Tag: Chinese

L.A. Chow: Chi’s Chinese Cuisine

Average but satisfying Chinese take out

Chi’s Chinese Cuisine is my nephews’ favorite Chinese restaurant – or maybe, their favorite restaurant ever – so that’s what they requested we get one evening during my family trip to LA. I couldn’t think of anything better, so I ordered from there. It was a simple enough process and pretty quick.

First, I got a Dim Sum Sampler ($15) which came with Har Gow, Siu Mai, Steamed Chicken Dumplings and Char Siu Bao. I had the mini steamed chicken dumplings and they were quite good, though, as usual, with too little filling. My husband had the rest of the dumplings and he found them unremarkable.

My nephews’ favorite dish is the sweet and pungent chicken ($18) described as “lightly breaded white meat chicken with a sweet sauce. and just a touch of spice.” We ordered both a regular and a spicy version, but they all tasted the same – as described. Spicy enough to thrill a seven year old, but not to scare him. Beyond that, the favor was similar to a sweet and sour chicken, a but more sour and less sweet. I could stand a few pieces, but the breading becomes overwhelming beyond that.

I ordered the roasted duck ($22), and I’d say it was OK. It wasn’t as dry as I feared, but it was super moist either. The flavor was pretty standard, with the amount fat you’d expect. I don’t know, I just wasn’t into it. Neither was Mike. Maybe I’ve upgrown this dish.

Mike ordered the cashew chicken ($13.50) and substituted the vegetables for extra chicken ($3). It was good but pretty standard. There was a good amount of cashews and the sauce was flavorful.

My BIL had the Mongolian beef ($15.55). This was probably my favorite dish of the night. The beef was tender and the sauce was very flavorful. I’d order this one again.

Finally, my sister ordered the vegetable chow mein ($14.25). It was just OK – it lacked flavor.

In all, I felt that the food at Chi’s was pretty standard but was surprised at how expensive it is for the amount and flavor of the food. Perhaps they use higher quality ingredients or pay their workers better. Without knowing that, though, I just felt I overpaid.

Chi's Chinese Cuisine
9635 Reseda Blvd, Northridge
(818) 886-6928
W - M 11 AM - 9:30 PM

Los Angeles Restaurant Reviews

Trader Joe’s Taiwanese Green Onion Pancakes Review

An unexpected treat

I have had green onion pancakes at Chinese restaurants over the years, and I have never been overly impressed. Still, when I saw these Taiwanese Green Onion Pancakes ($2.50) at Trader Joe’s I still had to get them – don’t ask me why.

My first impression was that they were just OK. They didn’t much in the way of flavor – they were slightly salty. I did like the chewy consistency, which reminded me of Thai roti. While they are quite oily, they still felt pretty dry and screamed for something to dip them into. I tried chimichurri – but it didn’t work very well. They were delicious with honey mustard dressing, of all things. I thought they would be even better with Thai yellow curry, and they might be. But I got some Trader Joe’s yellow curry to try them with, and the curry was horrible.

You heat up these pancakes on a pan, but it only takes a couple of minutes per side and it leaves you with a clean pan that you can reuse without having to wash. I already bought more.

Chain Restaurant Reviews: Panda Express is Fast, Good and Cheap

In the post-pandemic world, Panda Chef still delivers an affordable family meal.

Restaurant food has become crazy expensive, and we’ve been eating out a lot, so I wanted someplace cheap to go for Mother’s Day. Well, not as much go – because Mother’s Day is too crazy a day to actually dine out – but get take out from. Enter Panda Express. They have a family meal that consists of 3 family size (26 oz) entrees and 2 family size sides for $35 (some entrees were an extra $5) And they had a $5 off coupon for mother’s day. And let me tell you, 78 oz of food is a lot of food, more than enough for four people. I don’t know that you can get a cheaper meal anywhere anymore.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, they also had a deal that gave you a free bowl of your choice ($9) if you bought $30 in gift cards. You can’t use more than one coupon at the time, so I had to order the bowl separately. That required a $10 minimum purchase, so I added a $2 egg roll. All in all, for under $40 tax included, we had a pretty good meal.

Now, Panda Express food is not extraordinary – but it’s consistent and fine. This is what we got:

Orange chicken has been one of Panda Express’ most popular dishes forever. It’s highly breaded, with a thick sticky sweet-spicy orange sauce, and it’s pretty tasty. Of course, you’re eating mostly breading.

Beijing beef is actually pretty similar to orange chicken, but has a slightly less orangey taste and the pieces are smaller. it also comes with slices of onion and red pepper. It consists of breaded beef in a tangy, sticky, sweet and spicy sauce. Also pretty good, though both of them were too much.

The Honey Walnut Shrimp is, once again, sickingly sweet, but Mike liked it. It’s an additional $5 if you order this.

As my first side I got the chow mein. It consists of very thin wheat noodles, with a nice chewiness, a lot of shredded cabbage and some onion slices. In all, the chow mein isn’t very flavorful and it’s in need of something else – soy sauce? They forgot to add some to my order, unfortunately. There is also way too much cabbage. It’s a cheap filler, I guess.

The second side was the “super greens“. On the website it looked like it would be steamed broccoli. Instead, it was a combo of cabbage leaves and broccoli, heavy on the former. Yes, I know, cabbage is cheap. But it’s definitely not a super green. The veggies are steamed and made up for the very sweet entrees.

I also ordered a chicken eggroll ($2) and it was pretty good. It’s rather large, so well priced, and while the flavor is mild, it’s pretty good for an egg roll.

Not long after this order, my daughter had a hankering for Panda Express again, and given how affordable this deal is (particularly if you first buy a gift card and get a free bowl out of it), I decided to go for it.

I got the Grilled Teriyaki Chicken, and I think this will probably be my to-go choice in the future, because it does seem to be the best value. Unlike the picture in the website, this consisted of grilled chicken thigh, coarsely cut into pieces and mixed with their mandarin teriyaki sauce. The chicken itself lacked seasoning and there wasn’t enough sauce, but that was simply remedied by adding salt and more teriyaki sauce. It was good. Not great, but good for the price.

I can’t say the same about the Broccoli Beef. The dish consisted mostly of large broccoli florets with very few thin slices of beef – I think there might have been a dozen and a half in this family portion. Most importantly, the sauce was very milk and lacked flavor. You get a much better beef with broccoli from your local Chinese joint.

Panda Express
1271 Marina Blvd
San Leandro, CA
(510) 667-9585
M-Su 9 AM - 10:30 PM

 San Leandro Eats: 85°C Bakery Cafe

Nice and affordable Chinese pastries.

Updated October 2024

Since 85°C Bakery Cafe opened in San Leandro Plaza, I’ve been a devotee. This Taiwanese bakery chain has over a thousand locations worldwide, with 75 of them in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Texas. I’m sure they’ll continue expanding. They offer Chinese inspired pastries with global flavors. The pastries tend to be light and airy with cream fillings, and they usually range from good to delicious. This will be an ongoing review, where I add new pastries as I try them, for my own future reference of what I liked a lot and what I liked less. As we shouldn’t be eating too many carbs, we only get pastries from 85°C Bakery for special occasions – but that makes it even more important that we choose the right ones.

85°C also serves drinks, from flavored coffee and tea drinks to smoothies, slushies and boba (if you always wanted to try a boba latter, this is the place to have one), but I have yet to have one there. Next time. They do have tables to eat inside (but no outdoor sitting), but due to the pandemic we’re avoiding all indoor dining.

Our last visit to 85°C Bakery was on the fourth day of my Birthday Week Extravaganza (TM). I had told my daughter how I preferred the pastries from 85°C Bakery to those we’d had the day from As Kneaded Bakery, and she wanted to try them. I sent Mike to get them – but I had mistakenly texted the list of what we wanted to a friend – so Mike got to chose what he brought home.

85°C Bakery has a huge variety of pastries, cakes and other desserts. Many are serve yourself, but more delicate ones – or ones needing refrigeration – are behind the counter. Pastries are individually wrapped, which is not environmentally friendly but it’s safer from a food handling perspective. While they concentrate on sweet pastries, they also offer some savory ones.

Aussie Meat Pie (vegetarian)

This is a light bun with impossible ground “beef” sautéed with peppers.

Ham & Cheese

This is a light bun filled with ham and American cheese. It’s quite tasty, and I liked it as much as the ham & cheese croissants I get at Main Street Bagel.

White Chocolate Strawberry

This bun is filled with a very light white chocolate and strawberry custard. It’s a tad too sweet for my taste, and maybe not one of my favorites, but it’s quite good.

NOT PICTURED

Mango Custard Bun

This bun is filled with a creamy mango custard. It’s quite tasty and light.

85°C Bakery Cafe
San Leandro Plaza
1299 Washington Ave. C-1
San Leandro, California
510-483-8585
M-Th 7 AM - 7 PM, F-Sa 7 AM - 7:30 PM, Su 8 AM - 7 PM 

A’s Cafe – San Leandro – Breakfast Review

UPDATE: THIS RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED

A’s Cafe opened where Blossom and several other Chinese restaurants used to be.  It’s still a Chinese restaurant for lunch (I think it’s closed for dinner), but they now serve American breakfast.  That’s what we went for a few weeks ago.  My family left satisfied, I was less than impressed.

Let’s be honest here, if what you want is plain breakfast food – plain pancakes, omelets or eggs, and hashbrowns, A’s Cafe won’t disappoint.  They do the basics well but that’s all they do, the basics.

If you want something more in your pancakes – some blueberries? chocolate chips? bananas? -, a crepe or some other fancy breakfast concoction, then A’s Cafe is not for you.

So it’s not the place for me.

We all had some combination of pancakes, eggs and breakfast meats. They were fine, not exciting. I had a hot chocolate, same thing.  I wouldn’t go back because if I go out for breakfast, I want something special, but I’m sure the rest of my family would.

A’s Cafe
14807 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 816-1187
https://www.facebook.com/ascafeinsanleandro

M-Su 6:30 AM – 3 PM

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

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