(650) 873-8880Parking: street parking
Last Visited: April 27, 2012
Food: 2 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Service: 1 to 2 stars
Price: $ to $$
Cherrie told me about this new restaurant that had opened up on Grand Avenue and how it was serving Hong Kong style American food. What that means is that you get a mix of Chinese dishes with things like baked spaghetti, chicken cooked in a cream sauce and served over rice, or the ever popular diced ham with macaroni in soup. These are all classic HK style American dishes.
When I saw Lee's Cafe's menu, it was pretty standard in terms of what I was expecting, so I made an effort to go check it out.
On one side of the restaurant is the buffet offerings which includes standards like hot and sour soup, egg flower soup, noodles, fried rice, and typical entrees like beef with broccoli and sweet and sour pork. You can purchase a single item in a standard sized box or order two entrees with rice, among other choices.
On the other side of the restaurant is regular seating where you wait to be seated. It's a brightly lit cafe that looks pretty standard. Newly remodeled, it's clean and bright.
We were promptly seated and given menus. We received hot tea which was fairly flavorless. While the hostess was efficient, she and the other staff members weren't particularly warm. Each plate we ordered came with a bowl of soup. I have no idea what the soup was though - it contained frozen peas, frozen carrots, and frozen potatoes. These were in a starchy soup that had a smooth consistency and a flavor like cream of chicken, but I still don't know what it was.
- Dry Fried Beef Chow Fun - A square plate arrived with chow fun, bean sprouts, beef, and sliced onions. In general, this dish wasn't bad - in fact, it redeemed the entire meal. I would give it two to three stars because the chow fun was cooked properly and not sticking together. The bean sprouts could have been cooked just a touch more to be a little less crunchy. The beef was a little over-marinated so the texture wasn't quite right; it also lacked flavor. This dish was okay and I would eat it again even though the meat could be better. $6.95
- Korean Style Beef Short Rib - This dish came with garlic bread and offered a choice of rice or spaghetti. Let's start with the short rib. The short rib itself was okay, but it was by no means what you would expect when you eat Korean style short ribs. The sauce was just a basic brown sauce, not at all authentic. The broccoli, sliced carrots, and frozen corn was okay, but just boiled - nothing special. The spaghetti was very overcooked (soft) and the sauce was much too sweet for my taste. It seemed to be ketchup-based instead of homemade. The garlic bread came more than ten minutes after the main dish was served. I bit into it only to find it dry and lacking in flavor. The first word that came to my mind was 'sawdust'. Just look at it - that photo speaks a lot. One star. $8.50
Service was fairly lacking, and only when it came time to receive the bill did we actually hear words of thanks and checking in to see whether or not we needed more tea. One would think that when the garlic bread was brought out so late in the meanl, that that would have been an excellent opportunity to check on us and see how our food was, but it was just plopped down at our table without a word.
I feel a bit like I was eating mystery food - mystery soup, unknown spaghetti sauce, and something that should never be called garlic bread. If you go to Lee's Cafe, stick to the Chinese food.
