Baby Cafe Allston — Restaurant in Boston

I haven't had Hong Kong cafe-style food in ages, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The restaurant itself is very spacious and clean, with tasteful tree decorations. We arrived around 11:45am on a Saturday and had to wait for a while to get seated (around 30 minutes), which provided plenty of time to peruse the menu and reviews. The food came out pretty quickly after ordering (other than the sizzling noodles, which took an additional 25 minutes). Our water was never refilled (we were seated for about 1.5 hours), and it took a long while to flag down a waiter to get the check. In the end, we spent nearly 2 hours in the restaurant (including waiting), which felt a bit long.

We tried the baked Portuguese chicken rice ($16.95) which had rave reviews online. I've never had this dish before, but was pleasantly surprised! I don't usually like creamy sauces, but this sauce was not heavy and was pretty addicting. It was a great combo with the rice and chicken. I would get this again.

The oyster sauce Chinese broccoli ($14.95) was quite tasty. I had a negative image of this dish in my mind from previous experiences (undercooked yu choy and a thick glob of oyster sauce), but this dish was not that. The yu choy was well cooked, slightly crunchy but also tender, and the sauce was soupy, garlicky, and savory. It was a great way to eat vegetables, and made me reevaluate my feelings towards Chinese broccoli. I'd like to try some of their other vegetable dishes next time, but this one was great!

The sizzling seafood noodles ($20.95) came with a Hong Kong milk tea which was pretty well-balanced in terms of sweetness and tea flavor. The noodles were certainly crispy, and the seafood was decent. I especially liked the scallops. The sauce is a standard white sauce. Overall I liked this dish for its mix of textures, but would prefer more seafood for the price tag.

The Hong Kong butter toast ($7.75) was great! It wasn't too sweet and hit all the right notes of condensed milk, buttery fried goodness. I'd get this again.

The smashed cucumber salad ($6.95) was pretty standard. Quite garlicky, but I would've preferred stronger savory/spicy flavors.

We spent about $88 for 3 people including tip, which was not a bad deal for the amount of food we got (we were stuffed and had some leftovers). The menu is huge. I can definitely see myself coming back in the future! It's a pleasant dining experience and brings me back to my SoCal...

If we're talking about Hong Kong cuisine, this is not it. You might see some similar items, but it's definitely not worth the try. Chinatown is 15 minutes away, you'd be better off there. They charge a lot for what they're serving and I can tell you from the other reviews, I don't know if they have good judgement or not, but the food is blatantly bland and not a good representation of Hong Kong food. It starts with the curry fish balls which is nothing like curry fish balls at all. The sauce is basically water, soy sauce and a little of seasoning. Where is the thick golden curry sauce? Literally guys it's a watery sauce and doesn't even coat the fish ball. I also got the baked spaghetti pork chop and I took maybe 2 bites and was done. It was completely bland and no flavor. Pork was tough and overcooked, pasta water that the pasta cooked in wasn't even seasoned. Poor example of a sauce, I swear ketchup in a bottle has more flavor. Left the plate as is and they didn't wanna ask what was wrong, just asked if I wanted to pack it. I looked at them like, no thanks it wasn't good. I got a 10% discount without a manager coming over to see what was wrong. Says a lot about the service by the way. I still payed for it because I'm not cheap like that and $20 is nothing even if it's a waste. My wife got the wonton soup and probably worse wonton soup she ever tried, bland. She finished because she has good manners but I can tell from her reaction the dissatisfaction. Classy lady she is which I appreciate. I am not slandering the business, I am just saying that maybe for the average taste buds it's fine, but a lot of us aren't like that also. Bland. Bad. I wouldn't ever come back, even if it was the only place open in the area. An insult to the Hong...

Baby Cafe was honestly really good. Walking in the atmosphere was great. A server came up to us and immediately got us seated. The trees and lights were unique and set a nice vibe. The lighting was a little bit dimmer than expected, but wasn’t too bad.

The food was incredible. We ordered the curry fish, the beef noodles, pot stickers, and the Hong Kong milk tea.

First off, the fish was immaculate. The fish was crispy on the outside, yet soft and tender on the inside. It was fried, yet wasn’t oily at all. The curry itself wasn’t too strong and paired nicely with the rice. There were also fried potatoes, which initially caught me off guard, but it went surprisingly well with the curry sauce. The noodles were also pretty good. I got them because I wanted something more comforting, and they were exactly that. The egg noodles were cooked al dente and the beef was the flavor I was looking for. Not only that, but the lettuce was cooked to perfection. It was cooked so it wasn’t raw, but it wasn’t overcooked. The only con I could find was that the beef wasn’t “fall off the bone” kind of tender, but really wasn’t bad. The Pot stickers were good, not much else to say. The outside was crispy and the insides were juicy and it paired well with the sauce. The Hong Kong milk tea was also good. The tea was sweet with a slight bitter aftertaste that felt nice and refreshing.

Overall, Baby Cafe is a great restaurant that we will be...