Cafe Opera

A delightful experience. Everything was fresh and tasty and the service was excellent. The mai tais they serve are the best I have ever had outside of Hawaii!
Looking forward to going back and dining in soon

Wonderful! Everything was wonderful! Service, people, food… couldn’t have asked for better. I highly recommend!

This was the best Asian restaurant I have ever experienced. We tried crab rangoon, sesame chicken, lo mein, moo shoo pork. They were all excellent. Fresh ingredients. No MSG. If you haven’t tried a Mai Tai, you must. I can’t wait to go back. And, the service was outstanding.

Our experiences with café opera remain the same 6 years later. Food is good and the people are friendly. The Szechuan string beans are not to be missed.

Love this place! Best in Ashburn! Food is great, staff is friendly and service is quick!

I really enjoy each of their dishes, but the General Tsao and Drunken Noodles are my favorites. If they knew how to market this place at all, it would be crazy busy. They should also use recycle friendly take out containers.
The food is tasty and the employees nice.

This is where me and my friends go at least once a week. The owner is incredibly kind, and server always make sure everything is on point. Once I asked for for someone and they were sold out so later he gave me a free appetizer with me meal. Everyone on is super nice, food and great (egg drop soup and orange chicken). Everything about this place is great.
I tried going next door to happy chopsticks once (before it closed) and the difference of food and service quality for huge. I will certainly keep returning to café opera for its very good food and great service

There are only two words needed: THE BEST! The food, venue, service, family owned. We plan going at least once a week!

I think the food at Café Opera is pretty good, not really outstanding but just good. I have had mostly the Chinese dishes– Lo Mein, fried rice, chicken and broccoli and kung pao etc. Those are all average to good dishes.
The dishes I have not liked are the chicken and cashew nuts– very, very bland… like hospital food and I had the Pad Thai Chicken one time and it was not good at all to me.
However, this is our current Chinese food source in Ashburn, and we drive past quite a few others to go there so we have not found anything better in Ashburn.
We have always found the owner of Café Opera to be very friendly and welcoming, she is very, very nice. We enjoy giving her our business. I don’t really understand the Opera theme, but rarely eat in the restaurant.
For comparison’s sake, the Thai food I like best is Thai Tada in Herndon or Thai Luang, also in Herndon. The Pad Thai at both those places is outstanding, as is the chicken and cashew nuts.

Love this place. Delicious and reasonably priced, their spicy soups are pretty amazing. Small place but definitely worth a visit if you have never been there.

This is my one and only Asian restaurant that I frequent in Ashburn. The quality and service has diminished slightly since it opened years ago, but overall it is still top notch over the competitors in the area. My friends and I used to have a game where we would see if we could finish our drinks before the servers refilled it, because they used to come by every two minutes to make sure that wasn’t the case. Now, the servers aren’t as attentive but they are still extremely friendly.
The inside of the restaurant is usually quite empty. The most people i’ve ever seen in there at once has been 3 familys. I think there takeout service must be more popular. You also might wonder why it’s called Café Opera? They play dvds of opera and sometimes musicals on the wall of their restaurant while you eat. Strange? Yes. But why not.
I’m a fan of their General Tao Chicken and Singapore noodles. My friend is a huge fan of their curry beef triangles (AKA samosas). Ive always been happy with the food I get there, there has never been a time where I was eating something that I hated.

You feel as though you made a horrible mistake when you walk into a restaurant at 12:30 PM on a Sunday afternoon and NOBODY is in there except the employees. That was the first impression I got for Café Opera, and sadly it was downhill from there. In my head the mental strikes already started tallying — Strike one.
The lady behind the counter though clearly bored was very friendly. She lead us to the best seat in the house — A booth with torn seats. Now, I know that restaurants are going to have some bit of wear and tear to them, but if it’s the only customer in your restaurant, you should probably give them the best seat in the house — Strike two.
Having seen a lot of the photos on Unilocal I was anxious to see some of the unique items on the menu. The problem with this was that the items weren’t on the two sided sheet of paper I was given. I flipped it over repeatedly looking for something that stood out, and finally asked the hostess, «Do you only have the lunch menu right now, or do you have a dinner menu I can see?» They did, and she happily brought it to me.
Flipping through that I started to see some of the unique items not common at your standard Chinese restaurant, and slowly started putting my order together. It took me about ten minutes to decide because I was looking for that perfect meal, and wasn’t going to settle for standard fair food. Then came the time to actually order. I said, «I’d like to start with an order of Golden Cup,» to which the server promptly responded, «We don’t have that anymore.» I put the menu down and politely said, «I’m going to go somewhere else.» Strike three.
Had everything been perfect up until this point I may have simply told the server I needed a bit more time. However, everything was culminating to what was quickly appearing to be a horrible dining experience so instead I just left.
I’m not usually this picky when it comes to dining out, but quite honestly when I walked into an empty restaurant my head was already telling me, «This is a bad idea.» From there it only seemed to get worse, and as I said, I was in the mood to have a perfect meal, and wasn’t going to settle for sub par.

Figured Id check this place out and Im glad I did. Ordered the lunch General Tso’s chicken and Pad Thai Chicken. The food came nicely on time. Had an issue with the delivery person that irked me. I always tip the driver if they are very friendly but I do not tip if they are not at all and just want to drop off the food. This driver was not friendly at all and was rude. I signed the receipt and put a slash mark where it said «tip” as in I was not tipping him because he was not friendly at all. He looked at the receipt as I was closing my door and I said thank you and he said sarcastically «no tip? no tip?! where’s my tip? no tip?!» I was very surprised by that, and my response was «no sorry, thanks for the food though.» I quickly closed my door after that, wasnt sure what he was going to do. I have worked in the restaurant business and I know you have to work for your tip, and he sure did not. I did not care for is attitude or sarcasm. I do not believe that you have to tip the delivery driver, its only an option, they are already getting paid for driving to your house. I have tipped about 90% of the people that have delivered my food before, but if they arent nice or are rude, I dont tip. I was not pleased nor thought it was appropriate of the driver to talk to me like that.
On the other hand, the food was very good. the general tso’s chicken was very flavorful and the pad thai was very good. I would order from them again, but I dont want that driver coming back to my house to deliver food! If he was friendly, I wouldve gladly tipped him!

The food here is wonderful, especially the vegetables in the Chinese dishes, which are fresh and flavorful. Sauces are tasty (though spicy dishes are toned down for Western tastes) without overwhelming the main ingredients. Surprisingly, the Thai dishes are also very good. And, the owners are very warm and friendly, to boot. Even in an area with lots of good Asian restaurants, Café Opera stands out.

Brought the in laws here for dinner.
The owners are delightful! Warm and welcoming. They treat each guest as someone truly special.
We had an assortment of seafood and vegetable dishes. Everything is clearly made fresh, no catsup based sauces here! The garlic veggies were amazing! I can’t wait to return.
FYI: Strong Mai Tais

We live in the Broadlands and are lucky to have Café Opera so close. This is our go-​to Chinese place. They also have some other Asian style food. We get delivery or take-​out a lot, but the restaurant itself is comfortable with a nice décor and ambience. The name comes from them playing DVDs of operas (and often concerts) on a wall at background music level.
My regular dishes here are the Thai Chicken Noodle Soup (similar to Phở Ga), the Taiwanese Vermicelli, Moo Shi, Chicken With Mixed Vegetables, and Roasted Duck with Duck Sauce. I’ve ordered the Chicken Teriyaki a few times and it’s good, but doesn’t taste as good as Japanese places do it. My husband loves the Golden Cup appetizer and General Tso’s Chicken, which is all white meat.
We were worried when another Chinese restaurant opened in the same strip mall two doors down, but Café Opera has so much fresher ingredients, better food and menu, and is a true sit-​down restaurant you’d like to eat in, that it seems to be doing fine.

This has got to be the best Asian food place in Ashburn/​Broadlands. I would recommend it to anyone.
We eat here pretty often and the food is always fresh. You can taste it in the vegetables and meats used. Tons of flavor.

I’ve been eating here for several years, and while it’s pricier than other local options it eclipses them for quality and taste. The menu features several genres of Asian cooking, with usual Chinese takeout hits along with Thai and Vietnamese fair.
The highlights:
Crab Rangoon — a must-​order app that’s frankly addictive. Creamy, flavorful filling. Use some duck sauce to make it sing.
Panang Chicken — Nice heat and great flavor; the kind of sauce you want to sop up with white rice.
General Tso’s Chicken — No skimping with the dark meat here; big chunks of white meat with a sauce that has a little bit of heat.
Shrimp Pineapple Fried Rice — Incredible depth of flavor for a simple dish, and something you find yourself dipping your fork into long after the entrée is done.
Beef Chow Fun — My favorite thing on the menu. The wide noodles melt in your mouth, and everything else in the mix is fresh and delicious.

**** 3 ½ Stars ****
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The «Clipper» magazine that comes in the mail is what drew me to Café Opera. Not only were there coupons but a photo of a dish on their menu, Chili Chicken with Tomatoes, had me wanting to give this place a try. I got my husband on board after he saw their menu online. And then the adventure began!
We don’t venture into Ashburn too much and when we do, we don’t go deep into the wilds (well, the «wilds» for us anyway). Google maps directions has one going up the Greenway to the Claiborne Parkway exit. My husband said that he wasn’t going to pay the tolls just to go to a restaurant in Ashburn. So… he got alternate directions, which were cockamamie directions. How we managed to find the place, we’ll never know. Go up Waxpool Road, route 625 — but — the road sign says that it’s route 640. It took some convincing to get my husband to try that route but, in the end, it was the way to go. We came across one shopping center — nope, not the right one. Then we continued on and saw Claiborne Parkway — do we go left or right? Go left, I said, all the while just guessing. We came upon a traffic light, the street sign said Waxpool Road. My husband slammed on the brakes and swung a right. A little ways up the road, there was the shopping center — TA DA! We found it. Or as my husband put it, we somehow stumbled across it!
Now — on to the dining experience… As other Unilocalers pointed out, the dining room was small. We got there around 5:30 p.m. on a Saturday night and there was only one table occupied. The hostess/​cashier told us to pick where we wanted to sit. Once we did that, we were given menus. The menu organization seemed to defy logic. There are categories such as «Chinese Cuisine», «Stir Fried Delicacies» and «South East Asian Cuisine». Thus, it took some searching to find the dish I wanted.
From the «Clipper», we had a coupon for 2 free spring rolls, so, of course we ordered them Plus we each had a cup of Hot and Sour Soup. My husband had Shrimp in Hot Garlic Sauce. He could have sworn that he saw Chicken with Garlic Sauce on the online take-​out menu. It was there but not on the dine-​in menu, although I’m sure they would have made a plate for him had he asked. And, I, of course, had the Chili Chicken with tomatoes.
To drink, I had a Thai Iced Tea. It was served in a way I hadn’t seen before. Along with the glass of the tea, I was brought a small cruet. I asked the waiter what was in the cruet. He said that it was syrup for the tea. I actually liked this idea — that way one can sweeten the tea to one’s liking. My husband had a bottle of Tsingtao beer.
The Spring Rolls were good with a thin, crispy wrapping. The Hot and Sour soup was skimpy on the stock. It got spicier the closer we got to the bottom of the cup.
The Chili Chicken, while good, could have been a lot better. It was clear that the sauce which looked like a peanut sauce but didn’t taste like one, could have been blended a lot better. One spoonful had a spicy taste but the next one was sweet tasting. I can only imagine how good it would have been properly blended. The tomato pieces were so big that I had to use a knife to cut them.
My husband liked his Shrimp dish. He said that he could taste the garlic plus some spice and he liked the vegetable blend which consisted of julienned pieces of celery, carrots, green peppers, red peppers and tree ear. He also was impressed with the size and portion size of the shrimp.
The staff here is very nice. As we were eating, the dining room began to fill up. It’s clear that many of the customers were regulars. Yet the staff treated us as well as the regulars — excellent customer service! The owner (manager?) took the time to speak to us and ask if we liked the food. She said that she hoped we would come back. Yes — we’ll go back. However, what we didn’t tell her is that it will be in the spring when there is more daylight so that we can better see where we’re going LOL!

Based on the other rave reviews for this place, I wanted to give it a try. I have an allergy to MSG, so my biggest concern about trying any new oriental restaurant is whether I’m going to have a run-​in with my kryptonite nemesis. They do have MSG in some of their food, but the staff here at Café Opera was very friendly, understanding, and concerned about allergies, so they carefully investigated which foods would be «safe» for me.
The food was pretty good, and I liked that they have a weight-​watchers section to the menu. You could tell the ingredients were fresh.
Unfortunately, it comes at a premium price. I had a little bit of sticker shock when I paid the bill. For an order of shrimp and veggies, an order of orange chicken, and an appetizer of crab rangoon, I paid a little over $ 30.
Unforuntately, my kids are too used to the Panda Express variety of orange chicken, and having FRESH ingredients made them think it tasted «weird.» They wouldn’t eat it. I thought it was pretty good. I would rather eat this than the mass produced frozen and reheated stuff you get at Panda Express. The crab rangoon was pretty good, too.
In summary:
Thumbs up for: Atmosphere, friendly and professional service, fresh ingredients.
Thumbs down for: Pricey, my kids wouldn’t eat it, and MSG limits which items I can order off the menu.