Broccoli & Chocolate

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Review: House of Nanking

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House of Nanking is a Chinese place over here in North Beach (technically Chinatown). The story is, apparently, that it was just a regular hole-in-the-wall Chinese place in a sea of a million Chinese places (just on the outskirts of Chinatown), but that this one was the place. Like, you know how there’s 50 billion restaurants in the City, but there’s only lines out the door at a proverbial handful? It was one of those. So they spruced the place up (a little bit), donned a multi-colored sign, and continued to attract lines down the block and guidebook tributes.

Salt and pepper shrimp with mushrooms

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Review: China (the Country)

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I went to China. Hi, I’m back.

I ate food there. And I didn’t get any food poisoning as I am wont to do on vacation. Yeay! Even though I can’t exactly provide the same restaurant reviewing service about places in Beijing, I can still show some juicy pics and tell tales of some of the neato stuff I ate while I was there. And because I can, I will.

Picture of food so you’ll keep reading.

I will start by saying that we mainly ate at “Western” style restaurants in Beijing. This is not to say that the food at these restaurants isn’t Chinese or that it’s not authentic — it just means that the facility operates in a Western style. Typically, these restaurants are large, and you’re seated at a table by a hostess. The menu is typically very expansive and full of pictures. Your order is taken by a waiter/waitress. Sometimes this person speaks some English, often not so much. The pictures are helpful for this. Your food is brought to you and is typically meant to be shared among the people at your table. You use chop sticks. The facilities are clean and the food is of high quality like you might expect in, say, San Francisco.

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Review: China Best Restaurant

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Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value: 4/5
Times Visited:  A million   ♦   Will I Return?:  A million more
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China Best HaywardChina Best is just up the hill from Cal State East Bay (formerly Cal State Hayward), up on the hill in Hayward.  It’s in a small shopping center with a quickie mart, a Subway, a pizza joint, a dry cleaners, and a rotating variety of relatively unmemorable shops.  China Best is by far the greatest thing about this shopping center; I’ve been coming here since they opened their doors in 1999…. 

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Review: Chef’s Experience

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Atmosphere: 4/5   ♦   Service: 5/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value: 4/5
Times Visited: A few   ♦   Will I Return?: Yes Indeed
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Chef’s Experience China Bistro is one of Hayward’s newest chic restaurants stationed bravely on Foothill Boulevard near A Street.  They’ve cleverly revamped this rather large space to accommodate a stunningly modern design, with elegant and tasteful decor that is a complete surprise when entering from the dingy parking lot behind the run-down shopping center where CE is located.

Let’s face it, downtown Hayward needs a face lift.  It’s gotten better over the past few decades – B Street can actually gather a crowd (that isn’t necessarily gang related) on a Saturday night – but overall, the decrepit storefronts that line Foothill, Main, and Mission and many of the cross streets aren’t terribly desirable destinations for most folks, especially the younger crowd.  And while many businesses have tried to change this, only few have succeeded like Chef’s Experience has…. 

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