Cafe 88 — Restaurant in Charlottesville

Earlier today, I went to Cafe 88 because I heard very good reviews about the food.

After extremely lackluster service (impatient, demanding), I received my food (beef noodle soup). I do understand, that service could be bad due to stress, as it is a very small establishment.

It was okay, I heavily resonated with the previous reviews that said it tasted like "salty water," but I was hungry, so I finished the noodles, beef, and bok choy inside the soup (also because I paid a hefty $16.85).

I then was drinking the soup, when I noticed a BUG on the spoon. It was very small, and hard to notice unless you looked closely at it, where you would notice a HEAD, ANTENNA, and (several) LEGS. I am someone who grew up in an ethnic household, so I can discern the difference between seasoning and a BUG. This was extremely off-putting and shocking to see.

I did not want to cause a scene, as I know this is a small business, so I pulled the manager (?) to the side and quietly informed her that there was a bug on my spoon.

Immediately, she barely glanced at my spoon, and then pressed down on the bug, smearing it away. After smearing the BUG away, she (in an extremely demeaning tone), annoyedly told me that if it smeared away (as it was no longer on the spoon), it could not be a bug. The composition of a bug, especially when cooked, is easily "smush-able." Essentially, before I could properly point out where the bug was to her for closer inspection, she already got rid of the evidence. I do acknowledge that it was my mistake for not taking photographic evidence of this, as I did not think she was going to remove it so quickly.

She then told me "I'll make you a new bowl," where I responded with, "No thank you, I would like a refund." I brought back my bowl, where she then yelled at me for finishing the food and then asking for a refund. I understand that this could be an annoyance, but I do not believe I should be paying almost $17 for a singular (unhygienic) bowl of noodles with a bug inside it. She then continuously demeaned me and spoke to me in a degrading tone, even though during this whole altercation, I was never not respectful.

After receiving my refund (no apology), her husband ran over to me, and without saying a singular word to me, pulled out his phone and took a picture of my face/body without my consent. He then ran away, preventing me from speaking up. This, was extremely dehumanizing and honestly, disgusting to experience. No one ever deserves to be served a BUG, treated in such a rude, dismissive manner, and then had someone pervertedly sneak up behind you and take an un-consensual photo. No one deserves to be treated like a shoplifter when they did nothing wrong and was...

We saw many positive reviews about Cafe 88 on Yelp, so we decided to give it a try on our visit to C-Ville. However, it turned out this place was so highly overrated. The owner seemed to be the only one working there as host, cashier, chef and waitress all at the same time. No wonder how awful their service was. I went in with my wife and two little kids. We wanted to order food with dollar amount of $16 or so. To our surprise, the owner asked us to leave, as we did not "deserve" to take a table because of the less dollar amount we ordered. She even ignored how hungry our two kids were and how badly they wanted something to eat. Actually there were just two extra empty tables right out there. We tried to ignore her rudeness as we thought she only got her hands too full. However, we were so shocked when we realized that she really did not even take our orders and asked us out when we checked back with her. Her attitude was totally unacceptable and disrespectful. We were too shocked to say anything and just left with two hungry kids and feeling so humiliated. We of course don't think she deserves the positive feedbacks on Yelp. For those who think they were trying authentic Chinese or Taiwanese cuisine there, I could only say it was such a MISCONCEPT. Save your time and money for Peter Chang or Taste of China or some other places, this is just not the right place to go, not mention it's poorly cooked so-called Taiwanese food, but the boss' lousy way to humiliate her customer and their family. There were at least ten people in the room. All of them could prove what I said is true. If you don't believe, just go find out by yourself. You'll see what I mean. For the sake of my two toddler children and our self-esteem as human beings like anyone else, we will never ever go back...

A small restaurant in a corner of a plaza not big, but could give you extremely surprising experience. They provide different tradition Taiwan-style dishes, and together with American Chinese food. The restaurant is decorated with a tradition and warm style, and very clean. What surprises me more is how they treated food. They really keep using the conventional ways to cook, and the dishes are authenticated and of very good taste. They made everything from the raw material by themselves. E.g., the pickles are made by themselves. The beef in the noodle soup are tender, and this cannot be done without hours stew with different spices.

what surprises me more, is that they don’t use MSG, which are used by too many restaurants nowadays. I can assure this is because I don’t feel dry mouth afterwards, which is usual after I take food in many other places.

Don’t surprise if you found that you are asked to pay at ordering, and get the water yourselves. The manager is kind and the food definitely...