Uncle John's Cafe — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Very disappointed with my visit today. We got there around 1:40 pm. We have to wait to be seated because apparently there were no tables available, half of the restaurant had empty tables, we decided to ask the reason why we couldn't sit on the available tables, one of the waitress said "that side was close" obviously they don't know their business hours. On google and their sign outside clearly says 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. I manage a restaurant and that is not how you run a restaurant business. Service does not stop until your hours of business are met. Besides that the hospitality from the waitress was non-existent. After about 25 minutes we got our food. What got me more upset that's as soon as we get our food one of the waitress brings out the check. They were more worried about closing the restaurant down and getting us out then actually caring for the guest, the most heated moment was that they included their 20% gratuity tip but not once did they check how we were doing or if we needed anything else to us. We had to be waiving or get up for service. They were quick to add their tip for service was not provided. I am in the restaurant business and I am the type of person that loves tipping someone that went out of their way to provide service and hospitality but this was ridiculous. I love coming to Uncles John's cafe but whoever is running Uncle John's cafe now need to...

We were in downtown Los Angeles and we were hungry for both Chinese and Cajun. Surprisingly they have them both available at Uncle John’s. The steak and eggs caught my attention which comes along with fried rice which I substituted for chow mein. It was a very unusual combination but came out great.

Our server, Diego, was right on point as soon as we arrived. He greeted us and automatically bought us water with lemon wedges. The water never stopped coming as he continued to make sure we were fully taken care of throughout the evening. The food was delicious however my steak came a little bit more raw then when I ordered as medium rare. He saw that I only ate the sides of it as I didn’t want to complain as the food was really good. He took notice and took my plate to have my steak cooked just right and even brought a side of fried rice for the inconvenience. To me that’s customer service at its highest caliper and should be recognized for it.

We noticed how he continued to hustle in making sure the rest of the customers were fully taken care of and I was extremely impressed of how far he was willing to go in making sure that I was fully satisfied.

This was my first experience at this establishment and I can assure you with the experience that Diego gave along with eating great tasting food, I will be back only to bring more friends with...

Uncle John’s Cafe is a deceptively delicious Asian-American fusion mecca. Though easy to look past under the guise of its name, it is serving some of the best Chinese American cuisine in the city (with some influences from Mexican American cuisine as well). One might say it represents a hyper-local fusion that exemplifies the diversity in Los Angeles. The portions are grotesquely generous and the price point is unbearable.

TLDR: I can’t wait to come back and eat everything on the menu.

I’ve eaten here twice, the first time I had the “famous” Spicy Pork Chops which were perfectly fried to a crisp and complimented with soy marinated Jalapeños (it’s a beautiful combination). This came with fried rice (that was literally just white rice fried in soy sauce) and garlic broccoli. The simplicity somehow makes it taste that much better.

Second time around I got the House Wanton Noodle soup, topped with copious dark meat chicken, chasu, shrimp, broccoli and delicious wantons. It brought me back to my street side lunches in Hong Kong.

Uncle John’s also makes its own chili crisp, it’s spicy and smokey but also subtly sweet. I need to know the recipe.

Thanks Uncle John’s for revitalizing my DTLA...