Shhhh, it's a secret! (Secret Garden)

Restaurant: Secret Garden
Address: 3430 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95051

Usually we tend to stick to our regular Korean restaurant, but this time we decided to try Secret Garden. We've been here before but never stuck to it because we just never thought it was as good as the place we usually go to. Nevertheless, we decided to give it another go and thank goodness we did. I'm LOVING Secret Garden right now.

These noodles came as a "side dish" and they were pretty good! The noodles were chewy and it was bursting with flavor. Not many places have good noodles and not many places give it for free either so this was a huge plus :)

These are the side dishes. Not THAT much variety but they did taste pretty good. I loved the spicy greens on the very top of the picture, the seaweed and the gakdoogee (spicy radish cubes). Overall, pretty good quality for their side dishes and they're willing to give refills too~

We got the BBQ pork instead of Kalbi (BBQ Beef short ribs) and the pork is BBQed very well and very flavorful! A tad spicy in my opinion but nevertheless very very very yummy!

This was the kimchi soup. It was again a bit spicy in my opinion and the soup was a bit thicker than I had wanted it to be. Not the best kimchi soup I've had to be honest...

This was their seafood pancake. DELICIOUS. Absolutely loved how crispy the pancake was and there was a good amount of seafood in there too. Highly recommend.

This was their mackerel. Tasted very fresh and was fried well. It didn't taste super "fishy" and I really enjoyed this dish!

Lastly, we ended with some complimentary "liquid yogurt" hahaha, yummy :)

Overall, this place has become one of my new favorite Korean food places. I'll be back here soon.

Taste: 8/10
Service: 8.5/10 (Willing to give more side dishes which is nice, not many places do that)
Price: 7/10 (Just average...a tad more expensive than normal Korean places though but for the quality and service, I'm definitely willing to pay the price)

New Dim Sum Place, good bad??! (Lei Garden)

Restaurant: Lei Garden
Address: 10125 Bandley Dr, Cupertino, CA 95014

Recently, this restaurant opened where Fatima Restaurant used to be, if you know. It's around the plaza with Marina Foods and Tapioca Express as well as the plaza with Target and Paris Baguette (replaced SK Noodle). It shouldn't be too hard to find.

Parking wasn't too big of an issue but I can see parking being a problem if Lei Garden does turn out to be a big hit among locals, which it is beginning to be.... The restaurant has parking itself but the parking lot is a small to medium size. There is parking on the street as well as in the surrounding plazas, just not sure if customers would like to walk to get to the restaurant.

As a dim sum connoisseur, I love to try out new dim sum places. Like I've mentioned before, my favorite dim sum place has still got to be Joy Luck. You can check out my review of Joy Luck here: http://foodlover888.blogspot.com/2013/04/dim-sum.html

I'm actually planning on heading to Joy Luck tomorrow, which foreshadows my thoughts on Lei Garden. It's not BAD, but I still prefer Joy Luck. Here's what we ate: I'll do a mini-comparison with Joy Luck for each ;)

This is the first thing we ordered. It's just "Drunken Chicken" which is basically chicken that's been marinated in rice wine and the dipping sauce is a ginger/green onion sauce, which is delicious. This dish is pretty good and I actually prefer it over Joy Luck's version because the rice wine flavor is not as strong. Joy Luck marinates their chicken really well with rice wine so the rice wine taste is very strong. For those who like less rice wine, you would enjoy Lei Garden's version but for those who can handle a lot of rice wine and really enjoy the taste, you should try Joy Luck's.

This second dish is just Chinese Broccoli with oyster sauce. Just from the picture you can see that Lei Garden's broccoli looks much shinier than Joy Luck's, which means that there is a lot more oil...which I don't like. But because there is more oil, it definitely does taste better. Otherwise, it tastes very similar. I would say that if you're going for a healthier lifestyle, Joy Luck's is better but if you don't mind the oil, then Lei Garden's is pretty good. Honestly, the amount of oil is really the only difference.

 This next dish is beef rice rolls. Right off the bat you can notice that the rice rolls are already ripped which isn't too good of a sign. Nevertheless, the rice rolls were still chewy and the mat was still decent. The sauce seemed to be a bit sweeter than that of Joy Luck's and I still prefer Joy Luck's but that could just be because I am used to Joy Luck's version. Nevertheless, this dish was pretty decent.

 This next dish is some pork/veggies wrapped in a bean curd skin and braised in some soy sauce. This is delicious and they make it very good. Tastes, again, very similar to Joy Luck's.

These pork spareribs were okay. I definitely prefer Joy Luck's over Lei Garden's because Joy Luck's pork spareribs are bursting with flavor whereas Lei Garden's seem to be a tad bland. Nevertheless, the quantity given by Lei Garden is much more than Joy Luck, especially since Joy Luck started putting taro chunks on the bottom, which again lessens the amount of pork. I guess you're getting more "bang for your buck" with Lei Garden but the quality of Joy Luck's spareribs are still better, in my opinion.

 These are fried taro dumplings. They are fried pretty well and very similar to Joy Luck's. TIP: try eating this with some mustard (ask for it from the waiter); pairs so well.

 This is where Lei Garden went downhill for me. I love love love getting tea-infused glutinous rice when I have dim sum and the best glutinous rice I've had is from Joy Luck. Because all the dishes I had earlier seemed very similar to Joy Luck, I was excited to open this baby up and experience the deliciousness. Boy was I wrong. Lei Garden's glutinous rice is not my cup of tea. The rice was way too soft and mushy. The way Joy Luck does it, which is the way I like it, is that the rice is cooked so it's chewy, so not hard or soft and Lei Garden's rice was just way too soggy and soft.....didn't even want to finish it.

This is Chicken's feet. Very similar to that of Joy Luck's, pretty good.

These are sesame balls. Usually at Joy Luck we get the one with black sesame inside which is better and my favorite but Lei Garden didn't have it so we settled with something else. Not sure what's inside of here though but it's a sweet paste. Not bad but definitely enjoy the black sesame paste more. Hope Lei garden will bring black sesame balls in because they're definitely very popular!

This last dish was another huge downfall for Lei Garden. This is a dish that Joy Luck does not have but that I've eaten at a few other dim sum places. This is supposed to be an herb-infused jelly so it should taste bitter but end with a sweet, palatable flavor. It's also supposed to be very healthy because of all the herbs infused. I actually really enjoy the bitter taste of this kind of jelly but this dessert is one that Lei Garden must improve on. I ordered this and thought it tasted just like grass jelly that I could get at any supermarket. There was very very little bitter taste and it just tasted sweet which is not what I had expected nor wanted. I could barely taste any herbs too.....felt like I was ripped off because this was just way too "off" from what I had expected. Really don't recommend this if you are expecting that herb-infused bitter jelly.

All in all, service was pretty good, definitely better than Joy Luck, but that could be because they just opened. I do feel like the variety is a bit lacking and the carts come out much slower than Joy Luck but that may be, again, because they just opened.

In conclusion:
Taste: 7.5/10
Service: 7.5/10
Price: 7/10

I won't be back here in the near future for my go-to spot for dim sum will still always be Joy Luck. Nevertheless, this place would have to be ranked number 2 so if it's not Joy luck, it would be here. I do feel that the drive between here and Joy Luck really isn't that far so you might as well head a few more blocks down to Joy Luck to get the best quality and best tasting dim sum in the area.

Happy happy! (Happy House)

Restaurant: Happy House
Address: 1072 S. De Anza Blvd. B103, San Jose, CA 95129

I've reviewed this place before, you can check that review out since we ordered different things http://foodlover888.blogspot.com/2013/05/complimentary-boba.html. Nevertheless, the fact I went back means that I liked it :)

I mentioned the service being average in my other review and that's still true. The waiters still don't have much expression and the food still takes a long time to come out.

This time we ordered:

Mongolian Beef: This is a favorite of mine. It's perfectly salted and there is a good amount of meat in here. The beef is also cooked really well. Highly recommend.

 This was something new that we tried and it's basically green beans that have been marinated with vinegar so it has that sour yet salty taste. I personally am not a huge vinegar fan but my sister absolutely loved it. I think it goes really well with rice especially if you love that sour/salty taste!

 This is another must for me. I love Chinese broccoli and this restaurant sautees this really well! It can be a tad oily occasionally and sometimes it's a bit softer than I'd like but for the most part, it's cooked well, not too crunchy yet not too soft and not too oily. Wish they were more consistent though.

I have noticed that their portion sizes are getting smaller and smaller which I don't like, which is why I docked a bit for the price because they're charging the same price but giving less. :/ They still give boba milk tea though!

In summary (this time around):
Taste: 7.5/10
Service: 5/10
Price: 7/10

Yahooooo, Kahoo! (Kahoo Ramen)

Restaurant: Kahoo Ramen
Address: 4330 Moorpark Avenue, San Jose, CA 95129

This is one of my all-time FAVORITE ramen places.

I love various kinds of their ramen like Shoyu or Shio but I have to say my go-to is this Shoyu Yasai which is shoyu based ramen but with sauteed pork & veggies on top. I LOVE vegetables so this is the ramen for me!

It looks as if it may be a bit oily but it's really not. It's also perfectly salted and not too heavy. I love this ramen and highly recommend it.

Another thing I almost always order is their Fried Chicken because it is fried perfectly and breaded very well. The mayo they use is also different from usual mayo because it's the Japanese kind. It tastes a bit lighter, not as heavy and it doesn't have that really thick milky/creamy taste that American mayo has. The lemon, when squeezed over the chicken, gives a really fresh taste and really lightens a usually "heavy" dish, so it all just combines really well.

Overall, I highly recommend this ramen place. It's small so you might want to get there a bit early, right when they open or before 30 min to an hour because it gets PACKED. Parking is also a bit hard but it's not too bad.

As for service, nothing too special, very average. The food takes a decent amount of time to come. It comes about when you start to think the food is taking too long haha and especially when it's busy, your food can take quite some time.

The price is relatively average. Not expensive but not cheap either.

For new-comers this place is a bit hidden so it's in the same plaza as Mitsuwa but towards the side. There's another Japanese restaurant there as well as a Chinese restaurant and it's hidden towards the back so be on the lookout for it!

In summary:

Taste: 8.5/10

Service: 6.5/10

Price: 6.5/10

If you're ever looking for somewhere to have some ramen, THIS is the place to be.