Shao Mountain

San Jose, United States

3.8

Closed now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

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Telephone:
+1 408-873-9982
Address:
5152 Moorpark Ave Ste 30, San Jose, CA, 95129
West San Jose
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
Yes
Delivery
No
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Lunch
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
No
Outdoor Seating
No
Wi-Fi
No
Has TV
No
Waiter Service
Yes
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 11:00 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (San Jose) 16:43 Friday, 29 November 2024

Business hours

Monday 11:00 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Tuesday 11:00 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Wednesday 11:00 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Thursday 11:00 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Friday 11:00 am – 2:30 pm
5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Saturday 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Sunday 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

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20 reviews of Shao Mountain

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Place rating: 1
Saratoga, CA
This place gave me the runs after eating there friday night. I still cant sleep. Have never had it this bad in the u. s.
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
my irish friend just moved to town, and we were meeting up for dinner. i asked her what she wanted to eat, and imagine my surprise when she said spicy chinese food! my parents come to the fremont location of this restaurant, so i thought i would try it. my parents are hunan and sichuan, so i trust their judgment when it comes to spicy food.
we ordered the fish filets in spicy oil, the spicy shredded potatoes, stir fried lotus root, and a garlic shrimp. all of it was really good.
there is definitely a wait on a fri night, but the turnaround is pretty fast.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
We really enjoyed having the group lunch here around the round table today! They served us quality authentic Chinese food so fast. we a group of 11 people were eating sooo fast after hiking but their food was always catching up!
all the food was impressive and good like always :) as a Chinese my recommendations are:
pig skin
pig ears
garlicky cucumbers
Sticky rice balls stir fry
Stir fry string beans
Stir fry cabbage
all the fish dishes
vermicelli and pork stew
Place rating: 3
San Jose, CA
2.5 stars.
I’m not sure why all of my Chinese friends recommended this place. Honestly, the food looks better in the pictures than after you order. The ingredients are just not fresh and taste cheap.
Price and service are average.
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
This is either no longer called Shao Mountain or its in the process of being renamed, but if you walk by right now it is is called «impressions». Came here for a late lunch with my mom and it was still well over half full at 1:30pm. The place is decently decorated for a Chinese restaurant and pretty clean. We browses the menu for a while, I love that there are a ton of pictures! We finally settled on:
Eggplant with green beans — 5⁄5 my favorite dish. The vegetables are sautéed at high heat so they crisp around the edges, the sauce was like oyster sauce with garlic and was absolutely delicious. You need to eat this dish piping hot though.
«Wood ear» vinaigrette (cold plate appetizer) — 5⁄5 the mu er dish was spot on. Not too sour and not too sweet, loved this light and refreshing dish.
Numbing onion pepper chicken — 3⁄5 touted by them as a must eat dish, definitely unique in that it gives you the numbing sensation (like ma la but not spicy, just numbing). I didn’t find this dish super flavorful though, probably wouldn’t get again.
For take out I have also gotten the spicy calamari (yum 5⁄5), the pork in bamboo basket (meh), and the fried yellow fish/​croaker (nicely fried but wish seasoning was stronger).
Overall great food and service is pleasant (they aren’t proactive but they are very reactive). Will be back to try more!
Place rating: 5
Sunnyvale, CA
Spicy, fried and oily as hunan/​sichuan should be.
Tried this place once and would be back for more. The group i went with does not eat pork often, so will have to give the pork dishes a try the next time.
Here are my expriences so far… This place gets a 5⁄5 as it met the four criteria mentioned below.
I. We dont care about the the wait time or service, as long as the food reaches our table on time, which it did.
II. Super steaming/​boiling hot food.
III. We did not end up with an upset tummy that night.
IV. Now for the tastiness and quality of the dishes ordered…
1. Steamed fish fillet with two chili sauces. Eat this with the noodles they serve: (5⁄5)
2. Eggplant and beans: (5⁄5)
3. Spicy fried chicken pieces with celery and chilli. Chicken was a little dry for us: (3⁄5)
4. Fried Potato slices with chilli powder: (5⁄5)
5. Lotus root stir fried with chilli: (4⁄5)
6. Frog in a spicy sauce: (5⁄5)
Summary:
Food: Taste and Quality: (5⁄5)
Ambience: (5⁄5)
Service: (5⁄5)
Wait time: 20+ minutes on weekends if you arrive after 6:30 pm, since its a small place. No idea about the weekdays and weekend lunch wait time.
Variety: (5⁄5)
Place rating: 4
Santa Clara, CA
Hunan style food with good service? So the food must suck? Nope this place does legitimate spicy human food including the mandatory Chairman Mai pork belly. This place gets crowded!
What’s good?
Steamed fish with two chilies
Lotus roots stir fried
Chairman Mao
Stir fried shredded potatoes
What’s over hyped?
The spare ribs.
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
We loved the food. Came on a Monday at 8 pm and there was no wait though still lots of patrons. We ordered mama’s fried rice, spicy chicken (bones-​in) and tofu with enoki mushroom. We loved them all! My husband prefers the chicken and I prefer the fried rice. But really, all three were hard to resist.
Service was quick for us but might be because we sat directly in the servers’ line of sight.
Place rating: 4
Davis, CA
Pretty good food. Authentic hunan food and have a great deal of varieties.
However it is a shame that the service here is not that good, even for the standard of Chinese restaurants.
Place rating: 3
San Jose, CA
Come here early if you are visiting for dinner as they tend to be very busy during prime dinner hours.
If you speak Mandarin, the service is great. Otherwise, some may be put off slightly due to a language barrier depending on who is on the waitstaff when you are dining.
The cuts of meat are good, but not of prime quality. The seasonings are excellent, but the dishes themselves are often too greasy. Everything always arrives to your table hot and the menu is expansive.
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
Very very spicy. If spicy is what you are looking for, this is the place to be. Everything is very authentic tasting. My fav dishes are the lotus, black pepper beef, and also the spicy potatoes.
I have to warn that the portion seems to hand gotten smaller over the years. Like the black pepper beef, it was layered with a thick layer of onions on the bottom. Only the top had beef making it look more than it is.
The house special fish is interesting as it cook at the table, but it took the kitchen forever to prepare. We were pretty much done with all other dishes before the fish came out.
Place rating: 1
Los Altos, CA
First visit:
CLOSED BEFORE 10:00pm on Friday. I waited until the line was gone before going in. They said «sorry closed».
Unilocal Still says open. Booooooo
Hungry and grumpy now.
Second visit:
I walked in to order some take out. Ordered two dishes Pepper Beef a Chicken noodle dish. Both were rather flavorless, but extremely hot (Pepoer hot). I prefer a little flavor with my heat.
Place rating: 5
San Jose, CA
One clarification: It seems this place is now called Hunan Impressions.
The wait can be long if you’re with a big group. Fortunately every time I have gone we have gotten seated with 10 minutes of arriving.
Spicy Chinese food (Sichuan, Hunan, etc.) is one of my favorites. This place really doesn’t mess around when it comes to the heat level so if you’re unfamiliar with this cuisine be careful
My favorite dish so far is the boiled fish with Sichuan peppercorns. This dish comes with glass noodles, enoki mushroom and bean sprouts as well as a very generous portion of fish. I also enjoyed the stir fried potatoes with chili, which sounds like a very basic dish but it is delicious. The fish with two sauces is a variation on the boiled fish; it is not as oily as it is fish topped with green and red chilies. It was tasty and it’s one of the more popular choices but I did enjoy the boiled fish more
If your mouth is on fire you can order some bao /​buns with condensed milk and this will help your situation.
All the food I’ve tried so far is excellent and the service was good. Will keep coming back here for more spicy goodness.
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
I have been there for few times with my parents. Now my daddy loves the place though he is not a big fan of spicy food…
First time when I was here, they give 10% off if you pay cash, the second time it changed to 5%, and few days ago, went to there again, there is no discount at all, and asked for a staff here, he said, there was something wrong, let me help you to find out. few minutes later, a female staff came here said oh discount only apply if you food is over $ 50.Sorry, you need to mention it… I really don’t like the way how they handle things…
The food itself is good, spicy, but you need to wait maybe 30 to 40 minutes if you are there around 6 to 7:30 on a fri or sat night…
Place rating: 4
Pleasanton, CA
Eating here should come with a sign: «Warning: Entering a spice zone». They certainly liberally use those chili peppers here, which is a given since they make authentic Hunan cuisine. Even the air was intoxicated with spice fumes. So if you’re sitting next to the kitchen, like I was, be prepared to cry and cough over inhaling those spices in the air.
They are super packed, even on a weekday! Probably because their food is really tasty! I had the sauteed lotus root with chili (which came in a cute wooden tub), the twin fish filet with chopped chili peppers, and the steamed loofah with garlic (as our non-​spicy dish). Everything was cooked well and had great flavor.
It was a little difficult to flag down the waiters for more water sometimes and service can be a little terse and impatient as they had a full house when I went. Also, the majority of servers and patrons are mandarin-​speaking. That’s how you know this place is authentic. :)
Place rating: 3
Santa Clara, CA
I am writing this review more from white meat eater/​Vegetarian point of view.
Taste: 6⁄10
We tried a couple of food dishes for which, I may not have a developed taste. Like marinated Fungus, Hunan pepper curry chicken, which has a kick. Also tried some common chinese food like eggplant garlic, fried rice, which was good.
Ambience: 6⁄10
Nothing extra-​ordinary but not not bad.
Service: 6⁄10
Again nothing bad but also nothing stood out.
Price: 6⁄10 (Tap: 20 without drinks)
Overall: 6⁄10
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
This place is good, but SUPER spicy. The restaurant must go through so many red peppers everyday; nearly every dish has a generous amount of different types of chiles.
I enjoy spicy food, but this kind of food is on a whole new level. The dish that brought me over the edge was the lamb stir-​fry. It came with two types of peppers, and I mistook a green pepper for an onion and ate the whole thing … Trust me, I was paying for it for the rest of the night.
Service was average for a Chinese restaurst but I will say that the servers very helpfully kept my water cup full at all times. I think I drank four full glasses over the course of one meal. It was kind of funny to look around the table and see various members of my dinner party sniffling and sweating their way through the meal.
All in all, this was a great introduction to Hunan food, but I don’t know if I have the stomach (or taste buds) to come here regularly.
Place rating: 3
Sunnyvale, CA
Food was flavorful but also extremely salty and heavy. This place was busy, the customer service was ad hoc, and food came at unpredictable/​random times.
We got
–Steamed Flour Short Ribs: the short ribs were marinated so it was spicy and quite tender.
–Tofu and Meatball Clay Pot: way too salty. Do NOT recommend even for those enjoying heavy food.
–Husband Wife Spicy Beef Slices (appetizer): It is tasty with the numbing spices. But it came when the meal was almost over.
–Boiling Fish: It finally arrived when we were ready to pay. Apparently it was sent back to the kitchen and was sitting there because the server didn’t even bother to locate the order.
The food was of course very spicy, and there was no attention to water/​tea refills. We had to chase servers to get water/​tea.
All servers speak Chinese to you, and that is the official language spoken by 99% of the patrons of Shao Mountain (my husband spotted a total of 4 white «friends» during our 2 hour lunch).
This place doesn’t take reservations. You line up at the tiny door front and if there is an empty table, you run to grab it. First sit (on your own initiative), first serve.
Place rating: 4
San Jose, CA
Came here for a family dinner. We’ve had Szechuan and Chong Ching spicy food, but, as my brother noted — most Hunan restaurants are actually Cantonese with a few spicy things thrown in. This, though, this was SO GOOD and the perfect spiciness!
We ordered steamed enoki mushrooms with tofu — had looked tasty and unassuming, but one taste reveals the heat lying beneath. The tofu tasted almost sweet as a balance to the spiciness. Make sure to take each bite with tofu, enoki, and sauce to get the full flavor effect.
We also got fish cooked in chili oil. This wasn’t quite like other ones we’ve had before, but it still tastes really good. I only wish there was more fish inside.
Next in the list was lotus root — cooked perfectly to provide the crispest crunch and the signature stringiness that comes with lotus root. The heat here was more of a warm spice… I couldn’t stop eating this :)
Finally, we ordered some spare ribs with a spicy dry rub. Oh man, the meat just fell off the bone and was SUPER tender! Perfectly seasoned with only a hint of spiciness.
The food here was AMAZINGLY good. I would have given this place 5 stars, but the service was SO SLOW! The wait, alone, was close to 45 minutes, and then they somehow decided to bring out the dishes one at a time… meaning that they probably didn’t start cooking the next dish until we finished the current one on the table. I guess it’s just a different way of serving, but we just wanted our food!
I’d definitely eat here again, but would probably opt to order to go so that I wouldn’t have to suffer the wait for quite as long.
Place rating: 5
Los Angeles, CA
Chinese food ratings on Unilocal are always funny to read…
«3 stars because bad service and dirty chair»
«2 stars because waiter was rude to me»
My rule about Unilocaling Chinese food is simple: you only rate the food. Why? Because Chinese culture does not cater to the customer in the same manner that Americans expect. Simple as that. It’s a cultural difference.
Now moving on from the babble… this place is like, insanely delicious! It just recently replaced the old New Peking restaurant (which I actually was quite fond of), and laid down the Hunan hammer. Hunan food is generally spicy, oily, salty, and hot. It’s in my opinion the best kind of food to come out of China. This place’s dishes are absolutely on point.
For your first time, come with at least a group of 4 so you can really explore the menu without getting stuck on one or two entrees. The one thing you absolutely must order is the dish with the two fish heads covered in chilis (the menu has nice color pictures, you really can’t miss this one). THIS DISH IS RIDICULOUSLY GOOD. Now, for your other choices, I’d also add one of the pork belly dishes, the lotus root, and one of the enoki mushroom dishes. If you’re feeling adventurous, their frog leg hot pot is really, really tasty.
Overall the food is really not that outrageously spicy, so I wouldn’t be too afraid of that. I have a moderate spice tolerance and I get through the meal without too much pain. If you absolutely hate spicy food, then this isn’t the place for you – for sure. Hunan food is a surprisingly low-​key Chinese food that packs a punch and leaves you incredibly satisfied. Shao Mountain is the place to go for Hunan food.