Chef Chao has been a Lamorinda institution since 1980 — over 45 years of family-owned Szechwan and Mandarin cuisine. The restaurant offers both modern and traditional Chinese dishes, with a dedicated staff that treats regulars like family.
Why It’s Lasted 45+ Years
In a world of restaurant turnover, Chef Chao’s longevity says everything. The family ownership shows in the consistency and care. Whether your tastes run modern or traditional, the menu has something for you.
What Locals Order
- Honey Walnut Prawns — The crowd-pleaser, crispy and sweet
- Eggplant Tempura — A longtime favorite; perfectly crispy
- Chicken with String Beans — In white sauce, beans stay crunchy
- Hot and Sour Soup — Classic starter, well-balanced
- Lemon Chicken — Comfort food done right
- Potstickers — Good for sharing while you decide on mains
Lunch Specials
The weekday lunch specials are the local secret: appetizer, soup, rice, and a fortune cookie included. Quick, filling, and easy on the wallet. Perfect for the Rheem Center lunch crowd.
Sweet-spot timing: Tuesday and Wednesday around 12:15pm is reliably the calmest lunch window — late enough to miss the noon rush, early enough to beat the school pickup loop that starts forming around 1pm. You’ll usually get a table without a wait and food in under fifteen minutes.
Between Services
Chef Chao closes 2pm-4pm between lunch and dinner — a Moraga rhythm that catches first-time visitors off guard. If you’re driving in from out of town, plan for an 11:30am lunch or a 4:15pm early dinner; arriving at 3pm to a dark dining room is a small local rite of passage.
Early summer note: With school out and Campolindo families easing into summer-evening routines, the 4–5:30pm early-dinner window is your friend if you’re traveling with kids. The post-pool, pre-bedtime crowd hasn’t quite formed yet, so you’ll usually walk straight to a table; by 6:30pm the dining room fills up with families who’ve spent the afternoon outside and want something hot, fast, and familiar. The Tuesday/Wednesday lunch sweet-spot still holds in summer — and on the hottest afternoons, the closed Mondays mean Tuesday lunch is the first slot of the week, so it can be busier than usual right at 11:30am opening.
Good to Know
- Family-owned and operated
- Great for takeout
- 10% discount for cash — a nice perk
- A true Moraga institution — ask any longtime resident
- Located in Rheem Center, near Moraga City Hall
Pair It With
Chef Chao anchors the Rheem Center side of Moraga, a short drive from the Moraga Shopping Center cluster on Moraga Way. The two clusters function as parallel weeknight ecosystems, and locals routinely mix between them:
- Before: A quick errand at Rheem Center on the way in — the dry cleaner, the post office, or a stop at the small CVS — pairs naturally with Chef Chao’s 4–5:30pm early-dinner window, especially with kids in tow.
- Instead of (same-night call): If you wanted Italian and the Pennini’s bar wait is long, Chef Chao is the parallel Moraga institution — same family-friendly, no-fuss energy, just on the other side of town. Same logic in reverse: if Chef Chao is closed (Mondays) or the dining room is wedged with a Campolindo crowd, Pennini’s over on Moraga Way handles the weeknight overflow.
- After: A walk around the Rheem Valley fountain area, or drive five minutes west to Loard’s Ice Cream for the classic post-dinner scoop. The post-Chef-Chao Loard’s run is a Lamorinda childhood ritual that long-time Moraga families will recognize on sight.
See the full picture on the Moraga Restaurants overview.
Local Lore
The Chao family’s culinary roots stretch back three generations — from Shandong Province in mainland China, to Seoul after WWII, to Moraga in 1980. When Henry Chao and his father opened Chef Chao (replacing the former Jade Tree restaurant), the original menu was “too authentic” for local tastes. Years of trial and error led to the balance of Szechwan and Mandarin dishes that locals know today.
What makes Chef Chao remarkable isn’t just longevity — it’s the multigenerational relationships. Kids who grew up eating potstickers here now bring their own children. Staff tenure matches: employees Johnny and Kenney have each been with the restaurant for decades, watching Moraga families grow up through the window of the kitchen.
The Chao family gives back, too. Henry Chao has long supported the Moraga Educational Foundation and Campolindo High School (where both his children graduated), donating a portion of proceeds when Campo families dine in. It’s that kind of community reciprocity that keeps a restaurant thriving for 45+ years.
A restaurant doesn’t last this long in one community without becoming family.