Kapok Seafood Restaurant

Ordered take out from here recently and took it back home. Good mix of meat dishes and vegetarian ones as well including salt and pepper pork, spinach with egg, fried tofu with mustard greens, scallops with celery, and others. No complaints, just another night with the family where we wanted to eat familiar food from the comfort of our home. I thought the dishes were on the smaller side, but with one dish per person we had leftovers so it’s not so bad I guess.

Terrible awful rude service. They literally ignore you and seem to take great pride in discriminating against anybody that doesn’t speak Chinese.

This restaurant seems very popular, it was packed with Chinese families.
I was expected more.
Service is super slow, I almost felt that they are ignoring us intentionally. It took 10 min to come to get the order, another 15 min until food comes on the table. We ordered fried rice, which came in the end of eating time.
Then forever until get a check.
We ordered soup, tofu dish and fried rice. Not impressed at all.
But mostly, the reason of this bad review is about their poor service.

I haven’t eaten here in a long time because of the totally indifferent service. I heard that they changed hands, so I decided to give Kapok another try this past weekend. Food was pretty good and the service was adequate. My only problem was that they were out of two out of the eight dishes I wanted to order, which was a bit disappointing. In addition, they advertised a poached whole chicken dish for $ 12 on placards posted on the tables. But when we ordered it, they said that was only good during the week. Sure didn’t say that on the placards.
Prices were pretty good here. Street parking only.

4 stars for the price, 3.5 stars for the food, rests rooms & service typical for a Chinatown like restaurant…. They definitely deserve better than 2.5 stars, bad rap

Looking for cheap and decent dim sum??? THIS IS IT! For a little over $ 2, you can get whatever dim sum your heart desires! Siu mai? Check! BBQ pork buns? Check! Shrimp rice noodles? Check!
I believe the dim sum is the same price 7 days a week! For the price, I think the dim sum is pretty decent quality. I remember the last time I came here which was probably a few years ago. The dim sum was $ 1.99 back then, but it tasted horrible! I was pleasantly surprised when I came back. The dim sum has definitely gone up, but not the best. Taste-​wise, it’s pretty good for the price you pay!
Cons? The food does come out slowly and the cart doesn’t get to all the tables. You need a good spot to be able to get first dibs on what comes out of the kitchen. Parking is a little difficult since there’s only street parking.
Lastly, the only thing that ruined my experience here was that another customer was smoking inside the restaurant! I believe he was drunk, but no one confronted him about it even when we complained.

Most amazing authentic Chinese food I have ever had. I think the low stars are from people who expect bland Americanized Chinese. This place is amazing. Can’t wait to come back and keep trying the exotic offerings. The staff is very friendly and great service.

Last week I had lamb and Chinese broccoli. The broccoli was good, but the lamb was bland and flavorless. The server was nice. This week I just picked up some fried prawns, they were great! Unfortunately, they overcharged me, and the server was fairly rude.

This is the most disgusting food I’ve tried in Alameda. I ordered the vanilla shrimp plate and it doesn’t have any flavor, the cream totally taste like eggs, I don’t understand why the name is vanilla since is not sweet at all, the spring rolls also were so bad. I ended eating just the steam rice.
Can’t believe I wasted $ 25 for nothing. I wish I can get my money back.

— THE FOOD
My family used to frequent here a lot because of the cheap food but cheap does not mean good. Everything I had during dim sum was way too oily. We ordered a variety of dumplings, fried dim sum, vegetables, and lobster yee mein (noodles). ALL the dumplings had too thick of a dough. The xiao long bao I had was rock hard, had no soup, and was oversteamed. The only dumpling I thought was acceptable was the chive dumplings because they included a piece of shrimp in it. All the fried foods were drowned in oil. My plate quickly formed a layer of fat and msg on top. They might as well have deep fried the vegetables because it was so oily and disgusting. Finally, the noodles BARELY had any lobster on it. If I had assembled all the pieces together, I wouldn’t have had even half a lobster and we paid $ 16 for this?
— THE ENVIRONMENT
It straight up stank in there. When you sit at the back of the restaurant, you see and smell every bit of disgusting that happens. Floors are incredibly sticky and dirty. For a place that has been open for just a few years, all the tables and chairs seemed like they were old and worn. The worst part was when I saw the manager or owner accidentally knock down some sauce dishes onto their nasty carpet and pick them right back up to place them back on the shelf for future use.

Had dinner there about 2 weeks ago on a warm Saturday night in Alameda. I was told it had recently reopened under a new name but when I walked in, I saw the same «management» from several years ago. I should have known that it would portend the same bad food, but oh well.
It’s somewhat rare to strikeout on all 12 dishes ordered from a combination set menu of 8 dishes with an extra 4 ordered ala-​carte, but we came close with 10. Maybe I don’t eat out as often as other people. All dishes were pretty small and quite frankly, there was not enough to eat even though 5 of the 12 people at our table would be considered light eaters.
Some comments on what I recall we had:
walnut shrimp — about 12 small shrimp and walnuts… more walnuts than shrimp
clams in black bean sauce — clams smelled bad, looks like they were spoiled
stir fried crab with ginger — this came at the end of the meal. The waitstaff had asked us if we wanted to start with the dessert (sweet taro root and coconut milk soup) but we told them that the crab never arrived. Either they forgot or they tried to shortchange us. The dish was hastily put together and came out as a dark oily stir fried mess with leftover crab pieces. We should have told them to forget about it.
salt pepper pork chops — small portion and so much salt that it was inedible.
beef and mushrooms — ok, but not much of either ingredient, but probably one of the better dishes that night.
stir fried mustard greens (gai choy) — large branches served in a gummy, thick sauce. I ate it because I needed the fiber,
roasted quail — dry and overcooked, spent too much time in the fryer.
seafood claypot — more claypot than seafood, gummy in consistency and much too sweet.
cold chicken (wong moh gai) — ok,
sweet taro root soup for dessert — so much sugar added that it was inedible, tasted weird too.
The place is small and the ceilings are short and slanted, thereby focusing the noise from the typically loud Cantonese conversations emanating from 10 or so tables back into the dining area. I could not hear myself talk. Hygeine is quite bad, but I expected as much considering the quality of the food.
Service is what you would normally expect from a place like this.
I wouldn’t consider my standards for Cantonese food in the Bay Area to be very high, but I really think that there wasn’t a single good dish that came out that night. Not sure if the kitchen had a bad night or if that is just how the place is.
For better Chinese food, go up Webster Street to East Ocean Seafood. Prices are higher but the quality is better (Not sure what the Unilocal reviews say about the place these days).
Better yet, have dinner across the street at Café Jolie. Sure it’s a French bistro, but on that lovely Alameda evening, I could hear live jazz playing inside as we walked past it on our way to the car. I couldn’t help but wonder how much better our dinner experience would have been had we dined there instead.

I had dim sum during February around Chinese New Years here because popular East Ocean had tons of people waiting outside that restaurant waiting to get in. There wasn’t a line here at Kapok, but the restaurant was pretty full. The seating arrangements are horrendous. It was really difficult for the waitresses to bring the dim sum selections to some of the tables. Luckily, we were seated pretty close to where the food came out, so we definitely got our fill. Prices were low, selection was good, and flavor was was good.
I had dinner here last weekend, and we got the set price $ 60 dinner (paying $ 5 extra for crab instead of lobster). Again, seating was horrible and the owner/​manager had us shift our chairs and table a few times during our dinner so other people could maneuver around. That’s ridiculous! The food was good though and the portions were good. One of the best peking spareribs I’ve had!

Why not be the contrarian sometime? We should all think for ourselves and judge based on our own experiences AND expectations. Correction. They do take credit card. Some review said cash only. I believe my credit card transaction would say otherwise.
For the non initiated, this is not a Chinese American restaurant. It serves Chinese American food, but only American would order them. My folks have been coming here since they first opened. They told me that the current owner bought the ownership back from her three partners, she was not so happy with the way they ran it and took it over and remade the restaurant, the three ex partners were all men. She had single handed converted this restaurant that often did not have very many patrons to be one of the most popular Cantonese restaurant in the east bay.
I will go back to my earlier statement. This is not a Chinese American restaurant. Which means, unless you have lived, visited and dined in a typical cantonese restaurant, both in Canton and Hong Kong, you are not going to find it «charming». Food comes when it comes, they usually arrive fast. They are Cantonese dishes (so don’t go and order Kung Pao) and the specials are written on the wall. It’s got the usual hodgepodge of miscellaneous reformed dishes but don’t do that either. Get the authentic stuff. As in seafood. Get fish, crab, and shrimp, clay pots and vegetable dishes. If you have visited Canton recently, get the salted pork bones with mustard green clay pot, it’s better here than Canton, and if you are more on the vegetarian friendly side, order greens. They are very good. Venture into a bit more uncharted territory, or try to follow that offal movement, make sure to order lamb intestines stews and pork stomach. Both are good. In fact, the lamb intestine dish is not that different than the Irish version of it, just different sauces.
On wechat, my high school friends blog about their food expeditions all the way from Guangdong daily. Cantonese love their food. I watch what they eat and order those. I’m a quick learner that way.
It’s not for the faint of heart. Don’t go and use the bathroom or order that fried rice dish. Order off the wall menu. It’s an adventure. You must have an open mind, to eat here. And quite frankly, if you are an American, or American Chinese, chances are, you are going to be disappointed. It’s not for you. Really not. You will find the food marginal and services barely passable. But that’s not why I go there. I go there and order food my folks love to eat when they go back to Canton. It makes them happy.
The only other Cantonese restaurant that would make my folks happier? China First on 5^th and Clement.

HORRIBLE. I would leave 0 stars but Unilocal does not allow that.
— 1 star for being filthy, tables are sticky and the plates have dried food stuck on them. Chopsticks are dirty as well.
— 1 star because they only accept cash
— 1 star for rude waiters and only accommodating Chinese speaking customers
— 1 dim sum was cold and mushy, some food was uncoo
— 1 for the manager being rude and yelling at my friend and I for not leaving a tip because of the horrible customer service. She forced us to leave a tip.

This is a typical Chinese dim sum spot.

DIRTY AS FUCK.
Waitress dug her nose and ears. The manager dug her nose, brushed her hair, picked her teeth, and sneezed on her hands. Calling the health department tomorrow. I normally don’t write reviews but now I just fucking have to. They serve every dish without washing their booger filled hands.
Do NOT eat here without a strong stomach and health/​life insurance.

Dear Kapok,
I.er. am I saying your name right? Kapok?
Isn’t that the sound a rooster makes?
anyways, I finally got to check you out!
1.99 Dim Sum! I don’t even like dim sum that much, but that’s a decent deal and the best one out there. I heard about you from others, so I had always meant to try you out and so I did.
I walked in. It was like walking into Chinatown. Very good sign.
I’m not Chinese but all the ladies kept talking chinese to me, another good sign.
Saw the dirty tanks full of catfish and other sea creatuers. Ah yes authentic.
No one bothered to give us a menu or gave any attention to us. Well i guess that’s expected and maybe a good sign? I don’t know.
After sitting there awkwardly for a while, we decided what the heck and go grabbed a paper menu from the front. Unlike other dim sum places you didnt’ have a list of dimsum for us to just mark down what we want. That I wish you had as it’s immensely helpful when you don’t speak a lick of chinese. But I’ve had dim sum enough that I’m not gonna be sucked into just getting cheapo stuff off the cart. So we had to keep pointing to the menu and asking for specific dishes. It was a huge hassle and felt bad asking for more than one or two things at a time, but oh well we managed.
Luckily one of the older ladies seem to take pity on us and was patient enough to stop for a few seconds to look at all the stuff we pointing to. There were periods were we weren’t quite sure if our dim sum choices were going to come out or not, whether to ask someone or request again, but sure enough they eventually did come out so at least bonus points for that.
Now for some practical useful tips.
1) There is only one real pathway down the center of the room. This is where all the carts and waitress roam down with the new goods (dim sum). If you sit in one of the middle tables, you always get first dibs and lots of attention. Trust me, we got lucky. There were people in the fringe who had to aggresively walk up to the waitress ladies in order to get dishes they wanted. The non-​aggressive ones just had to get what made it to them. So if you are shy and can’t do the chinese thing and walk straight up to them and point at things, secure a table in the middle.
2) Here are the dishes I personally enjoyed. All subjective.
— Shrimp with Chives (skimpy on shrimp, but I like this one anyway)
— Pan Friend Shrimp with Chives (the one above, but slightly pan fried. EVEN BETTER)
— Friend Eggplant (i can tell no one normally orders this as they had to cook a fresh batch in the back and never friend another one the entire time I was there. But this was BIG and really good. sorry I didn’t take a picture. They basically cut a giant asian eggplant in half and deep fry the bad boy. The table next to me took the other half instantly. It was good! Nice surprise.
— Shrimp Dumplings. Hao Kow? Always a great choice.
Others were all ok. Standard dim sum affair.
3) If you are a non-​chinese speaker and want things other than what they roll out, go grab a paper menu like us and start pointing to things.
4) If you end up in the side tables, you have to be aggressive. It’s ok to walk up to a waitress with your order paper in hand and just point at things and let her make marks on your paper. Grab it and go. If you like something just grab multiples of it. Chinese people are aggressive so if you don’t have courage you going to go hungry!
Well Kapok, we ordered a bunch of things until we were full. We were so full we didn’t even get to tried on of those giant fried balls you keep bringing out or the sesame balls which we both love… and the final price ended up only being like $ 20 for two of us. That my friend is a good deal. To be honest, your food is not the best I’ve had, it’s a bit greasy and some of it was subpar but for that price I have nothing to complain about. I’ll be back and this time… with more AGGRESSION! ARGG
I want DIM SUM! I want that! *point *point (i’m not threatening to say that. it’s actually what this tall white man said. he knew what he was doing. hilarious)
See you soon Kapok!

Okay this place defines what a hole in the wall is supposed to look like. It’s not terrible looking by all means but you can tell this place has seen better days in previous permutations, whatever they may be. But it’s now all dim sum in the afternoon and full family style Chinese in the evening. (They close form 2−5pm) Honestly, the best time to dine at Kapok at for lunch i.e. Dim Sum time which is served seven days a week. That is because all dim sum dishes are 1.99 each! Seriously! And they have a lovely lobster, yes lobster, chow mein dish for only $ 8.88! I mean you can’t go wrong with such affordable prices like this. Does the food taste amazing in comparison to the other Chinese restaurants down Webster Street in Alameda, eh probably not. But nobody beats Kapok in terms of Dim Sum’s price and value in the East Bay!

oh ho ho! If I ever want to detox and completely empty my intestines of all matter again, I’ll come back for dim sum.
About four hours prior to the wonderful diarrhea attack, we entered an empty Kapok. It had been about a month and half since the last time, and dimsum prices had increased from $ 1.99 to $ 2.50 (quite significant of a raise) for all small/​medium/​large plates. The wonderful ladies came out with only 1 – 2 plates of each option (usually the ones that are easy to make) and you have to specifically request anything else, very sneaky of them.
My suspicions of what caused the purging: bean curd roll (funny taste) or that last luke-​warm bbq pork rice roll (took suspiciously long to come out after we requested it)
So we are never ever everrrr getting back — I mean never coming back, BUT if you do, please help me solve the mystery of the diarrhea culprit.

I was here recently with my family for dinner. Parking is a pain in the ass since it’s on Webster, but not as bad for dinner as it could be for lunch.
We ordered a bunch of food: soup, chicken, prawns, veggies, fried rice, lobster, fried chicken and a few other dishes that escape my memory now (sorry I can’t be more specific — I don’t know all the names of the dishes we had… nor could I always tell what the ingredients were). I thought the food was pretty decent! I was especially fond of the fried rice, the lobster and the honey walnut prawns. So delicious, so filling! Not sure about what the pricing was like, but my aunt (who paid) seemed pretty satisfied overall with everything, so I can only assume it was fair (or cheap, which would make her even happier).
Overall, it was delicious but nothing necessarily stood out and wowed me during the meal. I do, however, want to come back to try out their dim sum! $ 1.99 for EVERY DISH? I’m so there! My dad said that their dim sum is pretty decent for the price, too, so fingers crossed that I’m satisfied next time I’m here.