Finally ventured over here and wanted to give it a shot. Sat down early morning and noticed that the kitchen staff were wearing Koi Palace baseball caps so highly likely they are under the same owner.
Started off our meal with the typhoon shelter ha gao. Tasted like the ones I had at Palette Tea House, but I find it on the okay side. I was expecting a spicier burst of flavor, but it was more on the crispy garlicy side.
I was a little curious on the yakitori side of things, and opted to try the kurobuta sausage (had a nice snap on the exterior, and well reminded me of those little cocktail weiners), NY prime steak (sauce/marinade was similar to that of the black pepper sauce), and pork belly (relatively fatty piece with some nice chunks of meat). I liked these items well enough, though I still don’t think there’s that high of an emphasis on the yakitori side of things.
Grabbed a few dim sum items, starting off with siu mai. Pretty juicy in the middle, and overall gave a pretty good siu mai impression. I haven’t been to Koi Palace in a while, but I thought they still served four per basket rather than three.
Next up were the regular ha gao and I thought they did an okay job. Still thought the wrapper was just a little on the thicker end.
And lastly we got the standard XLBs. I still tend to like their version, though @sck and @Kirk_T beg to differ haha… The ones I had were fairly soupy on the inside with a savory taste.
Next up was the Hainan chicken. I only tried a few bits of it, but the chicken was moist and had a good chicken flavor, but I thought the rice could have been just a little bit better, maybe more chicken stock or fat.
Opted to try the soup for an additional $2 and I thought it was a nice carrot, corn, pork rib type soup. Savory with a hint of sweetness from the carrots and corn.
I opted for the Hainan chicken noodle soup and I found the chicken to be the same as the one served with Hainan chicken rice (go figure…). The broth is chicken based which is on the lighter end, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The noodles are the flat rice noodles (ho fun).
Lastly tried the beef noodle soup. There aren’t many pieces of beef but each piece was huge. It was quite tender and well seasoned. The soup was on the clearer, less oily with a splash of spice. I dunno, the soup wasn’t to my taste as I liked a more spicy beefy/soy based broth like the one at A & J in Cuppertino (I think they closed though). The noodles were thin egg noodles and seemed a little soft for my taste.
Overall I liked Stick and Steam though its on the pricier end. I think the meal was upwards towards $70 without tax/tips.
