Little Potato

I’ve been here twice. Well, technically not. I forgot what the restaurant changed their name to because it was all in Chinese. The ownership is different, but the chefs are the same. They added quite a few dishes to their menu and they now have the option of ordering three dishes for $ 18.
I love their «nian gao» which is a Shanghai styled rice cake. There offer two different ways of cooking it, but I forgot which one we ordered. We also ordered salty crispy squid which was good. I’m surprised by the portion of squid they gave us because at most Chinese restaurants, they give us a whole lot more of vegetables than squid! The server gave us complimentary Shanghai styled «fu qi fei pian» which is spicy thin sliced beef.

I don’t really like this place EXCEPT FOR THE FRIED RICE. The fried rice here is the BEST (at least to me). The other dishes are just okay.
Service: Is there one? The lady didn’t even have a piece of paper or pen to take our order? HELLO? What’s going on? My mom wanted to order one more dish, but she just LEFT after three dishes…

Why am I a fan? The food is good and cheap! I’m a resident of Union City & whenever I come by here, this place is packed– especially on the weekends so I never got to stop by for dinner, but after learning that they serve soy milk for breakfast on the weekends, I made sure that the boyfriend took me. We were heffers! We ordered so much! I remember ordering their House Special Rick Cakes and it was okay. Maybe I would’ve liked it better if I had ordered it for dinner. Soy Milk was good. I just wish that there were more places up in Nor Cal that would serve these things in the morning– yenno? soy milk, Chinese donut, pancakes, the little sandwich buns with pickled greens and cold meats and so forth???
When sitting there, they had signs all over the walls listing their dishes with incredible prices! $ 5.95, $ 6.95, $ 7.95 oh my!!!

My friend and I decided to visit this busy spot tonight for dinner since the original restaurant we wanted to go was super packed. I was hoping that the food here will taste decent but this is really not my cup of tea.
We ordered the Shanghai steamed chicken with onion oil, vegetable rice with salted pork and Shanghai steamed bun (Siu long bao). When the chicken dish came out, I dig into it really fast and omg… it was extremely salty! The vegetable rice with salted pork and Siu long bao was alright… this was at least decent…
Overall, the food was not good but service was good… but I will never come back here to eat because of the food =(

My fiancé and I had gone to this restaurant on occasions in the past couple of years. The food was always tasty and very reasonably priced. Being that I have not been in this restaurant for quite some time, I was not sure what to expect.
We ordered the salt and pepper fried fish, fried toufu with a pork dipping sauce, cold noodles, and dish with sliced shoe string potatos that are stir frid with peppers.
I’d have to say that the food was not as good as I remembered. I cannot speak for the cold noodles, for my fiancé was the only one who ate this dish. The salt and peper fried fish did not have a whole lot of taste. The toufu with pork dipping sauces was just okay, but, the stir fried shoe string potatos were great.
As for the service personnel, they were average to a little below average. What I did not like is that I had to constantly ask for water refills because they were not paying attention.
This restaurant is not great, but it is acceptable. I’m not really sure if I’d return back to this restaurant again.

Remember my star ratings are based on value and overall experience. I don’t believe only expensive restaurants gets 4 and 5 stars. This place ranks a good 4 stars because the food is hella cheap and yet still good.
Tonight we ordered a couple Chinese Donuts, Onion Pancakes, some dumplings, Hot & Sour soup, and Beef with Beef Tendon Noodle Soup so I can try to get over my cough.
We were only the 2^nd table so the food came out fast and hot (too bad the waitresses aren’t). This place resides in a Chinese Shopping center so you get lots of little restaurants like this. They are highly competitive so that’s why Little Potato’s prices are so low. For all the goodies, the bill came out to just over $ 31 and I have food for lunch for tomorrow. Good luck trying to come here on a weekend. The parking lot gets packed!

Starting from when my family and I were first seated, this place was awful. 1) Waitress dropped and broke/​cracked several tea cups when attempting to set the table. 2) Waiter rushed us to order. 3) Waiter gave our dish to the wrong table, then later feigned ignorance and after returning the dish to the kitchen, realized the dish was actually ours and attempted to rightfully deliver the dish to our table. However, we declined, annoyed at their incompetence. 4) Wrongfully assumed that total amount we paid included tip — in other words, they took our money and did not return change. 5) Servers were rude and inept.
This was the second time we dined here. The first time we were here, it took years to be seated! Both times, it was a horribly AWFUL experience. THIRD TIME IS NOT THE CHARM HERE, definitely NOT going to give this place another chance. The workers will NOT apologize because they do not care about you — they only want your money. Do NOT come here unless you want to be cut by shards of tea cups.
On a positive note, this place has cheap dishes.

Came here this past weekend with family to try their dishes since I’ve been eying this restaurant for a while now.
Since we got there on a Sunday noonish we decided to go the route of Taiwanese breakfast dishes and other appetizer dishes. I immediately noticed that the waitress or hostess standing at the cash register was a familiar face from a Milpitas restaurant. Little did I know they were related until I asked her, she confirmed, and then of course everyone says so on Unilocal — shoulda known to check here first!
So we ordered the sweet soy milk, which was good. Already came sweetened which may be a little sweet for others but I enjoyed the flavor and it was obviously soy milk made from scratch from its consistency and its purity.
Also ordered the pot stickers which were okay — the meat was tasty but not in a phenomenal way. The skin was a bit thick but that is usually acceptable for potstickers, especially when they’re so affordable.
Got the green onion pancake, which was a bit on the thin side though very well fried and was still chewy. But it didn’t blow me away — it needs a chewier, thicker consistency. At this point it reminds me of a savory chewy crêpe which is never good.
Got the xiao long bao which were okay — the skin is thicker than I like and the meat and juice inside though flavorful weren’t delicate and scrumptious, it felt very heavy and not as light as the little bite-​sized pieces of deliciousness should be.
The yiou-​tiao or fried crullers were really good. Super greasy as are all the best kind and super crispy on the outside and ever so slightly chewy on the inside. Perfect dipping companion to the soy milk.
The prices are definitely in a good bargain range for me and I’m definitely coming back some time to try the normal dishes. The Taiwanese breakfast is okay and I’d come back to eat again if I have a huge craving but I wouldn’t expect to be blown away, though from what I saw of the normal food and the food that I’ve had in Milpitas, I’ll be happy to discover my next convenience Chinese restaurant.

Little Potato has really cheap plates. Super affordable but I honestly like New China better.
Little Potato’s portions are smaller. Their tables seem stickier and the flavor is not all there for me. Not a fan.

saw the ad in tsing tao saying they were a franchise and/​or affiliate of mllpitas” shanghai ding sheng, so i decided to give this place another try. the chinese name here is «shanghai…» while the english remains at «little potatoe».
the creamy walls are filled with pics of menu items.
samplings
–shanghai xiao long bao (8/5.95): solid piece of meat inside, thick skins, little juice, just ok to mild disappointment
–braised pork w/​bamboo shoot (8.95) pork with reconstituted dry bamboo, a major disappointment
–eight favorite spicy sauce rice cake (7.95): nice pork bits, dried bean curd bits, with fresh rice cake. ok if you like rice cakes.
–#3wuxi style pork sparerib (5.50), not tender falling off the bone meat like the milpitas version. also misnamed here. the wuxi here goes by a different name. huh?
-#18deep fried chicken,(5.50) smelled pretty good, but greasy, dry, and tasteless. salvaged by using it as finger food while drinking wine.
–71 beef tendon noodle soup (5.50?), thick chewy noodles with tender and semi tender tendons in a soy sauce/​msg broth. no repeat.
leftovers:
–food quality 2, value 3, service 2(when we told them to package the leftovers., they also took items away not finished without asking.
–recommended for cheap eats but not for good eating.
chinese lessons (mandarin)
weather tian qi
overcast yin
clear ying
rainy day/​weather yu tian
cold weather tian leng
hot weather shu

Although the prices may be appealing to alot of others, prices mean NOTHING if the food is SALTY AS A MOTHER @?!$#&*% !!!
I’ve bought food from them 4 times and EVERY SINGLE TIME the food has been just unbelievably SALTY. I’ve ordered something different from the lunch menu every time and they were all salty. My boyfriend agrees with me also. He couldn’t finish his mongolian beef plate. There goes $ 6 down the drain.
EASE UP OFF THE SALT. Half my rice is gone and yet most of my spicy fish fillet is still sitting in my take-​out box.
UGH. *chugs bottle of water*
As for the SERVICE… i’ve only eaten at this place once. The service wasn’t too bad, it’s just the damn food… OMG… I can’t shake it off!
The restaurant is clean and they have a huge variety of dishes which is a plus…
I have never had such salty food before that SHOULDN’T be THAT salty… GUHHH!!! I can feel my body getting dehydrated with every bite.

WARNING: do NOT get the xiao long bao (Shanghai Soup Dumplings) here if you know what’s good for you. I forced one down because they were looking too sad, untouched in the basket. But really. Nasty. Nightmare nasty.
The sizzling black pepper beef plate tasted fine, but the hot oil splattered on my skin and made me unhappy.
They serve a tasty vegetable soup before your lunch, but it is layered with 1 mm of oil. Beware.
I enjoyed the Chicken Rice with Garlic Sauce in Lotus Leaf (#99) but it was basically a Hot and Sour soup-​like sauce on top of white rice. It was kinda sweet, tangy, vinegar-​y… spicy… with bamboo shoots and wood ears. It tasted good, and the serving was large (~3 people).
I have much more enjoyable experiences at Little Potato around the corner.

Can we still call this place Little Potato? Sure the English signage says «Little Potato» but the new Chinese signage says «Tai Shang Hai» or «Big Shanghai.»
Little Potato, this ain’t. A place that used to serve Northern Chinese cuisine is now another Shanghai place. And the Shanghai stuff isn’t all that good. Most of the things served were either too bland or too salty. I always thought (from experience at other Shanghainese places) that the food is supposed to be slightly sweet or it should taste like that preserved vegetable that they put in everything.
The Xiao Long Bao is very, very, meh. Skin was too starchy with the top being understeamed, the inside did not retain moisture and filling was a bit on the bland side.

My family came here for dinner and it was a great experience minus one minor flaw which i’ll explain later.
This is a small restaurant and towards the end of our meal there was a mini line waiting. I love the convenience that they have their popular entrees with pictures, names and prices on the walls. Perfect for those who can’t read Chinese like myself.
First thing i spotted was a tofu entrée and we got that along with drunken chicken, a noodle entrée and Shanghai style rice vegetable and salt pork (huge portions) and the fish.
The highlight were the tofu entrée that I spotted from the wall for around $ 5.95 it’s also huge too. Basically it’s tofu wrapped around pork And the fish so yum! it was wrapped in tofu and had various veggies with it. It’s $ 12ish and there’s a picture of it on the wall .
Sorry not very helpful with the entrée names i blame it on jet lag, i did take pics of it and will upload it soon.
As we were leaving we noticed there were daily specials according to the day of the week ie. sunday.
The minor flaw was while we were dining and noticed the table behind us who got seated later than us got one of the entrees that we ordered before we did, hmm.. yeah. When we asked the waiter why did they get our entrée? his answer: they were in line. ok buddy, what line are you talking about.. .
very reasonable priced meals, minus the minor flaw incident. Great food; and planning to come back to try their other entrees.
It’s inside the plaza with daiso and next to a Malaysian restaurant. Just look for the little potato sign that glows in yellow at night.. :)

I actually like this place but sometimes I feel like the tables are always icky, sticky, and oily so sometimes I feel like this place is kind of eh. but if you don’t mind that, then the place here is decent. the food is definitely good and CHEAP and authentic Chinese and the portions are decent.
We came in a group of five for dinner, and had 6 dishes and an appetizer, and it came to $ 41, we were rather shocked…
Tea is included…
Hits: their tofu dish is soo good!
Miss: don’t get the tzon yoh bin (onion pan fried flat bread), it was very disappointing. the xiao lon bao are also mediocre here

I think this is the first time this has ever happened to me…
I remember a few months the times I passed by and stopped in for lunch, the place was always crowded. Today I felt like having some Chinese food so I stopped by for lunch to go. The first thing I noticed was there were few customers in the restaurant. Also, they changed their menu’s and signs to incorporate more English. Anyway, I ordered a Chicken and Basil from their lunch menu. A few minutes later, they had my food ready all wrapped and ready to go. I thought on the menu the lunch came with soup but mine didn’t. I just assumed the soup is only available if you eat here. Not a big deal.
So I brought my food back to my office and started to eat. It seemed okay, not as good as I remember from the last time I had food here. The meat seemed to be chewy, like the low-​quality stuff. I finish about half of it, get back to doing some work, and continue to eat.
I’m almost done when I notice a little bean shaped thing in my food. Hmm, maybe a black bean somehow got into the mix. Upon closer inspection, it’s a bit shiny, … oh gross, it’s a GODDAMN FLY!
I keep telling myself, it’s only a FLY … and it’s cooked through. People eat bugs right? Needless to say I didn’t finish my food, hopefully I didn’t eat any extra protein either. Well, I’m NEVER going back there again!

I’ve passed this place many times while frequenting Marina Plaza. Finally made it in here tonight with the parents since they had a good first time experience last time around.
1. Green onion pancake — so so but not as crispy as I like it. I usually dip mine in soy sauce and vinegar. They had a ready made sauce they serve with it which was similar but the vinegar tasted more like balsamic vinegar to me. A little heavy and gave it a more than usual sour taste.
2. Seaweed fried rice with shirmp — deelish! I think this is my favorite thing that I had here tonight. Loved the addition of seaweed to typical fried rice and nice hint of saltiness gave it a great aftertaste.
3. Eggplant with Bifentang sauce — sauce not as you know it. «Sauce» in this dish is comprised of dry bread crumbs, fried garlic, onion and salt tossed with fried pieces of eggplant. I couldn’t tell from the picture that it was a dry dish but it looked good. It was surprisingly tasty but a touch on the salty side.
4. Fried Tofu with Minced Pork — also a bit on the salty side but otherwise good.
Besides the saltiness of some of the dishes, still a good hole-​in-​the wall for some cheap eats. It’s always packed so you know you don’t have to take my word for it.

They changed the menu. No longer 3 items for $ 15. But it’s still cheap starting at $ 5.50/ dish. The kidney and bamboo shoot with brown sauce stands out the most! Also LOVED their seaweed fried rice with shrimp (yummy!). Their g onion pancakes used to be more crispy but now it’s just so so. The boiled beef in spicy sauce SUCKS! It has some nasty after taste that lingers on your tounge. That place is always busy around common time. It’s cheap and good!
Next time I wanna try their steam pork with preserve veg, wine fish, special steam shanghai chicken, pork chives dumplings, (spicy garlic eggplant), shrimp and scrambled eggs, ground pork with fried tofu, Dong Bei Style Braised Spareribs

This little gem of a Chinese restaurant is hidden deep within Fremont. The cuisines range from regions of Shanghai to Northern China and the prices are hella cheap at their 3 dishes for $ 15 special. There are over 50 different things to choose from and I’ve barely covered 5 – 6 of them which means I will definitely come back to conquer the rest of what this place has to offer. The eggplant is good and so is the braised pork with preserved veggies. Very authentic stuff that you normally don’t see at typical Chinese places.
If crowds are a indicator of things, then this place has the goods as there is almost always a wait to get a table in this little hole in the wall. Service is just average as I believe no one who works there speaks fluent English.
Van The Man’s Must try: Braised pork with preserved veggies (#49)

CASH ONLY! I tried this place to find out what Dong Bei style food (North Eastern China) is like. It’s pretty good. We tried 6 dishes for $ 26 (before tip)!! So cheap too.
Dishes we tried:
Under the 3 dishes for $ 15, comes w/​free soup if eating in restaurant
Dong Bei Style braised spareribs-(B)
Potato w/​sliced pork & eggplant-(B)
Pork w/​chives dumplings-(A)
under Lotus Leaf $ 5.50
Chicken rice w/​garlic sauce wrapped in lotus leaf (A-​)
Some dishes in the refrigerated section
cold Seaweed salad-(A)
shredded tofu skin (C)
Only negative is it’s CASH ONLY. I hate that, good thing hubby had $$. We have enough leftovers for dinner the next day.
Hrs: 11am-​9pm (from the takeout menu)