Cupertino ?

I was rolling through cupertino - greater stevens creek & De anza - there’s a very cheap movie theater there - and saw a lot of places have sprung up. Apple money? Some chains, but also a fair number of good-looking japanese, chinese, korean.

Here are places that showed up on Yelp & seemed amusing

Kobe Pho
Red Hot Wok
Taiwan Porridge kingdom
Gochi Japanese
All That BBQ ( korean )
Dosateria
Mitasu Ramen
Kong Tofu & BBQ korean
Cooper Vino
Gokaku japanese (gyu-kaku?)
Shanghai Dumpling ( been - love the SJB )

Would love any pointers in that area – looks tasty.

This Gochi branch is their original, until they expanded a couple of years ago to another location in Mt View near the Rose Market. They invested their savings into the Mt View location. Then the property owner announced that a year later that he’s redeveloping the entire complex.

On the food- they call themselves fusion tapas. I found their food more Japanese than fusiony. They do liberally apply strongly flavored sauce on their dishes. They are popular. I haven’t been to the Cupertino location in the last few years though. The Cupertino shop has both tables and the tatami sittings. So make sure your socks are serviceable…!

Thanks! I think I had a friend recommend Gochi (or was it Gokaku?). Will make a point of trying MV, much closer to my usual orbit.

Yelp says that the MV location is already closed. Their new MV location on Miramonte to open in December.

some quick thoughts:
Kobe Pho - never been

Red Hot Wok - awesome Taiwanese food. non-xiao ci, ie the stinky tofu, gua bao, type stuff. more focused on dishes. Their renditions of basil, sha cha beef, bittermelon and salted egg, and 3 cup chicken for example are exemplary. If you’ve ever been to cafe fusion in LA or something similar, this is the same type of restaurant. love this place.

Taiwan Porridge kingdom - new branch of a milpitas mainstay. basically, you go to a counter of 20 pre-made and then a whole menu of fresh-made dishes and pick what you want. each dish is about 5 - 8 bucks and you eat it with yam porridge. for the price, the food is very well executed, very fresh and $30 can feed a family with ample leftovers. They are all very simple, homestyle dishes, but very satisfying. again, very taiwanese (as the name implies) so a bit different from thet ypical shanghai, cantonese, szechuan, etc that permeates the area. love this place

Gochi Japanese - covered by others

All That BBQ ( korean ) - never been. LA transplant. gets decent reviews.

Dosateria - never been.

Mitasu Ramen. never been.

Kong Tofu & BBQ korean - very family friendly. not a grill your own type of place. my kids love it because the food comes fast and is flavorful. i think their marinade is way too sweet. i’d never go there if it were up to me. but some nights we just want fast and easy, so we end up here.

Cooper Vino - never been. good name!

Gokaku japanese (gyu-kaku?) - izakaya. its ok. food is fine (although we were there last week and felt hte execution had silpped). but expensive and pretty limited menu.

Shanghai Dumpling ( been - love the SJB ) - solid execution of shanghai classics. the xlb are pretty decent but not great.

the other place we go a lot is mama chens. this is taiwanes xiao che (little eats), so the type of stuff you get at hte night market and street side stands. the execution isn’t perfect, but its as good as you’ll get in the bay area and we go here frequently. you sort of just have to try the menu. for example, their rendition of a zou mian xian ismediocre, bu then their intestine vermicelli soup is spot on. their stinky tofu is great. some of their soup / casseroles are awesome. their offal (kidney / liver) preps are actually very good - fresh, crisp and not at all mealy…

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Love the idea of mama chens. Thanks for the recs all around. Seems like some interesting eats.

i am taiwanese, so maybe ive got innate prejudices, but taiwanese cuisine has always been my favorite of the various chinese regions… i know szechuan gets a lot of love on the boards, but i’ve always found it sort of boring and oily, shanghai is fine but find the flavors muted and cantonese is great on occasion but again a bit simple. i just love the flavors and variety in taiwanese cuisine and so we’re lucky in the bay area to have a lot of options.

you should definitely try mama chen’s because the menu is simply so diverse and has all the classic street food / night market classics, and is done well. but i’d highly recommend red hot wok. ask them to recommend dishes, but my favorite thing there is stirfried bitter melon and salty duck egg. totally off the beten path dish but that with a dish of stirfried leek and chinese sausage, some 3 cup chicken and their shrimp cake are all i need for a glorious meal.

i do wish we’d get a good place for taiwanese beef noodle soup. haven’t found one yet.

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I didn’t think of rechecking your list… went down to that area thinking of SJB, but Shanghai Dumpling is closed on tuesday. QQ noodle, next door, was quite crowded. Beijing Duck, same complex was closed.

I ended up at Hangkow Cuisine, and I liked it but didn’t love it. The “dry cooked noodles” were Dan Dan Mien, and not spicy but decent noodle quality. Nothing special. The BBQ skewers were OK not great. It’s my kind of place - down home - but I’ll have to try some of your recommendations next time.

funny you should mention Hangkow cuisine… we’ve been going there a lot for dinner recently. you’re absoultely correct that the skewers are mediocre at best. i will note that in their first few weeks, they really undercooked the skewers but now at least they have some decent char but the seasoning is not great.

what you should try there, if you ever go back, is their soups… their lamb noodle soup is actually pretty satisfying. but yeah, overall, definitely not a destination place.

Closed for the day, or closed for good?

A couple of months ago I heard nobody ordered the duck because the duck became terrible…

It looked like it was just “closed tuesday” but … and the place looked good.
It’s terrible? Not worth the trip?

Some of these have very funny names.

I think I heard this from some CH thread about the duck recently. So you should discount my hearsay unless someone confirms.

I have had their non-duck dishes, which I thought was fine but not great.

ive posted about their duck before. it started out as an exemplary place for duck but the last time i went there (about 5 months ago) it was barely above average. duck was a bit dry. but man, they have the best pancakes ever to wrap the duck… impossibly thin and tasty. its not the cantonese style where the duck is heavily flavored, so if you’re expecting that prep, you’ll definitely be disappointed.

Styles? What? I’ve had beijing duck in beijing a few times and the place is called beijing duck. I figure it’s that style… what’s the other style?

some of the cantonese places here serve peking duck that is not as crispy skin and is much more marinated. typically served with a mantou (bread roll thingy) rather than the pancake. Then you have the more classic style thats more unadulterated duck and so all you get is duckiness mixed with the plum sauce. i much prefer the latter, but i know some who prefer the former.