New Gold Medal – Oakland, California

It was a late night before we had time to go have dinner. By the time we were ready, I just wanted some simple Chinese food and so we went to New God Medal Restaurant in Oakland Chinatown. It’s opened until late, and I hear they open early as well – so they’re always opened for business!

I ordered the BBQ Pork Lai Fun which is something I always love. Here, it was so good I ate everything and even finished the soup. Although the BBQ Pork was in soup, the meat had tons of flavour and the soup was really tasty as well. The Lai Fun was really nice textured and wasn’t soggy at all.

My husband ordered one of his old time favourite which he hasn’t had in awhile, the Beef Stew Ho Fun. This bowl was amazing and the beef stew was well flavoured, tender and juicy. They had some tendons which was a treat as well!

We then decided we needed a plate of greens, which is typical that you order a plate of veg when you’re out eating noodle soup. We just don’t do it all the time, but we had an order of Garlic Yu Choy and the choy was really nice, a little over cooked but it was decent! It’s very standard and not something you really can mess up on!

Overall, everything was amazing! The food was excellent and we still talk about the dishes from here as it was a recent, very satisfying dinner! The prices are priced well, the location is pretty good and like I’ve been mentioning, the food has been excellent!

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New Gold Medal

389 8th Street
Oakland, CA
(510) 465-1940

Pho Ao Sen – Oakland, California

We went for some Vietnamese while our visit to California and met up our family Pho Ao Sen and it’s located right on 12th Street. This restaurant is so busy and they have parking both beside the restaurant and across the street.

We started with the standard, some salad roll, which they call Goi Cuon- Spring Rolls, which looks really impressive! The taste was quite amazing as well, even their dipping sauce was pretty unique and very delicious! These huge salad rolls were stuffed with both shrimp and pork, and the standard stuff like vermicelli, mint, bean sprouts and lettuce.

We also got another standard appetizer, the Cha Gio- Egg Rolls which was the crispy/fried version of the Vietnamese Spring Roll. They call it an egg roll here, which is quite different from a Chinese Egg Roll, but a lot of people use these terms interchangeable. These Egg Rolls was a mixture of ground pork, shrimp, vegetables, cellophane noodles, and wrapped then fried to perfection. It was actually really tasty without the dipping sauce!

I was still fighting the tail end of my cold on this day, so I ordered a nice hot bowl of Pho Gai which is their Chicken pho. The bowl of noodles was huge and there was a huge amount of chicken. The broth was tasty!

Then, my husband ordered the Beef Stew soup, what they call Pho Hoac Mi Bo Kho which was really fragrant and flavourful. The soup was really quite thick though, it was unique and very different from the ones we have here! This bowl of soup and tons of everything which made it extraordinary delicious!

Overall, this place was pretty amazing! No wonder it’s a favourite of so many people! I’m sure we will be back some day!

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Pho Ao Sen

1139 E. 12th Street
Oakland, CA
(510) 835-5588

Lungomare – Oakland, California

We decided to take a walk in and around Jack London Square where we decided we wanted to sit down and have an early lunch. We walked into Lungomare as there was a lot of people sitting on the patio – and we wanted to be there as well.

I really wanted a Hot Tea and they have a nice assortment of teas to choose from. They give you a nice tea pot for you to steep the tea to your liking. I got their Breakfast Blend which is pretty standard – but I was looking for something basic on this morning.

I ordered their Bagel Sandwich which was a bagel with house smoked salmon, eggs over well, cream cheese and other various toppings with a bed of potatoes on the side. It was really good and the house smoked salmon was fantastic! They do a lot of in house smoking according to the menu and I’m sure they’re all very tasty!

My husband got their Shrimp & Grits which was really seasoned quite well. The shrimp was huge and very tasty – excellent texture and cooked to perfection. He got a side of their house smoked bacon and that was magnificent! It was really nice, the texture was fantastic and it wasn’t overly salty!

Overall, we had a fantastic experience here and would return as service, atmosphere and food was all very good and memorable.

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Lungomare – Jack London Square

One Broadway
Oakland, CA
(510) 444-7171

Kapok Seafood Restaurant – Alameda, California

We went out for lunch and decided to go for dim sum – somewhere more local with great rates for dim sum at Kapok Seafood Restaurant! All dim sum dishes here were only $2.00 and the place was quite busy for a weekday!

We just ordered a bunch of stuff and shared it at our table, which is the traditional way to having dim sum. They don’t give you any bowls here though, just a plate and chopsticks (which isn’t very traditional). We started with an order of Chive Dumplings that were steamed. It was really quite delicious and the skin was thin and delicate.

Then, we ordered some Fried Taro Dumpling which isn’t something we normally get. But, it looked really nice and light, and fresh here. And, it was! We hate it when it’s cold and hard, but it was delicately fried and the filling was hot and fresh. The pork was well seasoned, so we enjoyed this quite a bit!

We don’t normally go to dim sum without ordering my husbands favourite, lo bak goh and it wasn’t bad. Of course, nothing as good as homemade, but it was still really fresh with lo bak shreds thoughout! We love it when there are noticeable shreds so they are amazing that way!

Some more steamed dim sum for our table, we got an order of Spare ribs and it was really well seasoned here. The spare ribs were not too fatty at all and like everything else, it was really tasty and fresh. The meat was tender and it came off the bones without being over cooked!

Another dish we always order is the Steamed Beef Balls which is another of my husbands favourite, especially with Worcestershire sauce! The balls were excellent here and not made with overwhelming amounts of parsley so it was nice to actually be able to taste the meat balls here!

Just as you would think we’re done, we ordered something quite amazing! It’s their Lobster Noodles for only $8.88! It doesn’t get better than that! It was an awesome little lobster that sat on a bed of yee mein which is one of our favourites and never really order as it’s costly here. With this price, sure it’s little, but it was definitely enough as we’re having it WITH our dim sum!

Everything was amazing here and the price of the experience seems to have made us extra happy! So, if you’re looking for fresh dim sum at a great price, then you should come try here! It’s not clean, service is average, but you get good food and a great rate!

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Kapok Seafood Restaurant

1511 Webster St
Alameda, CA
(510) 865-5405

Peet’s Coffee & Tea – Piedmont, California

We found ourselves stopping for a quick coffee break on a beautiful afternoon at Peet’s Coffee & Tea right on Piedmont Avenue that crosses with Glen Avenue. It’s pretty easy to find if you’re strolling on Piedmont Avenue, and parking can be tricky – but there is street/meter parking available.

Once we entered the cafe, there was an advertisement for Cinnamon Hazelnut Latte and I knew immediately that it was the drink I really wanted to try. We got a small one of those and they did do a nice latte art on the top – although I squished the cup to make the art not so clear, the coffee was wonderful! You definately get the aroma and taste of cinnamon, hazelnut and coffee! It was a delightful latte!

We also ordered a holiday favourite of ours, the Peppermint Hot chocolate and this was really nice! Very chocolatey and very pepperminty! The hot chocolate was amazing and with that chocolate syrup swirl on the top, it added extra goodness to the drink!

We absolutely loved this little cafe and we know we will be back. We like spending time around this area for many reasons, and now this will be on the list of many!

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Peet’s Coffee & Tea – Piedmont

4050 Piedmont Ave
Oakland, CA
(510) 655-3228