E Tea Cafe

Our company decided to order some food from here for lunch since they had a lunch box set for $ 6.50 (cash only). There are about 30 different choices and each box comes with: the main dish you ordered, rice, veggies, and a small side dish (ours was a spicy chicken). Pretty filling but for those that eat a bigger portion you could probably add on an order of onion cake to top it all off.
Food quality was average in taste and quality. Price wise you really can’t complain. I’m sure we’ll be ordering from here again.

Went there on Saturday evening for their take out (3 dishes for $ 16.50+ tax), ordered:
1. Drunken Chicken (#6) — 1 star, very bland (at almost tasteless), would not order this again.
2. Salt and pepper Pork chop (#27) — 3 star, different from the HK style, but tasted pretty good.
3. Fish fillet with vegetable (#42) — 3 star, OK but nothing outstanding.
Overall maybe 2.5 star

All of your immediate Taiwanese cravings can be fixed at E Tea Café. The setup is family friendly and each food item is going to be just as good as another Taiwanese restaurant you can’t recall the name of. We ordered the porridge with preserved egg and fish ($ 6.99). It was hot and delicious. It barely fills 2 bowls for 2 people which is what we wanted. The pork and broccoli ($ 8.99) was flavorful but not memorable.
The service was a bit slow and they didn’t seem to be receptive to us. We had to ask for an extra bowl, sauces, and water. They seemed irritated when we asked for those items even though in other restaurants, they’re provided from the beginning. Their reactions made us feel bad for being there.
Credit card purchases require a $ 25 minimum charge.

I really wish I can say something more positive about this restaurant but there’s nothing Taiwanese about it other than the fact that they play Mainland Chinese TV shows with Taiwanese stars on them. Some dishes got Taiwanese names but are not very authentic.
There’s a special menu where you can order 3 dishes for $ 16.50 + tax. It is an excellent deal but the the sauces were all very heavy and salty. One of the dishes is called «Shi-​Lin» tofu. Shi-​lin is a locale in the city of Taipei, Taiwan but I don’t quite understand why it’s given such a name other than the fact that I have never seen tofu prepared in such a fashion covered with pork and fava beans.
I am a big fan of the pork intestine, soft tofu, pork blood cake and sour mustard clay pot but I was rather disappointed by the lack of flavor in the stew and the worst part about it was that it was served lukewarm. All in all, I wish they would be honest about the kind of cuisine they represent — which is Chinese rather than Taiwanese.

not good nor bad, customer service kinda sucks, advertised Bento box for $ 6 but once we sat down they said they don’t have it, it’s TOGO only. Well then they should advertise it as «TOGO» only. After seeing me got upset, she said a few selected ones are available for dine in, but it’s a dollar more. I ended up ordering one, food came out fast, but tasted just ok. No repeat at this place mostly due to customer service. Also it’s advertised as authentic Taiwanese food but people inside are northern Chinese.

Food has way too much MSG that makes you thirsty even after drinking three glasses of water. At one point during the meal my taste bud quit. The only taste left was salty.
For the price they charge, fairy expensive for the quality they offer. The crispy chicken at Quicky tastes better than this place. We took home half of the meal and the idea of eating them again … Ewwwww!
There are plenty of good, authentic Taiwanese restaurants in SV, this place is not one of them. I mean to stop pretending you are something else, stick to who you are instead.

Beef Noodle Soup. Delicious. Soup wasn’t too salty. The noodles and the meat. Oh my goodness.
Stinky Tofu. Good stuff. ‘Nough said.
Wu Jing Chang Wang (I don’t know what it’s called in English but it has Pork blood, intestine, veggies, tofu and comes with a stone to keep the dish warm). It had a lot of tofu and pork blood… both of which I actually eat more of. It wasn’t too spicy or anything. A lot of the sour veggie though.
The meatball is also what they’re known for… but I would have to say — I didn’t like it too much. I mean, it was tasty but it was. meh compared to the other dishes we ordered.
$ 25 minimum for card transactions.

It’s a good Taiwanese option, which is actually not hard to achieve, but also not easy to find. I genuinely enjoyed the pork belly rice, as they used actual pork belly to accomplish it as opposed to ground pork like other places. There was also the right amount of pickled veggies and dried pork sung mixed into it. I thought that made the entire bowl fantastic. The stinky tofu was all right, as I’ve had much better even here in the U.S.
Their «zha jiang mian» is definitely a step in the right direction, and I’m glad it resembles a true Taiwanese zha jiang mian in some ways. I’m quite tired of the places that are Taiwanese but end up making it Korean style, with heavy black bean sauce and big chunks of onions. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s just not what I’m looking for when I order it.
Nonetheless, the prices are good and you’ll have a fantastic meal here from which you’ll leave feeling full and satisfied. It just makes me look forward to going back to Taiwan this winter and eating some of the REALLY mind blowing food.

Inconsistent. Came here before during dinner and the food was good. Lunch yesterday was a disaster. Pig cheek was so dry I almost choke a few time trying to swallow it. It tasted like it was frozen, and reheated in the microwave. Sausage tasted the same. My friend ordered the pork chop and his plate look so sad (¹⁄₅). It was thinly piece of chop breaded. Very very little meat. I got the beef noodle soup (²⁄₅). Soup lack flavor, noodles was not type I like. It was not chewy but doughy. I hate doughy noodles. Service ehh you eat with one eye on your food and the other on the waiter to see when you can ever catch their attention.

(-)
— beef noodle soup
Ate dinner here on a sunday night, it seemed to have a decent amount of people so I assumed the food would be ok, I was wrong. Fooled me into eating here!
I got the beef noodle soup and it was not good. Soup was whatever, did not care for the texture of the noodles and the meat was bland. This was probably the first time I’ve not finished a beef noodle soup dish ever in my life. Would rather get this at liangs kitchen on the other side of this plaza.

Very NOT authentic Taiwanese food. Very pricy and below average service. Would never come back; the garlic pork really greasy; the beef noodle soup totally not yummy;
to summarize — do not go

Pro:
— The fried/​stinky tofu was good b/​c they had decent spicy dipping sauce and pickled vegetables.
Con:
— The spicy beef noodle soup had mediocre broth and noodles. The spiciness was good, although not the correct style (they just tossed in some peppers if I recall properly). The beef was definitely not that tender, but they did give you an ample amount. I’m fairly critical of beef noodle soup though since I was obsessed with it when I lived in Taiwan, so it might work for you!
Ambiance?
They helped the place feel Asian with the TV running karaōke music. *gag*

Got the following:
— Ba wan (a small appetizer)
— A veggie
— Pork over rice
— Three cup chicken clay pot
— Wonton soup
— 3 orders of rice
Total was like $ 47…which is pretty darn expensive for a Taiwanese meal. Seriously?! We only ordered 3 main dishes, a soup, an appetizer, and some rice. Granted, the food was pretty good, but for the price, I’d rather go somewhere else!
I also saw that on the menu, Taiwanese lettuce was like $ 10.99. You can buy a whole bundle for like $ 3 at the market. Ridiculous.

Impressions:
— On the expensive side for what you get
— Congee is pretty small and expensive… it’s just soggy rice, why charge so much?!
— Mixed vegetables was good but expensive
— The loofah is decent here
— Satay beef rice noodles is decent, very oily

Coworkers and I were debating where to have lunch… since we see the grand opening sign so we thought of trying something new.
It was not packed on a thursday, so we got seated right away. They have lunch special rice plate, noodle soups, taiwanese snacks and dishes. The four of us ordered:
1. Stinky Tofu — it’s alright. It wasn’t as stinky as Grand Harbor in Fremont, the sauce was sweet. It would be a good choice for someone who wanted to try stinky tofu but couldn’t take the strong taste. For me who loved stinky tofu, this wasn’t the best choice.
2. Fried Pork Intestine — I don’t like it that much. I would expect it to be more crispy, but it was soft… i was disappointed.
3. Beef and tendon stew noodle soup — tendon was soft. I didn’t get to try the beef. It tasted average.
4. Combination fried rice — I was actually impressed by the fried rice. It wasn’t too dry and tasted pretty good. It had eggs, meat, pea, etc. I would recommend this.
5. Three cup chicken clay pot (basil chicken) — The flavor was pretty good. I liked how they gave you mostly wings (cuz i love wings~), and my coworker liked how it wasn’t too saucy.
6. Sour and spicy soup was on the house. I didn’t expect it to be that SPICY! It was so spicy that we couldn’t finish it.
Overall food was average. Price might be a bit high, but portions was pretty good. But i might just stick with grand harbor for the same price~

Great place to get Taiwanese snacks!
I tried the following:
1. Beef Noodle Soup — the soup was very flavorful and tasty. The beef was very tender and the noodles were cooked perfectly.
2. Green Onion pancake — super crispy and thin. Delicious
3. Red Bean pancake — pan fried and crispy. Decent amount of red bean filling
4. Deep fried meat ball roll — This was really good and I liked the diced onions inside.
Overall, service was really good. All of the dishes came out fairly fast, too.
The place was super packed when we finished eating, so I’d recommend to go early.

I went in because of the grand opening sign, and found out that it was more like a grand re-​opening. It’s the same people running the restaurant as the predecessor, Healthy Porridge. There is a change in menu, but the emphasis is still on Taiwanese cuisine.
I ordered the bento box to go, and that is still the same as before. Cheap, good, but very lacking in vegetable.

Just stopped in cuz it looked busy.
Shared an appetizer of pigs feet; you get six pieces for $ 6.99, very flavorful and yummy. I don’t know if the French can do it better with pied de cochon. =)
I ordered a bowl of Seafood noodles, it has a picture of a small chile next to the description, just so you know. It’s a good sized amount of kickin’ spicy hot endless noodles with shrimps, small pieces of beef, with onions, celery shreds. My stomach was happy. Very flavorful soft noodles. Def. influenced by Korean taste! =)
Will return to try other Taiwanese delectables.

We tried E-​Tea Café because they have a Grand Opening sign & they have a lunch special.
Lunch Specials are M-​F from 11 – 2:30pm comes with Main entrée, rice, &house soup for $ 6.99. Portions are Huge & enough for 2, probably 3 if everyone isn’t hungry.
For 2 people, get 2 different dishes to share because they portion are Big! Rice is served in a bowl. Main entrée in a separate plate.
We got:
Eggplant with Spicy Garlic Sauce — not that spicy, goopy sauce, eggplant was tender, but wish it was more tender. We liked it.
Vegetable Deluxe — not that good, some broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms. Nothing special.
Credit cards minimum $ 25! That’s so wrong, who eats $ 25 for lunch? Good thing I had cash.

Came by for dinner the night and was pleasantly surprised. Milpitas Square tends to have spotty restaurants when it comes to quality. E Tea Café still had a Grand Opening sign upon arrival.
Started off with the fried fish cake which was good, although the fish cake wasn’t super-​fresh. The fish cake did have a tasty dipping sauce.
Moved on to the popcorn chicken and the chicken was fresh and the oil was good. The dish wasn’t too oily nor was it over-​fried. It was on the saltier side.
The squid noodle soup was unique. The squid tasted more like a squid ball and the noodles were tasty with a thicker soup base.
The last dumpling soup was also decent with some meat filing inside the dumpling and a clean and crisp soup.
Surprisingly, the service was decent and they do accept credit cards for purchases over $ 25.