[Sunnyvale, CA] Good homey Cantonese steamed rice bowls at Homi Japanese Ramen

This place reminds me of the steamed rice dishes I had growing up. Simple Cantonese homey rice bowl steamed with choice of meat on top of rice. Executed well and very satisfying.

Homi Japanese Ramen is next to Saigon Seafood Harbor in the non-descript Lakewood Plaza in Sunnyvale. Another time when I was waiting for a table at Saigon, I noted on this thread that they offered steamed rice bowl, in addition to ramen. At the time, I erroneously thought its Hubei style as Hubei likes to steam. I finally had a chance to eat there when Dumpling Depot, Saigon, and Ming Tasty both had an intimidating wait during lunch and Homi was available.

It turned out that the Cantonese owner of Homi went to Canton and learned all about Cantonese steamed rice dish and came back to offer it at Homi. I don’t know if they are, as suggested in the poster outside the restaurant, the only one to offer it in the Bay Area. But they certainly offer a version that I’d happily go back to eat. Note that all 140 reviews on Yelp are specfic to the ramen and the Japanese dishes. So don’t judge Homi’s steamed rice dishes based on the 3.5 rating.

The whole set came with the steamed rice bowl with your choice of meat and other stuff, a large bowl of soup, and a dish of steamed lettuce. We got two bowls- the ground pork cake with water chestnut, mushroom. And the Mushroom and chicken. The delicious ground pork cake had the water chestnut chopped into small pieces and mixed to it to provide a minced and firm texture at the same time. Mushroom chicken use all dark meat, skin, fat and all, so all of that flavorful goodness was steamed into the top layer of the rice. Rice texture was excellent. It was a bit like parboiled rice, with the long grain rice less sticky than usual, and pretty al dente and non-mushy to absorb flavor from the chicken, mushroom and groundpork cake. The steaming was done in a stainless steel bowl.

The soup and the lettuce were pedestrian. I still drank a bowl since it was bland like a homey type of blandness and not MSG-laden.

Ground pork cake with water chestnut, mushroom:

Mushroom and chicken:

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Another good and comfy steamed meal, this time with the herbal flower & chicken combo. Chicken thigh meat seasoned and steamed perfectly, with cordyceps flower. Very good flavor itself and the rice below the chicken. The soup seemed to have been upgraded as its pleasant to drink so i finished everything up.

Looking around the dining room, about 80% of the patrons were eating the steamed meals. I’d say that ratio is high for a reason!

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Pork rib steamed rice. Also pretty good. I finally dragged my wife here. Her ranking: chicken with flower > pork rib > pork cake. I concur.

They also upgraded the soup. Now came with a few chunks of meat and bones, and some veggies inside. Tasted meaty versus a bit weird like before.

Crowded during Sunday lunch time, though there was no wait. I’d say about 70% of people were eating the steamed rice sets.

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A few weeks ago I picked up an order from Saigon next door, and noticed this poster on Homi’s window. They now claim to have Guiyang beef noodle. If that’s true, now they are the third joint in the Bay Area to put Guizhou food on the menu.

I think the poster is faded. The color of the noodle bowl is a bit, shall we say, greenish.

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