Mây's Cafe

No, I haven't stopped eating out (unfortunately for my wallet) I've just been too busy to blog about it. But this lunch break instead of reading blogs, I'll actually update mine. This entry is for my hubby who is craving Vietnamese food. I can't make it or take you there today, but you can drool over a past meal. 

My favorite phơ combo is tái gân (rare steak & tendon) $4.99

I love Vietnamese food. I think it's my favorite Southeast Asian cuisine. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of good places to get it in Fresno especially compared to Westminster, CA (little Saigon of CA). But I've made due and found a couple of decent places. My favorite dish is phơ but I haven't really found a place worthy of my affection or $$ in town. My bro and his lady like Mây's Cafe so we finally went and tried it. They serve Vietnamese food in typical Asian cafe style with pictures of most of the food on the walls. Compared to the other Vietnamese restaurants in the area, this place is far cleaner, not clean by western restaurant standards but your shoes don't stick to the floor and your chopsticks don't stick to the tables-that's always a good thing. My favorite Vietnamese dish is by far phơ: vermicelli rice noodles in a beef broth topped with your choice of beef cuts. They also serve it with bean sprouts, onions, cilantro, basil, chili pepper, mint, green onions and lime. Some people like to add all, some or none of the things to their soup. I personally add almost everything except basil and mist witch I like to eat fresh on the side. The phơ at Mây's is nothing exceptional but it's not horrible either. The broth is probably a combo of instant and/or packaged broth that they most likely cook with some beef to give it some authenticity. 

Bún Thit Nương with Egg rolls $7.25 

My husband's favorite Vietnamese dish is bun: cold vermicelli rice noodles mixed with fresh cut greens (lettuce, cilantro, bean sprouts) served with your choice of BBQ meat and/or egg rolls with spiced fish sauce. My husband enjoys BBQ pork with egg rolls. Too bad none of the Fresno places we visited serve bun with thin vermicelli noodles because it tastes a whole lot better. Instead it's served with more spaghetti like rice noodles, too thick in my opinion. Like their phơ, their bun is nothing exceptional. Their egg rolls are made with the flour won ton skin and not the traditional Vietnamese rice paper which makes them heavier and sub-par. 

Combination Fried Rice $6.99

My husband and I really enjoy their combination fried rice, the Chinese sausage make it yummy and special but other than that it's your standard cafe style fried rice with all the meats and canned vegetables (veg-all is it?).  

Cơm Sươn Bí Trưng (Sauteed Pork Chop, Mixed BBQ Pork, Skin Style Pork, Steamed Egg w/steamed rice) $6.50

I normally really like pork chop with broken rice because it's filling, tasty and cheap but this one was bad. It was served with steamed rice not the special broken rice the skin style pork had no flavor and the steamed egg was way over cooked. Very disappointing. 

Mây's Cafe is not the yummiest but it works when we need a Vietnamese food fix with our toddler because the food is decent, the place is clean and the service is fairly friendly.

Mây's Cafe

2327 N Fresno #102

Fresno, CA 93703

(559) 225-7990

M-Sat: 7am-9pm

Sun:7am-3pm

Yum Meter: *

Hunan Chinese Restaurant

Fresno Chinese food is not the kind of Chinese food you can get in more metropolitan areas, which is a shame because there's a lot more to Chinese food than westernized chow mein and chicken salad. Hunan's was another international student recommendation. Actually it was more like a Chinese following. Students and tourists from China would make Hunan's a destination to visit (usually before or after Yosemite). Why? Because of the famous chef & owner of Hunan, Zhongyi Liu. I didn't, couldn't believe such a famous chef resided in Fresno. It must be a myth or Chinese wives' tale. NOPE, its true. We have this hidden gem of yummy right here in the Central Valley. We're so lucky! 

So we ordered to go from this place when we were living on the NW side of town and then when we moved NE Fresno, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Hunan's; we forgot about it. Maybe the stress of a move or having a baby had something to do with it or maybe it's Hunan's unfortunate location. It's literally tucked away behind several stores at the Cedar Tree Village shopping center. I only remembered it because I was on a Chinese food kick and hating almost everywhere I ate and a fellow mommy asked me where I liked Chinese food in town and a light bulb turned back on - HUNAN's.

Chef Liu has catered his menu to this town slightly with his own original twist. For example the chicken salad is not the horrific lettuce with old fried chicken and won tons drenched in an oily sweet sesame dressing, it's shredded chicken in a sweet, pungent bean sauce on a light bed of lettuce. It's so simple but the intricacies of the sauce will blow you away. There was a recent article in the Bee about Hunan's so it's been pretty packed lately. We went the Saturday after the article and it was an hour wait. Fortunately a large reunion was leaving so our wait was cut considerably.

Potstickers $6.45

Look at the way the oil from the pan-fried, hand made won ton skin glistens from my flash. I'm a sucker for hand made won ton skins so upon my first bite, I was a goner. There are no soy sauce bottles on the table, no these dumplings are accompanied with fermented soy bean in a light chili oil. I had enjoyed the potstickers earlier that week for lunch so I had my heart set on Bao Tse (steamed bun filled with honey pork, I think) but they were sold out again. Darn it! I will try you Bao Tse before I die.

Sizzling Rice Soup $6.95

This is the way sizzling rice soup is done. Fresh cut vegetables (maybe not the bamboo, peas and water chestnuts), nice sized pieces of chicken and shrimp, and most importantly not laden with oil, just oil from the deep fried rice.

Butter Cream Prawns $13.95

This was a recommendation from a lady who was also waiting to be seated. The name says it all. It's buttery, creamy and extremely sweet. I was expecting walnut shrimp but this was initially way too sweet and kind of a disappointment until I had a prawn with a bite of strawberry. This took it to a whole 'nother level. The strawberries subdued the saccharine punch and enhanced the rich creamy flavor. If you're with a kid, definitely order extra strawberries so you can truly enjoy this dish.  

The chef also has a secret menu for his staff and special banquets where his culinary prowess truly shines. I have to get myself to one of these banquets. 

Hunan Chinese Restaurant

6716 N. Cedar #104 (behind the Dollar Tree)

Fresno, CA 93710

(559) 297-0336

thehunanrestaurant.com

YUM Meter: ***

Masala Indian Cuisine & Cafe

My husband works with a lot of international students. This is advantageous for a foodie with an international palate. It serves me well to find the famous Chinese chef in town that all the Chinese students and tourists know about and make it a point to visit. Who better to critique Indonesian food than someone who has grown up with it their entire life. Thankfully the students find the good or decent ethnic eats in town and my hubby passes along the information. Recently there has been a wave of students from India. Lucky for me it's one of my favorite, if not favorite, cuisines. My love affair with Indian food was not love at first taste. No, not at all. I knew nothing about it but was up for any epicurean adventure in high school. I went to place called Clay Oven I think in SW Fresno. I don't think it's there anymore...I don't know, I haven't been to that part of town in a while. I ordered Palak Paneer because I like spinach. The server delivered a dish of dark green goop (that looked like poop-sorry, I couldn't resist). In high school I was not fond of cooked vegetables especially unrecognizable vegetables. I asked the server for a fork and took 3 good spoonfuls and couldn't take in anymore. I was raised to finish my plate clean so that's why I forced 3 spoonfuls and not just one. Oh the lack of texture, the unusual spices, oh and some weird spongy thing (which later I found out to be cheese). The horror! I didn't touch or even consider Indian food for several years. In college I had a couple of Indian girlfriends that kindly showed me the light. They took me to an Indian buffet. I highly recommend Indian buffets, especially if you have no idea what to order or even what it is you're ordering. A good buffet will have a nice assortment of dishes for a very reasonable price (little to no commitment necessary for each dish).

Masala's was a recommendation from a student when it first opened a couple of years ago. Nice, clean ambience with friendly service and good food. I loved that you could order dishes and determine the spice level because I like it HOT and their hot lived up to my taste buds. But it was pricey for Indian food. Maybe because it's in the new shopping center in the new part of town. We still went back despite the price tag. What I longed to try was their buffet. Buffets are not only good if you're new to Indian food but they're also great if you're already familiar with what you like because you get multiple dishes for what you would normally pay for just one. It's a food bargain. Mmm...Masala's buffet lived up to what I imagined it would. They offered pakora, basmati rice, chicken tikka masala, aloo gobi, tandoori chicken, dal tadka, lamb ball curry, raita, gulab jamun, and some salad items. I enjoyed most of the items. The pakora had little to no vegetables, it was mainly tasteless, greasy batter. I've never been fond of tandoori chicken (too dry in my opinion) so I never waste valuable stomach space on that dish. I'm not a fan of lamb but the curry it was in was good. I'm glad I never paid for dessert on my previous excursions here because the gulab jamun was mediocre. All the other items I've enjoyed here in the past and enjoyed them at the buffet. I could live w/o the chicken in the tikka masala; just imagine a spiced tomato curry laden with butter - drool. If you like cauliflower cooked a little over al dente with turmeric, you'll like aloo gobi. Too bad Masala is getting rid of their lunch buffet starting 10/27/08. They're going for a California fusion lunch. Maybe to compete with North India Bar & Grill.

Lunch Buffet $9.99

Masala Indian Cuisine & Cafe

7735 N. Blackstone Ave., Suite 105

Fresno, CA 93720

(559) 431-0060

masalafresno.com

YUM Meter: **

Shanghai Chinese Cuisine, LLC

Shanghai gets rave reviews by almost everyone I've conversed with in Fresno. I vaguely remember trying it way back in high school and I think I enjoyed it. That was before I learned about the vastness of Chinese cuisine in college. I didn't know Asian food could be Americanized. That was foolish of me, if Mexican food could be Americanized to the degree of Taco Bell, how far off could Panda Express be. Chinese restaurants in Fresno are predominately Americanized. There are a few gems in town but Shanghai is not one of them. My hubby wanted to taste for himself what all the buzz was about so we went to dinner as a family and ordered the Shanghai Imperial Dinner which comes with the following for $14.99 per person, minimum of 2 orders.

Sizzling Rice Soup

Sodium and grease laden water with no fresh ingredients. High blood pressure in a bowl.

Chinese Chicken Salad

If this is on the menu and it's authenticity you're after, hit the door. There's absolutely nothing authentic about Chinese chicken salad. This one was a platter of iceberg lettuce with some old fried chicken (probably fried 2+ days ago) and fried won ton skins drizzled in a sweet & tangy (in all the wrong places) dressing.

Sweet & Pungent Shrimp

Nothing sweet about this dish. Pungent=acutely distressing.

Pork Dumplings

The filling is a big glob of unseasoned pork wrapped in a flavorless won ton with no special dipping. I enjoy the variety Costco carries (Ling Ling) over these. The only time I eat the Costco variety is when it's a sample and I'm so starving I eat any and all samples. 

Veggie Platter

YAY! Some fresh vegetable for my baby to enjoy. Assorted vegetables stir fried with corn starched soy sauce.

Sizzling Beef Platter

This platter comes sizzling to the table is not bad tasting if you don't mind beef pseudo tenderized in corn starch. I mind. The same sauce used in the veggie platter, just a bit more salt. The food here is a lot like Joy Luck in Riverpark on Blackstone. I wonder if it's the same owner or management??? All in all I was very disappointed wasting my time, money, stomach space and taste buds here. Maybe we ordered the wrong things? I won't be returning any time soon to find out.

Shanghai Chinese Cuisine, LLC

4011 N. Blackstone Ave.

Fresno, CA 93726

(559) 221-0227

YUM Meter: 

Dog House Grill

Before moving back to Fresno I went to a Gwen Stefani concert at the Save Mart Center and thought what an unfortunate name for a restaurant.  Now that I live here, the name totally makes sense...Fresno State Bulldogs-duh! Being across the street from the university is not the only reason the lines are out the door during the lunch and dinner hours, it's the food.  My first trip here was with my husband when I was fat, pregnant and craving a hot dog.  Their hot dogs are sliced down the middle, grilled and dressed to perfection hoagie style.  If you don't like your dogs with ALL the fixins, you better stick to the kid hot dog.  I would have continued to order the hot dog if I didn't notice 85% of the other customers were ordering or devouring the tri-tip steak sandwich.  I'm not a big BBQ person, but I had to try it for myself. The hoopla surrounding this place and this sandwich are well deserved. Generous serving of grilled tri-tip cooked medium well with a thick, sweet BBQ sauce smothered on a garlic butter toasted french roll. I'm hungry just writing about it.  If you're with your buds share a basket of fries, there's plenty of fried skinny potatoes doused in seasoned salt to go around.  If your willing to spend a little more $$ get the basket of rings, they're pricey so I've only mooched from a co-worker but they were all that fried onions dipped in batter could and should be. I'm not a person who can get full off of lettuce but the steak cobb salad comes pretty close.  It's a traditional cobb salad with chopped tri-tip ends thrown in. My dressing of choice with this salad is a combo of ranch and the bbq sauce. 

Tri-Tip Steak Sandwich $7.99

The only miss from the menu was the pig sandwich, shredded pork with bbq sauce. It was way too sweet. It was like eating candied pork-yuck. I couldn't even finish the sandwich. Sometimes the snot in me turns my nose up to corn fed beef, wishing I had the funds to fly to Japan whenever I wanted to eat some oishii Kobe beef, then reality hits and I suck up the nastiness of American beef and enjoy Dog House Grill's finest.

Dog House Grill

2789 E. Shaw Ave.

Fresno, CA 93710

(559) 294-9920

sorry no call ins

Yum Meter: ***

Tacos Marquitos

When I first walked in and saw the pictures of the food on the wall, I got really excited because they carry things I don't normally see in Mexican restaurants. They offer corundas, tacos de papa (or as I refer to them papa tacos), enchilada Michoacan, pambazo and pozole just to name a few.  

The Gamma Burrito $4.25

Handmade flour tortilla

Carne asada, french fries, lettuce, tomato and sour cream. Looks really good but I thought the carne asada was too salty.

 

Corundas $6.50

This was my first time trying corundas.  I was not impressed.  The masa was too salty.  At least the castillo de puerco that accompanied the masa was good.

Pina (Large 44oz) $1.85

You can rarely go wrong with pina.

Oddly they keep the salsa behind the register.  I asked for spicy. It had heat but lacked flavor. It was too bad the food didn't live up the the pictures on the restaurant wall.  I mean even these pictures look pretty tasty but unfortunately these dishes looked better than they tasted.

Tacos Marquitos (Barstow & Cedar)

1772 E. Barstow

Fresno, CA 93710

559-447-5569 

YUM Meter: *

Don Pepe Taqueria

Don Pepe's just opened a second location across the street from my work.  Yah for me, boo for my waist line and wallet.

Carne Asada Taco & Al Pastor Taco $1.85 each

The tacos usually come with whole pinto beans in them but I always request "no beans."  Don't really dig beans in my taco.  As you can see, they don't go skimpy on the meat.

Chicken Enchilada Plate $6.50

In all the years I've been coming here, I just now tried these fabulous enchiladas. Corn tortilla is filled w/just cheese and then they top it with the meat of your choice, tomatoes, onions, crema and queso fresco. They also give you a side of crema.  The sauce has spice which I like but it's not spicy. I always think you can tell a good Mexican restaurant by the simple things such as salsa, rice & beans.  I really like Don Pepe's rice and beans, they're flavorful but provide a nice neutral taste to a spiced dish. I also like their salsa verde which I'm normally not a fan.

Don Pepe Taqueria (Woodrow & Shaw)

4950 N. Woodrow Ave., Suite 101

Fresno, CA 93726

(559) 292-3188

OG location 

4582 N. Blackstone Ave. (Blackstone & Gettysburg)

Fresno, CA 93726

(559) 224-1431

YUM Meter: ***