Based on today’s lunch, I’m thinking we might have a rising star in Bay Cafe in Alhambra which opened quickly earlier this month after the sudden closure of Mr. Fish at 39 W. Main St. Place was packed with a crowd waiting even at 1pm on a Wednesday and the food was terrific, 5 outstanding dishes out of 5 dishes ordered. (Total bill before tax and tip was $45.) From what I gather, this is an expansion from Bay Island Cafe in Rosemead and perhaps Bay Garden Cafe in Temple City. Now the trouble with trying so many Chinese restaurants is that you can’t delve too deeply unless it makes an immediate impression that makes you want to go back. So I did eat previously at both Bay Island and Bay Garden when they opened , and didn’t find anything noteworthy. Likewise I hadn’t heard any buzz about either subsequently. But for there to be a further expansion, and for it to be such a hot item so quickly, I’m wondering if I missed something with the predecessors. Any intelligence out there?
I read about the long lines there?
Surprising since Bay Island Cafe is note noteworthy, just open late and cheap takeout food.
Probably a better chef at this location also the fact that it might be the only decent Chinese restaurant on Main St correct me if I’m wrong. Maybe there was pent up demand that was never met since Alhambra was anti-Asian concepts on Main St for many years.
Actually Jasmine House is fairly decent Cantonese a half block away, but certainly not in the class that Bay Cafe seems to be.
What dishes did you enjoy at Bay Island?
Started with beef chow fun. Wok hei was immediately obvious. Also salt and pepper pork chops, Taiwanese cauliflower with lop cheung, eggplant with tofu and bean curd sticks, and the french cut steak. We’re going to have to work our way down the menu.
just from looking at the Chinese characters, bay garden cafe in temple city may not be related to the other two.
I have not been recently, but bay island cafe has a decent wait for weekday lunches / weekend in general with mostly Cantonese speaking crowds/families
That looks really good!
I had a mediocre meal there tonight. 3/3 hit ratio in misses.
curry beef brisket stew - brisket’s chewy…needs to be braised for a lot longer
sweet and sour pork - not too saucy but pork’s a bit dry
yang chow fried rice - flavor ain’t bad with a touch of wok breath but what’s with the use of spam in place of char siu?!
lumps of rice in the fried rice. unacceptable.
We went 4.5/5 tonight. French cut steak, orange chicken, corn fish, on choy were excellent. The scallop egg white fried rice was flavorful but strangely a little soggy. So of the nine different dishes we’ve tried in two visits this week, the fried rice was the only one that wasn’t top notch.
I’ll need to go back and try more HK stuff.
Went there tonight
got…
7 flavored (fried) chicken
It was surprisingly good (as the pic looked a bit dry). Some of the edge pieces were a tad dry, but the middle pieces were juicy. It’s similar to the fried chicken at cantonese banquet places but with more seasoning/toppings.
bean curd with mushroom
very nice standard dish, easy to scarf down with rice.
“prime beef with mixed mushroom”
beef was soft, thin, n fatty. also another good dish to go with rice.
basically shabu style beef wok fried with mushrooms. Wok hei was apparent! !
Overall, quite similar to the rosemead one, but maybe more consistent because they’re not as busy yet. I’ve had some ridiculously long waits for food at the rosemead location. 3/4 full on a monday night is prob due to their advertising on AM1430 right now. Lets see if they can hold those crowds once the ads stop. But as for as taste/value, they’ll surely satisfy the cantonese hoards in the surrounding areas.
steamed pork belly with preserved mustard greens
tough, stringy, and extremely lean
fish fragrant eggplant - good
Lower edge of photo newspaper lining the table is in simplified characters and not 粵語 lol…
i’m more surprised that the ad doesn’t have james wang on there!