I can only imagine the 1-star reviews are from folks trying to keep the lunch line from becoming even longer. JJG is a hidden gem. The lunchboxes are the best in the bay, but you need to get here before the lunch rush or you will have to stand in the line that goes out the door. Each lunch box comes from 1-3 entrees, served with fried rice and soup. There's about 15-20 options every day, ranging from cold dishes to beef and potato stew to tomato and egg. Flavors are authentic, and the sauces taste fresh and house-made. The fried rice is also real fried rice, not the grainy soy thing some places serve. For the soup, you can choose between hot and sour soup or tofu and egg soup (both are properly made, not too salty or watery). Service is great, especially for a mom and pop shop. One thing to note: some people have tried to cut the lunch line by ordering off DoorDash -- please don't do this as it won't work, and the poor door dasher will be forced to stand there waiting for a lull in the lunch rush.

Fair price and food is average. But with this price I don't expect too much. Will come for daily lunch

If you go late at night you can see the food prep for the next day dishes. I go there and try those dishes which are prepped but not for sale yet until the net day. Those include preserved vegetable w/pork belly(have to steam this for 1h to get the flavor out), braised duck, pork knuckle(have to deep fry or braise for 1h+ to tenderize and cook the tendon and or skin), the dishes which take more than 1 day to prep which involve a longer cooking technique like smoking, braising or steaming for 30m+ can't be done on make as you order menu like most menu items. They have to take the loss if there aren't enough orders. Those dishes are more unique and different than anything you can get at any restaurant because of the cooking time involved. Only other place i know who does this on a consistent basis is Koi Palace.

Came to this plaza to visit the Bank of America. Since I was making the trip out here we ordered ahead of time online for pick up so we will have lunch. Ordering online was easy. Received an email stating my order will be ready in 30 minutes. Plenty of parking in this plaza. Came over around 15 minutes after my BoA visit and was told one of my items was out. Bummer. Advised to return in another 15 minutes. I waited outside and returned in 15 minutes to a long line of patrons around 1145am. I went to the front. The man recognized me and reviewed the receipt with me since one of the items was out. Paid and headed home. I would like say that I had a pleasant interaction with this man and all the food was presented nicely with good quantity. Bamboo shoots: We order this whenever we see it on the menu. This place gives a lot and the shoots were braised well and soft with a slight crunch to them. Perfection. Pork Ball with brown sauce: 4 good sized balls with 4 bak Choy. We haven't seen this item before so we opted for it. It was delicious! We will be ordering it again! Presented very nicely in the togo box. Yang Chow Fried Rice: Ordered this to enjoy with the pork balls. This was probably our least favorite. Some of the rice was clumped together but overall good and we have leftovers for tomorrow. Seem like their lunch plates are very popular hence all these patrons lining up around lunch time. Some of their lunch box items look very appetizing (I grew up in SF where a lot of these places serve fried and oily items). They have a mix of typical Americanized items and also home-y items such as tomato egg. Given close proximity to our home, uniqueness of some of their items, delicious bamboo shoots we plan on returning.

An excellent mom and pop Chinese restaurant in a quiet location near the Apple campus and Tong Sui! The owner is an elderly man who is super sweet and always ready to help answer questions or suggest things for your order. Reasonably priced and always a HUGE lunch line for their two/three item combo. Our staples are the hot and sour soup, broccoli chicken, sesame chicken, and the fried rice. They're super quick, food comes out nice and hot and makes it to your dinner table (despite being take out) well. Portions are also fairly big and we usually have plenty of leftovers that keep well for the next day.

My car was at the shop nearby and I came here to pick up some lunch while I waited. The food was surprisingly good. The set up is similar to Panda Express where you can order a combo and choose from the pre-made dishes. I got fried rice with green beans and tofu. I liked it a lot and it went fast. I would have been happy to not have had the conversation with the person in line ahead of me who wanted to talk about WW2 and the effects of the nuclear bomb on Japan. Totally random and uncomfortable.

With the vast number of Shanghainese restaurant options in the Bay and also having tried most of them as a Shanghainese-food snob, I never thought it was this inconspicuous 3.5 stars restaurant with barely over a hundred reviews that would end up capturing my heart. IMPORTANT: Do NOT get the xiaolongbao or soups here - The XLBs are pocketed with little meatballs inside that come with an unnaturally smooth surface texture one can only assume was pre-frozen for ages - Soups come in big portions for the price but mostly taste like big buckets of water Then whyTF do I like this place so much if they don't even have good XLBs, aka THE signature dish many use to assume a Shanghainese restaurant's quality? Well, I too was very misled by the shitty (sorry jin jin) XLBs during my first visits and didn't want to come back except I was lazy and JJ was the closest proximity-wise when I craved Shanghainese food, so I started trying all the obscure-sounding dishes from the huge menu as well as daily specials and whatever they recommended each time. That's when I started to fall slowly in love with this place, because it was those other dishes that drew out a sense of my hometown with every taste. In retrospect, I also realized that our habits of evaluating the quality of a Shanghainese restaurant based on its XLB (or assuming the quality of an ethnic restaurant using few "signature" dishes we know of) isn't that rational, because authentic ethnic home cuisines is so much more than just a few well-known dishes natives often only eat during special occasions, just like how my family rarely if ever made XLBs back home. In fact, I didn't even like XLBs until I got unintentionally brainwashed by all the associations between XLBs and Shanghainese restaurants in america. Damn I just spewed so much food philosophy lol... Anyway, I've been here so many times now that the old shanghainese uncle who owns the restaurant (and slowly reminding me of my dad) recognizes my voice every time I call from some sketchy number. Come here and try something from their daily specials or whatever the owners recommend that's reminiscent of their hometown.