Darda Fremont

This place is great for their big sesame pancake and soymilk. They only serve soymilk on the weekends though.

We ordered the hot soybean milk, which comes in individual bowls. I had the sweet one and it was very good. The big sesame pancake was very good with the soymilk too. It had the perfect mouthfeel, that I wanted to eat the whole plate for the crunch. It was crunchy on the outside with the sesame seeds, but soft in the center. One or two pieces will quickly fill you up.

The pancake with beef sandwiched inside was just ok. I thought it could use more green onion. But it did hit the spot as I was craving it.

We also ordered the beef noodle. The noodle seemed to be handmade and I enjoyed it as well.

The boiled dumplings were decent. Usually the boiled dumplings that I've had before are made with pork. But since this restaurant is halal, the meat inside was different. It hit the spot for my craving as well.

I will definitely come here again and again, on the weekends, to eat their big sesame pancake and other of their authentic northern Chinese dishes.

Over time I keep on seeing ads for this place in the Chinese Newspapers and wanted to try this restaurant. On Tuesday arrived at 1:15 pm there was only one other table. there is only one server / cashier / host. The menu is old school and looks as if it had been is use for the last decade. We ordered the following:

Lamb and sour cabbage soup 3 stars it was ok

Cha Chaing Mein 2 stars very bland the spelling is from the menu

Basil Clams 2 stars bland once again tiny clams

Orange Beef 3.5 stars pretty good

Thin Sesame green onion bread 4.5 stars excellent.

Service was good the server was very busy doing all of the front of house duties. Unless they do a revamp of the menu I don't think I'll be back even for the sesame bread.

Back when this used to be in another part of North Fremont (by 99 Ranch), I used to always get the Lamb w/Green Onion to-go. It was/is a great dish. Ate in recently to try a few other items. Just so-so in my opinion but if this were anywhere else outside the Bay, this would be an outstanding Chinese resto.

Boiled Dumplings are pretty legit. Super thick (handmade?) wrappers with a super juicy ginger/beef filling. Chewy on the outside and bursting on the inside. Reminded me of a pierogi in a way. Really nice to dip with the soy/vinegar/chili paste that's on the tables.
http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/darda-fremont-fremont?select=sA6y4QAUFIR0epGm9YwGVg#sA6y4QAUFIR0epGm9YwGVg

"Hand Cut" Noodles with lamb. Since I knew they had a skill for lamb, wanted to try it with their noodle. Very random cuts of thick chewy noodle. Some were super thick (I thought they were bamboo shoots) while others were short and thin. Just strange. Proper wok flavor and the lamb didn't disappoint. But wished there were more crunch factor like cabbage, sprouts or bamboo shoots. The texture were too one dimensional (I know I'm being critical here, but come on, this is the Bay!).
http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/darda-fremont-fremont?select=ok6YlUWdBbU_4T8gZPFhNA#ok6YlUWdBbU_4T8gZPFhNA

Combination Seafood Hot Pot. I don't know why I got this but it was a bit disappointing. First the sauce was way too thick (black bean paste) and second the dish layed atop a live flame so the whole thing stayed bubbling hot the whole time. Which may be fine for some things, but definitely not seafood, which should not continue to cook. By the last serving the once tender fish and shrimp were completely rubbery LOL. The flavor of the sauce was actually redeeming (balanced) compared to the texture, which got thicker as it cooked as well.
http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/darda-fremont-fremont?select=-jiR2gPiCUTPFhcwUBolOg#-jiR2gPiCUTPFhcwUBolOg

Service was extremely slow on my visit but there were multiple large tables. A quick dinner turned into a 2 hour layover. Not sure if it is a norm, but just may pass on this pig-less joint in the future.

I mourned the loss of the old Darda location next to Ranch, so I was happy to see this one start up. Yes, it's not as good as the Fremont location but it's decent enough to skip the 10 mile drive for me.

It's a muslim Chinese food place, so there is no pork but lots of lamb on the menu. Food delivery is insanely fast. The sesame bread is good, lamb with cumin is delicious, and pickled cabbage dishes are great. The noodles were not so good, please get some hand pulled noodles.

Service is typical Chinese, brisk but efficient. Decor is cool, I quite like the fururistic LED mecca wall painting.

All in all not spectacular, but a good option for Islamic Chinese food. Definitely better than most of the "generic red sauce" chinese places in the area.

If I wrote this review before my latest experience, it would be closer to 3.5-4 stars. However, we have definitely exposed a hole in this usually solid establishment.

In the past, we always got their noodle dishes and thick sesame bread with green onion. Both are excellent, especially the sesame bread. However, this last time, we decided to get other dishes to go with rice. Boy, was that a mistake.

We ordered the sesame bread, which was the only saving grace of the meal. Another dish that I heard was good was the cumin lamb (I heard because I don't eat lamb, but the other people in my party do and said it was good). The other dishes were very subpar and WAY too salty. We ordered a chicken with snow peas, a beef clay pot, and a tofu dish... none were good at all.

Despite all of that, we all ate the sesame bread, which was filling enough to satisfy us for the time being. When the check came, we noticed there was a "service fee" for a party of 5, charging us 18%. That was puzzling to us because usually tip is included for parties of 6 or more, but we thought nothing of it.

My husband went to pay the bill and confirmed with the man at the front that the service charge was included. He said yes. My husband paid with a credit card and left no additional tip. The man then had the AUDACITY to say, "So you're not gonna leave a tip?"

We were speechless. My husband told him that HE said the tip was already included, and that we did plan on leaving a few extra dollars in cash on the table since our son made a mess (as usual), but we weren't going to anymore because he was rude.

We didn't end up leaving anything, like we said. We looked back into the restaurant through the window while we were outside fuming about the situation and noticed he was the one to go back to clean up our table. Perhaps he wanted some extra money for himself? It doesn't matter... his comment was uncalled for, and on top of that, our meal was below average. We don't plan on coming back any time soon, maybe only to get the sesame bread. To go.

I remember going here when it was a Chinese buffet with bad food and thinking I am never coming back here again. I am glad I did. It is now under new management and is reborn.

It get points for being unique. I was surprised when I walked in and saw Arabic signs all around. Turns out this is a Muslim Chinese restaurant, did not even know there was such a thing. Tried to get some info from the waitress regarding the origin and background but did not seem like she knew a lot. The menu looks familiar and is Chinese and I believe the meat is Halal. The orange chicken and fried rice were really good and I am going back for mo.

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Fremont. It is my go-to place when I want to eat Chinese food. My favorite dish is sea bass with the crunchy tofu bits on top (either number 16 or 18 under the seafood section of the menu). It's about $27 and comes on a silver plate with the fire still burning underneath.

The other thing they are famous for is the thick sesame pancakes. Even the thin ones are pretty thick and they come in big portions. In fact, all of their dishes are in big portions, so their prices are pretty decent.

Another favorite dish of mine is their beef noodle soup. The beef is tender and lean, the noodles are "knife cut" (handmade thick noodles) and tastes very "QQ." The best beef noodle soup I've ever had. The beef in most other beef noodle soup dishes have too much fat and/or tendons.

The other terrific thing about this place is that because they serve Halal food, there is no pork at this place (I'm biased because I think pork stinks). They serve lamb instead.

The service is also very friendly. Service is pretty fast too, and no wait.

Overall, I highly recommend this place. Great taste, great prices, great service.

Geez louise, there are some harsh Darda critics out there. I do agree that it isn't as good as the Milpitas location, which doesn't have spectacular reviews to begin with, but Darda has always been one of my childhood favorites.

You could say that the pros of the Newark location is that the food is less greasy but unfortunately less flavorful too. Maybe Milpitas didn't share one of their essential, flavored oils with them? Hah.

Other than that, the restaurant is a a little smaller with almost identical decor with even the same images on the wall of Mecca. Be sure to get the omelette over bean sprouts, mushrooms, and other veggies. You eat it with a thin wrapper and hoisin sauce like you do with mushu pork.

Other favorites: hand shaved noodles, lamb with green onion, string beans, and the thick sesame pancake. The sesame pancake tasted the best I've had it in a while... extremely hot, super crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, perfect!

Yes..muslim chinese food!! I never heard of this type of cuisine and it was very good...goof flavors. They don't serve any pork and use more lamb. They do have seafood and chicken, but you can get that at any chinese restaurant. Go for the lamb dishes as well as their home style noodles. We ordered the lamb & onions, the tofu and vegetables, and the beef tendon with the home style noodle soup. All were good.

A definite place to try and check out.

Their food is awesome, love the dumplings, 3 flavor chow mien, and shrimp fried rice.
Don't know why they got such a low rating on yelp. I will give them 5 stars.