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Went here quite a few years ago for my own bday banquet, and last weekend for a wedding reception. I always fall in love with the fabulous foods that they have available here! Abalone, mushroom and baby bokchoy, shark-fin soup, baby octopi, crab, lobster, FISH! Soooo fabulous. I'm always glad to come here and enjoy.
Bathrooms are surprisingly clean for this area. Great for banquets, fab food so I recommend it! It's slighly cramped but they make great use of the space. Make sure you get a good DJ there for a great party! I know a few if you're interested.
First off, the Mayflower Restaurants are a Bay Area Chain. There is one in Milbrae (Flower Lounge), San Francisco, Milpitas and in Concord (I think).
I've been here for banquet style dinners, family style dinners and eating with friends. Each time I go to one of these places, its different. The variety never changes but I think HK Lounge in Milbrae is the best. Hands down.
Food? *1 star*
eh... That's all I can really say. A bit too greasy and you can taste the Canola or Palm Seed oil for some dishes.
Service? *2 stars*
Eh...its ok. Not as great as San Francisco or the Milbrae branches. When its busy, it sucks and when its not busy, it still sucks. The waiters just walk right past you and pretend not to notice. I wanted to order some food dammit!
Sound?
Can get rowdy on Saturday nights, 90 decibels is the loudest its gotten by far.
I used to come here often when they first opened and I still lived in the Bay Area. Having moved out of the BA awhile back, I don't get to eat Dim Sum very often so I usually try to take advantage of the opportunity when I come back.
I came here recently. While overall the experience was good and I'd go again, it evidently wasn't memorable because nothing is coming to mind of which to write.
The standard fare food was tasty, not outstanding above other respectable places, but decent. It did come out amazingly hot (watch out, it can bring tears to your eyes) which is better than other places I've been to recently. But it didn't necessarily taste any better or differently. Has Dim Sum in the Bay Area basically become like McD -- no matter where you go, it's all the same? I will say that it is much better than the other place I wrote about in this same strip mall -- I think there is parity amongst decent places to go but there are definitely some bad places to avoid. Ranch 99 is opening a branch in South Sac so I hope they bring along folks like Mayflower.
But back (way back?) in the day, I used to prefer places like Mings, Hong Kong Flower Lounge and Harbor Village. Similar variety perhaps, but a notch up in quality and taste. Now, most places seem to drive quantity over quality or creativity (tenets to survive in Hong Kong). Am I a market of one for exceptional levels Dim Sum? Does any place exist in the BA?
Sorry, nothing still comes to mind. Let me just say that the food and service is good enough to come again without hesitation but that it's also nothing outstanding.
Whenever I come to these asian restaurants I always forget what I'd just ordered. haha So I apologize in advance if this review isn't at all useful. =\
Yay, the parentals came up! We decided to try Mayflower after asking a few Yelp friends! Thank you!! I was surprised it wasn't packed at all Friday evening. We met up with my cousin's family as it was my cousin's bday!
We got the $69.00 dinner special for 4 people to feed 6 adults! haha I don't know if we were shy to eat up the food or if there was a lot of food and were full, but there was food leftover. Must be able to feed 4 very hungry and BIG people. haha
All that I remember were the Korean Style beef ribs! :) mmmmm They were delish! I also liked the seafood claypot!! yumyum!
But overall, I wasn't super impressed with this restaurant. Maybe I need to come with a Mayflower local and have them order because we certainly didn't know what to order... haha
I would like to try this place sometime for dim sum!! I didn't know they served them here! Hope it's better than Fu Lam Mum! haha
The SF one beats this one. :P (Sorry but it's true, and perhaps something about loyalty as I've been going to the one in SF for more than 8 years now. lol)
We were there on Sunday for dim sum...
Service = spotty. Trying to place an order was difficult, we had to flag down three people before finally ordering the seafood pan-fried noodles. Getting our teapots refilled was speedy. Having the table cleared of empty, dirty dishes was fast too.
Food = good. Flavorful. But simply lacking creativity. We were there around 1 p.m. and they were seriously pushing the same items on us, three times within the span of 8 minutes!
Parking = plentiful...when it's not packed of shoppers.
Ambience = typical Chinese restaurant. Noisy. But it's okay.
My cousins and I arrived here and our initial reactions were "damnnn...there are a lot of people" but Mayflower is big and open so it doesn't feel too cramped. There were easily 200 people there, good sign, but it didn't feel that way. The service is efficient and friendly (kinda rare right? but they smiled a lot here!) and the food is average to a little above average. I'd say the portions are a little bigger than most dim sum places--it takes more than one bite to finish a dumpling. My favorite dim sum dishes are the pan fried chive cakes, rice flour wrapped shrimp and chicken feet. The chive cakes were average, the rice flour wrapped shrimp was pretty good but a little sweeter than I would have liked and the chicken feet looked good...yeah, I didn't get a chance to try it because the cousins vetoed it :(
The last item we had was the dontot and while not a favorite of mine it's probably a favorite here at Mayflower--it was delicious! Toasty and flaky crust and then warm soft flavorful custard in the middle--soooo delicious! They had just brought it out and we were so happy to get it that we nearly burned our tongues on it but we'd gladly do it again because it was that good.
All in all, a good dim sum place for Sunday lunch. I liked the space, the service and the food was acceptable to good.
Dim-Sum.... What more can I say. I think the only thing that can distinguish one Dim-Sum restaurant from another is the freshness and the taste of the ingredients in the dim-sum being served....
Who am I kidding?
I do not consider myself a connoisseur of dim-sum, but I have had my share of dim-sum meals, and can tell the difference between what is fresh and tasty, and what has been pushed in a cart for way too long and not fresh or tasty. Mayflower had "fresh and tasty".
The service was attentive, and friendly. Our teapot was always filled. Delicious....
I have been here several times with friends and clients (this time with a client), and have never been let down. I definitely recommend this place for "fresh and tasty" dim-sum...
Oh yes, and the sesame filled mochi, and suckling pig was awesome!
Took my team here for a celebration lunch. My boss, who is a regular at this restaurant, called ahead and made sure we were taken care of. Our group was seated in one of the round tables on the raised platform in the back of the restaurant. When we arrived at noon, there were some empty tables, but 15 minutes later, the restaurant was full.
I was seated toward the back wall of the restaurant, but one younger and hungrier members of my party was right at near the path of the passing carts. We told him to go for it, and grab anything that he likes. As a result, our table was pretty full of steamers and small plates. Some members of our party couldn't eat pork, some were vegetarian, so we made sure we selected dishes to satisfy their dietary restrictions.
In addition to dim sum, we also ordered the following:
-Minced Chicken, mushrooms, and watercress and Chinese broccoli over pan fried noodles (gin mein)
-Fried Rice with garlic, green onions, and asparagus
-Steamed Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce.
-Baked Lobsters with green onion and ginger sauce over egg noodles: This arrived on a huge platter, and hot. Soft, braised noodles, with two chopped Maine Lobsters. Some places just mix in the lobster before serving. This place cooked the lobster with the noodles, and we could really taste the lobster in the noodles.
Overall, we were very pleased with the food and service. There was a 5 minute period when no one was talking, but busy eating. Our dishes were cleared often without disrupting our lunch. Our main waiter was very pleasant, but very efficient, always checking to see if everyone on our table was doing OK.
I don't come here often, but still a nice place to take coworkers or visiting friends for lunch.
I am picky when it comes to Dim Sum. I have spent a good amount of time in Asia and I am pretty spoiled with all the good food. My rating might be skewed.
The food here are really nothing to write home about. The skin of the steamed shanghai dumplings are way too thick. Putting them on a liner is just ridiculous in my opinion. It is going to take some real skill to actually break the skin with your chopsticks. Shrimp dumplings (Har gow) and shaomai are mediocre. Rice noodle rolls are very disappointing.
Dinner is not any better. A lot of the dishes are way too greasy.
Service is pretty typical for a Chinese restaurant. You will have to flag down someone to get your tea refilled but that is to be expected. It's rather hard to get a table here during lunch time on weekends. On a regular weekdays you should have no trouble getting a table if you come here slightly earlier (before 12:15pm).
It got crowded real quick, but we did manage to sit down at a table within minutes for a round of dim sum.
Of all the dishes we tried, the shanghai dumplings (xiaolong bao) were my least favorite. They tasted nothing like they should.
That really hurt my feelings, man. I mean, every other dish was pretty decent, but what happened all of a sudden? I cried, I wept. I didn't know what to do with myself. Frantically, I ate more robust and fresh dishes like the shrimp dumplings and the chang fen to calm the inner turmoil and to substitute the gaping hole in tastelessness. But I just couldn't shake this feeling. I left with such an ache that resided deep in my heart, that I could not give this place the three and a half stars I wish it deserved.
Mayflower, leave me in peace, it's better we parted ways and never looked back. I'll always remember you for your (lack of) xiaolong baos.
Came by for Dim Sum last weekend with our friend who also frequents this place quite a bit. He was able to pull some string with the asst mgrs and got us seated ASAP! ;)
To my surprise, the food was pretty good. Their Dim Sum selection was good and all their items came out zesty hot! Service is lacking, typical of Chinese restaurants, so I'm okay with it...
We topped off our luncheon w/ the two way fish special: Congee w/ fish, as well as Fish Chow Fun. The Fish Chow Fun had huge chunks of fish in it...yummy! :D
Back in the HEYDAY....Yes, I am old, the 2 main places in the area was ABC and mayflower for DIM SUM. I haven't graded the place on dinner since I haven't been here in a while.
Just went back in after a 2 year...hiatus.
Firstly, CAN SOMEONE REFILL MY WATER?
Secondly: DON"T JUST WALK BY YOU BASTARDS, YO NECESITO AGUA!!!!!!!
Thirdly: Is MSG a flavor? No wait, it's a seasoning...or it is supposed to be.
Why is there so much MSG in this stuff? Yes I know, SHUT UP, "It's Chinese food," but com'on. I can't feel my tongue anymore.
the dim sum has improved but I just wished the msg content was a bit lowered.
Damn lady just kept walking...YO, I want my Cha Sue Bows!
Damn it, missed her again....anyways...the dim sum is okay, just drink a lot of water...or tea, whatever they choose to refill.
Parking is....well...a death trap. think of it as an obstacle course with your life. Crazy Asian drivers that signal when they back out of a spot reside in the general area. Yes, I am Asian so i know how bad we drive.
I came here last Saturday with a friend to try their dim sum. We actually met up there around noon, so we expected their Dim Sum to not be as good as it could be but to our surprise...
Their dim sum selection stayed constantly delish! The place was still packed and we had to take a number and wait. The told us it could be 15 minutes wait but it ended up to be less than half the time.
The service was a little busy because the place was super busy. But the server was always nice enough to make orders for us because we wanted certain things.
If you enjoy drinking hot tea, while talking to friends over good dim sum, the May Flower is the perfect place to go. But if you order soda or juice, they give you a rally tiny glass that has a lot of ice in it. You'll probably pay too much money just for a half a can of soda.
The atmosphere of course can be somewhat loud because of the amount of people there but the place is very large so you don't feel like you are sitting against the wall so people can get through.
They have VIP rooms, a full bar, a stage, and you can also book the place for wedding dinners. It's definitely in a good location next to Ranch 99, Quickly, and a dozen of other stores! Also its about 5 minutes drive from the Great Mall. Nice place to stop by for a quick bite to eat before or after some shopping
STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!!! This THIEF of a restaurant tried to stick me with a $100 fresh fish bill! Are you kidding me? I've had plenty of fresh fish at other "higher end" chinese restaurants and NONE have ever charged $50 per pound for COD.
I'm so close to reporting this place to the BBB and the FTC for their pricing practices. No where did they have that $50/lb fish price posted. Even when I forced them to bring out a price list, the sheet said $25/lb, and they STILL tried to defend the price! Only after we threatened to call the cops did they back down and cut the price to $25/lb. Idiots!!!
High Quality Chinese Food. Dim Sum is pretty good too. Expect to pay $20-30 a person though.
Get the following:
Fook Kim Fried rice - unique fried rice with veggie pieces, mushrooms, high quality meat, and a unique thick sauce that makes it much diff than other fried rice.
Shu Mai and Ha gow Dim Sum - can't go wrong with top quality dim sum here
Salty and crispy fried rish - yum!
Black pepper steak - delish!
All their seafood is great too (I love the fish here).
We came here today because my wife wanted to eat dim sum, and this place is close to Wal-mart and 99 Ranch. It is located in the same Asian mall which has the 99 Ranch.
The restaurant is clean and bright. Taste of the items were O.K. and the portions were reasonable. They were a little aggressive in trying to get people to buy more food from the carts or their trays, which they carried around the tables - which is a little annoying when you are drinking hot tea or eating at piece of bun. Price was O.K. for the restaurant but I would not want to go for dim sum every week. Parking in the lot was not the greatest experience - patience is needed!
I would go again with the family but I would not go too often!
FOOD:
1.) Dim-sum = Not bad
SERVICE:
I swear they hella mug you and pressure you to order from their carts. Not sure if they didn't like that we didn't speak Chinese to them either.
ATMOSPHERE:
Normal Dim-sum restaurant, but on ground floor and no large windows, and the parking lot gets crowded on weekends coz it's an Asian Plaza
Went back today with ten people. We grubbed big time.
Service: attentive. After our ladies figured out to call him (in Cantonese : young man, instead of handsome. Got to protect your image you know ;)
We ordered many many plates. A standout was the slices of pork rind with a bit of meat; they had a crispy skin with a hint of meat and a layer of yummy fat. The Gai Lan was tender and perfectly cooked.
three rounds of Shu Mai and Ha Gow. Hey, the Pai-kwat was tastey and meaty. We had a dry egg noodle dish with sea food that pretty
sweet.
Get an order of the chicken feet : a memorable dish indeed; concentrate on the scent of chinese wine, and nibble on the succulent tender skin. Savor and enjoy this bit of gastronominie.
Too many dishes to mention.
Of course, we did not order rice.
The shrimp shu mai's were Fab: just grab with your chop sticks and insert into mouth: when you bite down, the sweet shrimps and other goodies work synergistically to explode in your mouth and ignite a 4th of July flavour session : -) Close your eyes, grin and enjoy the moment.
The dim sums of chopped greens were tastey too.
Quality Tea =)
Everything was Bomb!!
Yes.
We had the soft folded rice thingie with shrimps and it was deelish.
The pork broken ribs were…
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3.75 stars
I have always seen this place in the Milpitas Square shopping center and I knew it was the place to be for dim sum. My friend and I tried it out one day for the dim sum and it was busy. We got seated promptly since we were a party of two only and just minutes later, the place was standing room only waiting for tables.
The place is nice and can handle hundreds of hungry customers. My friend and I were definitely hungry and wanted to sample all sorts of dim sum items. We tried the rolled rice sheets, fried taro, xiu mai (steamed won tons), shrimp dumplings, and several other items which I don't know the name of. The items were hot and fresh but the quality was alright. The items such as the steamed rice sheets were your standard and nothing special. While the shrimp dumplings, I would need extra soy sauce to enhance the flavor of the item.
I usually judge a place by its xiu mai and this place had good xiu mai but it didn't blow my mind away. Fried taro, nothing special even though it's my favorite dim sum item of all time. We had many plates but like I said, it's typical dim sum food. There is nothing special nor anything that stood out to me. I rather go to SF for dim sum and spend the extra bucks to get items you cannot find anywhere else.
"Here comes the bride"
I was here for my cousins wedding.
I first experienced it when I went to the tasting for the wedding. I thought it was ehh then... But after this weekend (really big fan of fish), the fish that was cooked for more than 400 people turned out even better than the one for 10 people. Not sure what happened at the tasting, but the one at the wedding was delicious! Oh and of course the duck, these were the only two items I really sat down for.
The rest of the night, I was in charge of the alcohol(BEER/REMY). When the cooler was getting empty of beer, I had to restock. Good thing I didn't have to go buy the remy, I had someone else go do that for me. I was too busy trying to get everyone to drink with me.
Overall fun time, yay for the service and neh to some of the dishes.
First time ate at my friend's friend's graduation.
it was alright for my first time.
I like the food.
All were different & delicious.
service was actually really good.
Good place for big groups i'm guessing.
I don't know the pay since i didn't pay
the Deco was nice.
Hopefully i'll come back again
First Visit (date/year):Summer 2009
Chinese restaurants like Mayflower are an amazing machine of wildly manic and industrious activity set forth with the solitary purpose of feeding the masses in an expeditious and almost military fashion.
The service was incredibly fast and generally as friendly as they could be while ferrying various hot dishes about, it was little wonder that I quickly lost count of the number of delectable dishes that we consumed. I was very pleased with Mayflower overall and will return again when I visit San Jose.
I usually come here for dim sum as the quality is good and the prices are reasonable, especially if you consider Mayflower an upscale chinese restaurant. I don't think it's as upscale as Yank Sing but it's good none-the-less. It's usually busy, you have to take a number but the wait isn't that long. I think the challenge is trying to find parking especially during lunch hours.
Water and tea usually comes out quickly and servers do their best to come to your table. However, if it's crowded, you might have to get out of your seat and actually go look for a cart that has dim sum or flag one of the captains to make sure they know you're there.
Usually go for weekend brunch.
Good for Dim Sum.
If possible, should going with native Chinese friend(s) together. What you see is not only food you can eat so that need a help from them. Something good is often not in menu anyway.
Should know a sort of tea you want as well.
Weekend brunch time is always chaotic, noisy and busy, however, this makes me feel as if I were in Hong Kong. Good be going a group at least 4 and share food!
I'll give you our visit to this restaurant from the second we walked in the door:
The second you walk in the door, you get a feeling of "Oh my, I'm gonna end up spending a lot of money here." As were walked to our table (for 2), I noticed a few tanks, stacked atop one another, with fresh seafood within them--crab, lobster, fish, etc. So, we sit and were asked by a gentleman whether we would like tea or not...we got hot green tea.
So you sit...and look around at the carts passing through the restaurant. Each cart has at least one type of dim sum. One cart that passed us had several type of steamed buns--pork, bean paste, shrimp, etc. Another cart had different type of shu mais. As the carts pass or a server comes by with a tray of food, they tell you what it is and you just say yes or no. If you say yes, they stamp your bill so that when your bill is totaled up, the cashier knows what to add up. A small order of dim sum is $2.60 (usually 3 pieces), a medium order is $3.20, and a large order is $4.00.
The dim sum is good..especially the shu mai; that was delicious! The calamari was absolutely fabolous! So much flavor! The rest of the dim sum that we tried was good, but they taste similar to other dim sum restaurants that we've been to before. The thing that separates this restaurant from others that we've visited, the dim sum they bring out is fresh hot..with steam coming out from the top.
For the amount of food that we got, we only spent $25. And we overate. Lol. We wanted to try as much as we could because it was our first time eating here. Next time around, we know not to order so much.
However, do note that they charge $1 per person for the hot tea.
Enjoy your meal here!
One of our favorite places for dim sum. Love their haw gaw, siu mai but they always seem to have some new stuff which are unique and tasty.
Mayflower is standard dim sum fare in the Ranch 99 Asian fast food mall. Inside is your cavernous dining room with aquariums filled with crustaceans and odd fish, with servers pushing carts and trays of food at you.
Started with my favorite, noodle with shrimp. Dumplings, fried taro, flaky pocket of chive and pork, fried tofu with shrimp. It was a lot more fried food than I was used to for dim sum, but good. We were short some vegetables, and the server brought over the cart of boiled greens soon after we asked.
My co-worker and I had a dim sum craving, and we were satisfied. $19 each for a fairly aggressive two-person lunch.
This has become our weekend Dimsum place when we don't feel like driving to Chinatown. It's ten minutes away. Yesterday, for $32 including tip, two of us ate like kings:
- pork with rice noodles
- seafood dumplings
- fried shrimp balls- gigantic, like the size of a baseball
- greens sauteed with garlic- don't know what this veggie dish was but it was AWESOME...it was NOT chinese brocolli or bok choy, which we usually get, but a similar leafy green- haven't seen it before but would get it again
- seaweed salad
- pork shumai
- leeks and shrimp dumplings
- mango and shrimp burritos- LOVE these!
-scallion pancake (the only disappointment of the day)
We have also had in the past:
- cabbage stuffed with shrimp
-sesame balls with lotus paste
- rice noodle stuffed with black sesame seed sweet filling
- shrimp rice noodles
- shrimp dumplings
- chinese brocolli
- duck
- steamed rice in banana leaves with meat
- taro
- coconut dessert
- calamari
- red bean dessert
Can't beat the variety, the price, and the quality of seafood- this place is a favorite value dining experience!! Hmm, I'm hungry just thinking about it again! Also I agree with Beth's statement below, it's best to go to the restroom before you go there.
After reading up on yelp about nearby dimsum places we went here this morning.
tip#1 confirmed: get…
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Mr. Mayflower owner guy drives an Aston Martin that he loudly parks in front of his restaurant, in a special spot that is coned off to everyone else.
This is because his restaurant makes a damn lot of money. This is because his restaurant is extremely efficient, as well as probably the tastiest dim sum in the South Bay.
These truths are evident by the throngs of Asian people who wait in line outside, 3 generations in tow, for a coveted round table inside. Crowd-following restaurant Asians know what they're doing. You know what I'm talking about -- if you've ever been in an Asian country, anytime you see a long line out a bakery, restaurant, dessert cafe, or street vendor cart, just get in it. You can figure it what it's for later. You won't regret it.
Mayflower doesn't have the most delicious dim sum ever, certainly not as good as San Francisco's finest, and definitely not as good as Hong Kong's. But it's 5 minutes from my house and it definitely hits the spot on a weekend at 1 pm.
Mayflower is one of the goto Chinese restaurants when guests from Japan are in town and want to stay in the South Bay and want good Chinese food, so I'd been here on the company's dime several times for dinner.
Today, I came here on my own dime for the first time, and for lunch Dim Sum too. never had that here before. It was pretty good. But more importantly, it was surprisingly cheap, and that automatically ups the value for dollar rating.
Mayflower is located in the expansive McCarthy Ranch [EDIT] Thanks for the fix Jackie! [/EDIT], the part where 99 Ranch is. When walking in, it's clearly a very large restaurant, easily seating 150 people, maybe even 200+. It's feels cavernous. The style is upscale Chinese, and is likely popular for large parties.
Be forewarned. Like most good Dim Sum places, this place gets crowded fast, with many people coming for lunch in large parties of 6 or 8 or more. We got there at 11:45 and were seated right away. By noon it was packed and by 12:15 there was a line of waiting people. When we left at 12:30, the queue was really long.
Service at the beginning was very slow, but slowly picked up pace over the course of lunch. Even then, we were completely full by 12:30, and they bring the check very fast (probably because they want you to leave so they can seat more folks).
One logical change they made was to minimize carts for dim sum. There were a few carts wheeling around the hard to tray-carry items, but for the most part, they tray-carried food around. This worked pretty well and allowed them to get in between tables more easily.
We had:
Chow mein
- 1 star
- not good....but a filler while we waited for other food to arrive
Crab shumai
- 3 stars.
- wrapped in a semi translucent skin, this was very good, and the taste of the crab was definitely there.
Chinese cabbage
- 2 stars
- Sort of like bok choy with oyster sauce. very good, steamed to perfection without being overdone. I wish I could make it this perfect at home. I always over-cook these.
Bean curd
- 4 stars
- usually, for the bean curd dish, the insides are practically empty, but not here. There is plenty of the bean curd wrap and it's stuffed really well here. Filling even. Loved it.
Pork peanut shuumai
- 2 stars
- I had something similar at New Hwang Kok, but I'm not really a fan of seeing peanuts in shuumai. Maybe that's just me. It tasted okay, and I'd eat it, but would never order it.
ham shui kok (Thanks Caroline S for the info!)
- 4 stars
- This is a deep fried dish, and very good. It's got a crunchy outer skin that tastes and feels like mochi with sesame seeds around it. there some pork inside too. Again, similar to what I had at New Hwang Kok, but smaller.
- [Edit] Caroline commented via Yelp that this is best when the deep fried skin is not too thick. At New Hwang Kok, it was rather thick, but it was not at MayFlower. All the more reason to give an extra star, so I'm upgrading from 3.5 to 4 stars! Thanks for the info Caroline [/EDIT]
Sticky rice in lotus leaf
- 2 stars
- This tasted the same as I've eaten in other places, but it was much more mushy than usual, and they put in the sliced franks instead of roast pork.
Pork shuumai.
- 4 stars
- It's not dim sum to me unless I have this dish, and Mayflower does this dish particularly well. My only complaint is how long it took. By the time the cart rolled around, we were already pretty much done eating.
Garlic shuumai
- 3 stars.
- it's the translucent white skin wrapped around a mostly green inside. And it tastes a little like the sugar cane tip sprouts with a strong garlicky flavor. Never had it before and it was surprisingly good.
Poststickers (Chinese style)
- 4 stars
- Yum! I never had Chinese style potstickers before, and these had tons of filling. The insides of some of them were a little redder than some of the others, leading me to suspect at first that they were still raw, but they certainly didn't taste strange. Much more filling inside than Japanese style potstickers and makes giving a real sense of substance.
After all that, I'd normally give three stars, but like I said in the beginning, the value for dollar was exceptionally good. It was about $13 per person for all these dishes. We ordered more than one order for a lot of these dishes, so all in all, this place was definitely a bargain.
As long as I can get out early enough, this place is a definite do again.
Yep, you heard it right. Yay! I'm a fan!
This original South Bay Mayflower is the restaurant just like how Eddie Murphy describes "the best sex you've ever had in your life" (using the example of if you are starving and somebody throws a cracker at you, you'd say daaaaaaaaayum beeyoch, that was the best cracker I ever had in my life, mo' please?).
That's what Mayflower was like when they opened in 1996 as one of the original Milpitas Square tenants. Everyone wanted a piece of the Mayflower to deflower. I'm talkin' about Dim $um and VIP mofo treatment for high end $eafood during dinner.
With that in mind, the best $ex, err sorry, DINNER, I had in my life at Mayflower, was grand opening night 12 years ago, at the boss's expen$e (this boss and his family also owned sister mall San Gabriel Square, so to celebrate such a successful launch of the mall and employees suffering a day of rain and A$N crowds, we were treated to an extravagant pimp dinner here that was $eafood galore).
12 years later, like in most marriages, as Eddie said, you get married, wake up one morning, look over your shoulder and think to yourself "hey, I just got a box of regular ol' crackers..."
I don't know what it could be, what happened that contributed to the downward trend and decline in overall quality and experience of this place. Perhaps this flower has withered from all that deflowering over the years. Exodus of kitchen (and waitstaff) talent? The opening of ABC a few years later down the street (then again that ABC performs on the F level quite a lot), or perhaps $tandard$ are so much harder to maintain in the area? Who knows really.
So yeah, Mayflower Milpitas (with Great Mall having an edge over "easier" parking selection) vs ABC Seafood down the road. Not much of a choice just like our current political system. It's like Diet Coke vs Diet Pepsi, except we don't know if either will help alleviate M$G.
Mayflower- pleasing my family and I since 2000. My mother has this incredible talent of charming, becoming friends with just about any stranger...whether it be the homeless person down the street or a store manager. Luckily, she charmed another one with her overly-friendly demeanor- the head honcho of Mayflower...a stout and welcoming middle-aged Chinese man.
Every time we but step foot into the massive restaurant, he gestures us to a table with that intense hand gesture demonstrating the utmost politeness and hospitality that only Chinese restaurant owners could pull of. I'm always satisfied when I leave this place stuffed to the brim with excellent pineapple crust buns, baked bbq buns, lobster noodles (incredible here!), garlic greens, and then some homies.
I'm talking real dim sum. I mean, of course it's no Ton Kiang of San Francisco, but it works...and it works well..especially in the Great Mall.
I think the service is excellent, even when it's packed, and the food is good too.
I remember trying lobster noodles for the first time here. My oh my. It spelled trouble. I didn't care if I became uncomfortably bloated from all that goodness, it was worth it! I have tried other lobster noodles elsewhere since then, but they have all paled in comparison.
Mayflower is definitely the best in the area. Make sure you go early brunch time like 10 or 11ish. That way you beat the crowd and get the fresh stuff. Oh yeah!
I love dim sum and I've eaten it extensively. Somehow I've never made it to Mayflower, despite numerous recommendations. So when a friend suggested dim sum I was delighted we agreed to go here.
This is excellent dim sum. All the usual stuff and some a bit more uncommon. Everything is presented in a visually pleasing manner. Surprisingly the servers had enough English to explain basic questions like pork versus shrimp. The food was all fresh and came out quickly.
The wait is long to get in. With a small group we waited 20 minutes. You'll wait longer with bigger groups. Though there is a large parking lot, it is very full. Send someone to get on the waiting list while you park. It will take 5-15 minutes to find parking (at least).
Service to get food is prompt. Within minutes of sitting down we were surrounded by food and eating. Getting the bill took a bit of aggressive waving. Not bad at all for a dim sum experience. Cost is on the high side for dim sum. About $15 each.
People say Dim Sum is good in SF, but i beg to differ!!!
In SF you may get more places with Dim Sum, but what i look for is more quality over quantity... really!
Here you can have plenty of variety and the taste is consistent all over, not to mention the place is big, the food is fresh, quick and prompt service! Thumbs up!!!!
Sunday morning I get a text from a friend "Dim Sum?"
I reply "Yeah sure"
This was my first dim sum experience so I really have nothing to compare it to. We arrived after noon and needed seating for 8 so we had about a 30 minute wait. We got seated in a side room near the door. I don't think as many dim sum carts passed our way :(. Most of the dishes I had were tasty. I would say the comical portion of the meal was me attempting to eat a chicken foot with my "challenged" chopstick skills (a futile task). I really enjoyed the stuffed mushrooms and the fried taro.
I would only go here again if I was w/ somebody who knew how to order i.e. spoke the language.
If it is Chinese food you are looking for, look further yet!
This place is pretty overpriced for Chinese food and they really just try to give you the least quality ingredients that they can still call food. Some people like it a lot for big parties, but I think they try a little harder because you're paying them more. For an individual night out to grab some Chinese food, this place has terrible food for the price.
this seems to be your typical large dim-sum restaurant (which i didn't know existed around here--that tells you how often i go to have dim sum in the bay area).
overall the food is pretty good, although most dishes struck me as being overly salty. things i remember about individual ones:
* the potstickers were of decent size, but there was something lacking -- it seemed almost a bit too brutish and lacking in finesse. (omg if that's not some vague food-critic bullcrap i don't know what is, but i really can't put into words how i feel about it).
* the siu mai was quite good.
* har gow skin was a bit too thick.
* i normally don't like the taro dumpling (wu gok, thanks wiki) but it was actually quite pleasant here. (thanks, jackie d.!)
* the xlb came in these cute little foil cupcake-wrapper-things, i guess to trap any leaky soup. much like the potstickers, though, i was left unimpressed. good, but by no means great.
* char siu bao: where's the beef?!?! (err, pork!) seemed to be too much bread, not enough meat. (this is in reference to the steamed variety)
two things to watch out for (and the reasons why i'm not giving it 4 stars): 1) the parking lot -- zomg i've never seen such a busy parking lot with so many bad drivers jockeying to get a space. be careful and don't be surprised if you have to spend longer finding a spot than it took you to actually drive there from home. 2) like other reviewers said, some servers are VERY insistent on you trying what they have to offer. are they on commission or something? oy, some will even put stuff down on your table and begin moving their stamp to the check before you can even shake your head/say no/make a "no" hand motion.
don't say i didn't warn ya!
Pretty damn good for its price.
I always feel that the food is damn good already, but there's always that tease that I know there is better out there. I just haven't had it yet.
Damn good food for its price. I love the price there. I'm getting a good deal.
I feel they should bomb the place with fabreeze sometimes. haha...
My Ratings:
Quality of Food - 3 Stars
Quantity of Food - 2 Stars
Price - 2 Stars
Location - 3 Stars
Parking - 3 Stars
Service - 1 Stars
Speed - 2 Stars
My Story/Opinion:
I've been here twice and once in the Great Mall location. I didn't choose these places but I came as a guest. Food is ok, it's not the best. The location is ok, always seem too noisy for me, and the waiters seem too occupied with themselves. The thing that bugs me is that they're really expensive. I don't think the amount of food they give is enough for the price they charge. We had to wait for our table several times and it just bugs me when the waiters act as if you ask too much. So I guess I only come here if I'm required. Otherwise, I wouldn't think of this place as good eats.
I am going to review this a okay for now. I went here for dim sum and it was super crowded that during rush hour. So we had to wait for one hour. The food I thought was okay, a little greasy I thought and it was pretty pricey. I have not went there for dinner though. hmm maybe I should go there for dinner one day on a date and for the Chinese food. But yeah we spent $60 on dim sum for three people.
Milpitas, CA
Category: Seafood
Milpitas, CA
Category: Dim Sum
Milpitas, CA
Category: Chinese
Milpitas, CA
Category: Dim Sum
Milpitas, CA
Category: Dim Sum
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