| Taiwanese cafe specializing in hot pots and offering budget bento boxes |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 6/23/2005
Rating: 6.5
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I was short on time and wanted to pick up something cheap and fast. My lunch visit was Cafe Ophelia next to Marina market in Cupertino. A taiwanese restaurant that offers bento boxes to go. For roughly 5 bucks, you get a neatly packaged meal to go (picture #4). These boxes must go quick because the only option was bento B. It was basa fillet, ribs, and veggies.
basa fillet - served over rice with some sauce on it. 2 small pieces and very mild in taste. The fish is of the catfish family grown in vietnam
ribs - To put this politely....YUCK. I have eaten at 450+ restaurants in the last year or so and I can only recall 1-2 other places where I chewed food and spat it out. I took one bite and chewed for a minute or two then mixed it with rice and my taste buds were telling me.....SPIT IT OUT SPIT IT OUT...so, I spat it out. It wasnt raw or any bugs in it. It just didnt taste right.
The only thing saving this meal from a 6 was the veggies. The had a small corner of bok choi in corner and thats the only thing I finished. I know its not fair to judge an entire restaurant on 1 bento box but from a bento box standpoint, this was just a waste of my money. To make matters worse, I had no cash on me so I tried to use my ATM card but theres a $25 minimum charge. Whats up with that? That sucks...I had to borrow cash from adam.
Not to completely write off Cafe Ophelia, I hear the thing to get is the Hot Pots. Other than that, I cant recommend the bento box B and their stupid $25 minimum ATM service charge.
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Reviewer: Grace
Total Reviews: 42
Reviewed: 11/3/2005
Rating: 6
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I've eaten at this place a few times as it is a popular hang out spot for students because of their cheap prices There are several locations, so each location may be different. They have a 99 cent pearl milk tea special, which isn't bad considering that you're paying a buck for it. I don't like pearls because I always choke on them (I know I'm a hazard to myself), so I always order my pearl milk tea without them, so I guess that makes it just milk tea.
I had one of their bento boxes once, which I regretted as I hate bento boxes in general. I forgot what I specifically ordered, but it was some kind of a meat over rice combo. I don't like rice, so I didn't touch it, and the meat was really tough and hard to chew, and it tasted funny. I couldn't tell what they cooked it with, which is rare for me because I'm very fond of sauces. Also having not eating the rice, the salad, egg, and slice of orange had no part of filling me up.
Alas I was sad and felt ripped off spending around $5 bucks on a bento box. The cheap pearl tea is a plus, they offer it without any other purchase at the Cafe Ophelia in Fremont. |
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Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 165
Reviewed: 9/29/2007
Rating: 6.5
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Stopped for dinner tonight at the Milpitas location, although the original plan was Hot Pot City but my friends wanted a wider selection. There are some good selections on the menu but the prices are considered high in my book. They try to combine it with soup, rice, side dishes and a dessert or tea drink with the main meal so they can justify the higher charge.
One of my friends told me last time he had take out at the Cupertino location he found a bug in his take out meal. I went with the noodles in beef soup with ramen as my choice for the noodle (three choices of noodles), and I opted for the pudding custard for my dessert. For $10.95 I received noodles in a light beef broth with a lot of beef, a lot of spinach, and a small portion of hand pulled thick noodles. I think they translated ramen incorrectly. They probably meant “la mien” rather than “ramen.” Two side dishes paired for my noodle item and a small dish of custard.
I’m sure I could have found a cheaper and larger bowl of noodles anywhere else within Milpitas Square. I didn’t leave completely disappointed. I learned the difference between Shabu Shabu and Hot Pot, which Ophelia had both on the menu. The difference is the soup base. Everything else on the plate, choice of veggies is pre determined.
Seems most people here order the Hot Pot, Shabu Shabu, or the stone grilled meat or seafood items.
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Reviewer: wchane
Total Reviews: 141
Reviewed: 8/12/2006
Rating: 6
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I wanted to give this place a 5, but i forgot jatbar is a 5-10 scale, not 1-10.
I used to eat lunch here on a weekly basis when I worked in Cupertino, it's cheap, convienent bento box lunches were easy on the wallet and easy on the mind. In our fast paced work environment there were often times where I could not figure out what I wanted to eat or where to go or how can i squeeze in that 30 or so minutes to scarf down some nutrition. Cafe Ophelia filled in those voids.
When I first started to come here, the bentos were very good quality, the meat always cooked and decent cuts/trimmings. The vetable, side dish selection varied often then as months passed I noticed the quality took a dive.
They started to offer more variety in their bento choices including a taiwan railroad bento, however you'd apporach the counter and they'll tell you 'sorry A or D' only (I don't know what A or D is, but it's usually the honey glazed chicken or pork something or other, the unagi is almost ALWAYS sold out...or they never had them to begin with)
These things come out of big styrofoam containers to keep the heat in, if you look at one of those things they're beat up, smelly, and i don't think sanitary. However...I can live with all of this, especially for less then a ten-spot.
The limited selection usually translates into me ordering the honey glazed chicken and whatever else bento, I flipped over the honey glazed chicken and it appears that the underside is filled with baked maggots? I don't know what it was but it was disgusting...however I soon realized it was part of the chicken and yes i was so hungry i devoured it anyways. fat glands or something...but shouldn't of been there. The side dishes would carry on for weeks w/o changing..it was always seaweed knots, peanuts, or tofu. The chicken continued on a downhill path, at times it smelled sour, the 'fat glands' kept appearing and it came to a point where if someone offered to buy me a bento i'd pass.
The only reason I'm rating this place a 6 for lunch is because I have been Cafe Ophelia free for over 8 months, and lately have a craving for it. Hopefully this craving will pass.
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