Steam — Restaurant in Palo Alto

The food here is not only carelessly prepared but also unsafe to eat. Despite some favorable reviews, I believe the service to be awful, the food awful, and extremely overpriced (considering it is awful.) I ordered the food to be delivered only to find that food was both overcooked and undercooked, namely the fillings of the dumplings and the brown rice I ordered. When I called to ask for a refund which I eventually got through door dash, the manager was extremely snippy and dismissive. She seemed utterly unconcerned about the food being unsafe which makes me think that this is a regular occurrence. I recommend you stay away from this place, let it go out of business as it inevitably will and always ask for a refund if the food is inedible — this is a public health issue and it is so incredibly unethical for them to serve food like this!

Re: There is no proof I can provide to support my claims through this platform -- I cannot give people a sample of the dumplings with undercooked shrimp inside (unsafe) nor can I give them a sample of the overcooked mushy, foul smelling brown rice which I received. Nor would I stoop to providing a photo of myself vomiting (which I literally did) that evening after consuming a few bites of said food. However, I felt compelled to tell other people so that they too do not experience sickness and the stress of an inedible dinner (which was of considerable price). The poor service experience I referred to is that which I received when getting into contact with the restaurant, when talking to an employee and later the manager who was rude and dismissive of my truly AWFUL experience. I was NOT referring to the Door Dash representative, who helped me secure a refund for the order. And as for this being an attack on small businesses, good job deflecting and spinning a narrative which grossly undermines the people of Palo Alto's intelligence! There are a number of small businesses in downtown Palo Alto that provide great food and service which I regularly frequent and will continue to support, namely Kanpai Sushi and Sprout Cafe. They are both fantastic restaurants and have always been very kind, not in the least dismissive. Further, the only reason that I have spent this much time and energy to contact this restaurant about the food quality, get a refund from Door Dash, and write my first review and respond to yours is because I think your product and conduct is utterly unethical and harmful! There, I hope I have been specific enough for you and I hope you actually take what I'm saying seriously and make adjustments instead of getting defensive and trying to find a not so clever and frankly, insulting conspiracy to mislead future customers, though truly your response to my review is proof enough of the staff's poor behavior and unwillingness to take...

We got to the restaurant right when it opened at 11:00 am, and it was fairly clear to us that the kitchen was not ready for service. We ordered quickly. It took 25 (maybe 30?) minutes for the sautéed string beans to show up (something I can make at home in 10 minutes). In the meantime, we ordered beef chow fun, which came in about 10-15 minutes after the string beans. It was another 30 minutes before the first basket of dim sum showed up, then another 20-25 minutes before the rest of the dim sum finally came. The mushroom and pea shoot dumplings were quite good - not over-salted and not MSG-y. The pea sprouts were fresh and the dumpling skin was chewy and delicious. The Shanghai soup dumplings were not particularly soupy. The fillings were gingery but the skin got too soggy in the steaming process. The beef chow fun was good with a decent amount of beef and veggies, and is not super oily/saucy. The sticky rice in lotus leaves were also very good - hearty without being over-salted. We enjoyed the food, but it just took too long to show up. Worst of all the servers didn't say anything. If they had said, "it'll be 45 minutes before you get your first dim sum," we might have ordered other things and not just sat there and waited. Also, when the food finally came, the servers made no apologies for the delay. The food is decent, but the service (especially the speed in which food is served)...

VERY BAD service. I visited Steam last night (3/17/2016). I was still eating. The waiter put down the bill folder on my table and left. I was thinking that he might just be getting himself ready, so I ignored him and kept eating. A few minutes later, he came back and picked the bill folder saying, "You didn't pay." Could he not see that I was still eating? He must be an idiot. I told him, "I am still eating." He started to blame his co-worker and looked very embarrassed. He asked me to stay. What co-worker? There were no other waiters around. He was the only one. Only two tables had diners. All the tables inside were empty. As a result of this treatment, I lost my appetite and left.

My visit to STEAM was filled with "firsts" for me. This was my first time receiving service this horrible. This was my first time to leave big ZERO tip. I routinely tip greater than 20% as an appreciation. I called the supervisor after arriving home. I don't think he cared.

The good news is that I will share my experience with everybody and will never enter this lousy place again. There is a lot of competition for our dining dollars in downtown Palo Alto. If Steam doesn't improve the service, we'll see how long this place can survive with such...