)
i am pretty sure that in the future when we come back (i know we will, as evidenced by my bf’s comment last nite ‘good job, yen ching’) i will strictly order from the hand-​pulled noodle list.
last nite i got the szechuan noodles and bf got the hot and sour soup noodles. i really enjoyed my noodles because they weren’t overly peanut-​y and the texture was delicious. his hot and sour soup was really yummy as well. the portions are like QQ, fyi. IMMENSE. and the prices range from $ 7.25-$ 8.50, per noodle dish.
they also have a special from 4pm-​6pm every day in which you buy three hand-​pulled noodle dishes and get the fourth hand-​pulled noodle dish for free.
in addition to the pounds of food we had already ordered, we got the string bean and chicken dish — which, cynthia c. is right, was extremely gelatinous, greasy and sugary. but it satisfied my gelatinous, greasy and sugary American self. :P :P :P
as far as the other food is concerned (including the string bean/​chicken dish), let’s just say i could bring my extremely white and not open to try new things family from Ohio to this restaurant, and they would be content. :P
ps: however, i have not tried any of their korean dishes, so i can’t comment regarding those.

I can fairly say I’m NOT digging this style of Chinese cuisine.
–Greasy
–Sugary
–Gelatinous
I’m holding off on dishing out the unsightly ONE star, still need to sample all the Korean dishes.
The hole in the wall 3 for $ 15 places are actually BETTER than Yen Ching.

They’ve got your Chinese restaurant standard dishes, daily lunch specials (available on weekends too, from 11:30 AM — 2:30 PM, $ 5.95 and up) and hand-​pulled noodles. Yes, hand-​pulled noodles ($ 7.95 — 8.50).
* #30, Brown Cooked Beef Soup Noodles (basically beef stew noodles): You can ask them to make it spicy like I did (it wasn’t that spicy though). The noodles were fairly uniform but did look hand-​pulled. They didn’t have much bite/​chewiness to them. I like bouncier noodles. These were too soft (the noodles are better at QQ). The broth was beefier than QQ’s and the portion was more generous… but the big beef pieces weren’t as tender as QQ’s and some of the tendon pieces required quite a bit of chewing effort. The broth was fairly oily. It was odd that they put onions in the noodle soup.
* Three Treasure Soup Noodles: a seafood noodle soup in a spicy red broth with overcooked small shrimp, squid, veggies and some other seafood items. The hand-​pulled noodles were the same as the ones in my beef noodle soup. The seafood broth was also better than the seafood broth at QQ but the noodles were much worse.
Hand-​pulled noodle varieties: Szechuan noodles, Triple treasure brown sauce noodles, Triple delight soup noodles, Triple treasure soup noodles, Brown cooked soup noodles, Fried pork chop with soup noodle, Wor won ton soup noodles, Hot & sour soup noodles, Pork & Szechuan pickle soup noodles, Beef chow fun, Chicken chow fun, Sesame noodles, Combination stir-​fried hand pulled noodles, Seafood stir-​fried hand pulled noodles.
$ 25 credit card minimum.

the food all smells great. it’s all great. However, when I ate the food, I did not think that it is all that spectacular. The taste did not match the smell… The price was not too bad.
we had the deep friend breaded shrimp with a sweet sauce, some kind of deep fried breaded beef with a sweet sauce, jajangmyun, and a spicy noodle with beef thing.
Anyway, wasn’t terribly impressed.

I drool as I speak…
–Jajangmyun
–Jampong
–Tang Soo Yook (sweet and sour pork)
–Kam poong gee (seasoned chicken fried goodness)
–Hot and sour soup
–Mu shu pork
–Kung Pao Chicken.
GET SOME

I just had the combination hand pulled noodles for lunch. It was delicious! I will go back again! The service was good. The kung pao chicken was pretty good too.
I was pretty quiet in there. But it is a rainy Tuesday.

Korean Chinese food. My first taste of restaurant jajangmyun. I used to think this was a healthy dish. Bean sauce, potatoes, carrots, and some meat over noodles. Okay, maybe not healthy but not unhealthy either. Imagine my surprise when I find out good jajangmyun is determined by the amount of stuff in it (squid, pork, veggies, lots and lots of sauce and, or course, oil). It’s very good here, not that I’ve had it at other restaurants, but I prefer it a little simpler (don’t need the squid).
The fried chicken with the sweet sauce is delicious! My friend and I always get noodles and chicken. Beware, if you have leftover noodles they continue soaking up sauce and lose their chewiness. On the other hand, chicken will only be crispy for so long. It’s terrible choosing between two foods that are best fresh out of the kitchen.
I’ve eaten here a few times and the food is consistent. Sometimes the people in the back are yelling at each other, though.

This place is 5 min away from my house. My parents used to be friends with the owners, so we used to come here often. After the owners changed, we stopped going as often.
The food, service, cleanliness… is all okay. I’d probably give it a 3.5~
It’s a mix of Korean-​Chinese style cooking. I typically get the jja jjang myun (the noodles with black sauce), tang soo yuk (yellow sweet and sour pork), kam poong gee (seasoned chicken lollipop things). Pretty standard dishes, tastes pretty good, and is filling.
(They’re pretty quick in preparing dishes for take-​out) 10−15min average.

This place has the best hot and sour soup I’ve tasted yet :9… salivating as I speak *drools* … well you know not only cuz it’s good also cuz the thought of spicy food does that too…
A big fan of hand pulled noodles because of it’s «Q“ness hehe (chewiness), I’d say this place doesn’t impress me noodle-​wise. I get influenced by my mom pretty easily though and I just remember her not liking the place. For me at least it wasn’t stand out enough for me to go back all the time. I sure miss that hot and sour soup though…
Good meat dishes, good dumplings. I don’t like how it’s always a little dark in there just enough to make me a little sleepy. Maybe that’s why I don’t go so much anymore, a mix of hunger with sleepiness is so confusing to the senses… @_@
Conclusion: solid, decent food, not stand out enough for me to become a regular = 3 stars

3.75 stars. Yen Ching is now on our regular lunch rotation. We usually order the following dishes:
Triple Treasure Brown Sauce Noodles (jiajiamien/​champon)
Triple Treasure Soup Noodles/​Spicy (chao ma mien)
Noodles with Pork and Pickled Vegetables
Mu Shu Pork– best mu shu I’ve had!
I would recommend all of the above! The service isn’t the fastest, but the food is great.

LOVED the ja jiang mien! The wings in spicy garlic sauce was ok. I expect the sauce to be more and thicker like the one served in Korean bars but I guess this is more Chinese than Korean. Want to try the mung bean flat noodles/​jellyfish dish with hot mustard, shrimp, egg, and veggies next time…

I love noodles, so I dragged Alan here to try the hand-​pulled noodles. We arrived a few minutes before closing, but the wait staff were still happy to serve us. Since we were the only ones in the restaurant, service was quick.
The noodles were way too greasy! I have to admit that this is one of the very rare times I’ve ever complained about noodles! I had trouble finishing the dish, as Alan refused to eat it after a few bites. Aside from the extra oil and grease, the noodles itself were pretty good.
The chicken w/​garlic was sauce was just ok. The chicken wings/​drumsticks were pretty big, but didn’t have much flavor.
I think I’ll stick to QQ Noodle for my noodle cravings.