The Porridge – Mei Garden

YUM! Very typical Taiwanese porridge place. You buy side dishes to eat with your team porridge. While it was yummy and satisfying, it wasn’t the best. The service was nice though. I went with two friends and we ordered 6 sides. It ended up being $ 15 each so depending on what you order it can get pricey, especially because we were being hungry hippos, but it was still worth it.

Bad luck today. Got lunch to go, which already means a smaller portion. Found a maggot in the vegetables, so I tossed all of that out, and found the remnants of a bandaid in the bamboo shoot stuff. Decided to just toss out the bandaid and eat the rest.

Saw all the great reviews hyping this place up, therefore I came here after New Years for lunch. Service is kind of nonexistent and you order up in the counter where all the food options are on display.
I ordered a plate of squid, oyster omelette, minced pork, and tofu wrap. It also comes along with a side of bland porridge, which was a nice compliment to the oily, sodium packed dishes. My favorite dish was the minced pork as the flavors went well with the rice pairing. The worst dish was the oyster omelette. A complete disappointment, nothing close to the infamous taiwanese oyster omelette. They simply overcooked some scrambled eggs and put oysters on it.
Overall, the food was nothing special. Seemed to contain alot of MSG. Kind of sad as I was looking forward to eat here.

Yummy in tummy for cold weather! Everything tastes great except no salted duck egg in a porridge place?!!

3.5 Stars!
The porridge itself is kind of really bland, although I do love the sweet potato in it. I love the selection of sides and everything I’ve ever ordered has been pretty good and largely portioned. Overall, I’m a fan and would definitely come back.

Variety of side dishes that are inexpensive and you can share with your group. I recommend the cucumbers, pig blood, and pig ear. It’s also nice that they add yams to their porridge which aren’t watery.

Still amazing. This place is the definition of comfort food, and I always make a trip when I’m home. My favorites remain the bamboo shoots, bean curd noodles (gan si), napa cabbage (the shrimp makes the napa extra savoury), and celery with fu pi (bean curd skin).
Lunch time is a steal!

This is a very popular place for lunch — expect to share table with strangers!
It can be confusing/​overwhelming once you stepped in — here is the guide:
1. Tell them how many people you have, they will tell you where to sit.
2. But before you sit down, go up to the front and pick your dishes!
The meal comes with sweet potato porridge (or I did see some people ask for rice instead) and 3-​item dish. They have a huge variety of dishes to pick from! You will find the flavor of most of them on the heavy side, that’s why it’s good to eat with porridge, which doesn’t have too much taste to it, but at the same time you won’t find the dishes extremely salty.
It’s a pretty good deal for the price ($ 7.25 after tax), plus you can get refill on the porridge. I usually went with my coworkers so we can share and try different dishes. My favorites are pig ear and eggplant, but they always have new items so I can’t keep track anymore. They rotate dishes too! If one ran out they will either have refill on the same dish or bring out new ones, so I just pick whatever looks good to me at the time i order.
This place is cash only!

YUMMY!
This is the only porridge place I’ve seen since the one in Cupertino Village closed. EVERYTHING I TRIED WAS SO GOOOD! We ordered the Chinese sausage, bamboo shoots, pickled mustard with edamame, and the pork belly. The oil and salty flavors of each dish paired very well with the plain sweet potato porridge. Everything was a great balance of flavors and textures.
Only complaint is that the tea they gave us was super watery and tasted like old tea. But whatever this is a porridge place not a tea house. Service was good. Ambience was really quiet when we came in though. Felt like I was eating in library hahaha.
Definitely coming back soon :)

Yum yum, the porridge here tastes so comforting. The décor of the place was really homely. A simple place where you come in for a quick meal. I like the fact that they offered you a generous portion of porridge with sweet potato inside. Super healthy! Also, you can request for refills of the porridge.
We ordered three dishes for two people and the portion was just right. The chicken in chilli oil was a good choice as it was so tender and flavourful. I love the Napa cabbage too! :)
Overall, a really affordable meal that comes up to low 20 for two.

Cash only!
Simple sweet potato porridge with tasty dishes. Very fast turnover, as the dishes are sort of Ranch 99-​esque, pre-​made food ready to scoop onto a plate, but totally delicious.
Get the pig ear, napa cabbage, and something adventurous!

My friend from Taiwan approved this place on Chinese New Year. At lunchtime they have a special: $ 7 for 3 items. Hey, let’s get 6 items and share. What a bargain!
As soon as you sit down… free porridge. Yes! Steaming hot and very comforting. You order up at the counter and choose from the available pre-​cooked items. Yes, it’s pre-​cooked, but everything still tastes fresh. We got the eggplant, mustard greens, steamed fish, bamboo shoots, scrambled eggs, and preserved Vegan «meat». My favorite was the eggplant, but I might just be a sucker for eggplant. Everything tasted great, and you know things taste EVEN BETTER when they’re cheap, right? $ 14 for 2 full bellies isn’t bad at all.
Staff is rushing around delivering food orders (super quick), cleaning up, and dropping off porridge. It’s not super attentive, but I wouldn’t expect that in this type of restaurant. They’re helpful enough, and we got to take home the leftovers of our free porridge. I call that a win.
DATE TIP: Bring ‘em here to test their limits. You’ll find out whether they’re flexible or picky eaters and also if they appreciate true value.

the only have 1 kind of porridge. Its bland and basic. I just brought it home and added my own twist to it.
It’s like a deli, you come in, order how many items you want and pay $ 7 dollars. Cheap, fast, Chinese food.

Delicious! Healthy, tasty, not greasy at all. Chinese comfort food at its best. Recommend: edamame with pickled cabbage (酸菜毛豆).

Mmmm. For a meal of two for only 14 bucks with unlimited congee. SOOO CHEAAAP !!
I can dig it .
I got eggplant, salt and pepper shrimp, spicy chicken, and sardines.
The spicy kick to it is something you don’t want to mess with lol but I Iike it since I love my food with a bit of heat.
I would recommend coming here right at Opening because it does get pack.

I love The Porridge so much, it’s almost irrational. This restaurant has every single Taiwanese comfort food dish I know I can make at home, but am never going to make at home, because why would you when you can just eat here? At 11pm?
The Porridge, as it is adorably known in English (or Xiao Liu Qing Zhou, as it is better known in Chinese) serves a traditional, unflavored yam and rice porridge, with an explosion of delicious side dishes. I love everything the chef makes, but I particularly love:
1.) The gan si: Thin noodle-​like beancurd strips, tossed with sesame oil, julienned carrots and edamame
2.) The fried tofu: Because they are simply perfect, crispy fried cubes of soft tofu
3.) The slivered pig ears
4.) The fragrant, poached cold chicken with pounded ginger
5.) The small, crunchy fried fish
6.) And the omelet (because holy moly, this is made so well. The outside is golden and crisp, and one pull gives way to a soft, runny center, fragrant with scallions, pickled veggies and rainbows.)
The sides are greasy, but appropriately so, because the yam & rice porridge are on your table to pull all the flavors together and cut the grease in each bite. The chef also uses salt sparingly, which I appreciate. Customers pick and choose their side dishes at the front counter– all dishes beckon appealingly from behind a sneeze guard. If a favorite dish does not look particularly fresh, trust your intuition and order something else. You can always come back a different day for your dish of choice.
Xiao Liu Qing Zhou is, to me, comfort food at its best– nothing is more satisfying than a bite of xiao cai followed by a spoonful of porridge and a gulp of tea. Cue endless loop for maximal enjoyment, and be sure to bring cash, plus your stamp card! Happy forevernoms.

Simple taiwanese style porridge place in milpitas.
They have a variety of side dishes and unlimited porridge.
(Ex: Fish filet, bean curd, tofu, veggies, pig ear, etc.)
They are kind of pricey for what they are, but good for the cold weather and the days you don’t want to cook. I was definitely surprised to see how busy they are as their dishes are extremely simple.
Great to try at least once!
3.5 STARS

Is this considered the Taiwanese military style cooking? I went to a similar style place in sunnyvale years ago where things are all in trays pre cooked. Out original target was closed so we ended up here as it was getting late. Eggplant, pickled cucumber, pig ears, beef shank/​tendon, stewed pork, and sausage. All fairly good flavors but everything was lukewarm. Argh i hate that. It would be so much better if it were hot. Not much service except when they bring food in the beginning. Definitely quick though, maybe too much.

Gross. This is like what happens if someone’s mom decided to open a restaurant. I guess this is really authentic Taiwanese food though. But I was sorta grossed out by all the food sitting out like a Taiwanese Luby’s and the dude who just finished smoking his cigarette outside in the back come back in and filling up our containers to go. Huge vats of porridge, restaurant-​size portions of Taiwanese homecooked dishes, and two dudes handling all the food makes me shudder.
I’m not that adventurous and the food is super plain Jane boring.

The service has improved magnificently since I’ve first reviewed this restaurant. It’s either time or developed taste but I am in love with everything Mei Garden has to offer. Write your name on the clipboard otherwise you might be waiting around cluelessly. Good thing you don’t have to wait long. It’s hard to decide what to get here because everything is that good.
Ground pork — you MUST get this upon every visit.
Scrambled eggs and tomato — perfect.
Eggplant — divine.
Tofu and pork blood — great texture.
Beancurd — great texture too.
Mixed vegetable and meat dish — I’m running out of synonyms to describe tasty.
For a grand total of $ 14, this was the best meal I had all week.