Oct 12

Wa Wa Restaurant – Long Beach, CA

406 E First St A

Long Beach, CA 90802

Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

Located on a fairly unassuming block in Long Beach, Wa Wa restaurant serves up simple Chinese-American dishes at great prices. In an effort to eat fewer carbs, I stumbled upon this establishment desiring no rice. There are a few tables inside the restaurant, but many people just ordered takeout.

Today, I decided to order the 3-item entree plate and one chicken skewer. I asked for the 3-item plate without rice thinking that they would just not fill up the box all the way. I was wrong. Without rice, the entire takeout container was filled with my three entrees of choice: broccoli beef, orange chicken, and teriyaki chicken. The broccoli beef had good tasting broccoli, but the beef did not taste fresh. The orange chicken had a thick hard breading, but the flavor was OK. The teriyaki chicken was tender for the most part, but the dish was not fresh. The chicken skewer had some chewy parts and was a bit dry, but was seasoned OK.

Overall, Wa Wa Restaurant serves up the basic Chinese-American food that people have grown accustomed to at excellent prices. However, quality and freshness were not that great for some of the items I chose. If I wanted Chinese food in the area, I would not mind coming back to Wa Wa, but my expectations still stay very low.

Oct 09

Tandoori Nights

1420 E Roseville Pkwy #155

Roseville, CA 95661

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Located in a busy plaza in Roseville, Tandoori Nights serves up traditional Pakistani and Indian Halal food. The restaurant is mostly self-service with a walk-up ordering counter, and stations to fill your own water, grab utensils, and grab your own sauces. We reviewed the menus available near the register and also used a Yelp check-in for a free cup of chai tea.

Today, we decided to order the chicken seekh kabob, beef seekh kabob, chicken tikka masala, garlic nan, and chicken nan. The chicken seekh kabob was moderately dry and had tons of herbs and seasoning inside. The seasoning was also quite spicy. The chicken seekh kabob started to get to me after eating it for a while. The beef seekh kabob was juicy and flavorful with similar spices like the chicken, but was less spicy. Two different sauces were also provided with the kabobs. One sauce was like a cilantro lime, which was quite refreshing. The other was like a tzatziki sauce, which did not have a lot of flavor, but helps with the heat. The chicken tikka masala came with a side of rice. The chicken was tender and juicy and the tikka masala sauce was delicious. The garlic nan did not have a lot of garlic, but you can make out the garlic flavors. The chicken nan was interesting because it had some of the similar spices as the seekh kabobs, but you can’t really find many chicken pieces. The nan still tasted good, especially when dipped into the tikka masala.

Overall, Tandoori Nights serves up some tasty Pakistani and Indian food, but the flavor of the spices were not very desirable to my palette. The food did come fairly quickly after ordering, and the server was nice. Prices are a bit on the high side considering how much food you actually receive. There may have been only 6 pieces of chicken in the tikka masala dish. If you like Indian food, then you will probably like Tandoori Nights if you are used to the spices.

Oct 05

Gobi Mongolian Grill – San Jose

1035 E Brokaw Rd Ste 20

San Jose, CA 95131

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Located conveniently outside a fitness center in San Jose, Gobi Mongolian Grill serves up an all you can eat a feast of meat, veggies, and noodles cooked right in front of you on a large circular griddle. Unlike other Mongolian BBQ places I have been to, this one actually tells you to take two bowls per trip instead of just one. I was able to use one bowl for all of my meat and the other bowl for veggies and noodles. The meat selection was great because it included lamb in addition to beef, pork, chicken, and hot dog. There were plenty of veggies available including corn. When it came to sauces, Gobi has a few suggestions on what to use, but you are free to flavor in any way you see fit. While preparing the ingredients for the two bowls, a server prepared a table and provided us with drinks. The cooks are friendly and quick on turning your uncooked food into a delicious Mongolian bowl. On another wall, fried wonton skins and rice are available for self-service. The noodles tasted good, but even thought I put in a lot of sauces per the suggestions on the menu, the food was still a bit bland. The meat was mostly tasty with the lamb tasting the best, but the hot dogs seemed to be a cheap option and the beef was not very tender.

Overall, if you are craving Mongolian BBQ, then Gobi Mongolian Grill will do the job. You are able to consistently return to the line to work on your next bowl of noodles. Service is pretty good because they get your table ready, but you still return to the entrance counter to pay. Prices are reasonable for the bay area. The food is not breathtaking, but it’s not bad either.

Sep 21

KoJa Kitchen – San Jose

1085 E Brokaw Rd #10

San Jose, CA 95131

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Located in a busy plaza conveniently across from a gym, KoJa Kitchen serves up Korean Japanese Asian fusion from their food truck roots. Featured on the Food Network, their food truck fame does bring a draw to their recently-opened brick and mortar restaurant. When we arrived in the restaurant, we found the line and copies of their menu. There was only one group ahead of us while we reviewed the menu.

Today, we decided to order the beef koja, kamikaze fries, umami fries, and strawberry mango mint lemonade slushie. The beef koja was tasty and came with an ample amount of marinated beef, a small slice of pineapple, and some lettuce all sandwiched between two rice buns. I did not taste much of the garlic flavor in the buns nor any red sauce, but the combination of flavors did taste good together. Both of the fry dishes seemed to have fresh toppings with not as fresh fries. The fries were not crispy and were not hot. The kamikaze fries included finely minced beef that tasted extremely marinated, but I did not see much of any kimchi inside. The fries did go well with the beef Japanese mayo. The umami fries consisted of several chunks of tasty pork and tasted a bit sweet. The umami fries seemed to have more flavor than the kamikaze fries. The slushie had a strong minty taste, and you can make out the strawberry and lemonade, but only a slight mango taste.

Overall, KoJa Kitchen serves up some nice fusion dishes centered around their rice buns and topped fries all at reasonable prices, but the quality of fries fell short. All of the meats came marinated and full of flavor, but each dish fell short of expectations from reading the menu. If you like Korean and or Japanese food, you should definitely give KoJa Kitchen a try even with their shortcomings.

Sep 18

Sevens Bar & Grill – Milpitas, CA

777 Bellew Dr

Milpitas, CA 95035

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Located inside the Crowne Plaza in Milpitas, Sevens serves up a breakfast buffet for around $20 or complimentary as part of your stay in certain packages. After waiting for a couple of minutes at the entrance, I was seated by a hostess who took my drink order. I opted for a glass of orange juice while I departed for the buffet. Upon arrival, I found some sliced pound cake, bananas, cereals, milk, and toast. On the back counter, there was some fruit, yogurt, and hard-boiled eggs. On top of hot plates next to the fruit, there were trays of home-style potatoes, “assorted dim sum”, cheddar eggs, Italian sausage, and bacon.

On my first trip to the buffet, the hot food items were pretty much cleaned out. The home-style potatoes tasted OK, but needed some ketchup, which I had to ask for. The “assorted dim sum” was just a meat-filled deep-fried wonton, which tasted a bit bland, but was edible. The cheddar eggs did not seem to be firm enough and had a lot of give. You can definitely tell the eggs came from a carton too, and I still couldn’t really taste the cheddar. The Italian sausage tasted a bit off and was not flavorful. Hopefully the links were cooked all the way. The bacon was not very crispy and was more crunchy instead. On my second trip to the buffet line, the potatoes, Italian sausage, and bacon were all refilled, so I did get some more potatoes and sausage. Although this food came from a fresh batch, they still tasted the same. After I finished that plate, I did go back to see if there was any good fruit left, but I did not see anything I wanted. I did revisit the buffet the next day and was happy to find some new items and a stocked hot food area. In lieu of the home-style potatoes were hash browns and in lieu of the breakfast sausage was Italian sausage. Unfortunately, the food tasted like it had been left out for a while and was not fresh. I did find a salmon and cheese platter in the cold fruit area. The smoked salmon was cold, but tasted very fishy.

Overall, Sevens serves up an adequate breakfast buffet for hotel guests, but I would certainly not spend $20 for the meal. I did notice a waffle station there, but it was not in operation. Also, some guests were able to order other items from the back like a smoked salmon with cheese platter, but I was not sure if that was part of the buffet. Service was OK since my original plate was taken away, but I was not offered a refill in my juice, and they took my fork away from my first trip. If you are staying at the hotel and have a breakfast voucher, by all means give Sevens a try, but I would not make a special trip out here to try it.

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