Queen House Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Mountain View

I visited Queen House last Monday, the 25th of November, 2013. The shredded pork egg flower noodle soup I had was excellent and looked like it was being served in a bowl fit to serve a table full of guests. The bowl was so huge I wound up taking most of it home in the large plastic container that they provided. The other dishes were excellent too. I really liked the 3 egg rolls with a sweet red sauce appetizer because they were so tender and juicy delicious. I also had the Mandarin chow mein which was also so ample that I took most of it home too. Had a great feast the next day. I was prepared to order the shrimp with black bean sauce or some other dish but I was advised by the friendly waitress that I probably already had ordered enough (more than I could eat by myself, as it turned out). What was really cool was that, since the same people own the Tea Era tea café next door, I could order their tea specialty, roasted barley milk tea with pearls, from them and have the waitress bring it from there. Tea Era is so tiny (physically not their menu of selections) that they only accept cash. But by ordering from the restaurant they were able to put the beverage cost (only $2.50 [way less than I have seen at any other tea place]) on the food check, which meant that I could charge it to my credit card after all. I had never had roasted barley milk tea with pearls before. I was surprised at how much it tasted like coffee with cream and sugar. In fact, had I not known its true composition, I might have mistaken it for that! It wasn't too sweet either - just right. The pearls were chewy, of a perfect texture (which for tapioca balls the size of large peas took some close attention to the preparation to get exactly right) and oddly black in color instead of the expected white. They reminded me, in appearance only, of very large beluga caviar. I spent a long time musing on that fact, but did not eat them all. They were great, to anyone who really likes having gum drops in their tea, but I found them more of a pleasant affectation than a necessity. For myself, I can take them or leave them, though, now that I've tried it, I might lean toward having them in tea more in the future. A couple more things need to be mentioned. When I was done eating and ready to leave, I stopped in to the Tea Era hole-in-the-wall tea café to see how well they could handle an earnest question (in English, as my Chinese is non-existent)) that was perplexing me. I asked the young lady at the cash register "What is the difference between pearls, boba, and bubbles, as I had read about each being used in teas on the internet. I don't think her English was good enough to understand my question, but an older Chinese man came out front to the cashier's area and answered the question in very good English. He said essentially that they are all terms for the same thing, just different by the locale of usage where the term comes from. So my epicurean education was enhanced here too. Finally I have to say that they tried to help me with my choking problem. I am in a wheelchair due to having had a stroke about 3.5 years ago. I have a tendency to inhale particles of food or drink into my windpipe. I tried to answer a question from my waitress with a little food in my mouth; I inhaled a particle or two down my windpipe and started coughing uncontrollably for about fifteen minutes while I tried to cough it out. A young man rushed over to me and gave me a cup of water and patted my back. He didn't know that these measures were of no use to someone trying to cough out something he has accidentally inhaled, but his concern and attempts to help were genuine. They probably thought they might have a corpse on their hands at any minute, but their help was immediate and kindly caring. I...

Dad wanted Chinese, so we went here. I normally like Beef Noodle soup but today I was not in mood for that as much ( I should have told him)...Pho is much better (vietnamese know how to cook beef soup better). I was right. Even though the soup was good ( rich) it just lack flavour. It just taste like they boil beef and add very little spice ( broth was rich with beef but just needed Black pepper...this is why I say vietnamese is better because Pho has better flavour and they add things to make soup with more flavour..not only beef). When I ask waitress for black pepper, I forgot how to say Pepper in Chinese so I said...opposite of Salt( and made motion of salt and pepper shaker). She came back 4 min later and I remember how to say Pepper in Chinese. It should be common sense to put Black Pepper on table when order Beef Stew ( that is why cantonese have no common sense that beef soup not only taste of beef but condiments are important). Also, the beef was tough as rock and nails. for 16.99 I could have made beef soup at home and simmer to make it tender and soft. They probably just threw beef in very hot boiling water ( and not simmer softly to make it tender). My Dad also order some type of tofu pork dish, it just was not good at all. He also order Jasmine Milk Tea ( from Tea Era next door...they are part of same restaurant). We wait 30 min for the milk tea and it was horrible. They put way too much sugar and no Tea taste. It was the worst Milk Tea I ever had ( just sugar water with no tea). On the packaging says Best Tea but its the worst water down tea. Yesterday, Dad brought me to Jaze tea ( Pho Hoa) which had the Best Tea in san jose/cupertino. The Jaze Tea was expensive but it was rich with tea ( strong tea and slightly sweet) and the pearls had high quality syrup. So this place's milk tea tasted like cheap...no tea flavour compared to the vietnamese place. I just think Pho places put more care and attention to their drinks. Maybe I will try this place one more time if Im in the mood for oily chinese food but probably not. There are lots of bad chinese restaurants in cupertino already..I have yet to find a good one. I forgot to say....the two women ignore us ( I dont think they speak English, even tho Dad speaks Chinese)...my Dad still tip 15 percent even with horrible service, but the guy seem nice as he is the only waiter who...

I was really looking forward to a nice down to earth, mom and pop store food place for Chinese food for my favorite vegetarian dish with garlic sauce. But I was very disappointed there were barely any vegetables in the sauce was terrible and the vegetables were not fresh and wilted. It was just cabbage carrots broccoli onion. The sauce tasted like it was to preserved as well and not fresh. I kind of assume that everything on Castro Street would be amazing because I imagine that the rent would be high enough for people to self select out if they didn’t have a good food. I am a vegetarian for the most part, so I cannot speak for the meat lovers, but for the vegetarian food that I bought, I really did not enjoy it at all. The other pic here is the meat dish and I heard it was good but it looked very fatty. But the staff were really nice and they open late. BART will get you here on the Mountain view station easily. It is walkable from the train station for only about under...