Regional Chinese roundup 3.0 (SF Bay Area)- December 2017 - December 2018 archive

I think a Cantonese lock for Bib was the preorder menu at Yum’s Bistro. But of course it didn’t happen for all 9 previous years.

Ah that makes sense. I can see how Mr. Jiu’s would work and same with 8 table if they do well.

Out of curiosity, are there any differences you can detect between the Cooking Papas? I’ve only been to the one in Foster city (since its the closest one to me) but some friends swear on the that location vs. the others.

I used to go to the Santa Clara and Foster City locations before the Mountain View location opened. So I can’t say I did a head-to-head comparison.

The Mountain View location’s fried fun/ rice is ok, but their signature beef ho is a bit sloppy and greasy in Mountain View. In fact, Hong Kong Restaurant in PA doesn’t have CP’s name recognition, but I prefer their fried fun/ rice to CP MV’s.

Avoid CP MV’s dim sum, which at some point people suggested was served by the dim sum chef from the defunct ABC in Milpitas, and only offered in the MV location. I always forgot and ordered, and they quite consistently disappointed.

Their wonton noodle soup at MV is decent. The congee is acceptable.

I’d be curious to know if the banquet dishes differ between the FC and MV locations. Now I remember why I didn’t contemplate the banquet dishes at MV. I just couldn’t get excited enough about their congee-fun-noodle-rice to pay for the banquet. Those dishes from the 4 categories at MV are quite decent, just not top notch. I would prefer if they trim down their menu to focus on specific categories rather than trying to be a jack-of-all-trade. There aren’t many restaurants of their size that offers that kind of range of dishes.

Zen Taste, Fremont. Changsha food.

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Something new opened in Palo Alto on university avenue. There’s a cursed location that was recently Taxim then something french and comething about a crawdad, and now I think it’s called Taste and claiming to be Szechuan. Can’t imagine much good coming out of that space, but in the interest of completeness…

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Probably should be filed under"Hunan" unless they claim to feature Mao family cuisine.

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I look at the menu and they even have Lanzhou noodle. No mention of hand-pulling, though.

Speaking of Lanzhou noodle, the place in Milpitas now offers the hand-pulled noodles at a price premium. I guess they learned their lesson dealing with angry customers disappointed by the kitchen running out of hand-pulled noodles. I still need to head there some time.

Just struck me, maybe that’s why @hyperbowler, in a moment of carelessness, assigned Chang’an to Hunan. Chang’an, Changsha, whatever.

Leave it to a fellow Newfoundland expat to suggest such a thing :wink:

Two new places:

I think they are by the same people who own Yum Noodles.

Taste Good Beijing Cuisine now has a branch in Cupertino.

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Closings as per Yelp:

  • Taste of Jiangnan on Clement. The opening chef(s) split off to Jiangnan Cuisine on Balboa in 2017.
  • Taiwan Restaurant on Clement. Oddly there was a Yelp review yesterday (Feb. 1st.). I’ll call to confirm-- their liquor license doesn’t expire until august https://www.abc.ca.gov/datport/lqs.html?rpttype=12&license=180498
  • I didn’t have them on the list, but I’ll mention that food truck Fat Beast Dining (Livermore) closed.

There’s a new dry Sichuan pot place in SOMA:

Looks like there are locations in San Diego and Sunnyvale too.

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Taiwan Restaurant appears to still be open. Now open:

  • Easterly (Santa Clara) says it’s Hunan.
  • Mingle’s Mango (San Jose) has eight varieties of Xiao long bao (including Godiva chocolate & hazelnut, and, to my knowledge unique to them in the Bay Area, lamb); a few starters, hand-pulled noodles appear to be the wide variety. Noodle soups include a vegan tomato and egg (Shaanxi inspired?) and Sichuan/Chongqing types. Chinese name is 北斗心軒 and the owner is a big Dragonball fan.

The Chinese name for Mingle’s Mango would indicate it’s Taiwanese.

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Why ruin XLB with chocolate, or why ruin chocolate with XLB?

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Hazelnut chocolate XLB the home game- get in steamy shower, open jar of Nutella.

Once you look past the nomenclature bait and switch, dessert “XLB “ don’t do anything to improve on the inside filling (DTF has a few, no chocolate locally). The chewy, and sweeter, wrapper of a rice powder-based tang yuan, like with Hakkasan’s chocolate dumpling, Is a lot more pleasing

Speaking of XLB, XLB Kitchen opened in Cupertino. Chinese name, 竹林 bamboo forest. Shanghai style, with some Sichuan dishes that have become requisite these days. XLB, SJB, and aspects of the menu design looks similar to Bamboo garden in Mountain View, and a menu also lists the other restaurant’s specialty, glutinous rice with pork in bamboo

The regional Chinese project at SFGate.com seems to be up now. There are several articles, but I can’t find a permanent link to the whole category.

Hyperbowler is part of a discussion on how to order, here:

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Go Hyperbowler!

‘Reassure the server that you have had it before, even if you haven’t — and, if it is too much for your tastes, honor your statement by saying you enjoy it and not sending it back.’

People send back dish that’s not to their taste?! I understand if its improperly cooked, but enjoyment is subjective.

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Apparently, some do, even after eating half of the dish. I’ve seen this on some of those waiters’ pet-peeves posts.

That’s just ridiculous.

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