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168 Restaurant
Category: Restaurants Taiwanese Taiwanese [Edit]
Pacific East Mall3288 Pierce St, Ste A109
Richmond, CA 94804
(510) 558-9168
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 11 am - 11:30 pm
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
143 reviews for 168 Restaurant
Review Highlights
"Their Fried stinky tofu is tops too."
(in 21 reviews)
"The beef noodle soup is excellent here."
(in 7 reviews)
"Oyster pancake (it 's a Taiwanese specialty made with..."
(in 12 reviews)
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143 reviews in English
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Review from Erika C.
11/29/2011
Get:
Beef noodle soup
Xiao long bao
Zha man tao
Stinky tofu
Oyster pancake
Eggplant with pork
Boba (it's cheap and still drinkable at its price)
Whew. Clearly, you should come with a group :) -
Review from Omar K.
Berkeley, CA
12/14/2011
My go to's:
Beef noodle soup (vermicelli/dong fen)
Chicken leg over rice
Pork chop rice
A-tsai (greens)
Boba
The peanut juice w/ milk has a special place in my heart too, but I'm a peanut monster, so w/e.
They're pretty inconsistent overall, their service is shitty, and I'm pretty sure I've had oldish microwaved food multiple times here, but I still love the place!
Avoid:
Shacha anything, green onion beef -
Review from jessica m.
Diamond Bar, CA
11/8/2011
GROSS!
Came here once a long time ago, but totally didn't remember how it was. (That was probably a sign that it was bad.) So came back here with my family recently because I was craving good chinese food and hoped this place would be at least decent.
We ordered three cup chicken, shredded bean curd with pork, and two other dishes. They were all disgusting and inedible. I usually like my chinese dishes dark, because that usually means flavorful. But this place takes it to the extreme. The dishes were pitch black! Which means it was pretty much ALL soy sauce. As much as I like my soy sauce, I don't like drinking it. I'm so ashamed that this place calls itself a Taiwanese place. 4 dishes came out to $60. So not worth it. Needless to say I'm never coming back.
The waiters aren't very attentive either. Ugh why can't NorCal have some decent chinese food? I'm still on the hunt for a good restaurant. -
Review from Angela S.
1/1/2012
Yum! Had a really great lunch here, the iced green tea is delicious! Lunch specials were crazy cheap.
-
Review from Nelson M.
San Leandro, CA
9/14/2011
Word of advice don't go here unless if you like everything with a side of oil. Food, if you can even call it that, had no taste and was greasy stale and not fresh. This is the one time I wouldve appreciated some msg in my food cause maybe then it wouldve tricked me into thinking it tasted good. 168 is probably the number of complaints this place has had, but after me, make that 169.
Only reason this place even gets one star is cause of the chill ass chef that wore rainbow pajama pants to work.
Oh yeah, these assholes also had the audacity to charge the four of us 8 dollars gratuity on a small bill.
P.S. Portions are kid sized. -
Review from Jennifer W.
Berkeley, CA
10/26/2011
Went here for a late dinner with one of my friends and we got
1) shanghai noodles
2) crispy salt and pepper pork
3) pan friend buns
Everything was pretty good but the portion size was pretty small and it was expensive compared to some places I go to in the South Bay. But, since there aren't many Taiwanese places up here, I will def. come here again if I'm getting a craving for Taiwanese food. -
Review from Cybill N.
Bay Area
9/12/2011
If you're hungry, don't go here because their portions are SMALL! But, if you eat like a bird or have a small appetite and don't like to take food to-go then perhaps the portions are a perfect size for you.
Recommendations:
- Crispy Duck: nice crispy skin and tender meat. PS. does not come with a sauce
- Hot & Sour soup: not too sour, not too spicy, simply tasty
Would not recommend:
- Imperial Beef: it's like a shredded mess of carrots, some other shreds of stuff, and very thin shreds or slices of beef. Not a meaty dish at all.
Warning: Noodle entrees seem to be good for only 1-2 people depending on how much one likes noodles. The noodle portions are small.
I suppose I've been spoiled with restaurants that have medium to large portion sizes and thus in this case SIZE DOES MATTER which swayed my rating for this place. The dishes we had besides those mentioned were not memorable. The prices here were also either the same or more than what I normally pay for similar food with bigger portion sizes and equivalent taste if not better. So, why pay more for food that taste the same or less in quality? Don't do it.
**PS. they charged us, table of 5, gratuity -
Review from Chris E.
Albany, CA
8/28/2011 1 Check-in Here
Pretty tasty, didn't find anything special yet.
We liked (names may not be correct): diced chicken with peppers, imperial beef, some seasonal vegetable we were recommended, and watermelon juice
Not so good: shacha lamb (though I'm not sure that's what we were actually given) -
Review from Wendy S.
8/4/2011
This is one of my favorite restaurants in this plaza. I would recommend getting the pork chop rice, stinky tofu, fan twan (sticky rice rolls with shredded pork and crispy donut), and oyster pancake. I really like their "che zai mien", which is a Taiwanese noodle dish with clear soup, bean sprouts, celery, slices of pork, and soy sauce egg. If you like lighter items, you may want to try this.
I usually get those items above for takeout and it travels back to SF pretty well. -
Review from Michael D.
Corte Madera, CA
7/12/2011
I dont typically expect great service at a Chinese fast food restaurant, but, I do sometime expect fair service, like, first come, first serve. Well, my wife and I visited 168 Restaurant for the first time last Saturday 7/9, and we experienced the first come, last serve, it was simply because we dont speak Mandarin.
It was about 4:00pm, the place was about 20% full. We were first in line to be seated, waited for a couple minutes, then a group of 4 came in after us, then the waiter came out and I told him we were party of 2 in English, then the group behind us, told him they were party of 4, in Mandarin. The waiter immediately took the group of 4 to their table, left us standing there, without explanation %$##
Then he came back to seat us finally. While we were looking at the menu, another couple was seated next to us.
Guess what, the waiter came to their table with the tea pot and took the order, while we were just seating there with no tea.
He finally came to our table and took our order.
Their food wasnt worth mentioning so I wont. It was a bit pricey for the little portion.
I would not recommend this place to anyone who is non-Mandarin speaking. -
Review from Tim C.
Berkeley, CA
6/22/2011 6 Check-ins Here
I love their pork dry noodle dish. I feel it's part of the path to nirvana.
That said, there's one major issue I have with this place. Service is fast until you get your food. After that you have to flag people down to get your bill. Maybe they just don't care about money? If that is the case, God bless them. But there are definitely times where the staff will walk by and see you are done but feel it is more important to look at empty tables and make sure the tea cups are clean. -
Review from Mark M.
6/25/2011
The best Taiwanese restaurant in Berkeley. No, really. Come here after you get your groceries at 99 Supermarket.
We used to come here every weekend as college students, but regretably less now. My favorite dishes here are the beef noodles, the shao lon bao, the house tofu, and the orange chicken. I know - orange chicken? It's really good!
Basically, if you are craving authentic Taiwanese flavors, this is the place to come to. If you can order in Chinese, they are super duper nice to you!
Thing I love about this place is the owner is often out on the floor helping out. Gotta love a owner who gets down and dirty himself. -
Review from Jenny M.
10/13/2011
This place has fast service but only okay food and varying portions (some dishes had really generous portions for the price, but sometimes too small for the price). Out of all the Chinese food places I've been to/eaten, I can only say this place is average. The food is also on the salty side, with seemingly lots of MSG ._.
-
Review from Umesh T.
El Sobrante, CA
4/1/2011
We were quite hungry so we decided to start with the shrimp wanton soup. The portion was very very generous and the soup really good and filling. In hindsight, the soup was an overkill solely due to the portion size.
The Garlic chicken and the Pork shrimp dumplings were as good as to be expected.
In my continuous quest for the ever elusive lor mai fun, my eyes fell on the chicken and salted fish fried rice. I took a chance and we decided to go for it. Even though it wasn't what I was looking for, we both took to it like the proverbial duck to water that we still order chicken and fish fried rice every time we see one on the menu.
All in all it was a decent meal. -
Review from Michael C.
New York, NY
9/10/2011
Solely a review for their Taiwanese pork chop rice. Delicious, pretty good in my years of eating pork chop rices. The cabbage was seasoned right, the meat sauce was hearty, good boiled egg and sour vegetable. The pork chop wasn't fatty, seasoned well, fried just right. If I was in the hankering for pork chop rice again, 168 Restaurant would be on top of my list in the East Bay.
-
Review from Kevin M.
Sacramento, CA
7/27/2011
I have a confession to make. I like stinky tofu. I like it enough that I stop here every time I have to go into the bay area. I even declined a free ride into SF and drove myself so that I could stop here and grab some authentic Taiwanese food. It is a problem. I know it, and I'm dealing with it.
That said, if you have an addiction to Taiwanese food, this is the best you're going to do between the bridge and Sacto (or Reno, for that matter). Sure, it's a little pricey, but if you know what to order and what to expect, you won't feel burned.
There have been some concerns stated below about how they treat non-mandarin speaking people. I'm of Irish descent, and it shows, and I speak as much Mandarin as I do Spanish- None. However, I present a polite attitude when I go places where I'm linguistically deficient and I find that I get treated well. This place included.
Of course, I did get the look from the wait staff. The look that says "This guy's ordering stinky tofu..." -
Review from randomtask ..
Walnut Creek, CA
3/31/2011 1 Check-in Here
The numbers 1-6-8 in Chinese or Asian culture refers to making lots of money or being very lucky in the money department. That is why you see it on all the Lexus and Mercedes Benz driven by Asians. You see, some Asians and/or Chinese are in love with money, making and having lots of it, keeping it and showing it off to make themselves feel superior to their poorer friends relatives. I've seen this first hand so can relate. In fact, I think anyone who puts a 2-2-8 (easy easy riches) or 1-6-8 (make lots of $$ along the way) in their house number, license plate, telephone or other personal item is way too preoccupied with earthly treasures. But I digress. This is a food review, not a soapbox.
In the food department, 168 is OK. We weren't super hungry so ordered only 3 dishes, those recommended by fellow yelpies. The Shanghai style chow mien was a bit on the greasy side but it was good. Had bits of chicken, beef, cabbage, and shrimp which made it more like a house special chow mien?. Portion was on the small side. The XLB was also acceptable although the meat filling looks suspiciously like its was machine made, not hand made. Finally, the ground pork rice in either small or large (get the large) tasted good... a good mix of salty sweet pork, sour pickles and slightly sticky rice with a soy sauce egg. 168, you're a 3.3 to me. Hope that doesn't jinx ya. -
Review from Anna C.
Berkeley, CA
5/19/2011
I hate that I have to hate on a Taiwanese joint--really wanted to love this place--but it was just so...overpriced and so...meh.
The marinated bamboo shoot appetizer cost $5 for a minuscule amount that barely covers half of my palm. Three bites and it was all gone. The fish head "clay pot" was $15 and not at all what I'd expected. Where, I ask, was the satay sauce?! It was nothing more than a few pieces of salmon dome bits floating around in some tofu broth. The sesame oil chicken was pretty good though, but way too greasy. We had to make numerous requests for white rice. Wailing babies everywhere (not the restaurant's fault, but still).
I'll probably come back since it's the only Taiwanese place in the vicinity that has even approached any semblance of decency, but will likely vouch for take-out. -
Review from Austin W.
Berkeley, CA
6/5/2011 1 Check-in Here
Came here with my family and we ordered the prefix menu which included six dishes for about $60 + tax and tip. Wow. What a rip! Of the six dishes, four were dishes that ranged from below mediocre to did-you-dig-this-out-of-the-toilet-bad?! while the other two were "throw away dishes" (dishes that cost pennies to make): soup and some tofu dish. The "three cup chicken" (translated) was fairly good, but the portion was way too small. There was a shrimp dish but it was pretty pitiful calling it a shrimp dish: there were about 5 shrimp in the whole dish (1 for each person in my family), and these shrimp were no larger than a quarter. As with most Chinese food, there was definitely MSG in the making of these dishes, but unlike most people who are able to enhance the taste of their dish with MSG, 168 failed miserably.
I wanted to order milk tea and that was like $5. Overpriced. Wanted to have some of their Taiwanese dishes since I miss the food I had when I went to Taiwan years ago: $5 for a single "Chinese meatball." Overpriced. This stuff is $1 at a nightmarket in Taiwan.
This is a disgrace to Taiwanese food. Would not recommend or ever come here again. -
Review from Liz H.
San Pablo, CA
10/30/2011
My favorite Taiwanese restaurant. :) Tasty stinky Tofu!
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Review from matt d.
El Cerrito, CA
10/29/2011
*this review is in the context of 2 previous visits*
food - My gf and I ordered their lunch special (which isn't too bad). It comes with an entree you pick from a list, white rice, and your choice of iced coffee or iced green tea for around $8 apiece (or a little more if you pick seafood). I got the mongolian beef and coffee while she got the dry sauteed green beans and green tea. We also ordered some shrimp fried rice. the shrimp fried rice and the green beans are awesome, we get them every time because they are consistently good. the mongolian beef was pretty good as well but not on the same level as the other two items.
service - Overall the service is very good. This restaurant does not discriminate against people that aren't Asian. Sometimes I feel like an outcast at the pacific east mall (being caucasian) by the stares I receive from some of the establishments. Not so at this place. We received attentive service, even when I spilled the aforementioned iced coffee in my lap. Before I could even stand up and let out an exclamation there was an employee already cleaning up the mess I made.
my only gripe (a minor one) is that the servers are barely fluent in English. You can get your order across but not much else. I understand, though, because non-asians don't venture into this mall that often compared to the amount of Asian patrons.
Atmosphere - The decor is 90's outdaded, but don't let this fool you. This restaurant is way better than it looks. I sneaked a peek into the kitchen and I was relieved to see that it was pretty clean. The restaurant is never usually packed so it's very easy to get fed in a decent amount of time. It's also usually pretty chill. When I went today there were even some monks chilling and eating. That's how calm it is in there.
conclusion - This restaurant is by far probably the best sit down restaurant in the pacific east mall, including that nasty restaurant outside in the parking lot (don't fall for their pretty sign and fancy looking kitchen). I'm too scared to try any of the other places in the mall, because they don't look too promising. -
Review from Charles T.
San Francisco, CA
3/13/2011
The Taiwanese food here is better than the other crap that they put on their menu to try to satiate the rest of the world that should just appreciate Taiwanese food more.
That said, certain dishes on the Taiwanese menu are decent. The Ground Pork over Noodles, and the Ground Pork Noodle Soup come to mind. Had these two the past week and they deserve 3.5-3.9 stars. The Fried Pork chop was below average (sad as it's something you should be able to do well if you call yourself a Taiwanese restaurant).
Shrimp/Oyster pancake... ok.
Ba Wan ... eh.
Order it if you're craving Taiwanese food because there's such a lack in it and because Taiwan Restaurant in Berkeley is pretty crappy. Overall, okay service, okay food (with some a lot better than others). -
Review from Vanessa Y.
Los Angeles, CA
11/22/2010 2 Check-ins Here
The fried chicken with salt and pepper will be the death of me.
Nothing says wholesome goodness like lots of MSG + lots if basil! Aside from the deep fried battered Oreo you find at fairs, this is among the naughtiest things you could eat. The funny thing is that you don't feel guilty about because it's just so damn good! There are times when you become so addicted to one particular dish that you have to wonder whether there was crack in the seasoning. This is one such case.
Yes there are other Taiwanese goodies here, but for me, this plate is where it's at and why I keep coming back. This is 168's crowning glory. Their greatest hit. Their St. Pepper's -- with salt. Perfection.
Bonus treat: 2 for 1 boba. You'll strike beverage gold if you happen to get a fresh batch of warm and uber-squishy boba in your milk tea.Listed in: Superstar Dishes! Bay Area…, Year of the Dragon
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Review from Kazoua T.
Alameda, CA
10/4/2011
Just had lunch here with my elderly Taiwanese co-worker. We had two bowls of noodle. One oyster with thin noodles and the other was like a udon noodle with pork and cabbage. Both were delicious and I would come back to order those.
I wouldn't come here for the special lunch plate or regular "chinese" menu food. Co-worker says he wouldn't come here for rice plates either.
This place is know for Taiwanese cooking so if you come here ordering something that you could get at Panda Express...your review really has no merit. -
Review from Courtney S.
San Ramon, CA
10/21/2010 1 Check-in Here
Located in the Pacific East Mall there are various Asian delicacies. At the 168 Restaurant you know what you will find? Salt and Pepper fried oysters! I haven't had a decent fried oyster since I left Maryland. Sufficed to say that was a long time ago. So when the prospect of fried oysters wafted in front of me, I couldn't pass it up. the breading was light and crispy; the oysters were tangy. They definitely satisfied my cravings. My second favorite dish of the evening was the sauteed eggplant and basil. You wouldn't think it to be a good combination. But true to my claim that basil makes everything taste better...
One complaint: no beer or alcoholic beverage of any kind. How can you eat fried oysters without beer? Easy if you are a child. ;-)
If you are in the neighborhood look this place up. It's worth a trip! -
Review from Eva Y.
Oakland, CA
3/20/2011
99 cent or free bubble tea for your meal. Interesting spin. The tea is good. This is the only place that most people recommended to me for Taiwanese food on the East bay. I have to say, not impressed with it since I am from Taiwan and have been on a constant search for Taiwanese food. With that being said, couple of notable dishes that was ok include: pork stew noodle soup, goose (if they don't run out), and green onion pancake. Aside from that, the dishes are either too salty, too plain, or just ok for it's authenticity.
This place is huge and can hold large groups of people for sure. On the other hand, they seem to be short on waitstaff so prepare to enjoy your meal and not rush. -
Review from Kev M.
San Francisco, CA
11/16/2010
A big step up in quality from your standard Asian meal.
It's Taiwanese and it's good.
The oyster and egg pancake has a pink sauce that I just don't know what it is. Peach, maybe?
The noodle soup with a thick dark brown broth was good. Fried chicken bits with basil, also goodness.
Wish I knew some translation of the dishes & soups in English.
We went with a group and someone ordered the fermented 'stinky' tofu. It's odor is very strong, like an old wet shoe. That would be the only dish I'd avoid, unless you like the taste of old wet shoes.
Go with your Taiwanese friends. -
Review from Ying S.
San Francisco, CA
10/9/2010 1 Check-in Here
If you are Taiwanese, you know this is one of the few Taiwanese restaurants that serves good Taiwanese food. Certain dishes can do better but overall this is one out of the few that's good.
This is also one of the few places that offers stinky tofu.
Do not go to this restaurant and order typical Chinese food like beef with broccoli. -
Review from Edward W.
Fremont, CA
2/12/2011 1 Check-in Here
The beef noodle soup is excellent here. For only 6.95, you get authentic Taiwanese food. I can't say how good anything else is, but the beef noodle soup is definitely the best around here. The soup is filled with meat fragrance and tastes just as good. The serving size was decent, service was quick, and the waitress was friendly.
TLDR; come to 168 for beef noodle soup, it won't disappoint. -
Review from Madison W.
New York, NY
6/3/2010 1 Check-in Here
A true Taiwanese restaurant - stick with the food on the front page. The standard Chinese food isn't great.
On weekends they have the northern Chinese/Taiwanese breakfast foods: oily sticks (you tiao), soybean milk, etc..
We got donqui duck noodle soup - a classic taiwanese, clear broth noodle soup flavored by a Chinese herb. not bad, definitely an adult flavor.
We got the Taiwanese meatball. This is not REALLY a meatball, it's actually some meat and filling steamed inside some rice flour covered with this ubiquitous and gross red brick/pink sauce. It was good enough
The Dan Zhe mian was the best dish but no where as good as in Taiwan. It comes with a lu dan egg.
If you are near Cupertino or Milpitas, this place is not worth the trip. If you are stuck in Vacaville or Vallejo, this might be a good (or only) option for Taiwanese food. -
Review from Laurence H.
San Francisco, CA
6/19/2011 1 Check-in Here
There are too many better options for good Taiwanese foods. Alas, you will need to drive to the Southbay. If you are at Pacific East Mall stick with the other Chinese restaurants. Of 5 dishes, 3 were "ok" and 2 were "below average".
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Review from Quang T.
8/16/2010
We ran out of options since it was late and all the other restaurants were closed at Ranch 99. Five starving guys would probably eat anything and the options were limited. I was skeptical at first and just thought it was just another Chinese Restaurant. Never had Taiwanese food before just always figured it was the same as Chinese.
Have to say after the meal I was very impressed. Although, the food was very Chinese like the cooking style and ingredients were very different.
I ordered the Chicken Leg with Noodle. I was just expecting regular boiled chicken broth with a Chicken Leg. The broth was very very tasty and it had small chunks of beef in it. You can tell it was boiled for a very long time. They also added small chunks of pickeled mustard that gave it a unigue flavor. The Chicken Leg was HUGE. Marinated and baked so a lot of effort was put into it. For $6.95, I was very impressed. If you ordered the Chicken Leg with Rice than you get and Egg to go with it. Definitely worth it. -
Review from Darryl P.
Sacramento, CA
7/30/2009
I am a pretty big fan of Taiwanese food! That being said, I thought 168 is pretty authentic when it comes to Taiwanese food, but it's just a little better than average for me as far as taste is concerned. My family happens to like this place though and I come here once in a while with them.
We came here for brunch a couple of days ago and ordered a sticky rice roll with chinese donut, an order of sweetened soy milk, half order of chinese donuts, cold beef tripe, fried fish with rice, steamed pork dumplings and an oyster dish. All were good but not spectacular.
With 168 being in the Pacific Plaza I am sure I will be back because I am always here, because of the 99 Ranch right next to this place. -
Review from Keri B.
El Cerrito, CA
9/23/2010
We used to live within walking distance of Clement Street- more amazing Chinese, Taiwanese, etc. great food than we could ever eat. Then we moved to El Cerrito- and love it, but something was missing......
....until we started complaining to local friends and co-workers and they sent us here. We've been there twice in a week. I think we're obsessed. With duck. Tea smoked duck, crispy duck (We had a brief argument about the leftovers that someone besides me snagged for lunch today....)
Eggplant with garlic sauce (one of my favorites) was wonderful, and so was the lamb shacha (don't know if I remembered that correctly). But I'm wondering if I can make a whole meal out of duck.
Duck.....duck......goose? nope- duck. -
Review from May T.
San Francisco, CA
9/12/2009
My parents and I were craving a Taiwanese breakfast and snacks so my father suggested trying this restaurant.
We've always been disappointed with Taiwanese cafes and snack bars around the Bay Area because the flavors have been poor imitations of the real deal.
However, we were pleasantly surprised when we sampled this restaurant's fare.
Guo Ba (Glutinous Rice Ball with Pork and Pickled Vegetables)
Dan Bing (Green Onion Flatbread with Egg)
Chitterlings Vermicelli Soup
You yu geng (squid potage)
Swei rou pian (boiled pork slices with garlic dipping sauce and ginger)
Savory soy milk soup
Chinese donut and sesame flatbread (Sau bing you tiao)
Not bad. Not bad at all.
They make the dishes fresh to order so they take time. A long time. It's worth the wait, though. The only thing that disappointed were the donut/flatbread. For that, you really do have to go back to Taiwan. -
Review from C-l L.
3/15/2010
I came here with a group of 7 people for dinner last night after an entire day of hiking. So you can probably imagine that we were pretty hungry. It took us a while to decide on what we wanted so we wanted to get a couple of orders in before we finished deciding because we were that hungry.
The first waiter that came took our order and got one of the dishes wrong. We wanted the ginger and scallion crab, not ginger and scallion shrimp. Then a different waitress came over tried to take the rest of our order, but we were still not ready so she just walked away. Then a third waitress came over and took the rest of our order. The dishes were very small, about half the size you would get at a regular Chinese restaurant, extremely oily and definitely not worth the price.
The salt & pepper spare ribs looked overcooked and dry because they were a very dark brown color, but they weren't half bad. The sizzling beef dish was the best, it came with onions and bamboo shoots. The eggplant dish was extremely oily. There were strips of eggplant cooked with strips of bamboo shoots and red and green bell pepper strips. Another extremely oily dish was the pork chow mein. I know this dish is normally oily, but there's got to be way to cook it without it being so oily. We ordered steam rice for seven people and they came out with this tiny bucket of steamed rice which was not even enough to go around the entire table!
Our ginger and scallion crab took forever to get to our table. We asked several different waiters about 3 or 4 times and they said it was coming soon, but how did they know without checking with the kitchen first? Our dish didn't come until we were finished with our meal. I was surprised that it actually tasted ok.
The food was way too oily and overpriced, portions are small, and service sucks. Five dishes, two small buckets of steamed rice, seven people, $13 each. They're lucky they even got a tip because groups of 6 or more are automatically charged a 15% gratuity so we didn't have a choice. The waiters seemed more interested in collecting the money from our bill rather than clearing away our table. My advice, go to Asian Pearl instead! -
Review from Kristine D.
San Francisco, CA
1/5/2010
I've been here a couple of times before when i was younger but this time was most memorable. On my way back to school, we decided to make a pit stop at this plaza to shop at ranch 99 and eat.
Since this is a Taiwanese restaurant I had to order noodles and dumplings. I decided to get the dry noodles with ground pork and egg and the pork and leek dumplings. My parents(since they ordered in chinese, i dont know what its called on the menu) ordered the beef noodle soup and some special Taiwanese dim sum: vegetarian glutinous rice, some cakey bamboo thing, beef pancake, and stinky tofu.
Most of what we ordered was beyond standard. The dry noodles had hints of garlic while the egg was a tea egg, my favorite. I want more!! the dumplings were a mouthful, so juicy, and the skin had the right chewy consistency. The noodle soup had an interesting aroma I couldn't quite pinpoint. The glutinous rice was so flavorful and not too oily. The bamboo thing and the beef pancake weren't bad. The stinky tofu, despite its odor, was soo good! I guess its an acquired smell. But hell, I'll put anything in my mouth.
The presentation is decent, the service normal, the restaurant is clean. I would recommend this place only to people who know the difference between Taiwanese and other Chinese cuisine. -
Review from Karen W.
5/11/2008 1 photo
The best thing about this place is that they sell politically correct food--"Fried Bean Curd of Strong Odor." (Check out my pic!)
We ended up getting normal food however--Green Onion Pancake, Curry Chicken over Rice, and Shredded Chicken over Cold Noodles. The food was pretty average for a Chinese restaurant. Tasty, but not spectacularly so.
-Green Onion Pancake: Average.
-Curry Chicken: Quite good with big chunks of potato...yum. Chicken was tender also. However, there were only about 2 pieces of carrot in this.
-Shredded Chicken over Cold Noodles: A bit too much sauce, though it was tasty. Noodles were not QQ (chewy) enough, and the toppings were lackluster. Meager amounts of cucumber and carrots...and the chicken wasn't really shredded--it was in that pre-processed form that makes it look like worms.
Good for a quick fix of Chinese though! -
Review from Emily L.
El Cerrito, CA
3/25/2007
My husband and I come here regularly. This restaurant is in the Pacific Eastmall Plaza, where Ranch 99 is located in El Cerrito. There are certain Taiwainese dishes that we like very much. We do not have much to complaint as the price is fairly reasonable, service is quick, huge parking lots and open late.
Our favorites are the stinky tofu (not as stinky compare to the one in SF, wchich is good. Otherwise, you will go in as a human and come out as a SKUNK!!!), peddler dry noodle, radish/turnip rice cake, pork chop w/ rice, chicken/fish steak with w/ rice and ground pork w/ rice.
Out of ordinary, we ordered the small steamed pork bun one day hoping it was as juicy and soft as what we have eaten in Hong Kong. What a huge disappointment!!! -
Review from Marc B.
Martinez, CA
2/18/2009
I've only been here once, and I probably won't ever come here again.
My ex and I were hungry one Friday night, so we decided to hit up Pacific East Mall since we were already in Richmond. I'm not sure why we decided on this place, because there's much better options at the restaurants nearby.
We were immediately seated, yet we were given the table furthest away from the kitchen and literally right NEXT to the windows. Anyone and everyone could stare right at us which was a bit annoying. We were handed our menus and given a couple glasses of water.
THIRTY MINUTES LATER...
No one even shows up at our table. It's not like the restaurant was busy, because I don't even think half the tables were being used (this was around 9:30-10 PM). To make matters worse, my ex and I were arguing pretty much the whole night leading up to this so this delay did not make things any better at all.
We wondered if we should even grab their attention or just get up and leave. We finally decided that if we weren't good enough for their time, we'll just leave. So we didn't even call anybody over. We just got up from our table and stormed out the door. Horrible service here.
But thanks for the delicious water, I guess.
