Ginger Café

I really enjoy this place for their dumplings. I am glad to have found a place that is not over crowded and doesn’t have a long wait .
I am not saying it’s the best, but it definitely curbs my dim sum craving.

Booked Ginger Café for our wedding catering and Bo and Tuyen have nothing but amazing and accommodating to our needs. The food is exactly what we were looking for to accommodate the tastes of over 200 plus guests. We just recently had our tasting of the wedding menu and our families were floored by the food. Bo and Tuyen have been extremely helpful and we are very excited to have booked them for our wedding. Would highly recommend.

I think this place suffers from not having one single type of cuisine that they are experts at – they are spreading themselves too thin trying to be too many things; chinese, thai, vietnamese…
We ordered the dim sum sampler, the vegetarian lettuce wraps, and the jicama rolls. Of the three, the dim sum sampler was the best – the sauce of the filling for the lettuce wraps tasted like it was made from a powder and full of corn starch and msg, same with the dipping sauce for the jicama rolls – nothing tasted super fresh or well-​seasoned.
The servers were polite if a bit scattered, and the prices were a bit on the high side for the quality and serving sizes. I will probably not be coming back.

I used to come here a lot when I was growing up. We forgot about this place for about 10 years and randomly decided to try it again. Wow what a mistake… definitely not coming back. I don’t even remember what I used to order here that had me coming back again & again.
–Vietnamese Iced Coffee: Don’t get this. It’s in a super narrow glass filled up to the top with ice, so you actually get 4 sips of coffee for $ 4.
–Thai Iced Tea: Pretty good & fair size.
–Pork Char Siu Buns: I do love that they have dim sum all day. These weren’t too bad. There were a few strangely shaped pieces of meat though.
–Minced Chicken Lettuce Cups: They gave us rotten lettuce cups that were already brown. We had to ask for another batch because why would I eat brown lettuce for $ 10. Some pieces of the chicken were very long & oddly shaped. Made me feel uncomfortable.
–Tamarind Seafood Hot Pot: DO NOT GET. Gross. The hot pot wasn’t even boiling at all. All the veggies in here are definitely canned. How did we end up paying $ 18 for canned veggies, cheap fish, and 2 pieces of shrimp?
–Braised Pork Belly w/​Turnip Leaves: If you know of this Chinese dish, you’ll agree that it’s the wrong color here. The pork had all these weird chunks and tasted so strange. Cooked wrong sorry bout it.
We spent $ 70 for lunch for 3 people. On top of the horrible food & prices, service was just as bad. They forgot to bring multiple orders to our table, nobody really speaks English here, and they added a Jasmine Tea to our bill that we never ordered.
If I was craving non-​aunthentic Asian food (which I do crave once in a while), I would most definitely pick PF Changs across the street.

I think pan-​asian cuisine is hard to get right, but this place definitely impressed me! The food is mainly Chinese based with SE Asian influences.
The first cue to it not being entirely authentic Chinese is how well and modernly decorated it is! We were all surprised that with ‘café’ in the title it was a lovely swanky place with high ceilings (albeit slightly cheesy asian décor such as large buddha heads everywhere).
The menu itself is huge and hard to choose from since everything looks delicious. There are plenty of vegetarian options.
The Lobster with Ginger Scallion over Shanghai Noodle dish is amazing. Currently it’s $ 25 which is a bit hefty for a dish but totally worth it. There is a mound of delicious lobster– two of us ate a bunch and still had enough for leftovers the next day. I highly recommend trying it!
They have lunch specials every day from 11−3pm which includes soup and fried rice. We had the Kung Pao Vegetarian Chicken from the lunch specials. The veggie chicken was really good, but the dish itself was overly soy-​sauced and too salty.
We also had the a Pan-​Fried Egg dish with Shrimp which was delicious. For those of you who have never had it, it’s always been one of my favorite ways to have rice dishes growing up, with essentially an omelette over fried rice.
They have dim sum options all day every day! From the dim sum menu I had the Lobster Dumplings which were awesome. Nice chunks of lobster with a good combination of small veggies– I loved the corn that accented the texture.
My only qualm was that service could have been a little more attentive toward the end. The food came out quickly but getting the bill and stuff took a while. But that was minor compared to a great experience overall.
Full bar menu with wines, beers, and nice cocktail menu. I loved my Mojito soda which had tons of fresh lime and mint without making me feel like an alchy over lunch.
They have Happy Hour from 3 – 6 pm with tons of food and drink specials.
The place has been here for about a decade and I never knew it existed. Will definitely be back to try more on the menu!

After we barely finished our lunch, they brought us the check. It has something we did not order. In other words, my advice is to check out the details in the check in this place.

Are you kidding me Unilocalers? How is this place not rated higher???
I’ve eaten here three times now and mind you I live a full 1 hour drive away. Food is delicious!!! Here’s the scoop from my last meal:
Blue crab dumplings: first time having blue crab in a dumpling. It was the yummiest dim sum dish I’ve had. Ever.
Garlic jalapeño lobster: so well flavored and meaty. I took the rest home and it tastes even better the next day after sitting in that sauce.
Peking duck: skin so crispy and I got to use mini tortilla wrappers instead of the traditional buns!!!
Shanghai noodles: udon fatty noodles that are stir fried. This was my sisters favorite of the night
Salty fish fried rice: one of the best versions of this dish I’ve tried, and I’ve tried MANY
Cassava cake: completely different softer texture than normal cassava cake. Mildly sweetened with the Carmel on top. It’s like a mix of cassava cake, bread pudding and flan!!!
Fried banana with pineapple/​coconut ice cream– this ice cream was just EXPLODING with flavor.
All five star dishes!!! Let me just say that I’m Vietnamese and I eat authentic Chinese/​Vietnamese food on a daily basis. If you are familiar with the cuisine you will see the difference in the dishes put out here. They put a refreshing new spin on every traditional course that can only be appreciated by someone who knows the food. I only wish they had a location closer to my home so I can come more often.
By the way, Unilocalers, service all three times was impeccable. I’m surprised that others wrote about a different experience but for me food always came out quickly and I was very pleased with the waiters attentiveness.
Five stars food and service, period.

Excellent service, great food. Came here for dinner– the place was surprisingly empty at 7pm on a Saturday night, but the food was incredible. High quality and fast service.

Friend got a coupon for this place since it’s under new ownership. Food still crappy I’m sorry to say.
— Mango chicken. What a pile of white creamy mess. Feels like alfredo gone wrong. Tasteless to boot. ¹⁄₅
— Peking duck. Dry dry dry and over cooked. Just go to Marina or Ranch 99 and get duck there. The one here is not worth getting ²⁄₅
I guess if you like American Chinese food, this place might be for you. I don’t think the ‘fusion’ works here.

This review is for Ginger Café wedding catering and my interaction with them up to and including the tasting.
My fiancé and I came across Ginger Café when looking for caterers who do Chinese Banquet catering. Ginger Café stood out in the following ways:
Responsiveness — Tuyen and Bo are both extremely responsive to emails and phone calls. If you have tried to plan a wedding before, you’ll know that this is an extremely important quality when choosing a reliable vendor.
Flexibility — Our wedding is being held at a non-​standard location with no kitchen facilities. Since my fiancée is Indian, we wanted to also have an Indian caterer at our wedding. Tuyen and Bo were not only open to trying out a new venue and working with another caterer, but they also suggested creative ideas such as trying to incorporate Indian dishes into their Banquet Menu.
Pricing — What immediately stands out about Ginger Café is their straightforward food and beverage packages. The prices and what you get are listed clearly on their website. Their process/​pricing for tastings is also very reasonable and straightforward. We tasted their most expensive banquet menu, and it was excellent! The quality, taste, and amount of food that you get for the price far exceeds expectations.
Taste — Mouth watering wok-​fried lobster, melt-​in-​your-​mouth sea bass, perfectly seared lamb chops. Each dish was not only tasty but also creative. As Bo described it himself, Ginger Café aims to delight their clients by adding a subtle twist to traditional banquet menu dishes.
Trustworthiness — A few weeks after I started the conversation with Ginger Café, the menu I was interested in had risen in price by a few dollars due to an increase in the price of baby abalone. However, to my surprise, the quote that Tuyen and Bo gave me during our tasting honored the original price of the menu when I started the conversation with them. This was without me asking or bringing it up with them.

Went as a group of 8. Really good food. Soup, appetizers, fried rice, everything was good. Prefect spice level and very flavorful!

Best happy hour ever! $ 6 cocktails, $ 10 entrees.
Went on a Sunday night, got the margarita and the kung pao chicken over rice. This is way better than the overrated place across the street.

I came here on a weekday for lunch after a doctors appointment, and got seated pretty quickly even though it was 12:30 during the middle of lunch hours. I absolutely loved their king oyster mushroom and tofu lunch special. It was seasoned well, healthy, filling, and I love the king oyster mushrooms.
The pad Thai was good as well and in a generous portion. The boyfriend loved it.
We both got our leftovers to go, basically half left. It’s a really good price, I wish I can come back more often for lunch but I don’t work in the South Bay. Their menu also offers all day dim sum and many other good lunch specials. I’ll have to come back on a weekend.

Took literally an hour to bring one soup. I kept asking and was told five times that it was coming.
When it finally came, there was a dead fly floating in it.
What the hell.
When I said this was unacceptable, the manager offered me a free egg roll and then said she’d have to pay for it out of her own pocket…

Great shaking beef and nice service. Highly recommend vegetarian dishes as well. Service was super friendly, not sure what other reviews said. Like them so much will ask them to cater an event in having.

I came in about 2 pm and still able to get the lunch special until 3 pm. Of course at 2pm, there was no wait time. Order: basil chicken with rice. Complimentary small soup with order. I love that the basil chicken dish had big chucks of mushroom and thin basil. The chicken was soft and thin. I almost thought it was fish at first bite! They refill your drink too. Quick service and great customer service. Definitely going back again!

Nice wait staff and accommodating. Food was not as good as we experienced in the past. Most of the things we ordered were too heavily sauced.
Eggplant and Tofu, Mongolian Beef, Hong Kong Noodles.
We found a hair in one of our dishes. They replaced it and then comped us a dessert. It was a nice gesture but we were full (we had 3 dishes packed ‘to go’) and both of us are diabetic. It would have been nicer to get a discount on the dish with the hair comped.
Good thing the wait staff were nice.

Tonsa tofu.
Let’s just get to the nitty gritty.
Unfortunately, I was not impressed on the spicing or flavor of any of it. Tofu is not, and should never be, a star. It just doesn’t have that glitz and glamour of eggplant or that «it factor» of tempeh.
This is where these dishes fell flat. In fact, all dishes I felt were unflavored. They had oil, but not much flavor through sauces or spices. There were four chances to get the tofu right in dishes, and NONE hit it.
My only real standout was the tofu salad where I liked the peanuts and crispy noodles. And the fried rice had pineapple. #littlethings
Menu (work catering):
Veg egg roles/​meat egg roles
Chinese tofu salad (veg)
Eggplant tofu (veg)
Singaporean noodles (veg)
Fried rice (veg) and steamed rice
Non-​veg:
Prawns, beef, chicken
All in all, just no. No flavor!

Bo and Tuyen did an awesome job as our wedding caterer!
Being Asian American, it can be bit challenging to figure out what food best accommodates all your guests. The family had requested to have Chinese banquet. My husband and I however, did not want the typical chinese wedding dinner, especially since we were having the wedding at a less traditional venue.
In comes Ginger Café, with a Asian Fusion menu, that worked perfectly for us. Check out Randy F.‘s pics for the actual food photos. The tasting was to die for and gets waived if you do go with them. They cooked the food at the venue, bringing their own kitchen. Most of the food came out hot and Bo made sure that my husband and I were actually eating. Besides the food, Bo was just so helpful during the planning process also! He had given us suggestions of what to do since he has worked at our venue prior. Ginger Café also did the ceremony/​reception flip, table set-​up, and complete clean up after the wedding was over and it was done very efficiently.
I could not have asked for a more organized and helpful caterer, who not only cares about the food, but wants to help make your whole wedding a success: D

I really like the vegetable Shanghai noodles, and that’s really what keeps me coming back. But I’ve been to the Ginger Café a few times where it’s just our table of two and one other table with two guests, and we wait over 30 minutes for our dishes to arrive. Four people total in the whole restaurant and a full staff.
I wish they’d get a streaming music service instead of playing the radio. I really don’t want to listen to commercials while in a restaurant trying to have a nice dinner. It really doesn’t fit well with the nice décor.
I’ll go back for the noodles, after enough time has passed and I forget about how long it takes to get our order to the table. Or I’ll just order it to go.

I normally have a particular distaste for Asian fusion (like many Asians), so when one gets my attention, you can be sure they’re doing something right.
Apart from the cute hostess, walking in, you’ll immediately notice the cool layout. It’s circular, and I like to sit at the booths around the inner circle by myself and daydream. Jk kinda. I come to this place fairly often with family.
In a family of picky female eaters, we all agree the FRIED TILAPIA (w/​soy sauce and peppers) is bomb. Perfect amount of crispy, fish quality itself isn’t extraordinary, but sauce definitely makes up for it. Slightly sweet and suited to the Asian tongue.
The LAMB W/​CUMIN is my personal favorite as I’ve developed a strange obsession with cumin. I guess there are worse things to be obsessed with. The lamb quality itself has kind of progressively gotten worse during consecutive visits (don’t expect anything particularly juicy or tender), but my oh my how that cumin seasoning complements the lamb perfectly. I don’t believe I can make it myself, so I come here.
Now the star appetizer: SEA BASS DUMPLINGS. Got the dim sum sampler once and these stood out. Soft, sticky starch wrapper surrounding wonderfully seasoned sea bass. I can’t really tell that it’s fish, but I don’t care what they stick in there as long as it keeps on tasting this good.
Paid a cool ~$ 44 for this recent meal of 3 dishes (that I mostly ate by myself). Don’t let my figure fool ya-I’m secretly (or not so secretly) a pig. Kinda overpriced for the quantity… I gobbled up those 3 dumplings in 30 sec tops. But worth it once in a while!

7÷24÷15: Came here for lunch. One of the better American interpretations of Chinese food. Certainly better than Pf Chang or Panda Inn. Yet, still is a mixed bag.
First off I will state it took forever to get our food. This place is in the central area for the businesses so I would assume the vast majority of their lunchtime clientele are there on lunch break. So the 30min or so it took to get the food is really not acceptable.
1. Sea Bass Dumplings $ 6: They look totally beautiful. The filling is actually tasty. Unfortunately the shell is hard and not soft and chewy like it should be. This made it brittle and easy to break and just plain tastes bad. Also they are totally glues down and picking them up without ripping them is totally impossible. Thus all the filling falls out and you’re left with eating the messy resulting broken shell and meat separately. ³⁄₁₀
2. Braised Pork Belly with Turnip Leaves $ 15: Not bad. Was impressed actually given the American nature. Presented well with the sliced pork cleanly laid out. Texture was great with the fat nice and succulent. Unfortunately the flavor isn’t really distinctive but still was fine. The vegetables were perfect though. Nice and crispy and green. Overall pretty good. ⁷⁄₁₀
3. Egg Fried Rice (Small) $ 2.50: Standard fried rice. But amazingly the texture is very good. Very al dente rice. Almost like brown rice. Heck this is better than most real Chinese places! ⁸⁄₁₀
So my main dish was good and the appetizer wasn’t. Why just 3 stars? Well I can tell my friend’s order wasn’t good. Chicken with noodles. I can see the chicken was totally dry. It just seems this place would be hit and miss. Also again, the wait is not good for a business lunch.
³⁄₅
#chinese

It actually wasn’t toooo bad, but expecting more fusion. It was more Chinese/​Vietnamese with a hint of maybe Thai/​Malaysian. We ordered xo fried rice, dim sum app platter (my fav) but the other noodle and chicken curry was just ok. It needed more something-​something. The desserts were a bit better. We ordered fried bananas but it’s more Americanized than a fried bananas at a Thai restaurant. It’s basically an American round banana in a Filipino lumpia wrapper but presentation was nice in look. Wouldn’t rule them out but expected more.
Our server, however, was very helpful, nice and very informative as it was our first time. (Sorry, we forgot his name)
Dim sum platter 4
Entries 2 – 3
Dessert 4