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Porridge Place (Chinese cuisine) $

10869 North Wolfe Road, Cupertino, 95014 (Directions)

408-873-8999

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Cheap, taiwanese place specializes in 3 item food combo over rice porridge.
Reviewer: Jason Total Reviews: 1040 Reviewed: 8/18/2006 Rating: 8 My photo gallery	Cupertino Village is filled with all these random asian restaurants, so many places, so little time. Our guide today was Terry's co-worker Yasuyo. She was a frequent visitor to Porridge Place and told us it was dirt cheap. Apparently, we aren't the only ones to know this as it WAS PACKED. We placed our names on the waiting list and waited about 10 minutes. Most of the food items are on steam trays but the menu indicates more dishes to order. I picked up the 3 dish combo with my dishes as bok choy, green beans w/ pork, and chicken. It's only $4.99 and you get a giant bowl of rice porridge to share with the group. The rice porridge is basically a soupy white rice with yams. There's not much flavoring to it but when you mix the greasy side dishes, it's forms into a pleasant concoction. The vegetables were cooked perfectly, crisp, firm, and bright colors to prove. My chicken was decent with the exception of 1 uncooked piece. Porridge Place is definitely worth visiting. For $4.99, this meal is hard to beat. The vegetables were fresh and from tasting the other dishes on the table, it was consistently good. The noise level is loud and packed with tons of people. Try to get here before the lunch rush or you'll find yourself waiting in line. They are open 7 days a week until 11PM.

Reviewer: Terry Total Reviews: 739 Reviewed: 8/17/2006 Rating: 8 My photo gallery	Yasuyo recommended Porridge Place as a restaurant she frequents often due to its low prices, and tasty dishes. We arrive and the place is packed around noontime. Basically how it works is that if you are eating it in the restaurant, you put your name on a list. You wait for a table to open up, and they call you in. Once inside, you stand in the buffet line. You pick out 3 items and then go sit down. They prepare your dish and get your rice porridge. At Yasuyos recommendation, I went with the seaweed, eggplant, and tofu. The porridge itself, to my untrained palate, is just waterlogged rice with more water. You then take the chopsticks and place food in your little porridge bowl and eat the food from there. I found all of my items to be tasty, but the eggplant was probably my favorite. It had the most pleasing grilled flavor to it. The seaweed, while tasty at first, got old quickly and I wouldn't order this again. The tofu was decent, I would order it again. It was not super flavorful (its your basic tofu) yet it was done well and wasn't runny or anything. The dishes I had were all relatively low on grease. If you are looking for a filling lunch, its hard to go wrong with Porridge Place. Once you get used to the style of serving rice it is sweeter and more flavorful than your standard white rice. The prices were cheap for the 3 item (under $5) and basically there is little waiting around once you get seated. You sit down, eat your food, and leave immediately. You're not here for the ambience, its all about the food.

Reviewer: wchane Total Reviews: 148 Reviewed: 1/14/2008 Rating: 6.5 My photo gallery	Ok, so this might not be fair to them as we did stroll in at some 10:23pm, it was an empty restaurant - we were hungry - and their sign said open till 11pm. Talk about rushed and pushy service. guard dog of a waitress - "to go or here?" us - "here" waitress - "ok to go right?" us - "no, we're eating here" waitress - "oh ok, what do you want?" us - points at stuff in mr. chow style food bar waitress - "to go right? ok" us - "NO FOR HERE. (what part of 'we're eating here' did you not understand? there's still 45 WHOLE minutes before you close shop.)" waitress - puts it on standard plates* we were sat then they made some ghetto excuse that they cash register closes at 10:30pm, we had to pay first. fine - you can win this one. she has the tenacity to say, 'you can leave my tip here, then a slight pause, then or on the table." no way, after trying to boot us out? screw your tip. (one of the few times i've refused to tip) food? - greasy, but expected. done well might have to come back just because of that. service - a new low in my opinion, i've experienced pushy, rushed, but this was just to a new all time low. definitely a disgruntled worker. would i come back? i'm still debating that. probably not.

Reviewer: Grace Total Reviews: 42 Reviewed: 9/22/2006 Rating: 7.5 My photo gallery	I've been to Porridge Place a few times and it's a pretty good deal if you're looking for cheap eats. I don't like their porridge at all, the consistency of it is way too soupy and not very sticky, and I don't like yams. The way it's prepared is a regional thing to China/Taiwan so that might be why. I like their side dishes a lot, and I usually come for that and I'll choke down some rice with it to fill up. I think it's just my personal preference as I grew up to porridge as a comfort food and it's prepared very differently here. Also I stopped by last time in the middle of the afternoon and the items on their steam table were very unappealing at that time. But still, can't beat all that food for such a low price!


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“awful. my stuff had hair in it. avoid at all cost.”

6/21/2008 5:50:36 PM