Chef Chu and how he grew Chef Chu and how he grew (January 20, 2006)

Larry Chu has added gourmet dining, cooking classes and TV appearances to his Los Altos landmark

By Sheila Himmel

If you study Chef Chu's by the numbers, the family-run restaurant starts to sound like one of those Chinese food factories that start with "P.F." It is so much more.

On an average day, the two-story restaurant serves 1,200 diners, at least 100 of whom order Chef Chu's Famous Chicken Salad. About 40 percent take their meals to-go.

Chef Chu's seats a total of 280 people. If you have to wait, you can watch 25 chefs dance around the glassed-in exhibition kitchen, read one of three Chinese newspapers for sale in racks outside, or talk to one of the Chus greeting customers.

Parking is a competitive sport on this almost-Mountain View corner of San Antonio Road and El Camino Real, with groups from Peet's and Armadillo Willy's also vying for spaces. Chef Chu's parking lots ramble around houses where the restaurant's chefs -- many of whom live in San Francisco -- often sleep. In the early days, new chefs from Taiwan lived in these houses. Simplify your life and drive past the parking gladiators in the closer lots and head back to Chef Chu's Parking Lot No. 2, which is guarded by lion statues.

Recent remodeling has lightened up the 120-seat main dining room. Chu removed the outside awning, letting natural light flow through opaque etched glass. Butter-yellow walls are softly illuminated by sconces.

At lunch and at dinner, Chef Chu's is a white-tablecloth restaurant, busy but not noisy. Chu's son Larry and daughter Jennifer greet people and manage the traffic flow.

Weekday lunch deals feature your choice of three items out of 12, plus soup of the day, for $7.95. The dozen warhorses range from chicken chow mein to fried prawns to sweet-and-sour pork.

More up-to-date lunch combo choices are listed under the heading "gourmet." Even these top out at $8.95, including steamed rice, your choice of a signature veggie spring roll or soup of the day, and entrees like tender fish filets in wine sauce ($8.95) and kung pao chicken ($7.95). Hunan beef ($8.95) offered lots of tender beef sauteed with crunchy broccoli stems, lightly draped in sweet-tart sauce. The stems stay crisp and whole where broccoli flowerets would crumble.

Ma po tofu ($7.95) also was a good-sized portion of creamy cubes of tofu, sauteed with minced pork (unless you want it vegetarian). The menu says "topped with a pinch of Sichuan peppercorns," but it must have been a very tiny pinch. The spring rolls should've been hotter and crisper.

Hot-and-sour soup was the better pick that day, featuring tingly peppercorns and lots of mushrooms. Pot stickers ($5.50) had snappy fillings of ground pork, Napa cabbage and ginger, but their coats were too chewy.

For dinner, we went upstairs to the bright red carpet room, which seats 130 cozily but doesn't feel crowded. There are carved dragons to admire and a mirrored wall to make the room feel bigger.

Servers roll out entrees and plates on carts draped in white tablecloths, and wine bottles wear white napkins around their necks. The mood is set for moving beyond sweet-and-sour pork, but of course that's up to you. Larry Chu describes his menu as Mandarin, which means dishes from all over China.

Among appetizers, silver anchovies and almonds ($7.95) aren't going to knock spring rolls out of first place in popularity, but they may surprise you. These crispy preserved anchovies aren't salty or slimy like the canned ones. They're chewy, hot with fresh chiles and sweet with soy sauce, and fun for four people to share.

Rack of lamb with lemongrass accents ($18 for four chops, although the menu said six) came next, so I guess you'd call it an appetizer too. If you're thinking otherwise, get one rack for every two people. Only the over-scented paper towelettes get in the way of lip-smacking enjoyment.

Fresh clam and ginger soup ($8.50) balances subtle seafood and tangy spice in clam broth. Both the soup and the lemongrass lamb are being taught this spring in Chef Chu's cooking classes.

Salmon with black bean sauce ($16.95) is wok-seared and delicious, and cut down to individual size at lunch ($8.95).

Boneless tea-smoked duck ($14.95 for half, $25.95 for whole) has a depth of flavor after being steamed, smoked and deep-fried. It comes with refreshingly small steamed buns, so you don't fill up on bread.

Chef Chu's Lovers' prawns ($14.95) are the perfect couple, Mr. Mild and Ms. Spicy. Half are sauteed in rice wine, separated from their dry-braised partners by a wall of sliced tomatoes, which for winter tomatoes aren't bad, especially when smothered in the spicy half's chili paste and garlic sauce.

Fried rice is a meal in itself. Why pay $1.20 per person for plain steamed rice when four people can feast on bits of shrimp, barbecued pork, peas, carrots and onions for $7.50? And it's very good as leftovers.

In Chef Chu's 25 years, the vegetable dishes have evolved the most. His own favorite is home-style spinach ($8.95) with fermented tofu, garlic and slivered jalapenos. Now, on special order, the kitchen also cooks kambocha squash, so the skin tastes like chestnut and the flesh like yams. Meanwhile, Chef Chu's is moving into Chinese New Year with its first banquet on Jan. 25.

Chu recently spent eight hours cooking with Martin Yan for a Chinese TV show which, he noted, "They say 100 million people watch." Take that, all of you Chinese food factories.

Chef Chu's
1067 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altos
(650) 948-2696
www.chefchu.com
Daily hours:
Lunch specials: Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
Continuous service: Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun., noon-10 p.m.

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