Review: Cafe Yulong

We had walked by this place many times while eating elsewhere in Downtown Mountain View. The one thing that drew us to this place was the huge banner advertising that it won Best New Restaurant for 2007 per Wave Magazine. That's pretty prestigious considering there were other restaurants that had just opened up this year too.

I'm not even gonna go into the decor or service with this place because it's the same as what you get at the other Chinese restaurants nearby. If you don't know, it's basically bare minimum service and bland decor. Nothing really special.

The waiter sat us by the window which was pretty cool. We got some "kimchee", tea and water to start.

I kinda wanted some noodles, but Justyn didn't want to share that with me so I ordered off of their lunch menu. Twice braised pork sounds perfect! Justyn ordered their crispy fried chili fish (I don't remember the exact name). Here it is...

Justyn's main gripe was that they didn't serve it family style like the other places we had been to. I didn't find that as annoying as my pork. I mean the name of the dish was Twiced Cooked Pork. It was rock hard and hard to chew. If you twice cook something, I expect it to be tender. Stir frying the pork, battering and deep frying it was a bad idea. Justyn's fish was a little better although there was nothing memorable about it. I felt like the dishes were tailored to suit the tastebuds of non-Chinese people or something which is unfortunate. I think I'll stick with Fu Lam Mum or Chef Liu.