Best Taste Restaurant

Food was ok, pretty cheap. We ordered a porridge (皮蛋瘦肉粥）, Hong Kong style chow mien (煎麵), eggplant clay pot（鹹魚茄子雞粒堡). Food was slow, and the restaurant was DRITY! Plates were not clean and tables were wet and gross.

Pretty good restaurant with roast duck and good pork as well. Good cheap eats.

One of the last old school chinese restaurants left in Chinatown, best known for their clay pot dishes and their specialty soup.
The soup is a must !
I eat out quite a bit, and this is the only place left in Chinatown that you can get quality food for under $ 10 w/​a drink.

I am sorry, but I only tried your roasted Duck and it did not have salt. It needs more Soy sauce.

Go there for the roast duck. I haven’t tried the roast duck at all the places in Chinatown, but the roast duck that they make over here is the best I have had so far. Very little fat on the skin, nice color, not overly seasoned and meaty. Well done !
It looks the guy roasting the duck in the back cares about the product he makes, which is more than what I can say about many of the other establishments in the area.
I did not eat there or try the other items on the menu.
Go there before they change ownership or before the guy who does the roasting decides to leave for greener pastures.

The Black Bean Sparerib Ho Fun with Baby Bok Choy is NOT listed on the menu, but it’s their best kept secret! A delicious dinner/​lunch for 6 bucks. Yes, please!

This place is truly awful. We came here because Shan dong was unexpectedly closed. We got the pan fried noodles, mushrooms with mustard greens, hot and sour soup, and King pao chicken. We decided to take it back home given the décor was so dismal and the place had a slight odor and didn’t serve beer. The hot and sour soup was decent, but everything else was awful– the veggies were drowning in some thickly, goopy greasy sauce with no flavor and didn’t taste fresh. The chicken was flavorless and greasy and drenched in some sauce with no flavor or spice. The noodles seemed to be drenched in the same sauce and had some limp veggies and some other meat that we could not identify. Nothing tastes even close to decent and we both regretted spending the money. I would definitely stay away.

Given the reviews I was expecting more. I ordered the preserved meat clay pot but it wasn’t available so I went with the beef and egg clay pot. I also ordered chicken with vegetables.
The beef and egg clay pot wasn’t bad but not something I would go out of my way for (like you would for a good roast duck over rice, or a good won-​ton noodle soup). It’s just a sort of good comfort food.
The chicken with vegetables was a pretty weak dish. The bok choy seemed to be steam cooked. The chicken might have been steam cooked as well (or maybe boiled) and then mixed into a premade sauce (some chicken pieces were uncoated) and poured on top of the vegetables. The sauce on the meat was pretty good though. It would have been much better if someone had put the effort into wokking it all together with the benefit of the «wok hay». Basically, this dish could have been assembled by someone who doesn’t know how to cook Chinese food.

Yet another average Chinatown eatery, with the specialty here being their claypot rice dishes. They’re tasty enough, given the obligatory crispiness of the rice that sticks to the clay pot, but given the price, you won’t find a whole lot of vegetables or meat on top to make it a truly compelling value proposition. Alas, a decent, but average, establishment.

Time: 7:22pm/69°F partly cloudy
Purpose: Staying late after work trying to close out a deal. Finally, the call I was waiting for came through, its a done deal. Grab my belongings didn’t think twice headed straight to Chinatown.
Ambiance: Your basic Chinese restaurant with full hot food and prep counter. Walls with hand written menu in Chinese, lazy Susan, television, red/​gold scroll, oscillating fan, couple of phoenix bird frame pictures, altar. Table seating mostly sits four with two family table inner back. Television shows Chinese programming didn’t understand other than screen show lady in tears. How depressing, I’m trying to enjoy my meal now hearing sniffling in vain. Place was relatively quiet wasn’t sure if food plays a role or people were scare to talk. This place always feels cold don’t have to worry being stuffy.
Staff: Mostly girls working the front while guys in kitchen. Prior to walking in, I acknowledge that I was by myself. Waitress hail me to share half table with three other. I didn’t mind at all. She came back with tea and menu. I said I’m running late and I know what I want already. Order pad pull out immediately and my order is in her hands now.
Cleanliness: Grade C, this place was shut down by the health department because I remember walking by seeing it red tag. Nothing has changed in my POV, but may be the kitchen area. Don’t know about that so, I can’t elaborate on it.
Eats/​Drinks: Lately I’ve been wanting curry everything. Went ahead with curry beef stew over rice $ 7.10. Not the best I ever had, not even close to it. The curry here is the cheapest that can be made on the market. It doesn’t have any brown speckle and wasn’t lip smacking good. It shows a illuminated fluorescent yellow glow. Definitely not want I wanted. The water down curry coated rice just once, but won’t stay. Rice was white in color again a good indication cheap curry. Beef stew was tough to eat. So chewy that I had to divide meat in mouth eating it in sections. Dish tasted like an armature starting first day on job. What made me piss was it was for eat in, but they box it up. Later, the girl told me that I said I was press for time. Yea, I did say that, but I can still eat and manage my own time. Don’t judge my time of what you think would be best for me.
Main Features: XO sauce spare ribs with rice rolls or cheung fun.
Products/​Services: Rice, rice noodle, egg noodle, vegetarian, pork, chicken, beef, seafood, a la carte, appetizers, fried rice, curries, house specialty, claypot, soup, sesame chicken feet, salt/​pepper dry wings, BBQ pork, crispy pork, duck, intestine, fried donut, family/​individual meals, assorted cold beverages, hot tea.
Punch Lines: Chinatown, inexpensive, kitschy décor, occasional spotty service, Close-​together table, easy night out, laid back, lively atmosphere, nothing special, casual, kept its standards.
Tradeoffs: Average tasting restaurant that rely on word of mouth claypot dishes to make ends meet.
Final Thought: There’s really nothing about this place that you can’t get elsewhere. For someone on a budget near dinner time, its best if you come during that time. After 9pm items are either out or kitchen close. Then you’ll have to hit up Gold Medal paying more for identical food. It’s not a bad place service is zippy and workers are polite. However, the food here just don’t wow me. May be I got the wrong plate tonight. Will give it another shot before finalizing it for this place.

As others have noted, the clay pot rice dishes are very good here. This is a very basic place — no frills, just good food. I don’t know that I would come back here a lot, but definitely worth checking out.

Found a cooked cockroach in our clay pot rice togo. It was too late for us to find out since the rice was mostly eaten!!! Those legs gross us out ewwwwwww!!! My family has been getting togo from them for years, but not going back anymore! Perhaps I already chewed and swallowed some of its family. Way too disgusting!

Good stuff!
Clay pots are good!
Window stuff are also good.
Just wish they clean their tables better. I always get a sticky table even after asking them to clean it up… thats my only complain but then it’s chinatown. don’t expect anything but good and cheap food.

Came here just for the rice clay pots. I got the preserved meat and veggies. My friend got the pork spareribs in black bean sauce and my other friend got the beef and egg clay pot. The pot comes out hot and you got to scrape the rice off the plate which makes for crunchy rice goodness when you eat it. I didn’t like the peas that came with my veggies and the preserved meat was in small pieces, wish it was more like a sausage. The pieces were too small in my opinion so it made the rice kind of dry. I had a taste of the port spareribs and that one tasted better because it made the rice more saucy. Not sure if I’ll be back and may try out other places in the area.

Best Clay pot rice restaurant. Plus they are really cheap. Around $ 8/​pot.
Rice are crispy at the bottom and its very tasty. Clay pot Soy sauce is perfect, not too sweet and not to salty.
Chicken feet is used to be good, but not anymore.
The BBQ ribs and Roasted pork are so delicious.
Servers were very nice, but the lady in the count wasnt that nice, we ordered $ 50+ togo order one time, and I really like the ginger and onion oil, so we asked if we could have some, the lady said its only for chicken. If you want it, you gotta pay. She said it in a very bad attitude. We dont mind to pay, plus $ 50+ is a lot of food, we dont deserve that attitude.
Another that everything is good here.

While lots of other places in Chinatown start shutting down early in the evening, this is one of the places which stays open through the main dinner hours. It’s funny because outside it starts looking like a ghost town while this place is pretty bustling at night.
This place does all kinds of Cantonese style foods, from barbecue plates, noodle soups, and claypot rice bowls.
HK barbecue isn’t anything special here, you can find plenty of other places in Chinatown that will do it much better.
What this place does well though is claypot. They say it takes about 20 minutes but it’s closer to about 15, even when they’re busy. Go for the claypot if you have the time, since the wait time might not be ideal for people who work downtown and have to get back to the office. They have quite a few options on what to put in the claypot — I usually get preserved meats. Remember to add sauce to get the extra flavor and sizzle and help make the rice at the bottom of the claypot perfectly crispy.

Stopped by after work for a quick and easy dinner, or as I thought. Chose this place as not many places open in the evening for some reason.
Anyhow, ordered a basic dish as I usually do when I visit a new restaurant. This time it was won ton egg noodles with barbeque pork and a side of gai lan a.k.a. Chinese broccoli.
Noodles looked and tasted like he just unwrapped them from pre made and the won ton weren’t that bad but started falling apart after a bit. Most surprising was that he blanched the pork in the big pot of broth then put them in my bowl! Anyone knows that when you blanch anything the flavor is lost into the broth but not the broth in my bowl. I’ve enjoyed this simple yet delicious dish dozens of times in other places and never have I seen them pre blanched. Usually it arrives on a side plate and I enjoy the crispy end bits. Therefore, the meat was bland.
Then, 15 minutes after I receive the noodles and half eaten them, the greens arrive well overcooked and looking a very dismal light green color and some type of supposed oyster sauce looks like they ran out and mixed it with water and flour. The greens were definitely not fresh. I took half a bite and are for a box which I quickly left on the trash outside so maybe a homeless person might pick them up. All disgusting. Wish could’ve taken a picture to prove it, But take my honest word for this that I’m not exaggerating one bit.
I mentioned all this to the server and he admitted they were overcooked but still didn’t discount the bill.
Needless to say, never returning. I would suggest you save your time, money and stomach as well. Could’ve easily scored one star, But somehow it appears most people actually enjoy their food.

I ordered the frog legs in clay pot for $ 8.20. Like the other reviewers, it is true the crispy rice is great. Once you order the waitress lets you know it will be a 20 minutes wait. The clay pot is perfect for one person. Yes there is only two stalks of vegetables and little pieces of frog scattered on top with sauce, most of dish is hot, crispy, rice. Be careful and take your time with this dish because of all the bones. Make sure you stir the dish around to get the sauce around the white rice to spread the sauce around. You have to suck all the meat of the bones and spit it out. This would not be a good dish to order when on the date, but it was tasty if you like frog. Makes me think of a fish dish because of the bones. Most of the lunch people ordered the clay pot dishes which is very popular. I would go back to try other clay pots. :-) It is a clean and well lighted space restaurant. Out front they were selling the freshly made pork and chicken and other typical Chinese food people buy to go.

To label this restaurant as gourmet would almost be insulting. From the outside, it looks like your typical Chinese restaurant in Oakland’s Chinatown and the same when you’re inside. When it comes to a 5-​star rating, it really boils down to the basics for me: Good food, quality service, and whether it’s worth the price.
It was pretty empty on a Sunday evening for dinner. We chose a seat in the back for warmth but the cold wind from the cracked front door still managed to crash the party. Hot tea was a nice solution.
What we ordered:
— Chicken and fish clay pot: I was craving something savory and the salted fish really hit the spot. I could get food pornographic with the description but I’ll refrain and just say that the silky tofu paired with the salty fish and chewy chicken was… dope.
— Scrambled egg and shrimp fried rice: Dude… get this. It’s so freaking good. It literally came in a giant bowl supported by a large saucer to catch all of the sexy overflowing goodness. Delicious as leftovers the next day as well. Damn, son… you done did good. QUICK NOTE: When they first served this, it looked very different from what we were expecting. The guy who took our order noticed, apologized, and took it back to the kitchen before we really knew what happened. That is ninja service.
— Hot and sour soup: Another super loaded dish. BF really likes this soup in general. While I’m not a huge fan of it (the sour part mostly), their version was not bad (it smells a lot stronger).
We ate all of this again for lunch the next day. So, to answer the basics: YES to all of the above. I wonder if I asked for sizzling rice soup, they would serve it. (Secret menu item? My favorite…)

I wish I could give this place 5 stars but while a few dishes (the claypot rice, herbal soup, and bbq) is stellar, many of their other dishes are lacking.
This place is known for it’s awesome awesome A+ clay pot rice. My favorite is still the classic Preserved Meat Clay Pot Rice. Filled to the brim with fragrant crispy rice flavored with the grease from the preserved pork, duck, and lap chung (sweet pork sausage), this dish is just full of nostalgia for me. Give a hefty pour of the sweet soy sauce located in a little black spout container on each table and you’re in kick butt chinese heaven! PRO TIP: The clay pot rice takes about 20 minutes to cook so call in to orders yours ahead of time to avoid the long wait!
The herbal soup is rotated daily and has some intense umami quality. You can really taste the healthiness coursing through your body!
Don’t forget to try the roast pork too! PRO TIP: Order pieces from the rib! It’s got more surface area for crispy awesomeness and less fat!