Showing posts with label cheap eats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cheap eats. Show all posts

Monday, August 23, 2010

You Xin Kao Ya 友鑫烤鴨

This place was recommended by a Shanghai friend who said it has the best Peking Duck she has ever had. The restaurant is across from main gate of 798 Art District (Dashanzi), which is a little off the Beijing tourist track. Kind of like 50 Moganshanlu in Shanghai, it’s a collection of art galleries and hipster community of artists.

The restaurant itself is located in an alley behind the main street, and is a local place without ambiance (think Chinese guys without shirts).

I don’t know my duck that well, but it was delicious. I ate half a duck, and they also give you a huge bowl of broth that they make with the rest of the parts that was just exquisite. Their menu looked great and I would have eaten a ton more meat and spicy food, but had a great dinner of vegetables as well. I think 150rmb for whole dinner (2 ppl).

Chao Yang, Da Shan Xi Bei Li 9 Lou
朝阳区大山子北里九楼

Again, it's located in the alley behind the main Da Shan Xi road across the street from 798. When you come out of 798, walk left to the closest overpass and walk down the little street with Semir clothes store on the corner. Take first right and it's a few houses down.

TEL is 6437-1602 but they don’t take reservations and definitely don’t speak English

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Fuchun 富春

A totally local Shanghai food place that my local friend brought me to in Jing'an. I don't think I can find it again but it was delicious and cheap and packed at 7 PM on a Tuesday (he said it always is, and people drive in from afar on weekends).

We had fried spring rolls, a tonkatsu (fried breaded pork), spicy cold noodles, and several kinds of xiaolongbao, which were awesome. Plain, crab, or shrimp, the juices were amazing and the rest delicious as well. First time trying to eat these without a spoon -- the foreigner friendly places where I have always had xiaolongbao has spoons to catch the juices. I had to gracefully hold the squishy dumpling, chew a small hole in the side, then suck out the juices without spilling all over me (took a few tries). But worth it.

I need to practice a little more Mandarin before I try on my own.

Short walk from Jiangsu Station (Line 2), come out Exit #2, walk left for two blocks
静安区愚园路650号(近镇宁路)

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Metropolis

Hong Kong
May 2009


Metropol's dining hall is above the Admiralty MTR Station (4F). It is an enormous dim sum restaurant, but with both carts and a buffet center to order from. Delicious and reasonable and every kind of dim sum you could want.

Samy's Curry House

Samy's is my favoriate Indian food in the world. I have only been to Bangalore for one week so perhaps I need another India visit to try more food, but Samy's is damn good.

Samy's is located on Dempsey Road way on the end of one of the forks at Block 25. I have sat at their covered outdoor tables each time I go (more of a sidewalk) though alot of room inside as well.

Since I typically don't know the names of anything, I go inside first and point at all of the dishes that I want. Typically I get the dried mutton, masala chicken, and sometimes fish (they have fish head curry, yummmm) and then ask for some naan. They lay a banana leaf on the table in front of you, spoon a huge mountain of biryani rice, the yummy chips that I don't know the name of, and then the food comes. I also like the lime juice, it's a bit sweet but so good in the Singapore heat eating Indian food.

http://www.samyscurry.com/

Monday, February 23, 2009

Hey Cupcake!

February 2009

YUM. I don't even like cupcakes, but YUM. The Double Dose, with chocolate bottom and top, was amazing. And they sell cartons of 2% milk. Which I also don't like but was really good call with the cupcakes. Oh and did I mention it's sold out of a trailer?

http://www.heycupcake.com/

1600 South Congress, Austin, TX 78704

Amy's Ice Cream

February 2009

Huge fan. Had Amy's three times over the course of the weekend - at the airport when I landed (Mexican vanilla with cookie dough), at the South Congress shop (some strawberry neopolitan one), and at the airport on my way out (again the Mexican vanilla with cookie dough).

YUM.

South Congress Cafe

February 2009

Nice and reasonable restaurant in the "SoCo" neighborhood in Austin. We showed up around 9pm and had about a 30 minute wait, but the staff was nice and we perched at their bar area, which is actually pretty big (looked like some were eating there too). Our group of six got a cute corner booth.

We weren't super hungry but were pretty happy with the small plates and appetizers. I had the special beef chili (yum) and a blackened beef dish with horseradish hash. We had several drinks, and wine. Amazingly our final bill was about $22 per person, not bad at all

http://www.southcongresscafe.com/

1600 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704
(512) 447-3905

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Maru Ichi

July 2008
Lunch

Pretty good ramen place in the Asian Fast Food Mall (Ranch 99 shopping center in Milpitas). It gets super crowded at lunch time so try before 11:45pm. After that they put your name down and you wait outside. I actually like their traditional ramen (miso, shoyu, etc) rather than their specialty black ramen.

Looks like they have another location in Mountain View on Castro as well.

530 Barber Lane, Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 434-5991

Monday, July 21, 2008

Homma's Brown Rice Sushi

July 2008
Take-out dinner

Total hole-in-a-wall sushi place off of California (take a left on Birch coming from El Camino, and it's on your right, but in a little alleyway). It's family run I think and just has a few tables inside and out. We ordered about 5 different rolls to go, and they told us about 35 minutes. So not speedy. But it was good. Brown rice in sushi is a first for me but was ok. Fairly reasonable too, $22 for five rolls and ikura.

*Cash only

*Per Yelp - Hours: Mon-Thu 5:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Tue 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Wed-Thu 12:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fri-Sat 12:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fri-Sat 5:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

2363 Birch St Ste B, Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 327-6118

Friday, July 18, 2008

Tortilla Heights

Dinner
July 2008

Just like Tortilla Flats in NYC, good Mexican, pitchers of margaritas and generally a good time.

www.tortillaheights.com

1750 Divisadero Street (between Bush St & Sutter St), San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 346-4531

Friday, June 27, 2008

Hot Pot City

Lunch wtih Becky
June 2008

So we came across Hot Pot City as we walked around the Asian fast food mall (otherwise known as Ranch 99 shopping center). Looked a little bit dark and not so many people, but intrigued and we went in.

We asked for a table and they asked us - spicy or normal soup? We were a little confused. So the way this place works is each table has a grill with a hot pot that you can fill with all normal, all spicy, or half and half soup. Around the pot is a flat surface that you can cook meat on (like Korean BBQ). And best part? Buffet. Sweet.

I was SO excited for this place, and totally psyched that it turns out Becky is a huge foodie too :) We went to the buffet bar - I loaded up a plate with marinated chicken, pork and beef spare ribs, and Becky got stuff for the soup - thin sliced beef, lamb, some veggies, noodles, dumplings, and two squids. Yup whole squid. Awesome. And we went back for more.

We later discovered they also have kimchi (alot of heat) and shaved ice for dessert.

And all for $9.99 per person.

*I am also a huge fan of their $3 charge for wasting food. All buffets should do that. As my water polo coach used to say, "get what you eat, eat what you get"

*Friendly waitress kindly told us that they are open from 11am til like 1am or something like that, and they have late night specials

http://www.hotpotcitymilpitas.com/

500 Barber Lane, Milpitas, CA 95035
(409) 428-0988

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Red Lantern

Dinner with Jon and Tris
May 2008

Right next to the Redwood City train station, this super trendy looking Asian restaurant was surprisingly speedy and reasonably priced ($15 per person, stuffed, without alcohol).

www.redlanternrwc.com

808 Winslow Street, Redwood City, CA 94063
(650) 369-5483

Thursday, May 8, 2008

La Morenita

Dinner

Little Mexican place across from Whole Foods. It was ok, pretty authentic but I didn't think it was spetacular. Pretty low key and inexpensive.

On Yelp

800 Emerson Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301
(650) 329-1727

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Pho Vi Hoa

March 2008
Dinner with Jill

Great Vietnamese pho place on corner of San Antonio and El Camino. Under $10 for a yummy and filling dish, yet light enough for after a workout
www.phovihoa.com

4546 El Camino Real Suite A12 Los Altos, CA 94022
(650) 947-1290

Friday, February 29, 2008

Messob Ethiopian Restaurant

Dinner with Rosabel

Low key place in Piedmont. Had never had Ethiopian food, but loved eating with my hands and the puffy bread, and they had a great combo plate for $18 that just stuffed the two of us.

4301 Piedmont Ave, Oakland, CA 94611
(510) 428-1122

Friday, January 25, 2008

Pho Queen Noodle House

Lunch

Super fast turnover, very yummy pho and other Vietnamese cuisine.

1133 Tasman Drive Sunnyvale, CA 94089
(408) 745-7753

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Banana Leaf

Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Cisco MBA Lunch

YUM, super good and often spicy Malay and Thai cuisine. Had some Rothi bread to start, and they brought us all this spicy broth with celery. I had red curry with prawns with rice. All in $12 per person including tax & tip, good lunch specials. You can make a reservation online if you have more than six in the party, and they are pretty militant about it. Loong lines if you go for lunch otherwise.

182 Ranch Drive, Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 719-9811

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Darda Seafood Restaurant

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Lunch with Gautam

Darda Seafood is in the amazing cheap Asian food mall in Milipitas on the west end of Cisco's campus. I think I was told it is Muslim Chinese food (correct me if I am wrong). Whatever it was, it was really good and pretty cheap for ALOT of food.

They start you off with a soup (think it was egg drop and corn) and tea. We ordered a lamb dish and moo shu shrimp and thin sesame bread. Whoa. Dishes are enormous, they had to clear off our condiments to make it fit on the table. Really good food though. The "thin" sesame bread was probably the size of a stuffed crust pizza and alone could have fed the two of us. Again really good though, and think the grand total was $30ish.

296 Barber Court, Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 433-5199

Taqueria Cancun

Saturday, October 13, 2007
Late night dinner with Lowell

Best, hot (spicy) burritos and quesadilla ever!

Yelp review.

2288 Mission Street (between 18th St & 19th St), San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 252-9560

Bechelli's

Sunday, October 7, 2007
Brunch with Lowell

Cute little diner-esque place on Chestnut near Scott. Had an amazing artery clogging Italian omelette, which was basically a lasagna with eggs instead of pasta. YUM. Fantastic breakfast potatoes too, I would go back just for that. Lowell had a much healthier avocado and cheese omelette that was pretty good too.

2346 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 346-1801