Fon Yong Vegetarian Restaurant

To my surprise, Fon Yong has closed! I’m so sad, you can’t even believe it. My heart sank when I saw the empty building. They made the best veggie sweet and sour pork. Fon Yong you’ll seriously be missed!

***first of all, just gonna note that the map they got for this Unilocal review is wrong as fvvvvvck… this place is on Holly St (at Old County Road) in San Carlos, not wherever that crap-​ass google map says it’s at***
anyways, i went to this place for the first time in probably at leeeeast a year a little bit ago… and u know what happened??? u know what was one of the TIGHTest thingz in the world??? peep this… i walk in, and the lady who was working not only remembered me, and was stoked to see me, but she remembered what my favorite plate was… it really had to be at least a year since. that is sum SH! T. that is sum SIQ SH! T.
so yeah…
–this is a good spot for good grub.
–good location near the San Carlos trainstation and 101 freeway and El Camino.
–people who work here are nice as hell.
–they have a good selection of vegetarian dishes.
–and they actually use the fake-​meat/​soy-​protein in their vegetarian plates… and sh! t is heeella good too.
–the BOMB piece: roll up on a weekday (Mon-​Fri, duh) for their lunch special… i believe it starts around noon and ends at 2:30pm…but you can roll away with a tightass cup of soup, and a nice plate of whatever you want (vegetarian plates included) with rice for like $ 6 bones!!!
yeah. all about supporting my local peeps.
siqsh!t.

This is the worst chinese food I have had in a long time. I threw it out…$ 20 in the trash.
I ordered Kung Pao chicken. The employee warned me that it was hot, but I couldn’t seem to find any semblance of heat in the dish. It was not authentic at all.
I also got the Szehcuan Beef. It was over-​battered and not cooked correctly. All I could taste in each bite was batter and oil. Not appetizing at all.
My rice was burnt as well. What Chinese food place serves burnt rice… nasty.
This was a take out order, but I went at 6:30 to pick it up and there was NO ONE eating in the restaurant. This may show the lack of flavor their food has.
If you want good tasting chinese food in San Carlos, try Henry’s Garden.

Possibly the worst Chinese food I ever had. I had lemon chicken with fried rice here and it was totally burned, both the chicken and rice. It was disgusting. Usually I have bad Chinese at a take-​out but really surprised how bad the sit down food was. I ended up tossing half of it. You’re better off going to the mall for Chinese.

I like divey places, and I love vegetarian Chinese food with its abundance of fake meat. I was glad to find this place, as it’s much closer to my house than its counterpart, Garden Fresh in Mountain View. But Garden Fresh… is a lot better.
My sister and I started at Fon Yong with vegetarian potstickers. The outside was a good texture, but the insides were totally bland. Then, we got vegetarian sweet and sour chicken (since Michelle C. liked it so much) for me (the vegetarian) and regular chicken chow mein for her. The veggie chicken itself wasn’t bad, as are most things that are fried within an inch of oblivion. The vegetables in the dish tasted like they’d been sitting around for ages, though. Reports on the chow mein were mixed.
Like I said, I’m pretty forgiving of simple or even slightly dilapidated surroundings. But what really threw me at Fon Yong was how dirty the table cloths were. Why whoever was in charge of washing them couldn’t just throw in some bleach is beyond me. The utensils didn’t look clean, either. I asked for chopsticks, hoping to get disposable ones, and got reusable ones. Yes… it takes a lot for this eco-​warrior to not want something reusable.
I’d consider getting takeout from here again. As long as I can eat at my own, trusted table.

Loved:
Vegetable Chow Fun.
Friendly Service
Large sized portions
Liked:
Braised Bok choy and Black Mushroom
Chinese chicken salad. Chicken was a bit dry, but lettuce was fresh
Hated:
Vegetarian Lemon Chicken (fried tofu nuggets with a little lemon sauce). We threw them out.
We’ll go back, although I’m afraid to try any of their other vegetarian meat dishes.

This is one of the best Chinese restaurants in San Carlos serving Mandarin, Szechwan, and Hunan cuisine. The general’s chicken is excellent (tender slices of chicken lightly battered and deep-​fried and cooked in a hot sauce that is not too spicy, but spicy enough to be a sinus clearer. Their hot & sour soup is just as much of a sinus clearer with fresh bean curd and fungus in a thick, spicy broth. The steamed rice is fluffy and firm, perfect for cooling off your mouth. This was the lunch special for $ 6.95. I will have to go back and try more, including the pot stickers which someone had ordered which had smelled wonderful. The pot stickers are excellent; pan-​fried and crispy golden with a wonderful well seasoned pork, ginger, and cabbage filling. The Szechwan beef is tender with a light batter and deep fried with a spicy chili sauce. The green onion pancakes are okay, no onions and overly done. So, for excellent Mandarin, Szechwan, and Hunan cuisine at reasonable prices with friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable service in a clean, casual atmosphere Fon Yong cannot be beat. Keep up the good work guys.
r the spiciness from the chicken.

DON’T GO TO FON YONG! THEY LIE ABOUT THEIR PRICES AND THE FOOD IS LOUSY!
This is the first and last time I went there. On the restaurant’s storefront window my sister-​in-​law and I picked up a to-​go menu and went inside and ordered some food. The waitress didn’t show me the bill, only had me sign the credit card slip that showed only the price. Since I was hungry, I didn’t think much of it and went to my brother’s place to chow down. After dinner I checked the pricing because it didn’t sound right. I figured everything with tax and they over-​charged me nearly $ 4, but it was too late to call because the restaurant was closing.
The next day when my dad or cousin (who didn’t eat the food, thank God) called, the restaurant people got defensive and rude over the phone. They said they changed their prices, but didn’t print out a new to-​go menu. So my cousin or dad asked for the current prices of each item. I paid $ 46.15. With the new updated figures, my dad totaled it and it came out to be $ 51.04. So, THEY LIED ABOUT CHANGING THEIR PRICES. If Fon Yong staff were looking at the current menu, THE TWO PRICES WOULD BE IDENTICAL, BUT THEY DIDN’T MATCH!
It was not a racial issue. I’m Asian born in CA. I even spoke a little Mandarin to the waitress when I ordered. FON YONG will CHEAT anyone, not only based on race.
On top of that, the food was awful. I turned vegetarian recently, but my family eats meat. Here’s an easier-​to-​read breakdown of the pathetic dishes:
–Walnut Prawns:
**My brother said there’s too much batter, less prawns for your money.
**My sister-​in-​law said the prawns were soggy and drowning in sauce.
–Hong Kong Style Veggie Noodles:
**They’re too hard, like Teflon noodles. It’s supposed to be part crispy and part soft. Other restaurants do a better job.
–Vegetarian Steak:
** It’s too salty and left a strange taste in my mouth –even AFTER I brushed my teeth.
I believe the place doesn’t get many customers; they’ll probably close down and sell the business soon. I hope they sell it and another restaurant opens up in its place.
At FON YONG you get:
** NO AIR-​CONDITIONING DURING SUMMER, probably no heat during winter too
** EMPTY TABLES at 7 P.M., (we were the only take-​out order)
** CHEAP, GREEDY, DISHONEST, SELFISH WORKERS OR OWNERS
** DIFFERENT PRICES EVERY DAY
My mom joked to me, «They charged you $ 46, and your dad $ 51 over the phone. If I were to go, they might charge me $ 42.» hahaha
They should have named their place Fon «YAWN,» yawn because the workers are dozing off due to no business. Swear to God — when we came into the restaurant, the waitress stepped out of her air conditioned car and into the stuffy, empty restaurant to take our order.
If you haven’t eaten in 10 days and dare to ABUSE your taste buds and stomach, bring a calculator and be prepared to SWEAT IN SUMMER or FREEZE IN WINTER in a WEIRDLY DECORATED place with CRAPPY FOOD and the possibility of getting RIPPED OFF.

The food here is inconsistent, microwaved (not prepared fresh) and gross. Worst Chinese food I have ever had (except this one time I found a rock in my chow mein from a place in Redwood Shores).

I was definitely a little nervous ordering from here the other night but I noticed that they had a lot of vegetarian items and thought we’d give them a try and…
I was very pleasantly surprised! We had the mongolian «beef» and the general tsao’s «chicken» and both were good. The «beef» was definitely better, the spices were great and the prices were reasonable and service was fast (we had takeout and it only took 10 mins)

We had takeouts here. The onion cake was very disappointing (e.g. overcooked and no sign of green onion anywhere). The vegetarian potstickers were huge but bland. My companion seems to enjoy the Kung Pao (real) Chicken although it didn’t look at all authentic to me.

So far, this is the best Chinese restaurant I have found in the San Carlos area. The food is always very fresh, and the portions are large. All of their chicken dishes are made with chicken breast… my favorite is the curry chicken… so good! They make their own pot sticker dough, and their mongolian beef is fantastic. They also deliver, which is a plus on the Peninsula!!!

This is a review by a vegetarian
3.75 stars (picky picky)
Fon Yong used to be 100% veggie but have since changed to include regular omnivore food as well. I ate there with a vegan who had no troubles partaking in a soup, and appetizer, and two entees.
The off-​the-​menu house tofu dish is a great combination of textures and taste though I wish it came with a vegetable other than bok-​choy. Why do people like slimy greens?
The pot-​stickers are nice and crisp on the bottom and chewy on the top. Veggie Kung pao was spicy and had the right combination and sequence of crunch, grease-​pop, chew, dragon-​breadth finish.
On another occasion I shared the almond pressed veggie duck and that was too crunchy, chewy, and greasy. Stick to simple fake meats people. Don’t try beef wellington or veggie haggis or pomegranate molasses & thyme fake leg of lamb.
The proprietress was just about as friendly and helpful as can be.
Menu can be found here:

The last of the many dive places in the strip mall near the San Carlos Caltrain tracks. I had a vegetarian co-​worker with me instead of my usual omnivore one and since this place had many veggie items on the menu, we gave it a go. I got the chicken and salted fish fried rice while my co-​worker went for the Hunan eggplant and brown rice. We both that the soup they gave us was a bit lukewarm but the food was decent. The waitress/​owner was super nice and the portions seemed pretty sizeable for a sub $ 9 lunch. I think as a vegetarian I might have been happier but since I’m a picky Cantonese style carnivore I’ll give this a 3.5 stars.