After a requisite breakfast at Konditorei, I had a late lunch at Chengdu Style recently. The whole grilled fish was on special for $19.99, a tilapia, served with a generous assortment of veggies etc. including black mushroom slices, wood ear fungus, spring bamboo shoots, potato slices, western onions, Serrano pepper or jalapeños, peanuts, and tofu bamboo. Oil-based seasoning bath was a good match for tilapia, but I was even more satisfied with all the sides, which appealed to my vegetable-oriented mood.
I loved the interplay of the acidic/sweet pickled peppers and western onion, and the light citrusy hints of green Sichuan peppercorns, in this wood ear fungus cold appetizer.
This is the place in Mansion Square? I haven’t been I think since early last year but I am not in Davis much these days. A friend mentioned they changed ownership?
It moved! According to the yelp page, it’s the same owners, Steve and Jean Lee, who I know owned the place formerly in the Shanghai Town space, the gas station off of Richards, and recently in Mansion Square.
Ah hometown! Yeah they moved to their new location though I think the beef noodle soup has gotten smaller
and super random, but I went to a place called Hong Kong Cafe last year and there were some dishes that was HK style based but most of the people that ate there spoke mandarin and didn’t really order those dishes.
The baked pork chop over rice was okay, wish it was baked a little hotter? At least to get the cheese to melt a bit better. From my brief notes I think I wrote that I would have preferred the sauce to be a little less sweet.
But the bigger enjoyment was some of the interesting typos on the menu:
I returned again to Chengdu Style and regretfully forgot to take photos.
A fun dish to share is Boboji, a Sichuan roulette game in which a variety of treasures, attached to skewers, are submerged in a bath of spiced oil. I enjoyed the chicken gizzards, tofu bamboo, cauliflower, rolled up seaweed, and quail eggs during the meal, and was happy to find a bunch of tripe in the leftovers.
Dan Dan Mian had the requisite ya cai to add fermented flavors and a good amount of greenery, but an abundance of sesame paste or peanut butter dominated. Looking back, I didn’t care for the version at their Berkeley location either, though it was very different.
The beef and pepper (jalapeño?) dry pot was a winner, and had the obscene portion size you’d expect in a college town, with fragrant cumin and chili spicing up beef and spring bamboo.
Somehow I missed the opening of Hunan Style in 2022. I dined at this Co-Op adjacent place today and the menu made me realize it’s an extension of Albany’s Wojia, to which a few of us have visited including an HO meetup. The server said they no longer serve the fried glutinous rice balls, but that they may come back again. Jelly noodles and the octopus dish under the “7 Wows” section of the menu were both great. I played it safe since it’s a Tuesday afternoon, and look forward to exploring dishes that better test chef skills on a future visit.
An update on the rest of Davis. The owner of Shanghai Town previously had a place on the Peninsula and in 2023 ended its nearly 20 year run on Lake Blvd (now replaced by Essential Hotpot, which serves Sichuan hotpot). The Davis outpost of Berkeley’s Chengdu Style was open for a few years, but recently was demolished alongside the rest of the University Mall. Sacramento-area chain Dumpling House is in the fish fry place next to Sophia’s.
