Sunday, April 29, 2012

Lee's Cafe - Chinese Cafe, South San Francisco

398 Grand Ave, South San Francisco CA 94080
(650) 873-8880
Parking: 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.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Sinugba - Filipino, Daly City

2055 Gellert  Blvd, Suite 5, Daly City CA 94015
(650) 878-3591
Parking: in shopping center parking lot
http://sinugba.webs.com/

Last Visited: March 24, 2012

Food: 3 to 4 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Service: 3 stars
Price: $$ to $$$
Audrey recommended Sinugba to me and said that I had to try to sisig, so of course, I had to check it out.  Located in the back of a strip mall, it's easy to pass by Sinugba and not know that it's there.  Look for a sign on the main street in the island, then turn into the shopping center and drive around to the rear.

Singuba means grilled.  The small restaurant has dark red walls with brightly colored paintings on one side of the restaurant.  Yellow tablecloths are covered with plexiglass.  The windows bring in a lot of natural light.  From the dining area, you can see into the kitchen where you can see the chefs preparing the delicious homestyle food. 

The menu has a lot of choices, but I always enjoy a good pancit, so it wasn't too hard to decide what to try.  We were promptly seated by the friendly owner.  After ordering, he brought us water and warm plates.  Food came in a reasonable amount of time and super hot in temperature.

- Sizzling Augusto's Sisig - Chopped crunchy pork belly, brunoise onions, lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic and spices are served on a sizzling plate.  Two lemon slices were served on top.  I squeezed the lemon over the dish and the smell of the citrus added to the already wonderful scents coming from the plate.  The mixture of textures were delightful and this was great served over the rice that I had ordered.  The onions were not quite cooked through which gave the dish and extra bite to it.  Yummy - this is one of their signature dishes and worth ordering.  $12.95

- Crispy Fried Chicken - Four pieces of chicken, all dark meat, is fried until golden brown.  I really enjoyed the crispy skin and wish I could just eat a plateful of crispy skin.  Unfortunately, I thought the meat was a little on the dry side.  $5.95

- Pancit Bihon - Chicken is cooked with slices of celery, cabbage, carrots, and rice noodles.  A wedge of lemon is also included.  The portion is generous and the noodle dish is flavorful.  I thought it was good, but maybe priced a little higher than it needed to be.  This is good home cooking.   $8.95

- Steam Rice - Pretty standard.  Cup $2, Bowl $5
While the service was friendly, I would have liked to received water earlier.  It was nice to receive warm plates, but by the time the food arrived, the plates were cold - if that were timed better, it would make the gesture of warming plates worthwhile.  The food at Singuba definitely falls in the category of comfort food.  Prices for the sisig and pancit could be reduced slightly for it to be a better value, but I enjoyed the flavors.  Portions are large and taste good the next day too.