a bite of brownie

On the heels of that recent post, we’re going to review another restaurant known to serve Xiao Long Bao. Located at 3F Mega D of SM Megamall, Lugang Café is a Chinese restaurant aiming to serve the best Taiwanese cuisine. This is the first branch that was opened outside China and will probably open more soon.


As I was seated on my table, I noticed the interior decor was very posh and sleek, glass ceilings, chandeliers, and walls making the restaurant look bigger than it does. The servers were quick to serve me water and ask for my order. I ordered Oyster Pancake to start. I was a little surprised by the size of it, I was only able to eat 2 slices. The dipping sauce is a little sweet. I prefer not dipping it in and just eating the pancake as it is so as to still taste the oysters.

And then I had of course Xiao Long Bao, and the broth inside did not disappoint. When I poked a hole on the wanton wrapper, the steaming broth came rushing into the spoon, it was threatening to overflow! I had the soup after letting it cool a little but tasted something funny it in. When I had the dumpling, I thought the aftertaste came from the filling itself. It was edible, I finished all 8 of them, but there’s just something funny in it I can’t put my finger on.

Verdict: 2.5/5
All in all, dining experience wasn’t that bad. They put my leftover oyster pancake in a nice takeaway box, too. But I wished then that I had a fusion of XLB, filling from Din Tai Fung and amount of soup from Lugang Café. Now that will be a nice treat.

I remember the very first time I had Xiao Long Bao, I ate the whole dumpling without consuming the (hot) broth first. So yeah, not reading instructions, and I had no choice but to burn my tongue and throat with the scalding soup inside the dumpling. Couldn’t help but tear up on that one, too. Lesson learned from 8 maybe 9 years ago (sheesh, that suddenly made me feel so old!).

Years after that unfortunate incident, I got to try it again in Vancouver and couldn’t really remember the soup from the dumpling, maybe because of the sheer amount of food me and poeticnook had *ugh* So I tried again with Din Tai Fung this time, located at G/F SM Megamall, with the hopes of liking this dish at all. I ordered their cold appetizer dish, Chicken Scallions, to start. And I really liked it! For a single order, they had two rolls of cold chicken, cut in 4 pieces, and donned with a very generous garnish of chopped scallions. Yum!

Maybe it was the hot soup that made its mark on me, but I really think proper Xiao Long Bao have like at least half of its filling liquid, making the wonton wrapper sag a little at the bottom, trying to contain all the liquid in. So I was a bit disappointed when I poked the dumpling, the soup that oozed from it was not overflowing. It was literally barely there. I mean, look at this sad, sad XLB. I really had to squeeze at it and push it to the side so I can see the little broth it had inside. Sadness. The taste of the filling was good though, such a waste. The broth tasted good too, there just wasn't enough to make it quite a treat.


Verdict: 2/5
Considering they are best known for their XLBs, I was quite disappointed with their dish. The only saving grace for this restaurant was the appetizer I ordered. I loved the Chicken Scallions so much, I didn’t notice I had scallions on my teeth the whole time! I keep wondering if I smiled at all during the walk from the restaurant to the office. Yikes! The servers were friendly and attentive. It gets really busy during peak hours, so stay away during those hours, there’s a long line of chairs in the waiting section.

85°C first caught my eye when i saw someone carrying this bakery's box in SJC airport. something about picking a food as gift to friends/family from another state gives me the impression that food from this bakery must be good. after doing further research, i learned that this is a highly recommended bakery. i was supposed to get some macarons from chantal guillon but didn't make it before their closing time. since this bakery is less than fifteen minutes drive from palo alto, i ventured out to newark to try this bakery. i've been told that there is always a long queue to this place and it wasn't an exception when i went. it took around ten minutes before i got my turn to pick the bread that interests me. there were a lot of choices that did not only look yummy but also looked fresh. every five minutes, you'd see someone refill the counters. since i was thinking of getting bread which i think would last without refrigerating for 24 hours, i got the giant brioche, cheese bread, cheese dog, calamari stick, and chocolate sponge. there were a lot of other bread there that were calling me but they'll just have to wait for next time. when i was in the cashier, i was told that the chocolate sponge needs to be refrigerated so i had to return them. i found a seat and started on the cheese dog. it wasn't spectacular. i tried next the calamari stick which is a bun of bread with black squid ink on it's dough. i liked it but unadventurous people towards food wouldn't. it had an after taste of the black squid ink. the cheese bread had a cream cheese filling on it. it would pair well with coffee or tea but since i had it with water, it was too sweet and satiating for me. the giant brioche was just fine so all-in-all, my experience was a disappointment as compared to the hype that i got from stories and research. it's possible that i picked the wrong items. this bakery reminds me of bread talk but i enjoyed bread talk's bread better.


85°C Bakery Cafe
35201-V Newark Blvd
Newark, CA 94560

Verdict: 2.5/5 (the items i picked were not extra-ordinary but i am still curious about the hype of this bakery and i'm still planning on trying out their other items.)

I've been trying to find out the name of this place but it's all in Chinese characters so I don't know, I guess I will just have to call it that Taiwanese Noodle place near Green Basil in front of Metrotown, really long name but I'm sure locals will find it.

This place has only five tables so it gets really packed especially during dinner. I used to always walk by this street looking for it but couldn't find it, I thought it closed down for good, but it turned out that they are closed during Mondays, and since they don't really have a proper sign except for all those Chinese characters, you wouldn't really know that it was a restaurant. The place was so small, it looked like a barber shop.

On to the food, my favorite dish here is their beef tendon, and that's what I ordered. My friend got the mapo tofu, which was also good. The pickled bamboo shoots really stank but it tasted ok too. All in all this is a hole in the wall kind of place that locals really love to go to. If people are willing to wait 30 minutes for a table, then it must be really good.This family owned restaurant should definitely expand their place soon.

Verdict:
N: 3.5/5.0 [-1.5 because of the long wait to be seated]

Taiwanese Noodle Place
462x Kingsway Burnaby, BC