Taiwan Cafe — Restaurant in Milpitas

While listening to KQED Forum show about Taiwanese restaurant , as mentioned by one of the guest, he claimed Milpitas has a large concentration of good Taiwan restaurant in the Bay Area.

Since I was in the area for work, I googled and picked Taiwan Café since it has a good rating with a proud sounding restaurant name. With no exaggeration, I would say it is the worst Chinese Food I have eaten living 35 years in the Bay Area. We have a large concentration of Asian restaurant here and have a good take of what is good or bad food . This one is outright bad. If this is what Taiwanese food is about, it was a total disappointment.

Based on the most reviewed item on the menu, I ordered the Pork Hock with Sour Bamboo. It is the most expensive entrée in the list and was told by my server as one of their most popular dish. Since I wanted to experience the best on the menu, I ordered the Hock with Sour Bamboo. Also I was dining by myself and asked the wait staff how big was the serving. I was told its a big serving of pig leg and definetly i have to bring home the rest. When the it arrived, it was served in a small bowl with a very the tough meat . I had to dig deep and pushed through with the knife to break the meat. The meat had no flavor and looked like it was just a boiled leg just mixed with left over bamboo sour soup. I felt the food I was served without total respect for dining guest. It looked like was just assembled to pass as the dish I ordered. Maybe they think , I would take it as is and not notice the difference. In short, a non-knowing stupid guest. Totally felt, I was taken. It is bad experience and BAD restaurant. I will...

The food was just ok. I ordered the Ban Tiao noodles with soup. There are some minced pork inside, typical Taiwanese flair. The taste is on par with the average Taiwanese hole in a wall joint you could find around the bay. Not bad but also nothing special.

I also ordered the pork feet which is their specialty dish and literally in their restaurant name. I had high hopes and to be honest I'm quite disappointed if this is their signature. I was expecting a very rich, deep and flavorful braise and a soft, tender, melt in the mouth texture similar to the pork feet dishes you find in Cantonese bbq places. But what I received was very bland. The texture was dry and hard to tear apart. Some of the exterior skin layers were even hard to bite down or tear apart. The only redeeming factor of the pork feet dish is the small side dish of sauce that they provided. It is sweet and sour and tingy, made with minced garlic, ginger and vinegar, it pairs itself perfectly with the greasiness of the pork feet. I probably would not finish the whole dish without the sauce. Overall this left me very disappointed and I'm probably not returning because of their take on this dish.

The good news for this restaurant and the reason I gave three stars instead of one is that the price is very reasonable, especially in 2024. I do remember it used to be cheaper and they have raised price in the recent months. But still it is about 20 to 30% cheaper compared to other Taiwanese restaurants and the atmosphere was nice. The interior is clean and the service...

Really bad service! Avoid! We have a party of 4, there are two customer who were here first. The male server said there is a table telling us to go in, I told him the two customer came here first so he let them in. Fair. The women by the cashier (I think she is the owner) with glasses short curly hair was raining her voice saying put your name down. I said oh the men server already know we were here and have a table for us. She said put your name down (in an even higher tone) so I did. When there is a table open up for four she walked us there and I said there’s these two table available why you don’t let us sit down. She said how do we do business is not up to you to decide. I’m like ok… when we order food I pointed the menu to her and told her I want this few dishes. She said say it out loud in Chinese or English I don’t understand where are you pointing. I said I don’t know how to read these words. She rolled her eyes at me and said you were being grumpy the moment you came in. I said there is table avaible and your attitude is bad. When I’m explaining she walked away. Very RuDE!

Once we sat down, SHE LET A PARTY OF 4 SIT IN THE LARGE TABLE ( see attached picture) see how bias she is??

The food, we ordered the shrimp fried rice is tasteless I think the chef forgot to put in salt. The portion is super small. The braised pork rice is ok, very oily though. The environment and atmosphere is below average, there is dried food sticking around the wall and table. Pretty dirty I would...