Mochi Bubble Tea Cafe Review ON Thursday, May 2, 2013 AT 10:30 PM
Its sushicat~. Today I went singing at karaoke with a friend for 5 hours! We felt hungry afterwards and decided to go to Mochi Bubble Tea Cafe. We arrived at around 7pm (thurs), and it was relatively quiet with a few tables of people around and tv screens showing basketball and hockey games.
I ordered the Ginseng Herbal Hot Pot ($8.99). They have a lot of chicken which I appreciated and the soup was alright. The soup tasted lighter compared to the ones at other bubble tea cafes like Pearl Castle or True'stea (less ginseng?). They also don't provide small appetizers like the other bubble tea cafes.
My friend ordered the Schezuan Spicy Hot Pot ($8.99). It contained a few beef slices, fish tofu, other fish balls, tofu and cabbage. The soup wasn't super spicy but it was decently spicy. It was more spicy near the end, so you should stir well for the spice to be incorporated everywhere.
Rating
Food: 3/5
Atmosphere: 4/5 Also has free wifi.
Service: 3.5/5 The staff were nice and polite. It wasn't a busy evening, but nonetheless I appreciate decent service.
Price: 3/5
Overall: I think Mochi Cafe is like the other bubble tea cafes because of similar food items so it might be hard for them to compete with due to their location as well as the special-ness of their food since its common or can be done better (with the small appetizers) in other places. (I do like how they have special deals everyday but I didn't look at it). It is a decent eat place and I like the quietness on this non busy evening. Next time if I come, I want to try their creme brule/tiramisu. The shooters and mochi sodas also look interesting to try.
Labels: beef, chicken, fish balls, ginseng, hot pot, mochi bubble tea cafe, rice, spicy, szechuan, tofu
Point Zero Four Fusion 零點串吧 Review ON Sunday, April 28, 2013 AT 12:48 AM
This was just a few days ago after work and going to Point Zero Four Fusion with my coworkers.
I went to Point Zero for hot pot before. I can say that for hot pot, it tasted like anywhere else except if you get a really good broth and sauce. And to expect really slow service if there are already a few tables with people because usually there's only 1 or 2 servers. A lot of the reviews I read reflect on the hot pot but there are also szechuan style dishes that should be taken note of.
I don't exactly have the dishes names so I'll just describe it.
Here, we got the ..squid. It had a nice flavoring to it with soysauce and xo.
We also shared the eggplant with chili and potatoes. I don't like eggplants but the sauce for it helped mask the taste (but not entirely overpowering it). Overall, the sauce made the dish enjoyable to eat but it wasn't spicy - it had the kind of slightly sweet chili sauce. Its nice as a vegetarian dish.
This dish has pork, cucumber and green onions. You would use the white dough skin and put a bit of everything into it, fold it up and then eat it. I liked this a lot because it tastes refreshing with the cucumber and serves as a nice snack.
This dish has lamb with onions and a lot of cumin (or hua jiao?). The lamb along with the cumin tasted very strong although not spicy in this dish. It was a decent size and probably would taste good with rice but we didn't order any.
This is one of my favorite kind of dishes to order from sze chuan style dishes. It had pig ears, beef slices, tripe etc. It wasn't spicy though (which I love!) but it still tasted really good with the parsley on top. I can't really describe the sauce taste, I guess its like flavorful, herbal influenced with cumin/hua jiao.
We also had chicken and pork skewers which I forgot to take a pic of and they were peppered with really spicy hua jiao. It was the spiciest and almost all of us couldn't finish it. We did but with lots of water and I had a coke.
Rating
Food: 4/5 I was surprised that their dishes were not bad although I wish some dishes were spicier.
Atmosphere: 3/5
Service: 2.5/5 This second time I went, I see the same lady with the same tired and solemn face serving everyone. I think she only understands mandarin too since my friend switched to mandarin after she didn't say anything. She doesn't smile and just plops your food on and moves on to her next task (kinda feel bad since she does everything as the only waiter atm). There was another guy server who came later that had a nicer attitude but I suppose hes not there all the time (especially the busier hours).
Price: N.A/5 Sorry! I can't comment on the prices, because this meal was paid for!
Overall: I think it was a nice experience to try their dishes instead of the hot pot (although I did wanted hot pot) but I don't think I would come back again for it because of service. I can probably go to the same or better quality food with better service. Actually, after my first time there with the hot pot, I wasn't going to come back but since I was with coworkers and they wanted to go...
Labels: beef, chinese, eggplant, lamb, Point Zero Four Fusion, pork, potatoes, Sichuan pepper, spicy, squid, szechuan, 零點串吧
Hanok Korean Restaurant ON Sunday, March 31, 2013 AT 5:56 PM
Helllooo, its sushicat here. I went to some food places in the last few days but I haven't been blogging about it (LOL, already given up on this?).
So, firstly on Tuesday - March 26, I went with a friend to Hanok Korean Restaurant. From the outside, it looked small but there were more rooms than I expected upon entering. It has a traditional setting with wooden furniture and walls. We went around 4pm so there wasn't the lunch special that I've been hearing about, but oh well.
Of course, we are greeted with the usual banchan but particularly with sweet potatoes, bean sprouts, kimchi and the seaweed. For some reason, I really like these white plates they were served in. And they are refillable.
Without the lunch special, the items were pricey with individual meals such as the bibimbap, the soups, or the noodles at ~$13. I was pretty sure the bibimbap would taste good, so I wanted to try something different and got the Flying Fish Roe with Vegetables, Rice. As presented here, it looks really colorful and I especially love how they added bonito flakes on top.
After I stirred it all up, the different flavors between the fish roe and the vegetables created a nice flavor that I enjoyed. Some of the vegetables were sweet and there was the sour radish or pickle?
My friend ordered the Kimchi Stew Pot. It was a bit bigger than we had thought which was cool and it had the usual vermicelli noodles inside, the kimchi vegetables, the enoki mushrooms, etc. However, my friend and I both agreed that it wasn't as spicy as we would have liked it or maybe there was a lack of spiciness in it (perhaps we could've asked for it to be more spicy?). It came with a bowl of rice too, but overall it was still filling.
When the bill arrived, they gave us these oranges as a treat. I wonder how they had cut it, you can't see it but underneath the oranges, the peels were kind of in a spiral (LOL and who has time to do that). Anyways, it was a nice touch and I love the plate too~!
Rating
Food: 4/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
Service: 5/5 - BUT, there was only one other table around and there was only one waiter so I suppose the service was more attentive than usual.
Price: 3/5
Overall: I want to come back for the lunch special ~! Otherwise it is pricey (for me at least) but the food was good.
Labels: banchan, fish roe, hanok, kimchi, korean, rice, spicy
