Forbitten City

I came across Forbitten City while at the Big Lots in Milpitas, at a weekly Food Truck Mafia event. I started off simple with some spam and eggs… I had had a few other snacks prior so I was already pretty full.
Luckily I’ve had occassion to try everything on Kin’s menu, and I will say this: Shrimperial over Garlic Noodles!
Everything has a little bit of street style, a little bit of «hominess» if that’s a word, that you will either get, or you will not. Bone-​in short rib over rice or noodles are my likely second favorite, though I’ve enjoyed everything Kin has put together.
I should point out that I also worked as a cashier on this truck for lunch one day at Stanford… as I used to say of my days working at McDonald’s, it’s something that everyone should benefit from at least once, to get the other side of the story.
You will not find a more generous food truck owner in the bay area, and since I know what Kin is cooking, I will simply say that he’s off to a great start, but I’m waiting for that extra appliance to get installed…

No bueno. In comparison to the many other food trucks, this is not worth eating at. The menu is generic and there is little uniqueness that sets it apart from other trucks. I ordered the spam rice and egg dish and received… well, a spam rice and egg dish. I’m pretty sure I could make this at home… a friend mentions the garlic noodles are OK. Probably a good place to go if you have nothing else to eat. But if you’re at one of those food truck gatherings/​events, I’d pass this one up.
It also blew my mind that I had to wait 25 minutes for my dish — a serious disappointment. There was barely a line, yet somehow the cooks managed to take that long to cook spam rice and egg. =/

I had the «lotus wrap»…turns out it was a «lettuce» wrap FOR $ 4. Which sucked!!! I really was hoping for that dim sum version of a lotus wrap. What i got was over cooked rice noodles, a few pieces of cilantro, two shatty pieces of iceberg lettuce, and maybe 2 – 3 ounces of beef that was super spicy that threw everything off. I have to say as a regular person… that was totally sucky, as a chef… your ripping people off. The cost alone for that one «wrap» probably came to less than a dollar. DO NOT GO TO THIS TRUCK! If they can’t even get this food cost right… who knows what they’re doing wrong.

I really don’t want to give a poor rating to a food truck but such was the experience.
I ordered the garlic noodles with chicken. The noodles were extremely greasy. There was a conveniently placed paper napkin at the bottom of my to-​go box soaking up all the oil (no kiddin’) but even that wasn’t enough. I thought the garlic flavor was a bit too strong. The noodles were okay but my biggest beef was with the chicken. Huge and tough pieces. The plastic fork provided by them was rendered useless. Lightly sprinkled, fresh cilantro was the only highlight of my dish.
.
I don’t see myself spending another 9 dollars on their noodles again.

I experienced Forbitten City as part of the Sunnyvale Dishcrawl. What a great way to get variety into the food crawl experience! I love the design of the truck and the owner was friendly and accommodating, but I was disappointed with the food. We got to try their spicy shrimp over steamed rice, bbq pork fried rice, garlic noodles and teriyaki chicken. I don’t even know the words to use to describe the food… it wasn’t terrible, but I’ve tasted better. I would probably prefer food from Ranch 99’s hot deli (which I don’t even like to get) than to order from this truck again.

They came to our parking lot today. First, they had a very limited selection of 3 items — noodle, fried rice and shrimp over steamed rice. I had the worst food truck experience here. I ordered a garlic noodle around 11:45 — they ran out of them around noon. I finally got my order around 12:15 to find out it was fried rice. After waiting for 30 minutes for the order, I got another thing.
And $ 9 for a noodle dish with 2 pieces of chicken?
Wrong food served, too long wait for a food truck. They ran out of 2 out of 3 things on their menu in 30mins.
We went to phở garden in MV afterwards. The same food there was cheaper although it’s a sit down restaurant.
Seriously, you’re better off going to a sit down place. It’ll be faster and cheaper. These people don’t understand how to run a business.

Does Unilocal not handle Food Trucks? I couldn’t check in when this truck visited Champion Ct. in San Jose. :(
Garlic shrimp on white rice didn’t look like much at first, tasted okay, but boy you finish that off and you feel the garlic rising from your belly and you know it will be a good afternoon!

Forbidden City’s name deja vus memories of a chinese-​themed nightclub and cabaret operating in s.f. in the 30’s and 40’s. F.C. was the inspiration for «Flower Drum Song», the movie .
Forbidden City featured dinner, dancing, and a cabaret show.
menu: shrimp over rice (8) lotus wraps (3), .noodle (5)„ won ton (3) jade salad?(3.50)
locale: bits off broadway (⁹⁄₃₀)
sampling: lotus wrap with beef (3)
–piece of chewy beef in lettuce wrap with various crunchy veggies and secret sauce.
–portion small
–lotus wrap replicates dried oyster lettuce wrap which is eaten at chinese new year’s banquets to welcome in the new year and to wish for good fortune in the coming year.
leftovers:
–food not the usual chop suey,
— traditional chinese dishes presented in modern versions.
-«exotic»? maybe for the nonasian.
–prompt, friendly servce