D Cafe - Chinese, Daly City

137 D St, Daly City CA 94014
(415) 347-7168
Parking: in the lot across the street after 3pm or other nearby parking lot
Hours: Mon-Sat 9am-7pm

Last Visited: September 7, 2023

Food: 3 to 4 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Service: 3 to 4 stars
Price: $$  

D Cafe, located on D Street in Daly City near the Colma BART station, just opened up about a month ago.  We had called in a takeout order for what seemed to be their signature items, and while I was chatting with Winnie, who was working the front counter, she told me these are what they recommend as their best dishes.  

The cafe is newly remodeled and has three tables inside and one table on the outside.  The space is pretty small, but if you want to watch their big screen tv, they were showing some Chinese variety show on it.  They offer a variety of smoothies and boba milk teas, but you should know it's not specializing in these items.  Winnie offered me an original boba milk tea to try and I can confirm their tea is strong, but the boba, while ok, has a tendency to stick together making it a bit difficult to break up using the straw alone.  If I were to order the milk tea, I would get it plain without the boba.  One unique thing on their menu is the breakfast combos - you can get dishes like instant noodle soup with spam and egg or a congee with Hong Kong coffee or Hong Kong style milk tea included.  Add a dollar for iced versions of the drinks.  

- House Signature Hainanese Chicken over Rice - While the menu lists this as Hainanese chicken, compared to the authentic version, this doesn't quite hit the mark fully, but it's still a good poached chicken and the ginger sauce that accompanies the chicken is still pretty addictive - something has been added that makes you go back for more and it's a great accompaniment.  The chicken is a mixture of dark and white meat and poached until tender - you can see from the photo that there isn't any red in the bone and when you taste the meat, it's not overcooked in the slightest.  The skin is 'crisp' as it would be described by the Chinese word - what that means is that it has a bit of bounce/toothsomeness versus being too soft.  The rice is lightly seasoned and it comes with several stalks of cooked yau choy.  All of this is good, but typical Hainan chicken comes with chili sauce and cucumber garnishes, so it's close, but not quite.  Good nevertheless and worth trying. $14.95

- Braised Beef Stew & Lettuce Clay Pot - Between the two dishes, this was my favorite.  If you were expecting just chunks of beef stew, this might not be to your preference, but I appreciated the mix of tendons and stew pieces, all cooked until tender without being soggy or feeling like it was overcooked. Lettuce lined the bottom of the dish and the stew included celery and carrot slices.  It wasn't too salty and the vegetables added that little bit of freshness to contrast the richness of the sauce and meat.  Leftovers eaten the next day were equally good as day one.  I would definitely get this again and recommend it to others.   $17.95

I'm not sure which dish it came with, but I was also given a container of fuzzy melon soup that contained soy beans, a pork bone, and small pieces of carrot.  If you're accustomed to Cantonese style food, you'll appreciate the soup broth.

Considering that all of these dishes were well packed for the ride home and they give you sturdy forks and spoons, I feel comfortable getting takeout again and not worrying about the condition of the food not being up to snuff due to the travel time.  I expect to be back to try other dishes on their menu including comfort food favorites like wonton noodles, available with or without beef stew and dry-fried string beans.