| Large Chinese and Dim Sum restaurant located in Mervyns Plaza |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 4/1/2005
Rating: 8
My photo gallery
|
Catherine has submitted 4 restaurants to us and we have like every restaurant. The last restaurant on the list was China Stix. Dont let the location and outside scare you, its much more nicer on the inside. This place is huge and big enough to hold banquets or weddings.
They dropped menus off and I had my heart set on the shrimp with broccoli until I saw the ladies carting around little trays of food. Oh no, dim sum alert, I cant say no to those tasty treats. I figure 1 wont hurt, 2 might be pushing it, 3 is beyond the point of no return. Before we knew it, we had 5 trays of assorted treats. I cant spell them correctly but I will try
shu mei - perfect! they are the right size and nice chucks on shrimp in it. Tasted like a dab of egg rubbed on the outside and nice little pink dots on the top. I should have gotten 2 orders of this
hai gow - shrimp dumplings mixed with water chestnuts? moist and the wrapper wasnt soggy, had good texture to it.
stuffed shrimp - omg, if they would drain these suckers, it would be unbeatable. They were tasty, but the oil was such a downer. Other than that, the stuffing is worth its weight in gold. Too good to be true.
shrimp/crab over bell peppers - I thought the bell pepper was going to overwhelm the stuffing but it only added to it. Tasted like it was grilled giving a awesome burnt taste to it. Good to order.
spring rolls - this is the 1st time Ive had a spring roll fried, once again it was super greasy, omg, my stomach is going to be taken some punishment. It was shrimp, carrots, celantro, and thin wrapping lightly flash fried. If they were to drain this thing for 1 minute, I would be happier
veggies rolls - good but greasy, I see a recurring theme with grease at China Stix
I have mixed emotions on China Stix. The prices are excellent, food tasted good and would be my favorite dim sum place in the bay area but the grease is out of control. I cant think of a greasier meal that what I just had? Im not joking either. If they would just drain their food for a minute or so, I think I would be a happier person. I think Im being extrememly generous with my score considering the hell I went through later that night. Lets just say I went through 2 oil changes. I will give them another try, who knows, maybe we got the grease cook that day.
|
| |
| |
RETURN VISIT for Jason! 12/11/2007 - 7 Rating: Been a long time since we've been here and hate to say things have change since our 1st visit. This is actually our 3rd visit and probably should have re-rated on our second. We started off with terrible hot and sour soup. It was completely watered down and I didn't finish it. Bllleeeehhh.
We ordered some crab wontons which were equally as awful. They were deep fried wontons with a cream cheese and crab mixture. It doesn't sound bad but there was absolutely no crab meat whatsoever. Waste of money.
Could lunch be saved? It would take a lot ot revive my meal out of the 6 range. Miracles do happen and it came in the form of Salt and Pepper Crab. Light batter with salt and jalapenos peppers. All I needed was fluffy rice and a little work towards peeling shells of the shrimp. Quite a messy dish but completely worth it for the taste. Rated 8.
Soup and Appetizer were rated 5.5 to 6. Shrimps were very good. Service was fast, interaction was kept to a minimum. We ordered our food and that was the only spoken words until paying for the bill. Overall 7. |
| |
Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 739
Reviewed: 4/3/2005
Rating: 10
My photo gallery
|
We got China Stix as a wishlist request, mostly for their plate items, so we decided to head over. We got in there, and are greeted by Dim Sum carts. Wow, well, OK. Its very hard for me to turn down Dim Sum. We ordered a few shrimp dishes and immediately get to work. Jatbar is hard work after all.
I am utterly blown away. I'm talking socks knocked off, hair standing up. This is the best damn Dim Sum I have ever had. Mings was good, but China Stix is better. And cheaper. The selection was not as high as Mings but I found everything I wanted here.
The food was very greasy, I think thats just Dim Sum and is unavoidable, but sooooo darn flavorful. I could have cuddled into a ball at my table and just stayed there forever ordering shrimp dishes or that crab pincer ball thingy. OMG.
I was expecting a by-the-numbers chinese experience and what I found was a religious experience that comes only very rarely for Jatbar. I really don't want to get your hopes up, so go with an open mind. Perhaps my next visit won't be as good and I just got lucky, but OH MAN...... yeah.
The Veggie Egg Rolls were specifically recommended so we felt it our duty to order that. And sure enough, they were also VERY delicious. The shell of the eggrolls was like a fortune cookie almost in flavor. And inside the fresh vegetables were steaming and mind blowing in its own right. I will definitely be ordering this again.
When the check came after we were totally stuffed, it was only $28 for 2. Not bad at all for the kind of royal feasting that took place at our table.
Other recommended items we never got to order were the Orange Chicken, and the Wor Won Ton Soup. Maybe someday we'll get those.
For now, I can close my eyes and return to that time of peace and happiness I experienced at China Stix when I gouged myself in the most embarrassing of ways and just didn't care.
|
| |
|
|
Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 187
Reviewed: 10/2/2005
Rating: 8
My photo gallery |
I finally had a chance to eat some dim sum with a friend at China Stix. Having read the review here at Jatbar.com and hearing my friend raving about this place I had to take a time out from football and check this place out.
This is located in the Mervins plaza on El Camino. We arrive around 11:20am and the place already had a few seats taken. I was told this is a hot spot for church goers as there could be a line out the door during lunch hours. We were immediately served the standard green tea when we first sat down. This place is a bit different in terms of ordering as they list all the dim sum items along with the prices on a dim sum menu. You have the option to order stuff from the menu or the dim sum carts. The good thing about ordering from the menu is the items come out direct from the kitchen. We ordered the Shanghai steamed dumplings from the dim sum menu. My friend ordered a box of desert first, the red bean sticky rice cake rolled up. He raved about it although it was just average for me.
This place is fairly cheap as the three of us ordered several dishes of dim sum and the total bill came out to be 40 something after tax and tips. We ordered the Shanghai steamed dumplings, shrimp rice noodles, fried turnip cake, turnip pie, sui mai, shrimp har gaw, steamed spareribs, egg custard tart, and red bean sticky cake.
Shanghai Steamed Dumplings: When they first brought out the steam tray I was impressed as there were several large dumplings for us to share. One order contained 8 dumplings. Then I went in and tried to grab the dumplings with my chopsticks. It was impossible to get a hold of the dumplings without penetrating the skin. The skin is thin as it should be but there was no grip anywhere. When I finally was able to get one without the juices leaking out I was disappointed. Although it came straight from the kitchen the juice was not scorching hot, it was just barely warm. Although the dish had plenty of dumplings and was a good value, there was no authenticity. (6.5/10)
Shrimp Rice Noodles: Usually the rice noodles are served with sautéed prawns. First bite and it was obvious they used frozen cocktail shrimps. The rice noodles were not slippery, thus was kind of hardened and the stale tasting shrimp did not help this dish one bit, even the sweet soy sauce that usually makes this dish a treat was not able to save this dish. (5/10)
Fried Turnip Cake: This was served hot out of the fryer. How is that possible? Well they have a special cart that fries these turnip cakes and they serve it to the table hot. This is something Ive never seen and was a pleasure to eat this dish hot as turnip cakes are usually never served hot after sitting on the carts. Good turnip flavor and just the right size as it was soft and one notch undercooked as how I like it. (9/10)
Turnip Pie: These pies were huge. They served two round pies and cut each one as we had three seated at the table. I was actually surprised the filling was still hot, which helps make this tastier as the center is softer. Typically these things are greasy and getting to eat this pie hot helped with the grease issue as I tasted less of it. (7.5/10)
Sui Mai: Standard, nothing too fancy. (7/10)
Shrimp Har Gaw: This is the size Im accustomed to as recently Ive been eating dim sum at places that serve giant har gaws. These were wrapped with one or two small shrimps at most and were easy to put down in one bite. (7.5/10)
Steamed Spareribs: Small chunks of bones with a lot of lard and little meat. Only a tad of flavor as these are typically a bit spicy and I couldnt taste any of that spicy flavor. (6/10)
Egg Custard tart: China Stix makes this different from other dim sum restaurants. They use a puffy pastry and fill it with a lot of egg custard. This is actually the best egg custard tart Ive had within a dim sum restaurant. The pastry is puffy and goes down really well with the egg custard. There does not seem like a lot of egg custard when looking at it from the outside, but its filled with custard. Most places the flour portion is dry and there is only a shallow filling of egg custard. (10/10)
Red bean sticky cake: Even portion of red bean to sticky rice. Save your money and order two plates of egg custard instead. (7/10)
We also ordered some other items but I didnt even taste those as those dishes are usually something I dont eat. One dish is a Kim Chee like pickled cucumber and another one is the soybean milk. I also noticed that their Chinese donuts here are huge and comes straight from the kitchen. These need to be ordered from the menu and plenty of tables were ordering these donuts.
By the time we finished there was already a short wait at the door.
The staff here is very friendly and service on the spot as our tea pot was refilled immediately. I would defiantly come back and try some other stuff as we were already too stuffed to continue eating.
Pluses: Plenty of parking, friendly staff, quick service, accepts major Visa and MC over 10.00 minimum purchase, plenty of dim sum selections, good value.
Minuses: Gets crowded during lunch hours for dim sum on weekends.
***Update 12/15/05***
My birthday is this weekend and my friend decided to take me out to dinner this evening. We get there around 7pm on a Thursday night and holy batman, the place is packed. They are giving out numbers and using the ticket system to seat people. Some people who couldn't stand waiting decided to order out instead.
First thing I noticed about this place during dinner that I didn't see during Dim Sum, there are a lot of white people eating here. There are a lot of white senior citizens eating here. You know, when there are a lot of Caucasian senior citizens, the restaurant is really friendly and present a good value. All the foodies know senior citizens know where to go to eat for the best value.
So while we wait, for about 15 minutes, we see people coming in to order and people leaving. Each time they all greet the manager by name and she greets them back. This restaurant seems to know their customers and make it a business. This is the best way to keep people coming back. China Stix was giving out free calendars for next year that had some good design on them, and this one little girl left the restaurant happily exclaiming "I got a calendar of my very own!"
We're finally seated but the staff seating us gives us the English menus. DUH! I personally know there is a great deal of values and selections on Chinese menus vs. English menus. Although I can't read Chinese, I have plenty of friends who can. I go up and just grab some Chinese menus and my friend and I compare the selections. The prices are the same but the selections are different. The combination dinner choices are much better on the Chinese menu and they are much cheaper in comparison. Take for example; the English menu has a dinner for 2 for 12.95 a person. You get Soup, walnut prawns, garlic chicken, choice of fried rice or steamed rice and desert. Now on the Chinese menu, for 29.00 you get two small cold dishes, choice of salt and pepper shrimp or salt and pepper spareribs, west lake minced beef soup, Hunan tofu, and some sort of Chinese soy sauce pork, plus desert. This is a much better value than the English menu version, even though the desert we were served was different from what the menu stated.
The taste is really up to par, the service is good, and there are plenty of customers. The popular selection among the Chinese folks is the hot pot soup pot with assortment of seafood, meat and tofu in a large pot of soup. Among the Caucasian folks, the choice seems to be the standard American flair choices.
For dinner I'd give China Stix 8/10 as well.
** Update 6/24/2006 **
My friend recently moved close by and upon hearing he was treating all his helpers to dim sum at China Stix I volunteered my Saturday morning as well. There was not all that much heavy lifting, just a few heavy boxes but was well worth the reward.
We arrived at 12pm and was seated at one of the open tables. The carts circled around and hit every table, including ours so we never missed an item. The one item we usually never would is the pork steamed buns and the guy who convinced us to order this said it was hot from the steamer, just made, so we decided to get it. Great pork steamed buns. Buns were still hot and plenty of juices from the meat inside.
Service was great as usual as we had our waters topped off like 10 times. Someone always managed to come to our rescue when our water was empty. I could not believe how many times our waters were refilled.
Only negative was some of the items such as the shrimp balls were served lukewarm but like always the radish cake is freshly made on the cart. Still a great place for lunch and even better when I am not paying! |
| |
Reviewer: jsatre
Total Reviews: 75
Reviewed: 3/2/2006
Rating: 8
My photo gallery |
A last minute get together with friends to hang out spells one thing: Take-Out! Going to my favorite Chinese place in Campbell is out of the question so I needed to find a good Chinese place between Santa Clara to Sunnyvale. What does Jatbar recommend?? China Stix! Sure! With a 9 they have to be good.
Thanks J&T for having the menu available online. I call in my order of Vegetarian Eggrolls, Broccoli Beef, Orange Chicken, Peking Spareribs, and BBQ Pork Fried Rice. I would have ordered something spicier but one friend is anti-spicy. China Stix gave me a choice of a free side and I get the Chinese Chicken Salad.
30 minutes later when I arrived, my order was already to go. The friendly staff at the front desk greeted me with a smile. $44 – whoa! Thats more than I wanted to spend. I hope either the portions account for that, or the flavors do. I probably would have spent 8-10 dollars less at my usual Chinese spot.
Veg Eggrolls: Average and a bit greasy. The paper bag they come in is clear from the oil absorbed and there is still a puddle in the bag. These dont look homemade, but we still scarf them down.
Broc Beef: WOW! Beef was so tender it melted in your mouth! Broccoli was crisp and bright green but maybe too al dente. Sauce was delicious and not too salty. I would have liked to seen some thin carrot slices added for color and texture.
Orange Chicken: I really liked the way they prepared this… NOT BATTERED! Large chunks of white meat in a slightly tangy-sweet sauce with minced green onions and long strips of orange peel. A few red chili flakes perk up the sauce. This also had broccoli spears which was an unusual surprise. Again, broccoli was a bit tough and could have used another 2 minutes in the pan. I like al dente not raw.
Peking Spareribs: Nice little ribs that were meaty, but the sauce tasted like the basic bottled red sweet and sour sauce with ketchup added. A little disappointed, but the serving was adequate. I rarely order spareribs and I just think its not work the effort and mess.
BBQ Fried Rice: lots of diced meat, peas, egg and fluffy rice… very good and tasty! Not greasy, just right!
Chinese Chicken Salad: a nice addition to the meal. This was crisp iceberg with lots of peanuts, cilantro and carrots then tossed in a very light rice vinegar dressing. Only complaint is the rice stick noodles. So many were uncooked… tough on the teeth!
Overall, a great Chinese Meal. Portions were good. I would have raised the score to a half point if they come down a dollar on their prices. At $8.95 per entree its a little steep on my wallet. I will definitely return for the Orange Chicken, BBQ Pork Fried Rice and Broccoli Beef. Plus, I want to try their soups!
|
| |
Reviewer: Grace
Total Reviews: 42
Reviewed: 10/8/2006
Rating: 8.5
My photo gallery |
I was looking for some good dim sum close to home and this seemed like the best rated one in San Jose, so I took the boyfriend and off we went!
When we got there it was super busy, we waited about 20 minutes to get a table. We were promptly seated and given a pot of tea and waited for the carts to roll our way...and waited....and waited... Perhaps we had a bad corner?
We went with a lot of the traditional dishes, shrimp dumplings, rice noodles, chinese chive dumplings, marinated pork, bbq pork buns, pot stickers, chicken feet, daikon cake, etc. All of it was very good, I was impressed! We also ordered some edamame, which I wasn't sure why they had there in the first place. It was horrid! The edamame was cold and seasoned with white pepper. Yuck.
Anyways, despite the slow service (waited for another 15 minutes to get the check), and their edamame, the resturant is overall a good spot for dim sum. I'll be stopping by again when I get another craving. |
| |
|
|
| Disclaimer |
|
|
