Peninsula's Chinese Food Capital
Millbrae is the Peninsula's best Chinese food destination. The dim sum is exceptional, the Hong Kong-style seafood excellent, and the concentration of quality is higher than anywhere between SF and the South Bay.
Millbrae's Chinese restaurant scene developed as a large Hong Kong immigrant community settled along El Camino Real in the 1980s and 1990s. The city's restaurants primarily serve Hong Kong–style Cantonese cooking — dim sum, seafood banquets, and noodle shops — at a level that draws diners from across the Peninsula.
Broadway Street and El Camino Real together form Millbrae's restaurant corridor. The weekend dim sum scene here is genuinely celebratory — full dim sum halls with carts, family-style tables, and the festive energy of a community gathered to eat well together.
Peninsula's Best Dim Sum
Millbrae has the best dim sum on the Peninsula — Hong Kong–style restaurants serving exceptional xiao long bao, har gow, and siu mai to a community that won't accept anything less.
Cantonese Seafood
Hong Kong-style seafood restaurants serve live-tank lobster, Dungeness crab, and delicate steamed fish at weekend banquet prices.
Noodle Shops
Millbrae's smaller noodle shops serve won ton soup, chow fun, and congee to a community that needs these dishes available daily.
Asian Grocery Ecosystem
Millbrae's Chinese grocery stores and specialty shops create a complete food ecosystem supporting the restaurant scene.
Must-Try Dishes
Shanghainese soup dumplings in Millbrae — paper-thin wrappers, generous pork and crab filling.
The dim sum benchmark — translucent rice flour wrappers around fresh whole shrimp.
Live tank lobster stir-fried with fresh ginger and scallion in a clean, aromatic sauce.
Silky pork and shrimp wontons in clear chicken broth over egg noodles — Cantonese perfection.
Warm Cantonese egg custard tart from dim sum carts — creamy, jiggly, and perfect.
Cantonese honey-glazed BBQ pork — caramelised exterior, succulent interior, served over rice.
Neighborhoods & Food Districts
The primary Chinese restaurant corridor — dim sum halls and Cantonese restaurants serving the community.
Secondary dining strip with noodle shops and casual Chinese options.