Modern China Cafe

We really love the food here. Very affordable and delicious. Great «all day happy hour» — large selection and cheap! Our only complaint is that the service has been terrible the last few times we have visited. We have waited for 10 – 15 minutes to order water and drinks and numerous times had to flag down anyone — another server, busboy, food runner, etc. for refills on water, asking for condiments or to order more food/​drinks. If service were better, I’d rate them much higher. We have mentioned it to management but haven’t seen improvement. I’d rate them 3.5 stars if I could, because of the service. I’d you have patience and want delicious, cheap food, this is a great place to go. We will continue to visit because we really do enjoy it and hope one day we will get better service.

Highlights:
Happy Hour all day, everyday
Entrees arrived promptly
Food is affordable
Atmosphere is sophisticated and clean
Split checks/​payment allowed
What should be improved:
More active staff (one waitress was busting her a#% off while two other waitresses were doing nothing behind the bar)
The waitress knew that my friend was gluten-​free but did not tell her that the mud pie had a sprinkled crust over the entire dessert
The banana pastry was not sweet enough and lacked texture complexity (a scoop of ice cream would have made a huge difference) The chef put the whipped cream on the pastry right out of the fryer, so it was completely melted by the time it got to the tab
Courtesy of The Chemistry of Pink

Everytime I go to this place I can help to think of that Chris Brown Song «Fine China» IDK why and it’s completely random. But this place especially during the nightlife hours seems to draw a pretty hip and posh crowd. But also still casual enough to where you can go there in jeans and a t-​shirt and still mingle with the somewhat «shi shi» crowd that tends to come here. But in the midst of the «Walnut Creek» bar, lounge and club scene… this place still kinda doesn’t stand out. Let me tell you why, here is my review of Modern China Café.
5÷22÷15
Was here to watch game «3″ of another epic fail by the GSW. That’s another story not for Unilocal… Two of my good buddys were waiting for me here to watch the game. It was happy hour here so that ment that food and drinks were either half off in some cases or, were served in smaller portions for a reduced cost. They have different happy hours during the day. So going there to see whats on the menu at that time is the best way to know what to expect.
Service ³⁄₅
Cleanliness ⁴⁄₅
Food ³⁄₅
I arrived about 10 min or so after my buddies and they had already ordered. So I waited for the waitress that tended to them to come back and wait on me. All I got was the cold shoulder, she kinda acted as if I wasn’t there. So after a few minute I got upset and went outside and spoke with a manager. I told him about my situation and he sent another waitress to tend to me. She was nicer than the other girl who asked her why she was there at the table. After I mentioned to her why she was there. I asked that the new waitress became our waitress. She smiled politely and nodded. The „Not so nice Waitress“ was visually upset, but I didn’t care. And I ordered off the happy hour menu.
The Food:
I ordered Crispy Calamari, Spicy Crispy Chicken and Shrimp Chow Main all $ 5.85 respectively on the Happy Hour menu. My food arrived about 10 min after ordering. Here where my thoughts… The Crispy Calamari was served in a nice portion, the batter was light but flavorless, the calamari itself was kinda overcooked. It came with a lemongrass infused salsa which I didn’t like, I hate the taste of lemongrass so… it didn’t work for me. The Spicy Crispy Chicken was good, but it seemed like I got the batter crumbs instead of a filling dish. But the taste was nice, it was a nice subtle heat. The batter on the „Chicken Pieces“ that were there worked, it wasn’t overly battered and hung on to the sauce well. Probably the better of the dishes. The Shrimp Chow Main was…“Amateur» at best. Tasted like a store bought Chow Main Soup that they «spruced up so to speak» It was watery, the shrimp was pretty gross. The Chow Main tasted slightly over cooked… yea pretty much I didn’t like it at all.
Will I go back?
That is debatable, at least in my mind. With them having one of the better happy hours in Walnut Creek. That is indeed an inventive to want to come here. But when it comes to «tapas» style food. Walnut Creek certainly does have more to offer which makes Modern China not really stand out as far as food goes. But for the drinks, that’s a different story.
In conclusion, I would still recommend this place despite my rating. Maybe my taste and preference is different from others. Like for me the drinks are pretty nice and the bartenders are pretty good. But the food is the low point. at least for me. All I would say if you come here is to come with your own opinion and as always « Unilocal» your own experience.

There seems to be a common theme on the most recent reviews for this place; horrible service. I’d like to add that not only is the service horrible, but their wait staff engages in a blatantly illegal practice of adjusting your credit card charges after you leave the restaurant.
My husband and I stopped by for drinks on the patio last weekend mid-​afternoon. The patio was not especially busy & it certainly wasn’t peak time for lunch or dinner. We were waited on by Jeff who brought the first round of drinks. Unfortunately, once he realized we weren’t going to order food, the service grew even poorer & we were not asked if he could get anything for us but rather we were questioned «are you ready for your check». The first time, we ordered another round of drinks as we were not ready to leave. The second time, we were given no option & Jeff just dropped off the check and walked away without asking if we wanted anything additional or even if we were ready to go.
Because of the extremely poor & dismissive way we were treated, we chose not to leave a tip when the bill was paid. Thankfully we saved the credit card receipt because once the charges came through we found that Jeff had chosen to add his own 18% tip to our bill when he ran the credit card even though we CLEARLY had stated & signed a receipt with no tip due to poor service.
We have reported this illegal practice to the authorities but should you choose to patronize this business, I urge you to save your receipts and make sure they are not illegally overcharging you as well.
We will not be back.

Came here on a date night with my boyfriend and we walked in about 25 minutes before happy hour was over at 6pm. We were sat pretty promptly and chose the outdoor patio area since it was a beautiful day out. I have to say, it was pretty cozy. Loved the string lights, the large fireplace and TV. Good vibes. So we immediately chose what we wanted to order from the Happy Hour menu and waited… and waited… and waited for the server to come so we could order before it ended. Finally after seeing tables that were sat pretty well after us get served, we get our waiter about 3 minutes before happy hour ended. Our waiter did his job. I wouldn’t say it was greeaaat customer service, but I mean… that’s okay, I was here for the food and drinks.
I also noticed that a lot of the foods and drinks seemed pretty pricey. I mean, I don’t mind paying for food regardless but it was definitely a little pricey. I ordered the tuna tartar and my boyfriend ordered the lamb chop. Our food came out pretty quick. I think we honestly waited longer for a waiter than for the food to come out. And let me say, the food was so GOOD. I licked that plate clean. Well worth the money! I haven’t stopped thinking about that tuna tartar.
TLDR: Customer service? Meh. The overpriced food and drinks were DELICIOUS. And the outdoor patio was a great ambience.

Came here to watch the Game 5 of the Warriors/​TrailBlazers playoff series. It was 8pm or so and sitting outdoors would’ve been nice since they had some TVs outside but arrived too late to get a good seat. A waitress suggested the dining room. Not crowded and got a table with a good view of the game on TV. I love tapas/​happy hour-​sized plates they have on the menu since it doesn’t force me to order a regular sized plate that I usually won’t finish. The prices were just right too. Ordered 2 tapas-​sized chicken chow fun plates which were more than enough for me.

Such a cute place for outside seating.
Came around 12pm on a Thursday win my girlfriend for cocktails and HH.
The food was tasty. But the wait for our dim sum platter was ridiculous! We ordered a few things off of the HH portion as well… Including:
Peking duck (⁵⁄₅)
–crispy skin, comes with lettuce (which I find odd) and the usual green onions and side of hoisin/​plum sauce
Honey walnut prawns (⁵⁄₅)
–crispy and great flavors! Has a hint of orange to the sauce but not too overdressed
Shrimp avocado roll (⁴⁄₅)
–interesting combo but it’s all veggies and shrimp inside a rice roll with a salty sauce like fish sauce with a few chives.
Lychee martini (2.5÷5)
–tasted nothing lychee, really strong as in overpowering any other flavor. Felt like shots in a martini glass.
Dim sum platter (⁴⁄₅)
–with 2 pieces of most popular dim sum choices… It had variety! Just enough to snack on. We got our platter at the end of our meal although we ordered right when we arrived, the waiter said that our order was brought to another table and ours was being prepared… My question is how come no one let us know what had happened before we kept wondering where our food was?

TLDR; The food is incredible, service has yet to be up to par, however.
My boyfriend and I came here hungry after a workout since it was one of the only spots still open after 10pm. We entered at about 10:15 and were greeted with «last call» for orders repeatedly as we walked in and that we needed to make our order by 10:30. They also ONLY provided us with the happy hour menu. I had to ask for the actual food menu even though we mentioned, at the door, that we want food.
We were impressed by the promptness of the delivery of the food (it came out super quick and very dim sum style) and it all tasted great. He’s a vegetarian and I eat meat, but there were plenty of options for us to have individually or share.
We had the following (I may be shortening some of the names):
Grapefruit & jicama salad
Green onion pancakes
Chinese Broccoli
Vegetable Dumplings
Shrimp and Chive Dumplings (OMG)
Atlantic King Salmon
Added note: I wrote all of the above when we first went and just noticed I never finished my review! Here’s the deal, the food is incredible. We were delightfully surprised at how good it was when the vibe was so loungey and the fact that we were eating at a bar. We have also gone there again since, and the latter time sit in the more restaurant-​like seating area. Both times customer service hasn’t been fantastic. The first time, the food came out super fast, but I do recall having to really try to work to get our waitress’ attention to pay, even though she was just 5 ft away. It was just a bit funny after being told to order so quickly after entering. The latter time our very zen server (the guy was super chill) was attacked by a belligerent customer, so, there’s not much one could do about that. We just didn’t really get service for maybe 20 min or so and didn’t really have any idea why.
So, in closing, great food, the place is just frequently packed and we’ve just yet to experience good customer service, but it might be lacking due to the clientele that comes in! (They have bouncers on weekends which, sadly, might be needed every night.)

This place used to be poppin. Now I don’t know what happened.
I’ll just say this. I ordered a beer, there was a chip in the glass. I went over to the bar tender and showed him. He proceeded to pour my (possibly glass filled) beverage into an unbroken glass. And just handed it to me. I was confused but said f*** it, I’ll have this beer and GO. Haven’t been back since.
Tip: when customer comes up with that issue again. Pour beer out, throw glass away, pour new beer. Saves you a lawsuit if they swallow glass.
(Former restaurant manager 2+years)
Food is eh.

Happy Hour is all day long, and the portions are well, at least for lunch, quite small.
I came here for lunch with a friend and I had the seared ahi tuna with Chinese broccoli and uh… It didn’t come with Chinese Broccoli, it came with Green Seaweed instead and some noodle. I had some Brown Rice that came along with it. The brown rice was quite good, but everything else wasn’t that great. The give you a salad to begin with but it’s nothing to ride home about, neither is the soup.
The service was good, and the waiter was attentive and we didn’t feel rush at all. Although for lunch there was no one there and we were one of only a few tables, that is worrisome whereas other places are completely full especially by 12:30pm.
Needless to say, I wouldn’t be coming back here again. There are better Americanize Chinese Food places.
Don’t get the dim sum there, it’s been frozen and re-​steamed.

Food was decent
Service so bad — everyone was nice enough when they finally get to you. It’s just getting their attention and keeping it that’s difficult.

I would’ve been willing to give this place a chance based on their decent food, but the service is horrible. It all started when we tried to call in and make a reservation. We had our name taken down over the phone and were told that our table would be ready when we arrived. Upon actually showing up at the restaurant, we were told there were no available tables and that the restaurant does not even take reservations – all despite the fact that we successfully called in and were told we had a reservation!
The hostess was extremely rude, and when I tried to talk to the owner about our issues with both her and the reservation debacle he was just as bad.
When we finally did get a table, we had to wait to be seated, wait to get menus, wait to have our order taken, wait to have our drinks delivered and not all of them even arrived. We ordered ice cream, and there were pieces of other food in it. The servers continually walked past us and other tables around us, who were also waiting, and would not make eye contact or check in to see how our meal was going.
The entire meal I could hear other customers complaining of similar issues. Basically just awful overall. DO NOT COME TO THIS RESTAURANT IF YOU’D LIKE TO HAVE AN ENJOYABLE MEAL.

Last time here. Food is mediocre, service is pretty slow. We had 9 plates and 9 empty cups no one ever bothered to clear the table the entire time we were there. We ended up putting additional empty plates on the table behind us.
The first waitress/​bartender came to take our order while chewing food and left before we completed our order. Rude.
Best thing about the restaurant is the location and outdoor seating. Needs management to care about the customers experience.

So today was my first time here with my husband and daughter, it’s Sunday afternoon, not that it should matter, service should always be good, we are seated quickly on one side of the restaurant all alone. Which is not a problem but 15 mins later no one comes to take a drink order, 20 mins later my husband as to hunt someone down to take our order, finally we order, apart from the fact that our waiter is taking our order on a napkin he’s super rude and telling us we can’t order what we want the way we want it. Fine on top of that the tempura shrimp is plain, the spring rolls are noting special, and the crab cake was lonely, only one in an order??? The menu said two, at this point were all to tired to complain. Oh and I had time to write all of this while waiting for my check which we asked for 10 min ago. On a Sunday… And it’s slow…

Small plates, lunch specials and happy hour all day errday menu (insert thinking emoji) perfect combination! (Jumping up and down) haha! This place is pretty good.
A few friends have been raving about this place and I had to give it a try.
My co workers and I ordered a few lunch specials and small plates for pick up. The staff over the phone was very friendly, got all of our orders correctly and it was ready for pick up in 10 minutes. Superb!
I had the Mongolian beef (see photo) and co worker had the coconut curry chicken clay pot (see photo). We ordered a few more items but failed to take a picture because once it was set at the conference room, it was devoured by a co worker (not naming them here lol).
We all gave our food a 4star! Delicious!
I will definitely come back again to try some of their dim sum!

My friends and I come here all the time for their all nighter HAPPY HOUR! We usually sit out in the front. The inside area was a bit «boring» for us, as we were a loud group.
Food: Generous portions and prices were fair. There is an extensive menu to choose from. I ordered the house fried rice and shaking beef. My friends ordered a bunch as well. Everything was delicious as we were hungry.
Service: Amazing service and attentive waitress. I am not sure if she tended to our table as I was with a bunch of guys.
Overall, Modern China is on my list.

I really wanted to give this place five stars. why can’t I? It’s real simple. when I went into the Men’s restroom the floor was all wet and I could have slipped and fallen. so I brought this to the attention of the people working there.
This was also my first time eating here, looks are rather deceiving like they say, the inside area of this restaurant is HUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEE…
Soo.I had no problem sitting in the corner of this place. chillin, charging my cell phone… and when the food came have a total super yums grapefruit salad… I was looking into chillin there and then moving on to the next course. This place does a great business. they must be doing something correct. Plenty of space to sit and eat.
On a warm, or cold evening, the out front area is usually pretty darn packed (heat lamps), what a great idea. people can sit outside. eat…chill…drink.Soooo…
when I was there the other day I met one of the owners… Eric…
He is a cool dude. I have a feeling I will be back.

We made a 7pm reservation for a surprise birthday party. We were treated terrible, and our table (actually 2) was given away. 8 of the 9 of us were waiting in the bar for the birthday girl (it was a surprise party!), and the host said that he gave away our table since we all weren’t here yet (he didn’t inform us of that fact until 45 minutes past our reservation time, when I had to go be bad cop with him to get a straight answer about if/​when they would be able to seat us.) I had arrived at 6:45pm for this reservation, and checked in with the host constantly. Sure, they were busy, but that is no excuse for treating potential customers that bad. He never even apologized! Just kept making excuses.
We ended up at 1515 down the street, which was a little pricey, but the service was worth it, especially compared to the incompetent service at Modern China.
I’ve been here before with smaller groups and thought it was fun, but I won’t be back unless I absolutely have to. Especially not if I am hungry, or planning a friends’ birthday celebration. Just don’t bother. I felt terrible for suggesting this place for a birthday party. Luckily we all got fed — somewhere else.
I don’t put up with crappy service. Train your employees better if you want to stay in business.

THEY HAVE BUGS IN THEIR FOOD!!!
NEVER EVER EVER EVER COMING HERE AGAIN! Ate here a few times for random events I would say it’s decent for «Chinese» food… So I decided to bring my family from Scotland last night to eat some dim sum…
I ordered the pork buns and FOUND A HUGE BUG IN MY FOOD! HONESTLY it looked like a baby cockroach. I peeled off the wrapper and thought I saw tiny hairs on the bun BUT IT WAS THE BUGS LEGS… DISGUSTING! When I showed the waitress who by the way took forever and a day to take my order, she said she didn’t even know what to say about the bug & was clearly just as bothered by it too. The stingy owner only offered to take the order off my tab and give us two free orders of pork buns but I refused because I lost my appetite. 5 minutes later she came back saying they’d take 20% off the tab BUT DIDN’T TELL ME THEY AUTOMATICALLY CHARGE 18% for GRATUITY!
SHADY!
I would have taken a picture but she heard my reaction & scooped it off the table

Use must’ve got there when they first opened because it was dead.
They have a big happy hour list with plenty of drinks and dishes.
Everything tastes amazing it was a lot of food between two people!
They forgot one thing but I’m glad they did because we definitely were in a food coma!
I got a margarita and it was so refreshing!
Customer service was very good!
Kind of a turn off when you can see old food and dead bugs between the glass table.
Will come again if I am in this area!
Looks like amazing place to go to for a date night