Happy Valley Cafe

There is Chinese food and then there is Happy Valley Café, these people set the standard when it comes to hong kong style food maybe because they are the original cooks of my beloved yummy guide. I might seem a bit biased since I grew up eating the cooks food since I was a pre-​teen but then again if you weigh in the freshness of the food, the affordably, and the consistency. You have a winner and since I found this hole in the wall I will never go back to eating yummy juice again not that it’s bad but because the quality and consistency is out matched by that of happy valleys.

Try:
Baked porkchop o/​rice
Salt n pepper cod (very light, cooked perfectly)
Salt n pepper wings (good quality, the wings are never bruised never dry or overfly salted)
Sauté veggies (any)
Honey BBQ spareribs
Beef stew over rice

I love this place. Maybe its because I have never had a bad meal from here, and the food is always consistent. Happy Valley Café is pretty true to their HK style roots with their baked dishes, and the happy hour menu items only folks from the Cantonese regions would order (macroni soup and ham? No thanks). To most people, this place might not be their best food experience might be the lack of good service and cleanliness, which is usually to be expected when it comes to rating a Chines restaurant. Other than those two, food is always good (their lemon/​honey wings are amazing), nice strong cup of HK style milk tea, and everything else is always made with fresh ingredients and a good sizzle from the wok. The only reason I took out a star is because their portion sometimes can be a little too small.

I use to go here a lot. But, I just went again a few days ago. The place was lousy. They barely had anything on the menu. We asked for food, but the lady said we don’t have it.
What the heck are you talking about?
The price for the food is kind of expensive compared to other HK style places.
If you go I would recommend coming when there is a happy hour. We did family style. I didn’t really like the family style dishes much. Plus, it really didn’t feed that many people. I was still hungry.

A half decent Hong Kong style café in Sacramento. The place is much like HK, not very clean and service is OK. The prices and what comes with it is what makes a HK café.
We got the weekly special with soup and tea for $ 10 total.

This is another HK style café. Their «dinner sets» are a fairly good deal. You pick which entrée you want and you get a cup of soup and toast and your choice of a drink along with it. All for under $ 9. Not bad. Lately my favorite item if the dry beef chow fun. The noodles are always soft and tasty. I don’t ever need to add anything to it. Of course it can be a little on the greasy side, but no one ever said that great food was healthy! Worth it though! I always get the ice lemon tea. It’s a good size here compared to other places that I’ve gotten the tea from. Friendly staff, and if you go late night when it’s not as busy the food comes out almost instantaneously after you order it!

Ugh, another strike out place… I’m getting tired of no good Chinese food places in Sacramento…
I’ve been craving HK style baked spaghetti dishes ALL WEEK and even have been reading about them on Unilocal and so I asked Hubby if we can go today since it’s a day off even though we don’t live all that close. We came around 1:30 pm and the place was pretty full, so it’s a good sign, right? So we go in and looked at the menu, the lunch specials looked reasonable. $ 5.75 including a drink (guess it was $ 5.50 before from some of the reviews below). Hubby told me to just order something noodle for him so I picked the BBQ pork with spaghetti for him, it came out super quick and looked unimpressive right away. It was decent portion but just looked like spaghetti with a lot of soy sauce and some slivers (not a lot) of cha-​shiu bbq pork.
I ordered the $ 6.95 meal that includes soup of the day and toast and drink picking option B (the baked fish with cheese spaghetti). This item took FOREVER to come out, by the time it came out, Hubby was already done with his whole dish. I had also finished my soup (so-​so it was Law Soong tong with very little beef in it) and the toast was the thinnest slices of toasts I’ve ever seen, it’s almost like they cut the bread width wise in half to get more slices out of the loaf!
Finally, my entrée comes out and it wasn’t tasty at all, very bland, the white cream sauce wasn’t good at all. The fish pieces were ok in terms of amount but not enough cheese on top, the portion was ok I guess but Macau definitely gives you more. This place has totally gone downhill since it changed ownership. The last time I came here was probably back in 2007 or maybe even 2006 when it was Leegacy and their baked Seafood spaghetti (or rice) was sooo good as was the baked Chicken over rice/​spaghetti. I’m so disappointed. =(
The only item that was good was the milk tea, which had strong tea flavor, although Hubby didn’t like it, and thought it was just like hot water.
Total came out to $ 13.85 + tips. Also inconvenient that you can’t use credit card unless you spend $ 15 or more… Hubby thought I was too generous with the tips considering the waitresses (BOTH of them) were the most miserable people ever, did not even feign a *slight* smile even once and were generally not polite, just VERY standoffish. Wow, they (being so young like my age) were so unfriendly, making other older waiters/​waitresses at other Chinese restaurants in the vicinity seem 1000x’s more friendly in comparison. I spoke to these waitresses in Cantonese (I’m totally fluent) and was very polite to them and they don’t even seem to reciprocate friendliness (nor seem able to, they looked sooo miserable, just sad… making the whole experience bad).
Not coming back!

My girlfriend and I LOVE this place! Perfect for late night chinese food cravings. A few of our fav dishes include: Mylasian style chow fun, Sweet creamed corn cod, tofu salty fish and chicken hot pot, salt and pepper fish filet… and there’s sooo many others that are definitely worth trying! Not to mention the random french fries and other misc American and Italian food they serve.

Like other reviewers, I will repeat that this place is tucked away…
I have been here a few times with my boyfriend and a group of friends… both when it was Leegacy and as Happy Valley Café. It is great if you are looking for a little snack and don’t want a lot of crowds. The servers are nice enough but the service was slow. The food is good (for all those people who used to like Yummy when it first opened, this should be a place to try because the owner used to be the original chef of Yummy Guide… or so I am told) but I was disappointed when I tried to order items from the menu that they couldn’t make.
The only other thing that I would warn people about is that this place is not good if you have a large group (anything over 6 people), unless you are fine with sitting at separate tables. Otherwise, this place will be added to my list of «Plan B’s»

This place isn’t bad, it’s pretty decent. At least their service isn’t god awful like Macau Café or Yummy — (Oh, YUMMY, don’t get me started with that place!)
MY LOVES:
Salt and pepper chicken wings
gai daan jai (the little pancake eggs)

The place was named Legacy Café in the past. It was very good and served milk teas in a giant serving. I liked this place, but went there very minimal, as it is tucked in a hidden corner across the street from Walgreens.
Now that I’ve come back, the menus and serving amount has significantly changed and decreased. The amount that I pay for did not equal to the amount I received in the past.
As of now, I am displeased with this restaurant’s performance.

this place is very tucked in this lil plaza off fruitridge and freeport. i have been here a couple times and thought i’d give it a review. the first time was late at night if i can recall it was about midnight and i think they close at 1230. anywho our party had arrived there first and we got there shortly after. the waitress that works there is nice she’s very soft spoken. i think she is the only waitress there. anywho we got there late and we didnt feel rushed at all. she let us take our time to order from the menu even though it was super late and im sure they wanted to get home to their families also. i cant really tell you guys what we had the first time we went there cuz i dont remember all i can remember was the dessert it was sooo good. its this mango dessert that has coconut milk and small pearl type thingys lol.
i can tell u wat we ordered when i was there last wknd with my family. i have 3 boys and they r wild boys esp my youngest who is 2 ½ and we had the resturant all to ourselves most of the night so he was able to sream here n there and act a lil crazy. anywho my husband ordered the family dinner. there was more than enough food for all of us that includes my two oldest sons who eats a lot too. the dinner came with soup and deep fried fish and veggies, beef with black bean sauce, pork spare ribs and some other things… sry i lost my train of thought cuz its sooo windy outside and im tooo lazy to get up and close my window.
so yes overall this place is very good, very similar to yummy café which is also off freeport. i dont think people know about this place too much cuz they r nvr packed. pls go try u will not be dissapointed!

After finishing my touch-​up tattoo session, my tattoo artist (also a very good friend) took me here. This little spot has been tucked away in the same old shopping plaza since I was a teen. It used to be a lot busier though.
I can’t tell you the exact names of the dishes that came with this $ 21.00 style family dinner, because he ordered and I trusted him. All I can do is describe them to the best of my abilities.
The meal started off with a soup. Yes, the broth was bland and I quickly started for the soy and chili oil. That helped a bit, but I lost interest in the soup very quickly. I think it had beef round in it and definitely some greens.
Then they brought up lightly steamed bok choy and a clay pot with tofu, shrimp, squid and some other random seafood medley parts. The sauce was unknown, but a good balance of salty and slightly sweet. The bok choy was straight forward, with no sauce, still had a slight crunch and tasted like… bok choy. I don’t like my vegetables masked in a tub load of sauce anyway.
Then came these honey-​esque spareribs, rice and fried cod. The spareribs were not cloyingly sweet, although the sweet is definitely present and the cod… that shit was bomb! It has sprinklings of jalapeño and cilantro just as garnish, but being on the hot cod gave it their essence. And they were fried, but still light at the same time. Cod was moist on the inside and so perfectly crispy on the outside. Oh, love it.
Service was good, food came out fast, all the food was hot, it wasn’t crowded and it was a pretty damn good meal for 8pm on a Friday night. I really don’t have any complaints about this place and that’s rare for me.
Nice job to my friend. Now I have to go back again to see if I get the same experience.

Sticky tables, nasty food, and horrible service. The gas station provides better food.

I’ve been here A LOT lately… and I’ve only seen the same two girls working the tables. I think they’ve begun giving me the cold shoulder… because I’m there so often I think they assume I’m stalking them! LoL…
Really girls… your lovely but its the beef with scrambled eggs that I love. Hahah.

A friend and I came here to grab some Hong Kong inspired cuisine that sounded pretty good and pretty cheap. The restaurant is located in a small shopping area with a private lot. When we went on a Sunday afternoon, there was plenty of parking spots, so it wasn’t difficult at all to get settled into the plaza.
Once inside the restaurant, there were a lot of small families enjoying an afternoon lunch. Sounds like many locals do in fact come here. The waitress sat us down immediately and brought us out some water. While it was quick to sit, she did not once come back to refill our glasses of water, and we were there for a good hour and a half. She did seem pretty apaethetic towards us once we ordered the food, so for the service, I’d say it’s ok, but they could have done better.
The menu is written in English and Chinese, so it is very easy for anyone to come in and order. I personally liked it because I got to practice my Chinese reading skills, which sad to say has gone down over the years (thanks a lot, subtitled Chinese shows!) They have a day special depending on the day of the week, and the rder comes with rice, soup, and drink for about $ 7. I’d try it out… it was only after we ordered that I discovered it written in traditional Chinese characters on the wall (hey, it IS a Hong Kong restaurant).
My friend and I both ordered the baked pork chops, one with rice and one with spaghetti. I can safely say that the food was pretty tasty for its price. We also ordered two side dishes of fish balls, one fried and one with curry sauce. The curry sauce was the definite winner, as the fried fish ball just had the same dipping sauce on the side anyway (but cold). We also ordered two tea drinks, and both were very tasty… but when you order a cold drink, they simply add a lot of ice to the hot version of it, so be sure to stir before you drink.
If given the chance, I’d come back for a decently priced lunch. I rate it down two stars mostly for the slow service, and the slow amount of time it did take to have our food given to us. But it was good for its price. Check it out.

Just had lunch there today and their beef stew chow fun was a little bland, not enough sauce. The $ 5.50 lunch special is a great deal, which includes a drink of your choice. Service was good even though they were busy. I’m pretty picky when it comes to Chinese food and yes, I’m Chinese!
We usually return to a restaurant to eat a particular dish we enjoy, sometimes, it’s good and sometimes it’s just OK. But we all have off days, don’t we?

Food is delicious, and they will cater to a special request as to how your dish is prepared if you ask. The owner is there all the time it seems, and she runs a tight ship. Place is clean, and for those that aren’t aware of it, they have wi-​fi available to you patrons out there that can’t get enough of the internet, email, and Unilocal like me… Try to frequent this place whenever you want some good food. It’s hard to find places like this any more…

This is a place I can always come to if I want some decent HK style Chinese food. The service is always good, and they offer free Wi-​Fi so I can bring my laptop here and have lunch while browsing the net.

eh… this place is supposed to be owned by the former chef of yummy guide. so you would think the taste of their food should be equivalent to the taste what yummy guide offers right? WRONG!
This place is an exact clone of yummy guide (not that i am a fan of yummy guide either). their menus and offerings are close to identical. basically you would be order the same kind of dishes but with different names and titles. but keep in mind that you are also expected to pay more as they are supposed to be «newly» opened and newly staffed.
if i were to be playing devil’s advocate, i’d have to pick yummy guide over this place… why you ponder? well if i were to eat the same kind of food, same kind of taste, and to receive the same treatment… why would i want to pay more when i can get the same for less?
that’s right!

This is the only place in Sac you can actually find decent HongKong Style brunch and snacks. The price is decent and the food quality is 100 times better than Yummy Guide and Legacy Café by the former owner. The value menu really stresses «value» especially you go there late in the afternoon. 5 dollars will stuff you full with good food.
Service here is better than average Asian restaurants. The staff are attentive so no complains here. My wife and I go there quit often for brunch. Try the mixed meat hot plate with black pepper sauce. You will love it!