FT BBQ — Restaurant in Milpitas

FT BBQ is most attractive for its Xinjiang flavoured skewers and is not for the faint of stomach. This is not to say that food is too spicy - although there is a good amount of spice unless you make special request. It is the meat choices: Chicken gizzard is about the least exotic. (But nothing new to ethnic Chinese.) It is also the type of spices: Not everyone like strong cumin overtones.

But this small joint makes very good skewers. These are a gang of enthusiastic young people brining a highly specialised food trend from mainland China. If you are in for this food, you'll be craving for more. I haven't had this type of food for a very long time. It was a great satisfaction to find such a place here.

In addition to meats, they have several vegetable items that are not traditional on skewers but very tasty, like eggplant and needle mushroom. Be sure to try some. (Lotus is very tasty and traditional.)

Each skewer generally costs $1.10, no minimum. This is very much like Xinjiang skewers on Beijing streets, a perfect place for snack. To have a meal, though, you will need lots of $1.10s.

Located in a second mall adjacent to Milpitas Square, you won't discover it by casual browsing. I learned about this one following a guide compiled by a group of Bay Area Chinese who bill themselves as "The Gourmet Troop". The space is very small, and cooking skewers takes time. So be patient.

One question I have about this place is its placement. Its Chinese name, 奉天, unmistakenly alludes to Northeast. No wonder that guide says this is traditional Northeast. But the skewers are definitely not traditional Northeast. Not at all. (Xinjiang is Northwest, very far from Fengtian, the Northeast town the Chinese name...

The service is HORRIBLE! The last time we went there and ordered to much. The young guy gave us a box and then suddenly a lady run to our table and grabbed the box out of my hand rudely! Later she came back with a super tiny plastic foam box and started to use the box to pull the kebab out of the bamboo skewer. She tried so hard that not only the box was broken apart, also the kebab flew out of the box and dropped on the dirty and oily table. She didn't say sorry, actually she was very angry. We were stunned because we didn't ask her to do this for us. Before she run to our table, we had already pull the kebab out of the stainless steel skewers and returned them to the bamboo holder. The bamboo skewer should be disposable. If not, she could simply let us know!

There are so many good bbq and good restaurant nearby. So please don't waste your...

Slow service, small portions At first, it was nice of them to let us sit outside. But it was all downhill from there. It all started when they put a lot of Coca-cola on our table without asking us, and it wasn't free (or fun by the way). They then gave us each of our "dishes" (a dish would imply decently sized portions) one at a time, with at least 10 minutes between each one. On top of that, they missed one of our orders, and we had to ask them for the check after waiting for them to bring it to us for 20 minutes. The food wasn't...