Venus Cafe - San Jose — Restaurant in San Jose

I have been here many times. They have been around for a number of years. They specialized in Hong Kong fast food. And I think they have done a decent job at it. For those who aren't familiar with HK fast food, it's usually a lot of carbs, fast to make or already made, and is heavily influenced by the West while maintaining the Chinese characteristics. The combination of cooking style provides a very unique experience. But don't expect it to be healthy. If you grew up with it, it's comfort food. If you are new to it, it will be an acquired taste.

Pros: Open very late. Great place to get food after 10 PM. A lot of variety. Decent Asian dessert selection. A Chinese place that has cheese dishes, and I don't mean grilled cheese. Very reasonable price. There is a decent size parking lot in front of it. In the same strip mall as Ranch 99, you can do your grocery shopping before or after your dining experience.

Cons: Mostly carb based plates. A lot of greasy plates as well. Parking lot is always full, hard to get parking.

If you are new to this style of places, it will give you a very unique experience. If you miss your HK fast food/street food experience, this is a good place to satisfy your craving.

The missing star is the service. The overall service is decent. But when you asked if they have any other vegetables, the usually reply is "we got everything except veggie x." Their menu only have 1 dish with green leaf veggie in it and it's the bak choy. So getting that kind of reply doesn't really help much as I was checking to see if there are different green leaf veggie dishes. It would be much helpful if they can at least provide some green leaf dish's names. Or...

The Food One of the more decent Hong Kong style cafe around south bay area is Venus Cafe. I had a few of their dishes like their Signature Baked Item and Guilin Rice Noodle Soup, as well as Dessert. This time around I got their Seafood Combo Guilin Rice Noodle Soup. I've also had their Beef Brisket Guilin Rice Noodle Soup. Both were very good, and I especially like the noodles. The Seafood Combo comes with fish, squid, and shrimp, with a nice touch of peanut and pickled veggie.

The Miscellaneous Venus Cafe is within a plaza with a decent sized parking lot. The restaurant itself is average in size, but the seatings are well arranged. The service is normal, and the employees are quite quick and efficient. One thing I like about the restaurant is their menu. They have quite the extensive menu with lots of selections. But the menu itself is also designed well. The price of all their dishes are fairly reasonable. Will return again sometime to eat more of their menu...a good...

Made a visit to this chain store. There are 3 in the bay area. Among all 3, this is considered the best one in my opinion.

There is no breakfast option and they open at 11am for their lunch service.

There is a lunch menu set and that was what I got. Lots of options but the price is a bit steep for a typical Chinese cafe set lunch. $18.99 and comes with a hot drink. Cold drink upgrade add in $1.

I got the baked Portuguese chicken over fried rice w/ ice milk tea.

The dish was very good and flavorful. However, the chicken pieces are a bit over season and tends to be salty for my taste. Overall, not bad and fulfilling.

The decor and astomohere is nice and cozy like a cafe. It was bit chilling for me at my table as they had turned up the AC.

The only I have to say, this is pretty expensive for a lunch special. Aside from that, the food is great and I would recommend to try this place out...