Been a regular and happy customer for about a year, solid food, no issues. Something significant has changed recently -- most of the food is suddenly weird and overall tastes worse, and I get instant stomach cramps 10 minutes after eating here. They started to put some new substances to the food that can't be digested.
(1)
Izzah A.
Short review: High prices for mediocre food, mediocre service, and mediocre atmosphere. Save your money and go elsewhere. Longer review: Frequented this restaurant around 3-4 times since its opening in 2013. The first time I went, I was excited about the prospect of good Cantonese food and dim sum in Palo Alto (finally!). Nevertheless, food quality fell short of my expectations. Yet, I kept wanting to give this restaurant another chance, but each time brings the increasingly familiar feeling of disappointment. This was the case again when I went very recently. Waiters did not appear enthusiastic; the dim sum was not on par with other dim sum places, and finally; the restaurant atmosphere isn't very conducive for conversation as it's really noisy.
(2)
Jasmine M.
We had high hopes for Steam as usually everything in dumpling format tends to please me. Sadly, the salt+pepper tofu was unbearably salty and dry. It felt like it needed some sort of sauce? The mushroom + veggie dumplings were good but nothing spectacular. Also- vinegar was noticeably absent from the table? Overall - I will not go back :( I was hoping for a good azn addition to University's varied fare.
(2)
Babo K.
The worst experience ever. My wife and I waited about 30 mins for a high chair. But they gave it to other customer by mistake (or maybe intentionally) and asked us to have our lunch, holding my 6 month-old daughter on my lap. I wonder whether they could ask us to do that if we were Caucasians. I complained, but their answer was "don't come back!". I seriously considered to take a legal action but couldn't figure out what to do. I admit that I may be overreacting now, but it was the worst experience ever in any restaurant.
(1)
Jessica C.
I'm not going to compare this to other dim sum places because they serve dim sum at night! This is a rare thing for me to find and usually when I find a place that does to dim sum for dinner, it's not that great but I eat there anyway only because I need a flavor fix. So compared to those other places open late, this was great in my book. They have a small selection, but we ordered other dinner dishes to make the meal more filling. The tastes were delicate, fresh and piping hot which differs from most dim sum places is that it's not sitting in a cart for a while losing steam (pun intended, pun SO intended ^_^) . We ordred the har gau, siu mai, chive dumpling, pork buns, fried shrimp balls, eggplant and chicken thing, and the seafood rice cakes. All were hot and tasty. The har gau skins were nice and thin, and shrimp although small was fresh. Siu mai was great, not over peppery which sometimes happens when the meat is not fresh. I really liked the chive dumpling, great flavor, and liked it more here as I don't usually like this dish but the dumpling skin here was thin and really quite nice. As usual with all chinese places I will try to order the rice cake if they have it, and the flavor was awesome. I think my one complaint was that some items come in orders of 2, where it would have been nice to have 3 or 4 for a group to share. Definitely will be back when I have a night time hankering for better quality night time dim sum. Didn't experience any of the bad service mentioned in other reviews, I guess I'm used to the Canto style service, so this compared to other dim sum places was FAR superior than I'm usually used to. It also helped that every time the waiter came by we'd order some more food, so we'd always have something to eat while waiting for something else.
(4)
Chris L.
The dimsum looks shriveled up compared to regular dimsum. The shu mai is a third of the normal size and looks like a mini portion. All portions are small. I liked their veg five crop fried rice the best. The other dishes are not better than normal Chinese places and this place is overpriced. Basically Westernized dimsum with Western prices. I bet they are making a killing here, especially with the westernized idea of tip!
(3)
lizzie s.
As a vegetarian, I ALWAYS check the menu before I eat anywhere. This place looked promising. While they had plenty of options for me to choose from, The tofu dishes were not good at all and the steamed buns were OK but not delicious. I hope their meat-centered dishes are better, but I do not recommend this for fellow vegetarians.
(2)
E W.
Overpriced Dimsum sub par quality very disappointed!
(2)
Schelly Y.
Dim sum offerings in downtown are pretty slim so when the craving arises I will take what I can get. Most of the items we ordered were okay but we ordered some dumplings that had the worst texture. The dumpling skin was a bit thick and the meat filling was mushy.
(3)
Valeria F.
Mm, yummy! ^^ Cool outdoor seating, nice modern decor. We ordered the spicy chicken and something else, it was all really good and the portions were large! Good place for people watching, pretty quick service given how crowded it was. Ordered a sake bottle for $45 which looked super cool too. Split it between the two of us (mostly my friend) and actually finished it..^^ Nice place, would come again!
(4)
Sophie Y.
This place seems like it's very Americanized Chinese food on first glance, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised with the food here :) The XLB were pretty good and they had an ok amount of soup inside. The meat inside was soft and broke apart, instead of being in a clump like some other places. I also got the beef noodle soup. I wasn't a huge fan of the thin noodles, since I generally prefer thicker noodles, but the beef was pretty good. The bowl initially looked like just soup + beef + noodles, but as I ate, I started to find SURPRISE BOK CHOY in my soup! (Good surprise, not a bad surprise!) I thought there was just one stalk of bok choy in the soup, but as I kept eating, I kept discovering more and more SURPRISE BOK CHOY! There turned out to be 4 stalks in the bowl :) I also tried the garlic pea sprouts that my coworker ordered and they were super delicious, they probably ended up being the most popular dish at the table.
(3)
Abhimanyu C.
This place deserves four stars! The food is good but not always great! Straightforward tasty Chinese food!
(4)
Pierre B.
Not too bad. Reminds me of Bao Dim Sum House in Los Angeles, but in an airier environment, with less attentive service, and food that's just not as good. Dim sum is on the pricier side at $3 for three pieces. Steamed BBQ Pork Buns, Shanghai Dumplings, Har Gow, and Shu Mai were okay; they just didn't have as much flavor as Koi or HK Lounge's. We also got the Wonton with Red Sauce ($6) and the Beef Chow Fun ($8), which was quite oily. Chicken Wings were quite good though ($5). In conclusion, the dim sum here is not as good or comprehensive as at Taipan (their sister restaurant), but it's much more affordable. If in Palo Alto, this is probably the dim sum place to go.
(3)
Natasha P.
It's pretty hard to find quality Asian food out here. I'm an SF girl so my standards can get the best of my PA experiences sometimes. But, Steam, Oh, Steam. Shrimp dumplings, Schezuan shrimp, green beans, beef cubes, sesame balls.... Sure, it's on the pricey side but this place is swanky, modern, airy and comfortable, and the food is not greasy and fresh. Definitely my new favorite spot in downtown Palo Alto!
(4)
Andrea P.
Overall this restaurant is okay. I kids love it but service is often limited and the restaurant is loud. Location is great but not ideal for parking. Food is good but a little limited. I recommend the appetizers of potstickers and spring rolls, my kids adore the potstickers, but other than that there's not much to be said.
(3)
Jamie T.
Dim Sum is pretty good here - given that you are in the prime of downtown PA, on University Ave. Lucky Stanford students have something closer to eat at now. Back when I was at Stanford, nothing good around unless you could drive. I heard this place is the same owner as Taipan so dimsum is definitely pretty good. I think their meat is really tender - it's pretty good for $8 Beef Niu Rou Mian. I love their decoration - wood and all.
(4)
Stella C.
Horrible service, my friend and I placed the order 35 minutes ago and are still waiting...the only thing that came was a fly. Not gonna come back
(1)
Adam L.
First of all, I am considered a non-judgmental foodie by many who knows me, and was raised in Hong Kong, where the real deal Cantonese food are, love both cheap local AND high end places. I would give 4.5 star and round up to 5 if the service goes up a notch any day. I do not understand why people complaining the food here not being "authentic." Perhaps their perception of authenticity in Hongkie food comes from else where. Although I do have some issue with their service, any of your truly enjoy authenticity of Chinese food would realize, service in any Chinese joint here in the US is subpar compare to Asia's high end restaurants. Yes, this is not the cheap joint in Milbrae or Daly City or Santa Clara etc. Steam is in downtown Palo Alto where there is a premium for everything. As long as food is good I am willing to pay few more bucks when I am here. Food here is great. Not too many dim sum items but perfect for a lunch during the week, or s casual dinner. I am all for places offer less variety in exchange for quality. Same of dishes and rice/noodles. Portion is decent enough for you, unless you haven't realized that you have been eating too much. Quality is great too, comparable to a mid tier places anywhere in Hong Kong. Recommended items for first timers, all very basic items: - Fried tofu with pepper and salt - Shrimp dumplings and Shu Mai - Pan fired dumpling with shrimp chives - Sweet and sour pork (YES, THIS IS AN AUTHENTIC HONG KONG DISH) - Stirred fried beef rice noodle
(4)
Sandy O.
Comically terrible service and mediocre food. I will definitely not return. As a frequent diner in restaurants in and around University Avenue there are so many better choices. I had dinner with friends tonight and we finally had to accost our waiter in order to place our order after waiting more than 45 minutes. He was even reluctant to take our order then. They kept seating tables but we were not the only ones to wait inordinately long to order food.
(2)
Vicky L.
Solid 2.5-3 star range. The dining room is nicely decorated given that the previous predecessors of Mediterranean Wraps and Andale didn't do too much. The high ceilings and the strange wood bars in the entry hall make it so that the acoustics are funky and conversations aren't the easiest to hear. They have long tables so unless you're lucky with your timing, you're stuck at a communal table bumping shoulders with two strangers... These aren't LARGE communal tables like Nopa... these are regular 4-6-8 tops! Food wise it was beautifully presented but not super "authentic." Been curd shrimp rolls - interesting take on the traditional dim sum treat. Dipping sauce was lack luster. It normally is served with black vinegar or the Asian Worcestershire sauce. They served it with a chemically tasting sweet and sour. Taiwanese rice noodles - not authentic at all. They used jump huge dried shrimp in there. House Special Tofu Clay Pot - Definitely have had better! Mongolian Beef - Presentation was beautiful, the flavor was good but the beef was sliced in such large pieces that I had to gnaw my way through. Prep chefs need a refresher on knife skills! Overall it was an okay experience for Chinese food in PA. Hostess was very pleasant and service was good. I'd recommend taking out the funky hallway near the tables so that the waiting diners aren't staring at the ones eating while "caged in" with the wooden slats. They could adjust the floor plan so that more tables are placed and use more two tops that can easily be moved to accommodate the occasional large party instead of forcing smaller parties to use communal tables.
(3)
E S.
This review is based solely on the service...or lack thereof. I had high hopes for this eatery. It looked clean, open, and classy for a dim sum joint. The vegetarian options also lured us in because it's a rarity to find in Chinese cuisine. Anyhow, as we were walking up, a pushy guy cut us off outside and demanded that, what seemed like the only waiter, seat him. The waiter looks over the guys shoulder at us, glared questioningly at my husband, and waved us inside. He wanted us to bypass a family with small children waiting patiently by the "please wait to be seated" sign. This all felt wrong, and without any exhange of greeting or direction, my husband and I chose to fall back and wait behind the other family. We waited...waited...the other family finally got seated. The waiter seemed to forget about us but then a slightly friendlier busboy decided to approach us and seat us and grabbed a highchair for my toddler. More waiting...waiting. The restaurant wasn't even all that packed. Finally, the cocky waiter comes over, flings a couple menus in front of us and plopped a couple glasses of water down for us--no offer of water for the kid. Whatever, I can share with her. But then, we watched him casually strut around without so much as a smile for anyone or anything, off in his own dickfaced world as I, and others, tried to catch his attention to place an order. He walked by many times with what seemed like a well rehearsed avoidance turn when we tried to get his attention. We aren't the kind of people to yell out for service or be overly assertive, nor should we have to be. We had a bunch of food just ready to be ordered, and we kept sitting there hopeful that another waiter would emerge from the back, but finally, an antsy toddler and the fact that we were so irritated by constantly being ignored, we chose to walk out. This jerk of a waiter didn't deserve a cent of tip and I'm so sorry for this restaurant if this is the first and only face available to represent its food. The whole experience was so off putting that I doubt I'd have any interest in giving it another chance. To the owner of Steam: please staff your restaurant with more than one waiter on a Friday night. Especially if the only waiter you're going to have on the floor is completely avoidant and rude. We decided to give our money to a family friendly sushi joint next door that delivered impeccable service and appreciated our business. Trying to give my money to Steam was a complete waste of 45 minutes of my life.
(1)
Jose A.
I like going to Chinatown for its cheap dumplings and food but the food here is an upgrade in terms of quality i.e less greasy.I also like the Singaporean noodles.
(4)
Michael W.
Not bad. But the portions are so small!! Honestly, this is pretty good for Asian food in Palo Alto, and I would come back. I came at 6pm on a Tuesday to find my friend already sitting down at a 6 person table. There wasn't really many other people in the restaurant at 6pm. The rest of our 6 person party filed in shortly. We got: Har Gow - decent Shanghai Dumplings - okay Scallop Dumplings - decent Siu Mai Steamed Pork Buns - alright Hot and Sour Soup - decent, could have been spicier/more sour Vegetable Clay Pot - Pretty good, a lot of tofu Vegetarian Fried Rice - Pretty good actually! A lot of flavor for using.. purple rice? Everything was pretty decent, and I liked the fried rice a lot even though it was some kind of colored rice. I wish there was a Chinese menu.. the order receipt comes in Chinese, so why isn't it on the menu?!
(3)
Shauna M.
FANTASTIC!!!!!!! Delicious, great menu, fantastic service, very cool interior and great location on main street in downtown Palo Alto. Very reasonable prices given the area and good portions. I highly recommend giving this place a try!!!
(5)
A C.
Why this place doesn't have higher stars is strange to me. No more driving all the way to cupertino's A&J restaurant for yummy noodles, this place has fresher/leaner meat and the broth, oh my! Very flavorful and perfect! Had the spinach dim sum, yummy!
(5)
Henry L.
Came here for lunch and walked away with a total "meh" feeling. On the one hand it's got some fancy decor. For a restaurant in the heart of Palo Alto, it's pretty decent Chinese. On the other hand, compared to all other Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area and even the so-so dim sum places, this place just doesn't really stack up. We really wanted to get a sense of their dim sum -- which was a very limited selection of 10 items. We ordered every single item on that list... which shouldn't be that surprising but it was to the waiter. They are most definitely having their birthing pain right now. Service was painfully slow. We had to ask for things multiple times. Things like menu, water, place settings, the usual important items. Our dishes also did not arrive in a timely manner. When we were paying our last dim sum dish arrived. It would've been nice to have arrived with its 9 other siblings. As far as the food quality/quantity, it wasn't that great. The XLB skins were too thick and stuck to the paper. It pretty ruins the XLB. The cha shu bao skin was a little too chewy. I was expecting for more fluffy. Each item is only $3, but the portion was also a little smaller than most places. I'd say about 15-25% smaller than the average dim sum in Cupertino. Bottom line: I was not impressed. Decor is pretty, but it also makes the place crazy loud. Service was poor (I assume it'll get better). The food quality was totally subpar for dim sum in the Bay Area.
(2)
erika c.
The food is good but expensive and the service BLOWS. Our order took forever, the servers hardly ever came by, and one of the women clearly hates her job. If you have time constraints, don't bother.
(3)
Stephanie C.
Steam is a nice and fancy restaurant, different from most dim sum places. Don't expect those carts full of food to be rolling around this restaurant! We were seated along the table right next to the kitchen so we got to see them cooking and making the Xiao Long Bao. The dish that really stood out to us was the Braised Beef Noodle Soup. The noodles were just alright, but the broth was one of the best I've ever had! The meat was also very flavorful. I would definitely recommend it to everyone since the amount of food you get for the price is way higher for this dish than the dim sum dishes. We ordered the Bean Curd Shrimp Roll - my boyfriend's and my favorite dim sum dish. It was a little different than other dim sum places, longer and rounder. They were also slightly less fried, but I liked it better than most that I've had. It felt like there was a lot more shrimp and veggies with a thin layer of bean curd. The Siu Mai was pretty good, but very tiny. As were the Fried Shrimp Balls. We finished with the egg custard buns. Also good, but not great. The Braised Beef Noodle Soup and the Bean Curd Shrimp Roll are the reason why I gave Steam 4 stars; the other 3 dishes we ordered were probably just 3 stars.
(4)
Catherine N.
I love that you can come to Steam and get dim sum at any hour of the day. This place is casual but still super trendy and modern looking. I feel super classy sitting in this restaurant, but it is super casual at the same time! Best of both worlds. I love all of the dumplings, and the shanghai dumplings. I also love the mussels with black bean sauce, since it is something that I am always craving, strangely, and I'm glad now there is a place that I can get it! It's a great place to come with other people and share! We had a team lunch here and it was a good bonding experience as well!
(4)
Melanie L.
We wandered in off of University Ave drawn by the nice design, outdoor seating, and yummy menu. The service was mediocre and the food took forever, especially for dim sum. When the food arrived it was quite good. We ordered all of the basic dim sum and my favorite was the chives and seafood. I absolutely love sesame balls and was eager for dessert so I could have some crispy sweet goodness. They were good but not outstanding. Not quite cooked enough but not bad. We enjoyed the great location and watching the people stroll down the street.
(3)
C r.
Food is OK. We've been 3 times in the last few months. Will go back. Downside...very noisy from open kitchen. Would be better off if they put up glass walls. Don't go on a cold night as the door never stays closed and most tables get the cold air rushing in.
(3)
Grace T.
If a place is going to charge Yank Sing prices, their dim sum better be spectacular. Unfortunately Steam's dishes were only okay - I can't even compare them to normal dimsum because on top of that, some dishes seemed very confused (were they supposed to be fusion? Did the chefs just make stuff up?). Portions were TINY. $15 for a main dish anywhere else would get at *least* double the amount we received here. Waiters got out order wrong and don't speak English well. They tried though. The only thing they really got going for them is a nice ambience, but I came here for food. Very limited selection of dim sum. Definitely avoid if you are trying to get authentic dim sum or Chinese food.
(2)
Aya J.
So here is my pros/cons analysis of the Steam: Pros: -nice interior -good location -couple tables are available outside -decent Chinese food Cons: -service is bad ( we waited for our server forever, and actually had to walk to one of the servers ourselves) -very limited service- no suggestions, no explanations- good if u know what u want and don't care that your server doesn't understand when u ask for wooden chopsticks -we ordered beer, which never came, but surprisingly appeared on the bill -dim sum and potstickers are way smaller than I've seen before.. The price is unfortunately not proportional...
(3)
Dave C.
Food was ok, but as a table of vegans it wasn't very easy to figure out what we could safely order. I hated the dry erase menu system. They brought 4 to the table, but then made us consolidate our orders onto 1. Plus the marker didn't mark very well. The Counter does this kind of self service order form much better. Also the acoustics were pretty awful. Lots of hard surfaces make it a real echo chamber for noise.
(2)
Anna G.
Very slow service. We waited for food for like an hour and 20 minutes for a change. Food is good, service is bad
(3)
K L.
I love dim sum on a Sunday so instead of our usual dim sum spot, we stopped here since its fairly new and wanted to check it out. The decor is modern and clean with open kitchen. Their menu is pretty simple, it has dim sum (not full dim sum menu tho), noodles, and other main dishes. We ordered most of dim sum dishes like har gow, shanghai, spinach, mushroom, shrimp ball, chives, pot stickers, sticky rice... Etc but I have to say, I would not come back here for any of the dim sum. Only thing I will come back for (only if I'm really desperate & starving) are string bean dish and fried chicken wings, these were pretty good. Also the service was pretty bad. We ordered tea ($2.00 per person) and one of the tea cup was really dirty and when I pointed that out to our waiter, he said nothing and just took the cup!! The waiter never ask you if you need anything, they will just bring you the food you ordered and give you the check at the end. I didn't expect such a poor service and dissatisfying food here... I hope they do improve but I doubt I will be coming back.
(2)
Katharine A.
I was excited to eat here. I've seen lots of places go in and out of this space over the years and I got a little spring in my step the first time I passed by...Dim Sum in Palo Alto was a good concept. Execution was a bit different. First, the space is just poorly done. The tables (mostly communal) are too close together and just uncomfortable. I was jostled more than once by the waiter when we were eating. The slats lining the entry and the dining area just serve as awkward barriers to both customer and waiter. Very bad idea indeed! Design standpoint may have been approved for looks, but it FAILS in function. The service was really, really slow. Inconsistent and just bad. The server was really friendly, but the food came out cold and just wasn't good. The dishes we got didn't seem house made. Dim Sum wasn't up to par with other more authentic places. I want this place to succeed, but they have to try a lot harder if they want to.
(2)
Vivian W.
Came here once a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty empty for most of the meal (before noon), but the second time I came for take out only around 12:30 pm, it was really packed. I was told to come back in 15 minutes for my take out but it actually took them over 30 minutes (largely due to the pan fried chive dumplings). I've only really had the dim sum. It's a limited selection including har gow, siu mai, chive dumplings with seafood, spinach with seafood dumplings, etc. At $3 a plate, it's not expensive compared to your nearby options (since Tai Pan charges nearly double for most dishes). On the other hand, despite being overpriced, Tai Pan offers excellent dim sum while Steam's is only average. But the pickings are slim in downtown Palo Alto so I'll still probably go back, especially to try the other dishes!
(3)
Gaurav J.
Atmosphere is not bad. Food is alright, but there are some serious misses. Service is quite poor and often rude.
(2)
Meilin L.
I don't usually go out to eat Chinese food, because I know authentic Chinese food and it isn't authentic out there. BUT, I LOVE dim sum and if there's the opportunity to eat it, I am ALL for it. I had heard about Steam from a friend who praised their menu for being vegetarian-friendly. Yes, it's true. But I'm a meat and seafood eater, so that didn't really matter to me. My guest and I ordered the Singaporean rice noodles, sticky rice in lotus leaves, scallop and shrimp dumplings, shrimp and spinach dumplings and vegetarian dumplings. The noodles were good, and so were the dumplings, but I don't know that they are good enough to warrant a return. However, I reaaaally liked the sticky rice. I could potentially go back just for that! It looks like other reviewers commented on the poor service, and I'll have to agree. I appreciate that in a time of drought the waiters will not refill our glasses of water, but having to repeatedly ask - almost 5 times - to get our glasses refilled was too much. It would also be nice to see a smile or two, to make us feel welcomed. Because yes, eating at a restaurant is also about the experience.
(3)
Edward W.
3.5 stars My girlfriend found this new dimsum place so we decided to drop by and check it out. I ordered the braised beef noodle soup, bean curd shrimp roll, fried shrimp ball, and shiu mai. The braised beef noodle soup was actually a decent size. I didn't really like the noodles since they were kind of thin and mushy, but the broth was very flavorful. The lack of vegetables was a little disappointing although there was plenty of delicious beef. For the dimsum, I liked the bean curd shrimp roll, shiu mai, and fried shrimp ball in that order. The bean curd shrimp roll wasn't too fried, the shiu mai was mostly shrimp, and the fried shrimp ball was okay. Everything here seems to be miniaturized although the prices are about the same as normal dimsum. This place seems quite upscale for a dimsum place. I like that you can see into the kitchen and watch your food being made while you wait. I'd recommend the beef noodle soup and the bean curd shrimp roll.
(3)
Alice C.
This place lacks the grimey and cheesy Chinese decor that has been prevalent in the bay area dim sum places. They serve a mixture of Taiwanese street eats and Cantonese dim sum. Yes, there are Shanghainese looking items on the menu, but from what I've had, I think it's the Taiwanese version of the same foods...it's complicated =p. The service is decent, except that they don't have a standard menu with Chinese on it yet, and the waiters don't seem to understand the English names of the items very well. Food was good. The beef brisket noodles were tender, not overly oily, and delicious. It was not spicy enough and didn't come with pickles, but for what it was, it was good. We also sampled an array of dim sum, from the spicy wontons (non-peanut version) and char siu bao, to the fried shrimp rolls. Everything was decent -- it was not overly authentic, but like the mister said, the food tasted fresh. Much fresher than other dim sum places would offer. It's a nice casual place to get some dim sum without having to deal with the rush and queue at other places. You're not getting the "real deal", but hey, if it tastes good, does it matter?
(4)
Marina N.
There were 5 people at the place, but the server did not find time to check on us for a single time while we were waiting for our food for 30 min. Neither I got my tea that requires no cooking I suppose. After 30 min of waiting I grabbed the server and asked why we did not get our food or even tea. I got no apologies or explanation. We waited a few more minutes and had to leave the place. What a disgraceful service. Never again. Never.
(1)
Bob C.
I've never written a review just based on eating leftovers. But now I am. My girlfriend brought home three boxes of leftovers from Steam, and I ate them for dinner. I didn't even bother heating them up, but they were all excellent. In fact, their leftovers are better than most restaurants' fresh-from-the-kithen dishes. I will definitely try dining in sometime. What I had was very, very tasty.
(4)
Amanda L.
I came here for dimsum and it was NOT good. The steamed dumplings tasted like they had just been defrosted - they were soggy and completely fell apart as soon as you picked them up. The shumai was not tasty, and the pork buns were also pretty meh. The mapo tofu was the only redeeming part of the meal.
(2)
Pete S.
Chinese cuisine the way it was meant to be. Best dim sum in Palo Alto, possibly the bay area. Fresh ingredients, and you know this not just because of the taste and texture of your food, but the kitchen is open and you can see the chefs preparing your meal.
(5)
David J.
Their food deserves three stars, but I'm deducting two stars for the slow, slow service. I sat out front, where the wait staff were seldom seen. I had to wait 10 minutes to order and then 50 minutes more for my meal to arrive. If I hadn't flagged down a waiter and complained I think I may have been there all day. The couple next to me sat down at the same time as me and were finished eating and getting up to leave when my food finally arrived. Then after finishing my meal and putting a napkin over my plate I waited another 10 minutes for the check to arrive. Fortunately, I had a good book to read. But I was annoyed at the way I was treated. No apologies from them, and no tip from me.
(1)
Alia S.
I am generally pumped at the idea of having easy access to a dim dum place, however, Steam disappointed. I went there for a quick to-go fix. I got a bunch of shrimp har gow, and another dumpling with mushrooms, and a sweet bean paste bun. Not inedible food, but...bleh. The rice wrappers had no "chew" to them--they kind of fell apart at first bite in a grainy way. No me gusta. I hardly even remember the other dumplings. Same experience with the wrappers, but at that point I had given up any hope of really enjoying the flavors, and just needed to get some food in my stomach. As a side note, for to-go the wait time was suuuuuper long. And they got part of my order wrong, but I just said it was fine because I didn't want to wait any longer. I guess I would try it again, if a friend really wanted to go there, but otherwise I'd just forget about it.
Solid food, good service. Comfortable decor. Much higher price tags than usual Chinese/dim sum restaurants, but it's a place you can do a business lunch at, so that's what you're paying for. Their vegetarian options for dim sum is quite impressive.
(4)
Heather E.
We had 6 of the dishes and I didn't enjoy one of them. I would not come back here. Very pricey too
(1)
Jisoo Y.
This is one of my favorite restaurant. I like dimsum but you have to try Szechun style tiger prawns. They are so fresh and spicy but yummy. The interior of the restaurant is modern and clean, the staff are very friendly.
(5)
Ilian G.
Delicious even if dim sum selection is not as expansive as other places. I was worried initially that it might not be authentic - fear not! Legit.
(4)
Wow Z.
This place has the worst service ever. It was empty when we arrived - 3 tables seated in the entire place. Sat down and took ten minutes for them to even acknowledge us. Ordered tea and a few other small dishes. Waitress too busy checking her phone to even bring the tea. After 30 mins of waiting for our food, we asked what was going on. 10 mins later, no acknowledgement so just got up and left. Terrible - never again.
(1)
Jing H.
This is basically a Chinese dim sum place, but relatively expensive, (maybe reasonable since it is on University Ave.) The food quality is good, very tasty, and nice food presentation. Atmosphere is nice too. I had fun here hanging out with friends. We girls paid about $25/person.
(3)
Swe B.
They have really good dimsum which is why I trek out here for a post work treat. But the service is appalling! I came here today to eat their dimsum - I was on my own and not too hungry so only ordered one order with tea and was rudely told that they couldn't serve me because it didn't meet the minimum. No mention of minimum £¥ anywhere. And it wasn't so much the rule as it was the way it was told to me. Downright rude! I come here fairly often and you'd imagine that they'd want to keep that going, but no bite. If their sesame balls weren't this good, I really would rate this place a -15.
(2)
Harshal R.
Has a awkward sitting (4 different parties of 2 people shared table for 8) Awful service. We didn't get bowl with the soup (which was served in very large container) . "Kitchen is busy, maybe after some time " is what our waitress told us when we asked for a bowl. Giving 2 stars only because food was decent.
(2)
Nigel J.
Went with the family and were surprised by how good the food is - very fresh - delicious. One snag - our first dish came out and sat on the table for at least five minutes before the essential other dishes came out. The servers just shrugged off our questions. So some kind of issue there. But ... very good food ... will definitely go back.
(4)
Joyce R.
This is a hard review to write, because this is our fourth visit and we have loved the food each time. The selections are always delicious and we enjoy our meals here, however the service was so poor tonight it was distressing. We were there early--around 5.15 and the place was not yet full, but it was hard to get a waiter's attention to order, the waiter was not around to assist us through the meal, and it took quite awhile to get served. I hope this was a one-time problem, because I enjoy this place so much.
(2)
Jennifer D.
I love the food here. Steamed spinach seafood dumplings ...scallop dumplings ...any dumplings are amazing if you like dim sum. Try the string beans too! Great patio on a cold night ...the heaters are mega HOT. Service is just ok.
(4)
Tee W.
I walked in hoping for something light and tasty. Oh YEAH DIM SUM in Palo Alto! I love dumplings and this new place is close to where I live, so I was hoping it would be at least good enough to become a regular spot for me. Sadly the service was so bad, I left without ordering. When I walked in, the waitress passed by me with no eye contact. Then another male waiter passed by, and obviously avoided looking my way. Like, I KNEW he saw me standing there. Finally, another waiter was about to walk by me so I stepped out and I asked if I could just sit down at the "bar" area where you can watch the chefs cook. She looked confused and was speechless, looking wildly around for help, until finally some older guy came up with a smile and "sure sure sit there". Are they AFRAID of customers??? The place wasn't that busy - only about half the tables were filled. I sat down, which was a bit awkward - not like you're sttting at a sushi bar - more like sitting facing a wall. Finally someone came and cleaned my dirty area (I was the only one at the counter), and handed me a menu. Then the real waiting began. I quickly picked what I wanted (you write it with a marker on the menu), and then I sat and sat, although there were 6 wait staff in the restaurant making every effort to avoid making eye contact. Finally, after getting out my iPHone and spending 10 minutes on YELP reading the other reviews of the terrible service and having to wait 45 minutes AFTER ordering, I decided to bolt. Nobody even noticed my leaving, much less asked me to stay.... Doesn't matter how good the food is if you can't get service. These people need some SERIOUS intervention in the service department. Clearly these folks have not figured out how to manage customers. Another review talked about how nobody greeted them at the door either. Well, they still haven't fixed that. Maybe they aren't savvy enough to even read their YELP reviews and try to improve? The chefs looked like they knew what they were doing - the food they were cooking looked and smelled good, but the other reviews said the portions were extremely small for the price. I don't even care about that if the food is tasty. If they fix their service issues, I would love to go back and try. I'll be watching YELP to see if things improve...
(1)
R. B.
As my husband and myself are walking towards our fav sushi bar, we came upon Steam. We looked at the menu on the outside and we noticed they have Dim Sum! We love Dim Sum, so we opted to eat here. As we walk in about 11:30 on a Friday for lunch, we were greeted and seated right away. Our server was friendly and mostly attentive. We ordered a variety of Dim Sum including: *Pea shoot and prawn dumpling ~ what a mouthful of joy! Fresh and tasty; we add a lil bit of the chili sauce on the table and hit a home run! *Spinach and Seafood dumpling ~ also very tasty *Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai ~ one of our all time fav dim sum ~ loved it, just like I remember *Steamed BBQ bun ~ not a big fan of the "bun" but it was spiced right, very light in texture and quite a tasty filling *Braised Beef Noodle soup ~ they use the more chewier pieces of beef, which is ok, but the broth in this soup is phenomenal! Very good. The ambience is nice although the tables are a bit close to each other so we overheard the whole conversation from the neighboring table who were talking loud. I don't believe they could see us, LOL We both liked this place. We will go again to try more Dim Sum!!
(4)
Erica A.
jasmine beef fried rice. bbq pork puns. hot & sour soup. :) really nice outside under the heater on a cold day.
(5)
Sophers M.
This place is really swanky and cute, and I love the outside seating area. I went with a friend and had the broccoli beef and chow fun. The broccoli beef was good, the meat fresh and lean and everything was well-seasoned. The chow fun, however, tasted almost burnt, though the noodles were a nice consistency and the vegetables in the dish were good also. I'm guessing the sauce just burned or there wasn't enough of it. May try this place again to give it another shot.
(3)
Gayathri K.
Food is great but the service is terrible!!! The most unfriendly people Ever !!! They even ignore you when you ask for something! The wait staff seems to care less about people who eat here!! I give it 4 stars only because I love the food. It's been fresh and tasty during every visit. Kids love it too! If you are craving real dim sum, find an authentic dim sum place.
(4)
Yesenia B.
At about 1pm today, my husband and I were walking down university and hoping to try something new. We were in the mood for Chinese and we walked right by Steam, saw the menu and decided to give it a try. We checked out Yelp, read good things about the food and proceeded to walk in and stand along the left wall, waiting for someone to acknowledge and seat us. Unfortunately, we stood along the left wall for almost 10 minutes without so much as a "hello". We read on Yelp several others saying the food was good but service is poor. And today, we sadly confirmed that. We will never visit again and can't recommend anyone else patron this establishment. It's sad to continue to see how many people do not understand that the customer experience is more than just having nice food and chic decor. Service is the reason business will succeed or fail and this restaurant is guaranteed to fail soon unless they take specific measures to delver better service. I don't expect this restaurant to be in business next year. Most restaurants fail and competition is too high to have poor service in today's world. A simple, "Hello! Welcome to Steam. We will be right with you." is free to give but today cost them my business and earned them a poor review on Yelp and Facebook. One waiter walked back and forth past us several times as he cleared a front table and brought food to tables. Another waiter walked past us several times refilling water. Yet another person was attending orders in the computer. None of them even had the decency to look is in the eye or greet us. We left very disappointed without even a glimpse of attention from anyone on the staff. I truly hope that being a 20s African American married couple had nothing to do with why we were not served, but that's the problem when things are handled poorly. We are left to wonder why we were not ever acknowledged and sad we did not get served. Avoid this place.
(1)
Shannon L.
Definitely a lovely atmosphere. Our waitress didn't understand us at all so it was hard to communicate but since it wasn't busy it was fine. Not really what I would call a DimSum place - more like Asian fusion. Good food and prices were okay.
(3)
H. H.
Food was pretty good, service at the start was friendly and quick. After the food was delivered, however, we never saw our waiter again (when we wanted more drinks or the check) and we had to aggressively wave him over for several minutes when it was time to pay and leave. If you like a restaurant that is as noisy as a night club, then this is the place for you. Terrible acoustics, loud chairs scraping on the floor the entire time, hard to talk with the other people at my table. When we walked out after lunch, it was like walking out of a night club. For this reason alone, I'm not going back.
(2)
Peyman M.
Steam is overpriced. A little fancy decor doesn't mean this Chinese food is any better than a myriad other places nearby. The food is average at best. Service is also average to poor. A final thing to note: if you complain about a dish and send it back, you are likely to get back a re-made dish that is exactly the same except that it is about 25% smaller portion. Just so you know.
(2)
Roee A.
Great food, great service. After we had amazing BBQ pork buns our waiter ran after us for two blocks to return sunglasses we forgot.
(4)
HB S.
Tasty, fresh dim sum and chinese entrees. But the restaurant design is poor - there are zig-zag wood panels in all directions, so sound is just reflected everywhere and you hear everything at once, making it very difficult to understand people at your own table. People literally have to yell to be heard by people they are sitting next to, which of course adds to the noise problem. Looks nice, but the wood is not functional.
(4)
Shervin Z.
amazing food. probably the best Asian food I've ever had. very flavorful. Shu Mai was amazing and the chow mein and the spicy chicken. make sure to ask for vegetable chow mein while you are there because it is delicious and you will not find it on the menu. It is a must go in Palo Alto.
(5)
Jennifer C.
Really good food but awful service. The table next to us had their desert brought out first. My soup came out first but my companion's soup came out after they brought out a few dishes. It took a while to get the bill and we had to wait about 10 minutes after we finished to get the desert we ordered at the beginning. We ate mainly the dim sum. As a fan of dim sum, the food was good but there were not that many dim sum options.
(4)
Tiffany H.
Yum!! The two of us had: chive shrimp dumplings bbq pork buns xiaolong bao spicy seafood noodle with wine szechuan chicken The dumplings were all slightly smaller than standard chinese restaurants, but very delicious. The seafood noodle was a great deal at $8, full of yummy fresh seafood. However, the noodles were a let down, almost spaghetti like in texture. Fresh noodles, please! Chicken was flavorful Rice and tea comes with extra fees. Total pre tip was $30, and we were stuffed to the brim. Will definitely return to try other dishes.
(4)
Michael W.
For those of you living in Palo Alto, you know that there are no good dim sum places around (except for Taipan which is ridiculously overpriced). Steam helps to fulfill those cravings if you don't want to drive all the way to Cupertino. Came here for dim sum at 11am on a Sunday, was not crowded until around 12:30pm. The decor is very modern with an open kitchen. You order from a menu, which is then prepared, instead of ordering from carts. The dim sum menu is a bit limited, we ended up getting most of the items - har gow (shrimp dumpling), siu mai, pork bun, crispy shrimp roll, vegetable spring roll, fried shrimp ball, seafood dumpling, pan-fried chive dumpling, custard buns, black sesame balls, green beans, and HK fried noodles. All of the dishes that they had were pretty decent, though not to the level of what you'd find if you go farther for real dim sum places. However, the food tastes less greasy and salty, so it feels like it's healthier for you (didn't have food coma after lunch). Dim sum was $3 per order with 3 items per order. Overall, pretty good fix for dim sum that is close for the Palo Alto area (much better than Ming's), but choices are limited and not as good as farther dim sum places in Cupertino.
(3)
Mae S.
Basic dim sum, great taste but small portions and pricey. $2.00 per person for tea? Crispy calamari was doughy (where's the calamari?) Excellent eggplant, basil beef, mango pudding. What's with the service? Guess we did not order fast enough. She gave us the evil eye when we said we needed more time. The waitress was trying to get us out the door. When we ordered dessert, she asked us to take it out so she could have the table. When we asked her to cut the pieces for us, she refused. No smiles, just plain grumpy. Why tip her?
(3)
Ilana C.
This review is for their service exclusively. We came in just to get dessert. We volunteered to sit at the counter to not take up space because we saw they were busy and we weren't going to order much. after 10 minutes, no one had given us menus or water or spoken to us. i asked the bus boy for some menus. after 20 minutes, we flagged down a waiter and we ordered just a couple desert dim sum items and my husband ordered tea. after 35 minutes, we got the dim sum and tea. we weren't in a rush so we weren't upset. i noted that i would probably never come here for dinner because i would not be happy waiting over 30 minutes for food. We of course never got asked if we wanted more hot water for the tea or if we wanted anything else. eventually we managed to pay by flagging down a waiter twice. in addition to this mess, they charged us double for tea. which, by the way, a Chinese place charging $2 for tea? it should be free. it turns out its $2 per person. even if only one person orders and you only get one pot, they will charge you for everyone at the table. RIDICULOUS. i actually asked them to drop it since only my husband had tea. they said that was their policy to always charge per person. the dim sum we had was good, but nothing extraordinary. not sure why i would come here over mountain view and cupertino.
(2)
Jean M.
Decor: 4 It's got clean line design which looks good but Atmosphere: 3, depends. Audio does not work for an eatery. The hard surface tends to bounce sound around and I couldn't hear what people around me were saying half the time. Also, if it's a bit nippy outside, don't sit near the door. It's nice looking place tho. Service: 2. It took forever to get our food. The dim dum & appetizers came at 35 minutes and the main dish at 55. If you are in a rush or are hungry, this is not the place. Food: 4. The food was well prepared and flavorful. Definitely Hong Kong style. However, a bit in the salty side, so if you have high blood pressure, avoid. Overall: a solid 3, if you have time to spend enjoying a leisurely dim sum style dinner.
(3)
Emily R.
Nice decor. Good food, but the portion is too small compare to other dim sum places.
(4)
Donald E.
Just left Steam STEAMED! Owner's intent with the name? Probably not, but fitting. Ordered Tso Chicken (they make you mark your own order form) and waited 25 minutes on a very not-busy Saturday early afternoon for Kung Pao Chicken to be served. Huh? I won't be going back.
(1)
Viktor P.
[Brief summary for the time-pressed available at the bottom.] I just visited Steam for the second and final time. I had heard of a new Asian restaurant on University Avenue, so I thought I had to try it out. The first time I went I was only there briefly; what I remember is that the food was good but the portions were rather small, especially for the price. Today, I had a full meal there and was unfortunately quite disappointed. Nevertheless, I will start with the positive: the food itself is good, and they also have a wide menu that covers many top-hits of general east-Asian food. The waitstaff was accommodating and helpful. Unfortunately, that's about it. For the negative: first, the food was extremely slow to appear. The appetizers came after a long time, and it was still longer after they were cleared away before we saw the first entree. For a type of restaurant like this, 25-30 minutes is just too long. And the first entree came alone. Other entrees trickled in at about 3-4 minute intervals, and the portions were small enough that, after we gave up waiting for everyone's food to come to start eating, most of our party finished their meal before others had eaten a bite of food. The combination of portions too small for the price and the speed (or lack thereof) with which the food arrived did not make for a very positive experience. When the check arrived, we found a 19% service charge applied on top of the tax for our party of 6. We had a number of problems with this: (1) We were given no notice that any service charge would be applied to any size party. There was no indication on the menu, and no indication at the front of the restaurant. In fact, there was no indication at all. (2) We were a party of 6. Applying such a heavy service charge on such a small party seemed inappropriate. (3) The service charge was calculated on top of the tax, which is a noticeable increase. To put it in perspective, the average entree costs about $12 and the average appetizer costs $4.80, as of December 2013. A family of 4 ordering one entree each with a single appetizer and no drinks would pay a mandatory service fee of $10.88 on top of 8.5% sales tax. All in all, we did not feel the restaurant acted transparently or candidly with this charge. Summary for the time-pressured: While Steam does offer a variety of good menu items and has accommodating and helpful waitstaff, the very slow and intermittent service, as well as the small portions in conjunction with high prices, and an additional 19% after-tax surcharge on top of all this make it a poor choice.
(1)
Ana B.
Pros: great food, inexpensive, friendly atmosphere, location Cons: slow service, missed items on menu (heard other customers commenting on their orders as well), smaller dish sizes (which I am OK with but other may not agree). Summary: great potential after initial quirks are ironed out
(4)
Trader H.
beef noodle soup is pretty good
(4)
Rob C.
not bad for the area. very nice decor, but expensive prices. nobody really wants to pay $3 for dim sum, such as only 3 crispy and oily shrimp chive dumplings. also avoid the cha siu bau, off, gooey tasting. tried chicken eggplant claypot and beef noodle soup. stir fry dishes seem ok, of course not a "cooking papa" level, but for palo alto, taipan is it, so this is their alternate place with a fair number of americanized dishes for a short menu.
(3)
Izam H.
so, the braised beef noodle soup is really great, and so does duo eggs seafood stir fried rice. dim sum is just so so, might be a lone line during dinner time, the best time to enjoy food here is prolly between 5 and 6.
(4)
David S.
I usually go for dim sum on Castro Street in Mountain View but decided to try a new place so came to Steam. Big mistake. Started off ok, but a few dishes in and it felt like some of the dumplings had not been steamed enough since the filling was mushy and not fully cooked. Got the Shanghai dumplings and bit in only to find that the filling was cold. After spitting it out realized that it was still raw. Having raw pork in your mouth is not fun. I am just hoping that I do not get food poisoning. Told the manager and they didn't offer any fix. Five minutes later, I saw that the couple two tables down had the same problem and returned three dishes. I will never come back to this place again. I guess that is what you get when you want to try a cleaner place and enjoy the University Street ambiance. Drive a little further to Mountain View for good dim sum.
(1)
j b.
The restaurant is quite chic and decorated in a modern style and the service was good. Unfortunately, the food was pretty bad. Not awful. Just not good. The dumpling dough was mealy and wet. The dumplings themselves were not tasty. Their "haw gow" was the best of the bunch and it was only ok. We had their "HK" style chow mein which was better than the dumplings but not worth a visit by itself. We won't be back.
(2)
Caroline P.
I had lukewarm expectations given the reviews I had seen, but the food was very good - not too oily and quite tasty. The dim sum is just OK, but the other dishes are great. Definitely worth trying!
(5)
Han C.
Just had my first experience at this place and the food was delicious. I was surprised by their calamari and eggplant -- foods that I normally don't like, but this place cooked them so well that they melted in my mouth and had excellent flavor. We didn't order too much of their dim sum options, but the overall experience I had here was great. I really liked everything that was ordered including mushroom beef, some kind of fried fish, and shrimp+egg+tofu on a sizzling platter, The atmosphere is pretty and exceptionally clean for a chinese restaurant with quality. My only complaint is that the portion size what a bit small. The prices seem reasonable for the area in my opinion.
(4)
B. P.
We have been to steam on many occasions now. We are never disappointed with the food and have tried most things on the menu. Prices are good. Service can be spotty, but it has improved significantly since they have opened.
(4)
Lisa H.
We can't comment on the food because the service was so terrible that we were driven out. We came in on a Sunday morning when literally 3 tables were occupied. We had a party of 2 but asked for a 4-top because we intended on ordering a lot of food. First the waitress pushed back on the request but offered us a 4-top inside. Then AFTER we sat down, with my husband in CRUTCHES and clearly having difficulty moving, some guy comes and asks us to move again. They had an empty restaurant and NO ONE waiting!!!
(1)
Miranda S.
This is a place that LOOKS like an upscale, sophisticated joint -- what with its glass walls, teak interior and clean styling -- but is really just that greasy hole-in-the-wall Chinese place found in Everytown, USA. Menu is limited, everything is cooked in way too much oil. Well, the potstickers are OK but my husband had the beef and broccoli and it was extremely gristle-y. I had the spicy eggplant in the pot, which had really good gingery seasoning but was swimming in oil. We both had heartburn afterward.
(1)
Dean H.
Decent but no comparison to more authentic dim sum places. Clean, good service. Tasty hot sauce.
(3)
Catherine W.
This place really surprised me, given the location. The food was excellent, the quality of the ingredients was terrific. My favorite was the tofu and mushroom dish, as well as the green beans and thousand layer cake. Interior was clean and orderly, service was pretty prompt, and the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. I'm totally going again.
(4)
Penny C.
The seafood noodle soup is descent but don't bother with beef chow fun. It's not worth $10. The portion is dim sum size but they charge full dish price. The atmosphere is pleasant but food is okay. Most likely won't go back again.
(2)
C S.
Most authentic Chinese food I've had in the US. Try the shanghai dumplings.
(5)
Karine M.
No organization for seating, no wait list. When we arrived and asked for a table outside, they told us we would have to wait 10-15 mins, we did. Came back, had to wait 10-15 more and still no seating. Agreed to dine inside, which isnt pleasant at all since it is reminiscent of a cafeteria where youre sitting way too close to everyone. Food is too pricy in my opinion for the tiny portioning. Had to fill up on rice. Ordered the "thousand layer cake", it tasted like sweetened starchy potato and corn mush, i don't know maybe this cake was too authentic for me haha but it was not good. Generally disappointed.
(2)
Cindy C.
Clean and not greasy food. Recommend the black sesame balls. I love that you can get dim sum all day here!
(4)
vafer t.
food was only so-so. there's so much better. if you want to pay for overpriced chinese, go to Mings. service was spotty at best. not just our table either as I saw 2 other tables having trouble as well. maybe because we were seated outdoors? either way, even if service was good, I'd still opt to go elsewhere.
(2)
Kat Y.
This place definitely needs better restaurant management. We waited for 20 mins for the appetizer and 40 mins for the main dishes. We saw a lot of people looked frustrated since they had no food on the table after waiting for a long time. Some people raised their hands to try to get help from the waiters, but they totally got ignored. The table next to ours got their shui-mai completely RAW; UNCOOKED. We were so shocked. I hope the customers next to our table didn't get sick. I have had dim sum for at least 30 years in my life, and this is the first time I saw a dim sum restaurant served uncooked dishes. I was in awe. I checked the yelp review, and found on MARCH 1ST, there was ANOTHER customer also posted that he or she was served with RAW shui-mai. How can this restaurant made the same mistake TWICE within a week. Then I saw a lady offered a free dish to the other table to compensate the 2 raw dishes, however, there was no formal apology. They didn't even FOLLOW THROUGH to cook the two dishes of raw shui-mai. I saw the other customer waited for another 20 mins and finally decided to cancel the order. Anyway, as a bystander, this is what I observed and I think this restaurant needs a major re-organization. The owners also owns Tai Pan in Palo Alto. They should be somewhat experienced to run the second restaurant. I definitely think they need to hire more cooks in the kitchen, and hire more waiters to ensure all customers are well-taken off. I could see all the waiters and waitresses were really busy, but they were obviously short of hand. The bottom line is, it all comes down to a good restaurant management; and how you should run a restaurant professionally. One last thing, the menus are all wrinkled and need to be replaced with clean ones.
(2)
Miles C.
I used to be a little iffy about this place but I have a few go-to dishes that are simply outstanding. - Szechuan chicken - Filet mignon beef cubes with Maggi sauce - Fried asparagus and prawns - Pork buns - Fried rice These are all consistently amazing, some of the best chinese food I've had in the Bay Area.
(5)
Shani P.
Much of the food is awesome and for those dishes, I will happily come back again and again. The service is always a bit spotty but I don't care, they are always very friendly - it's just busy and they aren't very attentive. All that said, I have taken my kids there twice and they have been attentive enough that it was enjoyable. Pricing is a little high, especially for the vegetable dishes, but quality is good and it is always very fresh. A couple things to note: 1) Nothing really comes out in a specific order. Your entrees may come out before the dim sum items. That's just how things go there....so don't fight it, just embrace it. 2) The shanghai dumplings are amazing. The texture is a bit weird but the taste is very delicate. They are REALLY hot though, so let them cool a bit or you will burn your mouth badly. 3) Skip the won ton soup, it's not good. I have tried it more than once and unfortunately it wasn't just a bad day. :(
(4)
Alan A.
I had beef ramen. It wasn't particularly delicious, belonging more in the typical range of Chinese restaurant dishes. The chilli was not very spicy either. However, I was impressed by their effort at serving healthier food; there wasn't too much oil. I also had har gau/prawn dumplings (虾饺). These came in petite portions, which served my appetite well given that the ramen was filling. I can imagine that the average American would expect to be served bigger portions, but regardless one might enjoy a meal here that seems healthier than the usual oily Chinese food.
(3)
Henry L.
Not a bad chinese food place in downtown palo alto The place is actually quite nice. The price is actually pretty low when you consider it's right in downtown palo alto, and the food is definitely high quality. The dim sum is freshly steamed, the fried rice has just the right amount of oiliness, and the beef noodle soup has a pretty flavorful broth. The shu mai is Huge and meaty! And the shrimp dumplings are also large and watery. Overall, a pretty legit place. The decor is clean and bright, and the serve staff are all very friendly and quick. Overall, a pretty nice place to eat often!
(4)
Persimmon V.
Great food, we sat outside, great service (except for the hiccup with getting something we didn't order). I'd definitely go back.
(4)
Mike L.
A large group over coworkers wanted to stop by here while in town, so we had to check out the spot and order a variety of things. Overall, I wasn't terribly empressed. It isn't the best dim sum I've had and commands an above average price due to it's location. We ordered several different dishes and nothing really stuck out to me as memorable...if that says something. It felt like almost every dish tasted the same - bland and lacking dimension that good dim sum has. Service here is also pretty hit-or-miss. The staff is far from attentive, and it seems very disconnected. My water stayed empty for quite some time.
(3)
Eric B.
I can't really think of a time when I haven't wanted to go to Steam. It never gets old, and everything on the menu is delicious. For the price, there is no better Asian food option in Palo Alto. The best thing to do in my opinion is get a bunch of different dishes and share them. The ambience is nothing special, but the food makes up for it. So worthy of five stars.
(5)
Karla G.
It's hard to judge a restaurant when you are by yourself because the sample is so limited. I liked the menu, service, and atmosphere at Steam. My two dishes (some dumplings and a main course) were beautifully prepared and presented. I was happy eating both of them. But while the food was okay, it lack a certain something, a distinction that set the plates apart and above average. I'd happily eat here again, and I recommend it warmly. But I just can't get to four stars yet, though it's a close call. The value is good, and I'll be back for sure! Hopefully I'll get to give them an upgrade.
(3)
Mansi A.
The dumpling offering enticed me into checking out Steam, but overall, this place is just OK. We tried the following items: - Vegetarian Pea Shoot Dumplings: Pretty tasty! I hadn't had pea shoot dumplings previously, so these were something new for the palate and the flavor was also great. - Vegetarian Mushroom Dumplings: The pea shoot ones are the way to go. These were lacking considerable flavor. - Hong Kong Pan Fried Noodles w/Chicken: I don't see this dish on other menus very often, so had to check out the crunchy noodles topped with a chicken and vegetable gravy. The dish came with a very small portion of chicken topping the noodles, so not all noodles were soaked in the gravy. It was less than stellar in terms of flavor, but was still nice to eat this dish after so long. - Szechuan Spicy Chicken: Your standard Chinese fare. Not spicy. Overall, the dumplings were OK, but nothing to really return for. All of the other dishes we ordered? Pretty much along the same lines. The food was good, but on the average side, and for the quantities served, pricey for what it's worth. However, this is University Ave, so that's somewhat expected, as well.
(3)
Jeff C.
We went for dim sum this morning, arriving around 11:15am. It took 15 mins for the kitchen to start preparing our food, but everything was pretty good (except for the mushroom dim sum that I found a bit bland). Their dessert were yummy - and bonus points for having gluten-free soy sauce. Definitely a great alternative to schlepping to Koy Palace or NewPort Restaurant.
(4)
Rochelle 'Shella' T.
It has a good location and good-sized resto along Palo Alto's busy street. They have good service and ambiance, but the food is too bland for my taste. Other than the Beef Noodle Soup, the other dishes that we tried were either bland or were mediocre. It's still a good place to grab some Asian fusion food. But I would prefer a more flavorful approach to the Xia Long Bao, Beef Fried Rice, Fried Prawn and Aspagrus than this place. It's good to bring young kids, since it's very casual and a lot of patrons also have young kids with them. The kids loved the Beef Noodle soup. We had 3 toddlers and one infant. The 3 toddlers ate most of the Beef Noodle soup. This place is good for families and friends, who are looking for Chinese fusion food. Based on experience, the 'play-safe' approach to the food, it will be an ok meal in a nice busy restaurant.
(3)
Abigail L.
Don't ever get spicy seafood noodle soup... Disgusting......... I tried won ton soup before and it was disgusting too. I don't know what is wrong here Pan fried chives seafood dumplings were ok. But rest of them are not really recommended.
(1)
Ken B.
The spicy chicken is great, but pricey. it was more reasonable before they raised the price. The pot-stickers are the best. I like to add chili oil to the sauce it comes with. Several times now, several of the chicken dishes have been so salty I could hardly eat them. dangerous for people with high blood pressure. One can always add salt, but the reverse is impossible. the ingredients are always very fresh. The beef noodle soup is very tasty. The wonton soup is good but so bland. It needs a few drops of toasted sesame oil. When I asked for some, I can't believe they told me they had NONE? The garlic spinach is very good, but you can choke on it because they don't cut the spinach. So far, It's the best Chinese food in Palo Alto. It is not the Americanized crap you normally find elsewhere.
(4)
Alyx F.
Okay, first you need to set your expectations correctly: 1) Their food is expensive for dim sum. This is a very posh restaurant in Palo Alto and not your local hole in the wall dim sum joint. If you don't like that, then you should go to your local spot. 2) Their food may or may not be authentic, but the bottom line is that it was very good and I ate everything on my plate. Not a single bite of food was left over at the end of the meal. Alright, that being said, I really enjoyed my meal here! I was fortunate to have come on a night where their service was on-point (since I had read reviews about bad service here). We ordered everything to share, so I got to try a lot of different kinds of dumplings and also a noodle dish. Everything was very tasty - there wasn't a single dish that we got that I wouldn't have again. The dinner for 4 people came out to about $80 pre-tip. We had ordered probably 8 dishes total and we were all STUFFED when we were leaving. $20/person for dinner is high, but not unreasonable especially for Palo Alto. Could have ordered less too and that would have helped. :) I will be back when I'm in the area and craving some noodles or dumplings!
(5)
Philippe A.
I had dinner there with my kids and I was very impressed with the quality of the food - I can honestly say this was the best Chinese food I've had in Palo Alto. We ordered all vegetarian and gluten-free dishes and every one was excellent. Notable dishes where the vegetable fried rice and the salt and pepper tofu. Highly recommended!
(5)
Sierra M.
Very busy location on University in Palo Alto. They have a nice little area to eat outside, good for people watching really good dim sum! Specifically because the individual pieces are actually bite size and not falling all over your face while you eat! lol very tasty! I definitely recommend the Braised beef noodle soup YUMMY!
(4)
Gizelle P.
Went here today for lunch. Ordered the har gow and the Hong Kong noodles with seafood. First of all I got shuttled to a corner to eat. I prefer people watching so I felt as though my experience was stifled. Har gow was tasty but the dumpling fell apart as soon as I touched it. And the sauce for the Hong Kong noodles was way too runny so it doesn't stay on the crunchy noodles like the dish usually entails. I wish I has gotten the beef noodle soup. Overall tasty though. I was a little confused as to what seafood I was eating. Prices here are way too expensive for the quality of food I got. Oh well, maybe it's just life in Palo Alto. Too bougie for me.
(3)
Derick P.
We ordered the braised beef noodle soup and the har gow. Both were excellent. It's a bit small and there can be a long wait. But the ingredients were fresh and tasted really good and authentic. I would recommend if you are in mood for dim sum.
(4)
Ali W.
I've walked by Steam for over a year and never thought of stopping in as dim sum is not high on my list. However, friends wanted to go today so I obliged. The ambience is a KILLER. PLEASE can you put something on the bottom of the chairs. The scraping and pulling across the floor along with loud echoing voices made me want to leave immediately. The noise is the worst part of the entire experience. Don't go if you want a quiet evening to communicate with friends. The Food: 1: The green beans were fantastic, I think I could have eaten the full bowl by myself. 2: The Singapore Noodles were okay - a bit tasteless. They needed more spice and more curry flavor desperately. 3. The beef with maggi was fabulous. Tender beef; beautifully cooked broccolli and delicious red onions made this a favorite for all of us. 4. There was other food ordered which I didn't try - so don't feel it my place to discuss. Suffice it to say, I will return IF AND WHEN they get the noise levels down. That constant scraping sound echoing off the walls and screaming children is enough to drive you to an insane asylum. While I'm at it...hey parents, you're kids may be cute, but I don't really want to hear them banging, screaming and running everywhere while you just ignore them. I go out to dinner to spend time with my friends and would like to hear what they have to say!
(3)
Yik Lun L.
Probably the worst Shanghai dumpling I've ever had. The skin on the top is incredibly thick and dry, while the bottom skin is soggy and doughy. The filling is a mysterious mush. Gross. For $4.80 you get four of these little nightmares. The beef noodle is too sweet, though the meat is decently cooked. The Taiwanese fried noodle is pretty decent but for what they put in there I wouldn't pay $12.
(2)
Meyer C.
Casual dimsum place. Dropped by this place on a weekday but it was one of the few overcrowded, perhaps the second busiest place on that day from my viewpoint. Basically I tend to avoid overcrowded eateries but strolled up and down the university avenue for some time and finally decided to eat here. I had two companions at that time. The server was reticent and brought some laminated menus to us. Waited until the server came a second time and realized we had to mark menu items on the menu using a marker. Thst's what we did and and when finally ordered items arrived one after anofher they were excellent so three of us shared each item. Perhaps next time I happened to be in this area I will try this place one more time.
(4)
Sean B.
This place has been sitting there quietly on my bookmarks for quite a while now. I love dim sum, but I was a bit off-put by the three star ranking. Generally, businesses on this stretch of Palo Alto are a bit pricey, so I would have thought that it would really need to step up and impress folks to stay in business. But finally, curiosity, and a siu mai craving, got the best of me, so in I went to check out this local eatery. Three stars about sums it up, really. The prices were high, as I expected, compared to the San Francisco dim sum places I frequent, or even compared to Koi Palace, the almighty dim sum mothership in Daly City. The setting was cute, as one would expect of Yuppieville. Service was just okay, nobody was really engaged, it was pretty much boom here sit menu bye. Items were dropped off without so much as a word. Not atypical for authentic Cantonese fare either, truth be told. The har gow and the cha siu bao were both just okay. Enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but certainly not in the upper 50% I've had. The siu mai, and fair is fair, were really quite good. Top 25%. But yeah, it wasn't very fast, they weren't very friendly, the venue was cute and the prices were stiff, for what was overall pretty average dim sum. If you're in the neighborhood, it'll satiate your craving alright, but I certainly can't imagine encouraging anyone with a dim sum craving to make a special trip here, as I've encouraged folks to do seeking other dining experiences from time to time. Yeah... three stars about sums it up.
(3)
Sang P.
Note to self, avoid this place if possible. I stopped by for a quick bite & the man who seated me wasn't the most pleasant. I should have gotten up & left. I ended up ordering the chive dumplings & scallop & seafood dumplings. They were average & I should have just gone to a dim sum place. Lesson learned.
(2)
Brett G.
Service was infrequent and absent minded (waters remained empty for most of the meal). All the steamed dumpling dishes were not very good. Centre was not hot and the dumpling casings were slimy. The Pork buns and szchuan chicken were actually pretty good though. I complained about the quality of the dumplings and the waiter didn't seem to care too much. Won't be back.
(1)
Jessica Y.
I was surprised by Steam tonight- the food is pretty good here, although the portions are a bit small and prices are expensive (but what do you expect in downtown Palo Alto?). My bf and I ordered the salt and pepper fish, and the eggplant/minced chicken clay pot. The fish was delicious, with a nice crispiness on the outside, and flaked meat inside. The eggplant was oily, but definitely less oily than other chinese restaurants and the sauce wasn't filled with that cornstarchy stickiness. Both dishes were authentic. We didn't try the dim sum- $4.80 per dish is a bit steep in my opinion and I would rather drive a few miles farther south for cheaper dimsum with greater variety. But if you are looking for cantonese food close to Stanford and are willing to spend a bit (it came out to be ~$20 per person), I would check out Steam.
(4)
Raghu H.
Looks can be deceiving- on a rather busy street next to an amaaaaazing ice cream store, steam looks like a great spot to people watch and have some flavorful food. The atmosphere is great, modern decor with plenty of outdoor seating- but the food does the location a disservice. Suuuuuper bland. There are so many hole in the wall Asian places that pack a flavorful punch and this place is less tasty than your average "foreign food aisle".
(1)
Annie S.
Pros : 1. Excellent food 2. One of the better food places in Palo Alto 3. Variety of dishes Cons : 1. Expensive 2. Language barrier with waiters 3. Slow service
(4)
Stan L.
This was a surprise find thanks to Yelp. We came here just past 11 am on a weekday. By the time we were finished, an hour and a half later, it was packed. So come early! Steam is an American Chinese restaurant with a modern decor. I believe it's called Steam because the forte of the menu are the steamed dim sum dishes. Prices are reasonable, though just slightly above your typical dim sum restaurant, and the food is good. Scallops Seafood Dumpling-beautiful presentation. I almost didn't want to eat it and just wanted to stare at it. Flavors of the dried scallops, scallops, shrimp, vegi, roe were amazing without overpowering. Definitely will order again. Chicken Potstickers-bigger than your average potsticker. Good taste but I feel it's a bit overpriced, $8, for 6 pieces. Shanghai Pork Dumplings-this was weird. Not all the dumplings were consistent. Some had the soup/juices found like a traditional Xiao Long Bao and some didn't. The juices, in the ones that do have, had below average flavors. Skip this. Shui Mai-ok flavor but tough texture. Maybe too much pork to shrimp ratio. Braised Beef Noodle Soup-soup flavor and noodle texture is above average. The winner here are the braised beef. They are very soft in texture, even though the pieces are smaller in size compared to other restaurants. Mango Pudding-skip this. Nice presentation but that's about it. The mango was sour and the milk/cream on top tasted like frosting. Not very traditional and kind of weird. Steamed Black Sesame Ball-Winner! Winner! Winner! Best sesame ball I've ever had. Soft, chewy, rice Mochi texture with rich black sesame in the inside. Peanut dressing provides a nice textural contrast. I'm going to come back here because of this dish. Some ups and downs. But the ups were way up. Service was ok but I found it funny that even though all the staff were Chinese and serving Cantonese dim sum, none of them understood when we spoke Cantonese to them. Bathrooms were very clean, as with the rest of the restaurant. Again, can get pretty busy so get here early.
(4)
Susan C.
Heads up to those with allergies: All ingredients NOT listed on their menu!!!!! I have a shrimp allergy and was not informed there were shrimp pieces in my scallops order. Upon biting into my "scallop" dumpling, I recognized the shrimp meat. Too late. I had only a small reaction due to my quick awareness, but still scary. Food was still very good, but too expensive. Side order of steamed broccoli for $12? Really? Service was slow after getting my food. Couldn't get my waiter's attention for the check.
(3)
Jeff H.
I had low expectations of Steam because I've had bad experiences at these "Ethnic food marketed to Whites" places, but contrary to those expectations it turned out to be actually...good! I was pleasantly surprised. You'll pay downtown PA prices, but you'll get a good meal at least. My dim sum appraisal always starts with shrimp dumplings (ha gow) and pork dumplings (siu mai). The ha gow was solid, with thin skin and a fresh shrimp taste. The siu mai was also good as I especially enjoyed the shrimp within the pork dumpling. Everything isn't as oily as other Chinese places too, so there was a fresh rather than heavy feel to them. Both are four dumplings for $4.80. In addition to dim sum we ordered two entree dishes. I really liked the Sichuan Chicken as it was very well cooked (for my Cantonese friends, it had "wok hay" or a fragrant infusion of authenticity), and was also decently spicy. Not bad for $13 but don't expect huge portions. Speaking of spiciness, the spicy sauce on the table was also really spicy and therefore good. A+ for spicy lovers. We also ordered the famous beef noodle soup. It was good, but maybe could have been more flavorful. Still a solid choice at $12. Overall it was a very pleasant experience. It had a more upscale atmosphere than most dim sum places with a "nice" ambience created through cloth napkins and pristinely clean everything. Add in a central location and you've got a 4-star worthy place. It's not the cheapest, but you could do a lot worse.
(4)
Cherri W.
I ordered the vegetarian hot and sour soup to go. It cost $8.50 before tax. What I was served was less than 16oz of soup (the container was almost 3/4 full. Pic posted) that was neither hot (spicy) nor sour. I added chili oil, rice vinegar and soy sauce when I got home. Next time I'll just make my own. To be fair though, the service was fast and very courteous. I only tried the soup so I can't speak for the rest of the food but the value for your money here is really low. Looking through the menu, prices seemed a bit high even for Palo Alto.
(2)
Nessa R.
My friend and i visited this place the other day while walking around dwntwn pa to find an early dinner. We felt like having some dim sum so we chose this place. It was pretty empty, but then again it was midday on a weekday...most restaurants along this street are the same way. Anyways, we were seated quickly by a very friendly server who earned his star for this review :) We ordered the pork buns, shrimp shu mai, pork and shrimp dumpling, crispy shrimp balls, chow fun, ma po tofu, and walnut shrimp (and yes, there was on two of us). Everything was delicious and came out super quick. The walnut shrimp may have had more of a mayonnaise taste to it and wasn't as crispy as some other places ive tried. But the ma po tofu was really flavorful and the tofu had the perfect consistency. The only con to this place....it is a tad but overpriced. My friend told me she'll take me to some places in sj just as good but not as pricey.
(3)
Lily L.
MSG headache! Food: The fried calamari came out hot but not crispy. Either their oil is not hot enough or they just didn't fry it long enough. The flavors were good but it missed on the texture. The Sui Mai (pork dumplings) were probably the best item I ordered. It had a nice pork and shrimp flavor but screamed MSG. The Ha Gow (shrimp dumpling) were OK. At least the wrapper (outer dough) was soft and the shrimp tasted like shrimp. The wonton soup would make any Chinese chef cringe. The wonton wrappers were probably too large and they add very little meat filling so they ended up wrapping the wontons in such a way that there were multiple layers of wrapping over the meat making it a tough little dumpling. They gave 5 in the bowl so I was trying to split one of them to portion it out evenly between two people and I couldn't cut it with the fork. It was too hard so I gave up. When eating it, it was just hard and didn't taste good since it was just wrapping. The soup tasted like can beef broth with soy sauce. Major disappointment. The Szechuan Spicy Chicken w/Garlic was nicely flavored but the chicken was a bit overcooked (dry). It was a decent dish though. Ambiance: Steam is a nice looking modern California style restaurant. It is small but the big open window makes it seem bigger than it is. It even has a cute little patio for outdoor seating. The fan noise from the open kitchen can be a bit noisy so sit further away if possible. It seemed cleaned and not crowded like most dim sum places. Overall, the environment was pleasant. Overall, I would not go back. For the dishes mentioned above, it ran us $49.00 (no drinks). The portions were small so we were still hungry after the meal. The environment was nice but the food was lacking. Lacking except it had an abundance of MSG. Boy did I have an MSG headache afterwards. Steam is to Dim Sum as P.F. Chang is to Chinese food. If you like the Americanized version of stuff, this might be up your alley. If you like good authentic tasting Dim Sum then skip this one.
(2)
Sahiba J.
Love this place! Most dim sum restaurant's I've been to are not as clean and nice as this one. That being said you pay for the atmosphere with their expensive menu. Their dishes are extremely flavorful. Some of my favorites are the Shanghai dumplings, Taiwan Stir Fried Noodles, Szechuan Spicy Chicken w/Garlic and the Tiger Prawns w/Special Sauce.
(4)
Cathy L.
Food was good and it's one of the few decent Chinese/dumpling places in the university area. But service takes FOREVER. Don't come hungry because this will soon turn to hAngry (esp with kids, dear gad). But it's relatively family-friendly and again, the food was really good. Not sure we'll come back because of the wait for food (even appetizers take forever, main dishes are at least a 20-minute wait, AT LEAST, even for something simple like fried rice). Just getting the attention of waiters flying by is difficult.
(3)
V J.
Came for lunch on a Thursday. Service sucks. We waited for 10 minutes before we had to seat ourselves. It was another 15 minutes at which point we had to stop a waiter passing by and asked him to take our order. He just heard what we want and rushed away. Overall it was a sucky experience. On the plus side they do have good food.
(1)
Amy M.
Dim sum at Steam is by far the worst dim sum I've ever had (and I've had a lot of dim sum). All of the dumplings and ha gow were oversteamed -- way too mushy and gummy. The dim sum was sloppy, cheap, and definitely frozen. I decided it was edible, but that's about as far as I'd go. I didn't try their entrees or noodle dishes, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt; maybe those are the things to order. To top it all off, their service motto seems to be something along the lines of "can't be bothered". I'm used to rude service at hole in the wall Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, but at a restaurant like this in Palo Alto charging premium prices for subpar dim sum, it's maddening! Don't bother asking for anything from the staff here unless you're prepared for some heavy eye rolling and attitude. Some would argue that they get a pass because Palo Alto doesn't have many places serving dim sum. I would argue that you're better off going to 99 Ranch and buying your own frozen dumplings to eat at home.
(1)
Amy T.
This is purely for the dim-sum. Great staff! You definitely get more than what you pay for. I highly suggest you try all of their dim-sum.
(5)
Leslie H.
I was warned by a friend who likes AUTHENTIC Asian foods that Steam is not good, food wise. Steam's food wasn't bad tasting, but the prices are absolutely ridiculous. I got a stewed beef noodle soup, and it was $12! The portion sizes were good, the beef was stewed well and the bokchoy was also nicely cooked. But the noodles were boring and overcooked, though they did absorb the rather one-note beef-based broth fairly well. I would have liked to try the dim sum, but they were $4.50 each for 3 pieces! My friend's beef fried rice had pieces of bell pepper, which I found really strange. Service was okay, if a bit slow. The patio seating is nice for people watching, but I really don't know why their prices are so high! There are so many other options where you can get better quality and more reasonably priced Chinese food, but maybe not on University Ave.
(2)
Anna P.
All right! That's it! Dishonor! Dishonor on your whole family! Make a note of this: Dishonor on you! Dishonor on your cow! - Mushu from Mulan. Service = horrible. Not attentive, no one speaks English. Food = what I got to try wasn't worth the calories, even if it would have 10 calories per piece, still wouldn't be worth the calories Lie factor = present. If a customer tell you that they have a garlic allergy, you go to the kitchen and CHECK if there's garlic in the food. Moreover, you don't lie to the customer when they call you out on it. You don't continue denying it, and you definitely don't say "You can't change what's inside, so I brought it anyway." That is not how allergies work.
(1)
M T.
I have to change my rating. I have eaten here a number of times with my wife, and it has always been very noisy in my experience. Last night the noise was deafening -- no way to enjoy a dinner out with my wife. She was hungry but I had to tell her I could not stand the noise; it was making me sick it was so bad. I said I would leave except that we had already placed our order. She suggested we change it to take-out, which we did. I stood outside away from front entrance while she waited inside for the order. Ate it at home -- in peace and quiet. Food OK, but not worth it for the high prices you pay for what you get. I will never eat here again.
(1)
Chris D.
Third time I've been here and they are again out of the braided beef noodle soup... I think there really is no such thing. My alternates were ok... Comparable to P.F. Changs - and by that I mean really not good...
(1)
Jeremy C.
On University Avenue, it is a hotspot for sure. Good ambience, enjoyable food, but WHY seat a single father with 2 smartphone-absorbed kids next to a table with friend & I when the entire restaurant had available seating? The guy was so bored that he listened to our *private* conversation and we ended up leaving early because it was uncomfortable to have this uninvited 3rd wheel sitting in with us.
(3)
Bishan K.
Awfully pathetic service! Waited 20 mins for the noodles while the mains were at the table long ago. And response? Yeah they are coming. That says it.
(1)
claudia y.
we came here on a sunday afternoon and sat outside with the dog. we had siu mai which came so late we thought they forgot. we had string beans and also the beef noodle soup. the noodles were mushy and not good at all. the soup base was salty ...
(3)
Michaela L.
Tiny ha gau, and the potstickers are chicken, not pork. Not bad, but nothing I'd seek out.
(3)
Vibhor C.
Average dim sum with good ambiance and service.
(3)
Norman S.
You don't many choices for decent Asian food in DT PA so Steam may make the cut if you're really hankering for Asian food but don't want to trek to San Mateo or South to Cupertino, Sunnyvale and the like. The interior is modern with lots of wood and nice natural light. Service-wise is less successful. Looks like they opened relatively recently so they may still be ironing out the kinks. There's not area to wait for a table so you just hang out until the wait staff directs you. There's sitting at the counter next to the open kitchen but we skip it since it tends to be a bit smoky. As for food: Wonton in chili and oil: Essentially steamed wontons in a chili paste that tasted similar to the one they provide on the table. The wontons had a good amount of meat in them but nothing spectacular to report in terms of flavor. Fisherman's noodle: Thin rice noodles in fish broth that also had sliced fish and ground pork. Rather skimpy on the slices of fish. Broth, fortunately, is not overly salty or fishy smelling. Average. Taiwan fried rice noodle: Thin rice noodles but stir fried with bits of char shiu pork and egg. This one turned out saltier than needed. Again, average. The last dish took forever to show up and only came for my lunch partner after I had finished my Fisherman's noodle. This was despite checking with them several times on the order. Another thing, there's zero description of the items in the menu so you have to take your best guess or ask the wait staff. All in, a mixed bag in terms of service and food. Still, probably the best Asian you can find in DT PA and that's not saying much.
(3)
Elisa L.
Really beautiful and modern interior design. They seem to be quite popular too - we were lucky to get a table on a Saturday afternoon, although it was a bit crowded as we had to share one end of a table with a larger group. Delicious xlb and shrimp dumplings. Mango pudding served in a dessert wine glass was a bit awkward to eat but it was worth it. Great quality and great service. Would love to come again.
(4)
Kevin M.
This place has pretty decent food, mostly like the dumpling/dim sum/noodle soup places around the bay area... except in Palo Alto. AKA, nice interior, fancy tables, jazzed-up view of the kitchen, and (unfortunately) higher prices, scarcer parking, and somewhat slower service. I took some friends here for an introduction to dim-sum and they loved it! However, since I've been to other, cheaper places, I'm giving it three stars -- but definitely give it a try, especially if you've never had this sort of food before, and if you want a nice atmosphere to enjoy it in!
(3)
Christina N.
Came here for dinner with a friend and was surprised to find out that they served dimsum for dinner. This is probably one of the few places here serving dim sum but not in a cart! :P The food was pretty decent, but a tad pricey. Then again, it is in Palo Alto, so I guess I'm not surprised. The ordering is done on a laminated menu and a non-permanent marker where you can check off the items you want on the menu. The dim sum selection is pretty limited, but it has the "main" couple such has shrimp dumpling and pork dumpling.. which is really what most people order anyway :P I loved the sesame ball dessert. Chewy mochi like skin on the outside and black sesame filling inside. Yumms!
The basic concept is you take normal dimsum... Jack the price up 50% and serve it in a nice setting... Now I was all down for this... I thought ok...it is overpriced, but maybe they use higher end ingredients... I was wrong. Bassicly I paid a ton of money for sub par dim sum and horrible service. Our first dish arrived 15 min after we ordered. The next dish did not arrive until the 30 min mark... Our last dish arrived when I was trying to flag down our waiter for the check. So to recap....over priced.... Sub par... Poor service.
(2)
Chris N.
Unfortunately, Steam has some of the worst service I have received at a restaurant - if not the worst. We put in a phone order, walked down, and once we arrived it took about 15-20 minutes to even get someone's attention to let them know we had arrived for pick-up. The waiter did nothing to actually retrieve our order though. We had to flag down another staff member 5 minutes later, who eventually printed the bill and gave us our food. While we were waiting, the first waiter actually gave someone their take-out meal, and then snatched it back without any explanation or apology. It would have been funny if it wasn't so unpleasant for the guests. The food was okay, but the service has ensured I've added this to my 'Never Eat Here Again' list.
(1)
John B.
High quality food, great fried rice and vegetables. The service can be slow. Overall, a good experience
(4)
Eli O.
Shanghai short ribs and shanghai soup dumpling were so good. Try black sesame balls for desert. I didn't like spicy wine seafood noodle soup. Not so much flavor. Good price and good service.
(4)
Chris S.
Good Hong Kong style food. The cha siu bao, har gow, siu mai were pretty good. On my second visit, I had the braised noodles and mushu with vegetables. They also were good. The decor is modern and cool. Bathroom was clean, which is good considering I'm used to unkempt bathrooms in Chinese restaurants. Steam's owner also owns Taipan (the other dim sum place in downtown Palo Alto). I think Steam's food is better (although my memory of Taipan might be rusty).
(4)
Caferio Y.
Arrived before the evening rust. Got seated and presented a mjnu quickly. All sounds great so far. But now is where they start to take a nose dive. , we selected her food put it on the little hill chart and then it took another 15 minutes for them to come pick it up. Seem to have 5 shops in the kitchen you would expect a food to be prepared for a quickly and out to the table probably but no that's not the case, an hour and 15 minutes later the food finally arrived. Yes it was hot and for the most part flavorless. Seafood pan fried crispy noodle was crappy. Beef chow fun was over cooked. Egg rolls soggy and the charge for jasmine tea. Though the dim sum was ok, the type you buy at ranch 99 and toss into the microwave yourself. I strongly recommend NOT wasting your time or money here.
(1)
MichLee A.
BEWARE Without any warning or note on the menu they charged our party of 4 people an automatic 19% tip!! The service was lackluster and definitely didn't earn this. The food here is fine. Pretty standard for a dim sum place with some other Chinese options. That's why it gets 2 stars instead of one.
(2)
Tri T.
This isn't dim sum but if you like food that's not really flavorful and authentic, come to Steam! Presentation is good and the service was fine to include nice patio seating but I didn't really come for any of that, just the food. The dumplings were off as well as the ribs. I didn't finish much because it just wasn't good. Oh yeah, you pay the Palo Alto premium as well.
(2)
Nicole L.
On a national scale, this place is probably a 3.5 (taking places like Flushing, NY and San Gabriel Valley, CA into account), but for Palo Alto it is a 6. Therefore, I've settled on giving it 4 stars, because I know I will end up eating here on a weekly (if not more often) basis. If you are an ABC in Palo Alto, you know this town has terrible options for Asian food. However, Steam does a good job of capitalizing on its Asian Food Desert surroundings and charges you a premium for good-though-not-excellent fare. Can't argue with the strategy. Here's what my officemates and I have tried and liked: - Pea shoots (I can and do eat the whole box at my desk in 15 minutes) - Har gow - Beef Noodle Soup - Shrimp Rolls Here is what we've tried and thought decent, though not running back to order again: - Siu Mai (packed too tightly, and not enough flavor) - Pan Fried Chive + Seafood Dumpling (poor ratio of filling to skin) - Spinach Seafood Dumpling (same problems as above) - String Bean Appetizer (not the right blistered texture, and accompanying aromatics were not charred enough) Here is what we look forward to trying next: - Salt + Pepper Tofu - all the clay pots Nothing was straight-up bad, which is more than I can say for a lot of other PA joints (I'm looking at you, Jing Jing, China Delight, Rangoon Ruby, Three Seasons, Madame Tam...) In short, see you next week, Steam!
(4)
Rebecca N.
Holy cow! Talk about poor service. When I ordered the beef noodle soup, I asked if the broth had any port in it, because I don't eat pork. The server said no, then asked if we were sharing everything. I said yes. So imagine my surprise when the lotus leaf sticky rice had...you guessed it...PORK (no, the menu did NOT say it contained pork)! When I complained to a server (not the same one, since flagging ANYONE down in this place is practically impossible), she got VERY defensive and told me that "we're very busy, we don't have time to think about that kind of thing." Well, thanks for that. In that case, I don't have time to think of a decent tip, or of ever returning. We didn't receive all of the food we ordered, but that's ok, because, of what we DID get, the ONLY thing that was really decent-tasting was the soup. So not even worth overlooking poor service for yummy food.
(1)
Meg H.
To have Steam open in Palo Alto is a breath of fresh air -- it has an open kitchen (which is so unusual for a Chinese restaurant), very attentive and fast service and modern decor. The Szechuan Garlic Chicken, Mixed Veggies with Prawn, Eggplant Claypot with Minced Chicken are all excellent. This is a wonderful addition to University Avenue.
(5)
Priyanka K.
Over priced and sub par food. Liked the spicy chicken. Would definitely go back for the chicken. Dimsums were average.
(3)
Sherrie H.
I wish I could take the time to comment on the food, but we never got any! I tried to dine at Steam with a friend on a Monday evening. I had been following the construction of the space featuring a beautifully designed open air kitchen and was eager to give it a try. We were welcomed and seated at the counter in front of the kitchen. The good encounter stopped there. The restaurant was less than half full with many guests finishing up their meals, on staff there were abut five servers standing around and socializing. On occasion they would split to clear a table that had just left, then back to the chit chat. We were the only two seated at the bar in this very small location and we were just feet from the wait staff. They continued to walk by us several times, including the individual who sat us. We patiently sat there drinking the water that was poured for us upon sitting. We decided that after sitting over 10+ minutes without being approached and finishing our water that we'd venture elsewhere to dine. The employee conversation appeared a much higher priority than our dining experience in the over-staffed and low attendance environment we had entered. Perhaps I'll try once more when I have time to waist.
(1)
Amanda D.
It's unfortunate that I have to rate this restaurant one star because the food was good (not great) but In order to enjoy your experience at a restaurant it starts with service , and their service was extremely poor. It took forever to get our check, and while ordering we had to repeat our order multiple times. This is why I will never eat here again: After reviewing my credit card, I was charged twice, two different amounts. I had to call the restaurant about 3 times and each time they told me there wasn't a manager available. When I finally had someone on the phone who actually took the time to do some research he told me "it wasn't possible" that they could have made that mistake. I had to go through my bank to file a dispute because they wouldn't take care of it on their end. This restaurant wont live long.
(1)
bruce k.
Ordinarily I'd give a very good to excellent restaurant a 4/5, but Steam is in Palo Alto and should be judged a bit differently, that is, in comparison to other Palo Alto restaurants - most of which are terrible and seem to think that their Palo Alto address is a license to charge more and do less. I could go on at length about bad Palo Alto restaurants, but that is not the point here. Steam breaks that bad pattern and is very very good. The food and service is great. I read a few complaints here ... more than makes any sense since the place is so new. To complain about the service on a restaurant that just opened is just malicious - give them a chance to ramp up to speed in service - the important thing is the food. Steam's style of Chinese cuisine is revolutionary to my taste buds at least! ;-) I have been there twice now and the food has been excellent! Not soggy, wilted, too salty or greasy like almost all of the Palo Alto Chinese restaurants are. The food at Steam is perfect, way exceeded my expectations. The noodles, the meat, the veggies were all fresh and prepared conscientiously and expertly. I love this place and plan on coming back here often. To find another good Chinese restaurant in Palo Alto is a real treat. I usually do not like traditional or regular restaurant food and that is why I seek to find a new interpretation of cooking, with fresh good ingredients and care in preparation. Traditional places pack too much bad stuff into their food, like junk food, salt, oil, MSG, skimp on ingredients or swamp anything good with cheap noodles or lettuce or something. I downgrade that when I see it. I don't see that at Steam. I just could not believe how good the 5 crops fried rice was, I have never tasted anything as unique or tasty ... and it was vegetarian! If you are expecting the average normal pile of white rice floating on a pool of grease that you get in most other Chinese places - forget it, everything you get at Steam ... so far ... has been unique thoughtful and a real treat! Since it has opened recently and I have been there only twice so far, and been very impressed, I will be back to write more at some point and go into detail more on the food. Also, I got fast friendly service here with a smile, and I was sitting on the patio ... so the complaints about service are either a lie or out of date. These guys are serious about surviving with excellence in Palo Alto and I think they will do great. 5/5 ... I hope they can sustain their excellence, if they do they have a loyal customer with me! - have to add a little note here since I found out that the owners of Tai Pan run Steam. I think Tai Pan is bad in just about every way, but especially the prices. Steam's prices are very good for Palo Alto and extremely good for University on Palo Alto. The food is better than Tai Pan. The one thing nice about Tai Pan is the comfortable seating, but Steam is so small they have to pack people in. I hope once Steam gets established they do not start raising prices, because Tai Pan just seems like a total rip-off joint from their prices and portions. I'm rooting for Steam so far.
(5)
Grace Z.
Free and fast wifi! Recommend the thousand island tofu, very freshly made and good taste, decent and clean environment
(4)
Martha E.
Stumbled across in Palo Alto looking for Asian food and was pleasantly surprised. We ordered the Kung Pao chicken and Taiwanese stir fry noodles and were pleased. The wait staff seemed a bit frazzled tonight but the dishes were hot and tasty and the tea was refilled without having to ask! A decent choice if you're craving dim sum on a random night!
(4)
Vivian L.
The dimsum here is not very good at all. I think it's over priced? 3 dollars for 3 little pieces. I ordered the Sui Mai, Shanghai Dumplings (xlb), and pan fried chives seafood dumpling. All were tiny and just whatever. Nothing too special. Probably best for when you want a snack. But the beef noodle soup was pretty good. The broth was a bit watered down but it was a lot better than other Taiwanese places with gunky and oily broth. Good amount of flavor too. The beef was also real tender and flavorful. Comes with thin noodles as well. Pea sprouts in garlic was delicious. But couldn't justify the price of $12. Their pricing is random with the beef noodle soup being at $8 and having much more substance than the pea sprouts which were too pricey for its portion. One thing I approve of is their Egg Custard Bun (brownie points to you!). Once again overpriced ($4 for 2 pieces) but the custard was nice, soft and creamy. The cream didn't clump up like many other places. Service is kind of sloppy and all over the place but I got my food so no complains. They also tape your order on your table while crossing each item off as your dishes arrive. Overall the dimsum sucked, the kitchen dishes were good, weird pricing, clean plates, clean interior, good atmosphere. Steam is a great addition to downtown Palo soooooooo I'll give them 4 stars. I'm a fan, but wouldn't go out of my way to eat here. (Sorry I'm super indecisive about my ratings..anyone else the same?)
(4)
Antonia T.
We ordered two dishes, a tofu with seafood and the second dish was egg plants in a clay pot plus one order of fried rice at Steam this evening. The egg plant clay pot arrived after 20 minutes, followed by the fried rice another 20 minutes later. The tofu seafood dish was canceled after 45 minutes of waiting. I had to get up twice to remind the waiter that we were still waiting for our food and we could not just eat the salty egg plants by itself. We also had to ask for the beer twice before it was brought to us. Portion was very small and the fried rice tasted as it it was scooped up from a rice cooker, definitely not fried rice. I left the tasteless fried rice and was very hungry after spending $32 for two dishes. It was a big disappointment. When I asked the cashier, I was told that they were short handed. The whole experience was very disappointing to say the least and we will not be returning to Steam. BTW, I am not a big eater and for me to say the portion is small is an understatement.
(1)
Tom D.
I have to agree with other reviews that they tend to over-steam their dim sum. My baskets arrived with their contents mushy and kind of gross. I did enjoy the hot and sour soup though. I thought the service was okay, though weird that they taped my order to the counter to make sure I got everything. Also, I sat at the counter - SUPER LOUD! Great if you don't want to talk to anybody.
(2)
Evan B.
Sure the place looks nice and has a hip cool name, but it's very average. Food was ok, nothing to write home about, but I didn't have a huge issue with it. The service was just terrible though. You'd expect when you order spicy food to get some water refills, but our server literally didn't come to our table once after we got our food. Overall I was a little let down. The food and the experience don't live up to the nice decorum sadly.
(2)
Clarisse M.
2 stars because this place made me a bit sick right after eating their shrimp har gow. This is a fancy take on dim sum and a bit overpriced. No servers with dim sum carts asking you what you want -you just order off their menu. Service wasn't so good when we came. Had to wait about 30 minutes for our first order of dim sum to come out. I did like the atmosphere of the place and their modern decor.
(2)
Katherine L.
To be clear, most of the food wasn't bad... The portions were small, the prices were high and c'mon, it's dimsum -- there's much, much better in the bay area. I understand that Steam is on University and it's convenient and that food on University tends to be on the more expensive side, but there's better food on University. The nail in the coffin was ordering the cold tofu dessert with a ginger syrup. It came out in a cutesy bamboo serving dish (this place has better presentation than almost any other dimsum place) but it was frozen. Tofu doesn't freeze particularly well, you end up with jagged ice crystals and icy chunks. I pointed it out to a waitress who just kept telling me "Its supposed to be cold" -- I know it's supposed to be cold, but it's not supposed to be FROZEN.
(2)
A. S.
Stopped in to have a snack today; we ordered several varieties if dim sum. All of which were fresh, at perfect temperature, and very tasty. Even the tea was first rate. I'll definitely be back.
(4)
Critical E.
Great looking restaurant, but terrible food. No flavor, questionable chicken, and overall very unsatisfying.
(1)
Kim N.
Im a fan of Tai Pan so i was glad to hear they were opening a new concept. Or so i thought. A sleek interior and exterior, with a patio for nice sunny day. When we looked at the menu it seemed like just a sub set of what they offer at the main branch. Got siu mai, pan fried chive dumplings, stir fried noodle cakes with seafood, chicken wings and shanghai dumplings. The Cantonese fare was good but the other dishes were average. I was a little disappointed. Service is still struggling a bit so I think it needs some work.
(3)
Madison W.
Another typical University Ave destination - stylish in a cheesy East-West way. It's fine, the food is like that of it's sister restaurant Tai Pan, but prepared and served from an open kitchen. Service is REALLY REALLY slow - I had a business lunch that took over 80 minutes for just two dishes. I think it was too busy and the server forgot our order?!?!?! It's good Chinese quick eats - be prepare to pay $2-$-3 per dish more than you would for similar food in San Mateo, Cupertino, Milpitas... but then again, it's University Ave.
(3)
Leslie T.
DELICIOUS! My boyfriend, friends, and I, have all tried about 3/4 of the menu and gone there 3 times so far since it has opened. We absolutely love it! Food: Every dish is served hot, with the freshest ingredients, and all the right blends of seasonings. You can see the cooks in the open clean kitchen and can tell that everything they are using is fresh and done by very good chefs. Price: Dishes are fairly small in size, but standard compared to other Dim Sum restaurants. Prices are exceptional, especially for the quality of the food and the area where the restaurant is located. Service: Since it's a new restaurant, they're slowly getting into the swing of things. All the servers are very helpful but are also learning how to keep up with the increasing demand of the restaurant. Decor/Space: Very modern and sleek design though not a lot of space to move around. Tables are close together. I ENCOURAGE ALL TO CHECK IT OUT!
(5)
Mercedes R.
Very good Dim Sum - texture is perfect Delicious dumplings and steamed buns Not sure why there are such negative reviews, I enjoyed dinner here and will go back soon!
(4)
Bonnie H.
I'm just glad there's something decent to eat on University Ave now! We didn't get the dim sum, but I thought the food was pretty authentic for such a nicely decorated modern restaurant. We had the eggplant and minced chicken in clay pot which was spot on.... which is great because it's one of my favorite Chinese dishes! We also had the Seafood and egg fried rice... fried up pretty perfectly. Not too oily with big pieces of seafood and it had tiny dried shrimps giving it a nice briny punch, but not overly so (like you would have with dried salted fish, which I love, but my dinner companion doesn't. So it's a good middle ground.) It also gives it an authentic flavor. We also got the wonton soup which was not great. It was all pork, and usually I like my wonton with a little shrimp in it. It also came in this huge chic-y modern bowl. It was giant, and it in were these 6 wontons floating in the middle. It just looked a little ridiculous. There wasn't really room for it on the table since the wontons came after our other food. That really bothered me, so I downed the wontons so that the waiter could take it away. I guess for the price, the dishes felt a little small, but everything was really fresh. I mean, you can pay $6 for fried rice at some oily Chinese place, but it's going to make you sick... so I'd gladly pay up for something tasty that won't make you sick. A very welcomed restaurant on University!
(4)
Vinny L.
The entrees were good with decent portion sizes, but portion sizes for the vegetables are way too big (and they charge you for it!). The quality of the food was good, but there is better around in Palo Alto. The service was good and the food came out quickly (although there was only 1 other table, to be fair). We only had 2 entrees, with rice and 2 side orders of vegetables - no drinks of any kind, just water. I hate when people complain on Yelp about the price of food and not the quality and taste - but in this case, I need to point it out. The biggest problem I have with this place is the price - $62 (inc. tip) for lunch is crazy. Bottom line: If you're passing by and want to know if it will be a good meal and safe to eat at - I think you'll be fine - but you'll probably leave feeling a bit ripped off given all the other options available in the area.
(2)
Holley E.
Beautiful restaurant, service was ok. Original service was not helpful nor friendly but everyone else seemed pleasant & helpful. Service was quick but appetizers should've been brought first but came last. Food looked beautiful & looked perfectly cooked but the flavors were HORRIBLE! I've never heard of an Asian restaurant using cinnamon much less in vegetable rolls. Dipping sauces tasted like cough syrup, dumplings were soggy & over-cooked & the meat appeared to be not fully cooked, no rice was offered. We ordered Mongolian Beef which was delicious but not what we were familiar with; Kung Pao also good but would've been better with rice; pan-fried noodle dish w/chicken which was well fried & horrible; pork dumplings - horrible, we took a small bite & put it back & the dipping sauce smelled & tasted horrible; vegetable rolls would've been delicious minus the cinnamon. We were taken back by the sight of the pan-fried noodle dish which appeared to be placed in a deep fryer & not pan-fried. We let the server know it was not what was described or expected & asked if they had a chow mein style dish which we requested & turned out good but bland. In the end we were charged for both noodle dishes regardless. Our bill in the end was $70+ & a complete waste of money! A sign should've been lunch hour mid-week the restaurant only had a couple customers when nearby Asian restaurants had a line out the door. Waste of money, time & undoubtedly the worst Asian food I've ever had.
(1)
Sidney C.
Just to correct some of the other reviewers' comments. This place is a Hong Kong style bistro. It's even on the sign. It is NOT Taiwanese at all. The only dish that's remotely Taiwanese is "Taiwanese rice noodle"... which is not very authentic. The Beef Noodle Soup is also HK style beef noodle soup, NOT Taiwanese tyle.
(3)
Robert B.
I like this place, I want to love this place, but I just can't get over a few perennial problems. The dishes tend to run on the sweet side and the service (particularly trying to be seated as there is no hostess stand and no assigned person to welcome/seat guests). The beef noodle soup is good, the tofu and preserved veggie clay pot is awesome and the soups are great. Dim sum offerings are identical to those of Tai Pan down the road because they are owned by the same people! If they manage to fix the overly-sweet nature of their dishes, they'd get a solid 4 stars because the cooking technique and seasoning are otherwise great. Keep a better eye on the door and you'll have a 5 out of 5!
(3)
Vince T.
Who would have expected to find good Cantonese dim sum in Palo Alto? I chanced upon them here on Yelp while looking for some Chinese food and had no expectations Steam would impress even after I sat down. Their English-only menu did not clue me in on how authentic the food may be, and I was actually pleasantly surprised when the staff spoke to me in Cantonese. The Har Gow (shrimp dumpling) looked pretty good, but I was truly blown away after the first bite--it is the best Har Gow I've had in a long time! The Vegetarian Spring Rolls were delicious, as was the Seafood Stir Fry Rice Cake. I am going to be coming back here a lot, and I was actually impressed enough to write this review! I can't wait to back.
(5)
Daisy D.
They should get two/three stars for food because it is not bad but the service is HORRENDOUS. We were a party of six last Sunday night. Sitting down, we were given a plastic menu each to place our orders but then a grumpy waitress came and started to erase our choices from each menu and putting them on one. So why hand out six? Did she have to stand there at the table and do this and make us feel silly? Then the wait began. Seriously, it was ridiculous, the place was not that full. Finally soup arrived without the ladles, but at that point we did not want to wait another 15 minutes to get the ladles so we just spooned it out to the smaller bowls. By the way, while we waited for our food the people sitting next to us complained to us about the long wait they were experiencing as well. Then ONE MAIN DISH arrived for one person while others were still waiting for the appetizers! She had to start eating because waiting for the rest us would mean eating cold food. Ten minutes later other appetizers arrived. Totally disorganized. I mentioned to the waitress that they should serve the dishes at the same time for the entire party to which she responded "We can't do that" in an unpleasant way. Really? Every other restaurant can... Fifty minutes later the last of the dishes arrived but by that time some of us were ready to cancel the order they have not yet received while some of us were done eating...Add to this grumpy, unsmiling staff and you get the picture. If the service stays this bad, good luck surviving in that spot. It's not a cheap place either.
(1)
Andrew K.
The food is less Americanized than I would have imagined after wandering by this place and deciding that it was worth a try. The food turned out surprisingly good--I really liked both the string beans and mushroom fish in a clay pot. The dim sum dishes (we got xiao long bao aka shanghai dumpling and steamed pork bun) were pretty average. Prices were quite good, esp for Palo Alto, though portions were small. Basically, you are trading quantity for atmosphere/service when compared to a traditional Chinese restaurant. A few weird kinks of Steam: 1) they insist on serving appetizers first, meaning we got the string beans well before the clay pot dish; I think they even expected us to finish them before serving the clay pot, as if we should be enjoying a multi-course experience. I had to fend off gf before she finished all the green beans--I like enjoying my Chinese meal family style with lots of courses out at once! ;) 2) Steam goes for a minimalist decor, which is all well and good, but those weird curtain-esque wood panels hanging from the ceiling basically makes it impossible to navigate the restaurant. The seating area is small already, and having those extra barriers was just...annoying and strange. Am I overly picky? Heck yes. But I'm sure the poor waiters trying to navigate their way to my table appreciate my insights.
(4)
Joey P.
I just wanted to put in a good review for this place because I would like to help it get going. I've only been here once thus far, but I'm going to be back. I live right off University and since Windy's has left I haven't found a decent / reasonably priced Chinese place to replace it. I think Steam does the trick. The prices are very reasonable. In fact I wouldn't be surprised they raise them soon because its much lower than comparable places nearby. Dim sum $3 each. Main plates $9-12. Beer $3-3.50. Soda $1.50. Super cheap, relatively speaking. Braised beef noodle soup was great. Little oily but very tasty. The sticky fried rice wasn't special but really good nonetheless. Service will improve with time. Steamed black bean balls were good. Pork buns and shu mai were pretty good and there really isn't anywhere else near to get them. If you're a dim sum snob go somewhere else but if you are looking for decent Chinese on University at a good price...Steam is quite good.
(4)
Sasha H.
Wow, Steam. You have a new fan in me. I'm definitely coming back. Try the delicious Spicy Seafood Noodles with wine sauce. The shu mai and shrimp balls were also excellent - rich without being greasy. Don't expect friendly service here - they are all business. And service was a bit slow. But with the food tasting how it did, it was well worth the wait.
(4)
Jaclyn C.
The dim sum was decent while more pricy at the same time. For the same price as other dim sum places, the portion is about half or two thirds. I had braised beef noodle soup - the beef was good, but the noodles were not chewy and the soup was alright. The service was not so well, my friend and I waited for 20 minutes to be seated while there was an empty table, and it took another 15 minutes or longer for the food to come. Might go back to try other Asian dishes as it is one of the few in Palo Alto, but I would probably still go a bit farther for better Asian food.
(3)
Jade D.
what a horrific food... wonton soup and the wonton was as hard as a sandwich! but it did nice to put a few pieces of veggie inside the soup because there's only 4 pieces of small wonton for $6 and taste full of artificial favor! i do love the design of this restaurant and i do see the cost behind it. Very ample space of the restroom for just a toilet. if you visit, you'd know what i mean.
(1)
Tamara A.
I thought it was tasty and the prices were about what you would expect to pay at other places for a meal. I would not get the Steamed BBQ Pork buns again but we liked the fried rice and the other dumplings we ordered. Two dim sum and a fried rice was not quite enough food for 2 people. I would get at least one more thing, two if we were really hungry.
(3)
Hazel H.
Great food from the folks at Taipan, but in a more casual yet designerly setting. The open kitchen is interesting and reassuring. We enjoyed all of our dishes and prices are reasonable, but portions are on the small side.
(4)
Bryce F.
Whenever I find a Chinese restaurant with extremely beautiful interior, I'm always tempted to try it. Most of the time, the best Chinese restaurants are hole-in-the-walls with dirty bathrooms and waiters who aren't even attentive. So when I passed by Steam after my debate tournament at Stanford, why not give it a try? Upon entrance, we were seated and given a paper menu that was wrinkled and was filled with little dabs of sauce from the tables before. Definitely a minus. Steam should invest in some real menus, but I will admit, the paper menu itself was beautifully designed. We ordered XLB, Shrimp and Chive dumplings, Braised Beef Noodle Soup, and their special clay pot. Unfortunately, we were told they ran out of XLB. I was disappointed. How can you call yourself a Dim-Sum place and run out of XLB? :( Instead, we went for Siu Mai and Walnut Prawns. The shrimp and chive dumplings were great. Though the outside seemed extremely oily, the flavors and presentation was expertly executed. Their Niu Rou Mian, or braised beef noodle soup, was really, really good. The broth was so flavorful with a hint of spice. Only downside was that they gave pieces of beef fat and very little pieces of beef itself. I'd highly recommend getting that soup. Their special clay pot, however, was a huge downer. Instead of using fried tofu, they use the type of silken tofu that you'd use for Ma Po Tofu. Sauce also lacked flavor. Soon enough, the Siu Mai and Walnut Prawns came. Siu Mai was nothing special, just average. The Walnut Prawns were not only beautifully presented, but were delicious, crunchy, and perfectly done as well. Definitely a plus. Overall, service was average In conclusion, perhaps I'd come back here just for the beef noodle soup, walnut prawns, and maybe some XLB to see how it is. But for the clay pot and siu mai, not sure if this place gets dim sum justice. Food: 22 | Decor: 28 | Service: 20
(3)
Darlene M.
I have been looking for a dim sum spot near where we live for such a long time! My boyfriend is vegetarian so it made finding a dim sum spot sort of difficult. Having Steam open up was wonderful! it's close enough to walk (or drive). The dim sum was delicious. the hong kong style noodles with seafood was exactly what I was looking for. After eating my fill, I don't feel heavy. The food isn't greasy. Take out was great. The only thing that would have made it 5 stars is if they delivered!!
(4)
Kyle D.
I went into Steam for a quick bite of Dim Sum in the afternoon. While it felt different than traditional Dim Sum restaurants, I thought the quality was pretty good. If you're on University Avenue, it's worth trying the BBQ Pork Steam buns and the Shiu Mai. Nice people, too! 4 stars for pretty good dim sum and friendly service.
(4)
Iri T.
Food is very good. Service is terrible. Took them 25 min to bring just part of our food
(2)
Ashley G.
This place is easily the worst restaurant I've ever been to. I don't usually leave reviews this poor, but I was less than displeased with this place. I ordered a simple chicken dish with a glass of wine. My wine - for some reason - came in a can. Now I now this isn't a 5 star restaurant, but what the hell? At least pretend like it came from a bottle. Second problem, I have a very severe nut allergy. To the point where I am anaphylactic. Now I am totally used to needing to stress this fact to waiters, so I explained this to our waiter (who barely spoke English) and it took him like 5 minutes to get the gist of what I was telling him, which was - NO NUTS. OF ANY SORT. He walked away claiming that he understood, but I was so nervous by the time my food arrived that I didn't want to touch it. My friend on the other hand ordered a bunch of stuff. They forgot like half of our order and we had to constantly keep reminding them. By the time everything came out, we were over it and wanted to leave. I didn't eat anything and left hungry, and needless to say, I didn't tip.
(1)
Ennie L.
Overpriced greasy Chinese food and dim sum on University, sounds about right. Their beef noodle soup is one of the saltiest I've ever had, their xiao long baos is a joke. It looked like everyone around me was eating fried rice so I guess you can't go wrong with that. I'm giving it 2 stars because the ambiance is nice and they have a patio where I could bring my dog, the service was also pretty good. So if you're craving Chinese food with MSG and willing to pay the premium then this is the place for you.
(2)
Michaela S.
I was impressed by the vegetarian options! Very tasty and full of flavor. The service was attentive and helpful!
(4)
Justin S.
I've been to Steam twice now -- once for dinner on a weeknight and once for lunch on a Saturday, and the difference was night and day (pun kinda intended). I was excited to try out Steam for its all-day dim sum, and went around 8:30pm on a weeknight. We ordered around 6 dim sum dishes for $3 each and they were brought to the table in a reasonable amount of time. The portions are smaller than you might get elsewhere, but they also seem less greasy, which lets me pretend I'm eating healthy. Taste-wise, it's not the best dim sum I've had in the area but it was good enough to go back, at least living fairly close. When I went back with a different friend on a Saturday, the service was terrible. When we hadn't received our food or heard a peep for 45 minutes since we'd placed our order, we started to think their ordering tablets malfunctioned and didn't actually place our order. We eventually got our food, but I was wondering whether our good service was the norm and this was an abnormality or vice versa. My 4 and 2 star visits average out to this 3 star rating. Perhaps I'll visit one more time in a few months to determine the final verdict.
(3)
Tom C.
- Extremely slow service, including over 40 minutes to deliver a General Tso chicken, during which each person at our table's food was brought out one by one and left to cool while waiting for everybody else. Even small bowls of steamed rice took 40 minut
(1)
Uncle J.
This place should have "People hate us on Yelp" sign. We love coming there. The food is great and prices are much lower than in typical american dim sum places. Yes, you can get much lower prices in this hole in the wall in Chinatown, but you are on University avenue in Palo Alto. Some people left negative review about impersonal service or wait. I think they need to go back to McDonalds, where they came from. Yes, you do have to wait. They COOK the food for you.
(5)
Renee P.
I had high hopes because of its connection to Tai Pan restaurant but was disappointed, both in the quality and price--4 potstickers for $7 and they were small and tasteless. Nice ambiance, though.
(2)
Vidhya T.
The food was TERRIBLE! We are a vegetarian family and the mapo tofu was the worst we have ever had. The mu shu filling had zero flavor. The dumpling wrapper was sticky and the vegetables inside were just a mush. Yikes! $45 down the drain for two. Worst part was we were really hungry. The service was decent but nothing to write home about. If you want good dumplings and high quality Cantonese food, go to Tai Pan.
(1)
Joie P.
Food is OK. Nothing amazing. Better service would really help this place though. We got here at 910pm and asked to sit outside because we had a dog with us. Dim sum is usually quick. The manager/ waitress told us that we could not sit outside because they would be cleaning the area soon because the restaurant was closing at 930pm. That was weird because there were two guys sitting outside in the middle of their meal still. There were still lots of people inside the restaurant too! The waitress manager then told the two guys sitting outside that they needed to sweep the area soon. Super rude. Foods not worth the bad service.
(2)
Dathan B.
The steamed black sesame balls are incredible. Decadently rich, and just the right amount of sweet.
(4)
Jason W.
This place is very good. I had some of the standard dim sum dishes here (Shumai, Har gaw, string beans, and the steamed pork buns) and it stacks up pretty well with the chinese restaurants that target a more chinese clientele. The service was also relatively fast, contrary to what most of the reviews say here.
(4)
Nick J.
Food is good, the shrimp ball is very good. However the service is terrible, just don't get why they prefer customers to leave and not order more. The management needs to work on customer experience.
(2)
Emily M.
I ate there today for lunch. It was marginal at best and they absolutely are putting MSG in their dishes. What grossed me out the most was how absolutely gnarly the women's toilet was - covered in pubes and dust. Also, no paper towels. A wise friend told me to always check the state of the bathrooms in Chinese restaurants, as it usually reflects their sense of pride and cleanliness in the kitchen. I wish I had seen the bathroom prior to my meal. I would have walked out.
(2)
Francisco Z.
I've been here a few times and refined my order to perfection. The trick is to order anything with shrimp and the spicy asparagus. The pork dishes in general were not that good (pot stickers, pork buns), and the veggie/mushroom ones were OK.
(4)
Kelly N.
So I walked out the door and asking myself why I decided to come here when I live in San Jose where Asian food are cheap and good. My bf is Chinese and love Chinese food so we decided to give it a try. We order Siu Mai, Xiu Long Bao, Gralic Spicy Chicken and Fried Noodles. Whats up with $3 for 3 pieces of Siu Mai and XLB. I found nothing special, did you hide gold in there somehow owner? Garlic Chicken and Fried Noodles are acceptable for $9. Now the service, it's very random. I believe the owner is actually a server as well. He didn't check on us because we are Asian? because we are young? or because we looked like we wouldn't give him 25% tips? Whatever the reason was, it ain't fun to me. Coming back? Not anytime soon!
(2)
Samir K.
Great Chinese food. We really liked the hot and sour soup (with chicken) and the szechuan tiger shrimp. The dumplings were good too. Nice contemporary ambience also.
(4)
Sonal A.
Just opened today- had veggie chow mein, hot and sour soup. Both good- not oily. Great spot for kids! Will be back.
(5)
Elaine L.
Call me an authentic yam cha gal. This place was too overpriced, and the food was too salty. I was very disappointed by this place. I'd rather go to Fu Lam in Mountain View for my dim sum fix.
(2)
D. K.
Had a pretty good dinner at Steam last night. The food wasn't mind-blowing, but it definitely satisfied my Americanized Asian cravings. The Mongolian beef and beef friend rice were tasty, and then we got a whole bunch of vegetarian / shrimp dumplings. Service was prompt, and the location on University was great. Wouldn't go out of my way to go here, but if you're in the area and looking for a good meal, do it.
(3)
Camille T.
I'll give you the freshness that were the dumplings, but i will take the fact that ordering 3 dim sum items took more than an hour, and 20 minute waits in between each dish of 1 inch dumplings. Totally agonizing. Will not be back.
(2)
Marie R.
Steam had delicious food at a great price! The siu mai were particularly delicious, as was the General Tso chicken. The entree plates were a good size for two people and the service was speedy and friendly. I would definitely come back here for a quick lunch!
(5)
Deepak N.
I would have given them 4 stars for food. I was with my family and we ordered veg / non-veg dim sums and some mains. Must say that that the food is good (kudos to the chef) but I believe that even the roadside stands in China deliver better customer service than these guys. I did go through some of the other customer reviews as I was posting this review just to avoid writing this review if I am a one off case. However this customer service (dis-service) is a their known phenomenon I believe. First the food came late .. and then they got the mains before the appetizers... and that too only one main not for the whole table. How weird is that? In which part of the world you do that. Then the dim sums came after 20 mins and by then my mains dish was cold (it still tasted great). It was not even busy at that time. When we tasted the veg dish, it had a flavor of egg (may be cooked in the same pan) and since my mom-in-law is a vegan she could not bear the taste. We asked for the waiter and he got his boss finally after 15 mins. We told him about the problem and he gave us this strange look (either I am stupid or you are stupid look). He said well I don't understand the problem. Really !!! Smells of egg in a veg dish.. how hard it is to understand? He said I can take this off the bill. Never asked if we wanted to order anything else.. no apologies.. nothing. But that I believe this is a trait in Chinese, Asian and Indian restaurants. If a customer complains, they seem to loose the plot. People don't come to your restaurants to take food off their bill. They come to get food on their table and have a good time. Mistakes also happen. Just apologize and ask them if they want something else. You are in the hospitality business.. not that hard. Will I go back again? Yes for the food and keep my fingers crossed that they will serve us better this time.
(1)
Shan S.
wow, the BBQ buns are the best I've ever tasted in Bay Area so far, although it's a little pricy.
(4)
Karsten T.
Good relationship between price and value. Low cost for University. Wait time longer than expected though. Good place for a quick dimsum if you don't want to pay extra dollars for one of the 2 top places in town.
(4)
Sonia K.
The dim sum here is delicious! My favorite is the spinach seafood. Perfect amount of food for a light lunch- highly recommend!
(4)
Chris M.
Eh. I've had so much better dim sum at so many other places, and this really was not worth the price, the wait for food, or rarely having the waiters bring us water. I'm fairly sure the pot stickers were frozen first, which if true is just sad. And, if not true, is a testament to how exceedingly average they were. The shu mai were ok, but nothing I couldn't get at my neighborhood dim sum place back in the midwest, and my standard out here is much higher. Terribly mediocre, I doubt I'll be back.
(2)
Jenna W.
Service was quick and attentive. Loved their sesame balls dessert, it was made fresh and fried right before I ate it! Their dumplings, Steak with Maggi, Wings, and Beef Chow Fun were so tasty. I love this place.
(5)
Liz J.
We stopped in last night and were seated quickly. Water was placed on the table for us without asking. We looked at the menu and ordered Har Gow (shrimp dumplings), Jasmine sticky rice with beef and a side of green beans. The dumplings were hot and tender with thin rice skins which I prefer. Never had the sticky rice with beef and it was excellent. I loved the way the beef was in small pieces and didn't overwhelm the dish. The red pepper gave it just enough kick to make the dish interesting. They also had bits of egg, and scallions in it. Delicious. The green beans were nicely stir fried and also carried a bit of heat. Nicely done. Didn't have a problem with service. She repeated our order to make sure it was correct, food came out on time, water was refreshed, and then we were left to enjoy one of the most beautiful evenings I have spent in Palo Alto. Glad there is now a place to get good dumplings at night!
(5)
Christopher D.
Love it! Love the menu and the pen for ordering. Service is average, but where isn't it, especially in Palo Alto. Dim sum is really good. Great soups. Great everything. We try something new every time and it keeps getting better. The seafood dim sum is amazing. Great string beans too.
(4)
David B.
service - 0 food - 2 location - 4
(1)
Calbeejo L.
The husband and I were walking on University Ave looking for a place to eat and stumbled upon this place. We thought the food was excellent. Prices were reasonable and service was attentive. I just read the reviews from last week after eating there; guess they took the Yelpers' advice, hired a few more cooks to be on duty, and put a few more waiters in the restaurant. I am from Hong Kong, so I have high standards when it comes to Cantonese food. The favors were authentic. Most impressively, the shrimp dumplings (har gow) did not come apart when we ate it! Will come again for morning dim sum soon.
(5)
kat g.
I'm undecided on Steam- I like the concept, like the look of the place and thought the food was tasty but I think it's still working out the kinks. The menu definitely needs descriptions. While everyone knows what potstickers are, do you know what five island fried rice is? It would definitely help the customer if they had a legit menu versus the folded paper we got. We had to spend a few minutes asking about dishes and we aren't that high maintenance! Another table next to us did the same thing. Don't go here is you want a quiet meal when the restaurant is busy- it gets super loud. I don't know what they could do to improve this but my husband and I were basically shouting at one another. The dishes we had were tasty - not super large potions than a regular Chinese restaurant but everything tasted good. I think overall we would go back but maybe wait as it gets it's mojo.
(3)
Kris B.
I love Dim Sum and this was a very different kind of dim sum experience. The ambiance is very urban chic, and the service was great. I loved the huge jars of loose tea displayed on a counter outside the kitchen. The food was typical dim sum and very good. They also had other offerings, and we tried and loved the pea shoots with garlic, and salt and pepper tofu (who knew that tofu could be this delicious!) And for dim sum, I thought the prices were pretty reasonable. An overall great dining experience.
(5)
Olivia H.
The food quality is good but the quantity is lacking especially the dim sum. We ordered some shu mei and seafood dumplings. There were only 2 dumplings on the plate! We also got the beef noodle soup and eggplant claypot. They were both good but also small in portion. I would also prefer thicker noodles in the beef soup. I think if you want a swanky asian place, you'll like it here but if its good food and a good value that you are looking for, don't come here.
(3)
L H.
Disappointing. The menu offerings of dim sum stopped me in my tracks. However, this has been the worst meal I've had this year. The BBQ pork buns were dessert-like, too sweet, filled with sauce and very little pork. I also tried their pepper beef cubes, toughest cut of beef to try and chew. The staff doesn't understand and can't communicate very well in english and can't answer questions about the non-descriptive menu items. Save your money.
(1)
Katie C.
Don't get tricked by the fancy, modern decor of this place. I ordered a shrimp dumpling and the shrimp was completely uncooked, gray, and rock hard. Service takes a while and the workers seemed impatient. Never coming back here again and one of the worst dim sum places ever.
(1)
Benedict C.
I dunno what's worse the service or the food. Both are horrible. Don't bother. If u know and like food, go elsewhere.
(2)
Sherri C.
Wow -- the bathroom is huge! It's the size of a studio apartment and a bed could fit easily in there. But on to more useful info: it's clean and you can use it if you go to this nice place on University Ave called Steam. I hesitate to call this Americanized Chinese food because it's actually quite good despite the purists' opposing views. Not so not-Chinese as PF Chang's, but not as traditional as other places in Cupertino or Sunnvyale (e.g., Cooking Papa's). Steam offers a lighter style of dumplings, noodles and entrees. The cooks use a lighter hand with the oils and spices, which hubby prefers and I am totally fine with as long as the food tastes good. And the food tastes wonderful. We especially like the filet mignon cubes with Maggi Sauce, fish filet with Szechuan Sauce, the egg tofu with mushrooms, all the steamed dim sum (try the vegetarian ones, too!) and Taiwan stir-fried noodles. The braised beef noodle soup is okay, but if you're craving the real deal their version won't cut it for you. The interior and exterior has a spare wooden decor that I really like. Like the food, the surroundings are clean, simple, elegant and tasteful. I'll meet anyone here for yum cha anytime of day.
(4)
kira d.
My brother wanted to bring me here when he came home for Thanksgiving. I was slightly skeptical because of the average reviews on Yelp but this place was surprisingly good. The best things on their menu are the eggplant and the Shanghai dumplings. Normally, I am put off by eggplant. It has a strange texture and flavor. This dish erased all doubts I had about the vegetable. It was packed with flavor. The Shanghai dumplings are like soup turned inside out. Usually, won ton soup has the dumplings in the broth. This dumpling has the soup inside the dumpling. It rocked my soup loving world. I will definitely be back!
(4)
Wonhee P.
The food itself is actually okay, if you don't have your hopes high. Dim sum will taste like it should taste, and the ingredients will be higher quality than expected (at least with Shumai I thought so). I've had their shumai, shrimp balls, xiaolongbao, and rice in lotus leaves. Xiaolongbao is no good at all (but it seems like no place gets it right any way), but other dishes are all good (but very pricey). I've also had their beef noodle soup. I think it's way too thick, too flavorful if that makes sense, to the extent that I wanted to water down the soup. Service-wise: had a bad experience once and then a weird weird experience. Bad: Once I came alone for a quick dinner before going to drinks with friends, and the waitress would not seat me at one of the many many many open tables. She argued with me to try to get me to sit at the bar. Why? Weird: I was seated alone for a quick lunch once, and the waiter came and tried to talk to me, asking what I am studying, what my name was, etc. I'm not sure what to make of that. Over all, for a quick fix of dim sum within Palo Alto, this place is not bad, but you pay way too much for the food you get.
(3)
Brian J.
The service is seriously lacking, especially for what they charge and the decor. You can accept less than expected service in a place with a bit more grit (that also prices their dishes accordingly). I teach nearby and went here once for a quick dinner before a late meeting...that was the last time I'll ever go. Steam is indicative of everything I hate about Palo Alto, especially University Avenue. Drive to San Francisco for real dumplings.
(2)
Rosie C.
Unfriendly and slow-as-molasses service. We ordered two popular dim sum dishes (chive dumplings and siu mai) and it took 30-35 minutes to arrive. When asked if our food was ready, they came back with the excuse that the chive dumplings needed to be steamed then pan-fried.... but does it take a day and a half to do that?!? When we asked for our check, it took them 30 seconds!! (Quickest part of their service!) Nice decor and awesome downtown Palo Alto University Ave location .... Such a shame they suck. We have no intentions on ever returning.
(1)
RK P.
We've been to Steam several times, but this last visit sealed it. Great location, decent food, but terrible service and overpriced, even for University Avenue. Food - the broccoli was good, kids loved the pot stickers. Spinach with garlic was decent, as was the spicy szechwan chicken. Singapore noodles were ok, too much turmeric. After waiting 15 minutes and asking for a waiter, it still took another 5 minutes for someone to come take our order. Then, they charged us 18% gratuity for 3 adults and 2 young children!
(3)
Ron Y.
Good + beef noodle soup + steamed black sesame ball (dessert) OK + scallop dumplings Meh + sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves (they were bland) Very pricey, since you're right on University Avenue. I spent $30 for lunch for one person. Each dim sum dish (3 pieces) is $4.80.
(3)
S S.
Went here today for brunch, and ordered the famous beef noodle soup along with some dim sum (scallop dumplings, char siu bao, spinach dumplings, mushroom dumplings, shu mai). The food was very delicious, and very authentic too (I'm Chinese and have eaten at many dim sum places in China and the United States). The dim sum menu is brief compared to larger dim sum places like Fu Lam Mum in Mountain view, but what they do have is very good, and I think quality over selection is always key. The ambiance is very nice compared to most dim sum places in the South Bay. It's a small place but looks classy inside, with open kitchen, which I love (always feel good when you can see what is being cooked, plus I love cooking and it's so fun watching other people cook too). I like that the dim sum are not super huge like many of the to-go dim sum places in SF. In my experience the dim sum in China is actually not all that big, and a shao mai should have the diameter of slightly larger than a quarter, not half my fist in size. The smaller dim sum is more exquisite, and I think abetter reflection of what quality dim sum is like. The beef noodle soup is so delicious, the meat seems to have been slow cooked, because it is very tender. The bok choy is also the perfect amount of softness. Some reviewers have said it's big expensive at $12, but it's huge portions, and considering ramen is about $12 I think this is a very reasonable price for so much noodle, meat, and vegetables. They are also not stingy about the meat and vegetables, so it's not just a bowl of noodles and one piece of meat and one piece of bok choy, I promise. You'll like it :) I also recommend the scallop dumplings. They are so so good, and the presentation is great. There are fish eggs on the top, and the dumplings are folded open-top, a very unique fold. The Cha-Shao bao was also very good, and the meat inside is well cooked, not a wad of pinkish mystery stuff! The size is also good, with excellent meat to bread ratio. There is a slight aftertaste, almost like tea, I can't quite describe it, but overall I liked it. Customer service was okay, but it wasn't like they were super welcoming either. I would say slightly above average for a Chinese restaurant, and slightly below average considering this is downtown Palo Alto. But they were not mean, and I think as long as they are not mean I don't really care how the service is if the food is yummy. They charge $2 for tea. I was like WHA?? Whatever, just get the water, the tea isn't worth $2 and is free in most Chinese places. I thought they were pretty fast bringing food out. I know some people say in the reviews they are slow, but I went at 11:30 AM on a Sunday and it was very fast. There were quite a few tables by 12:00 PM filled. Try it out! Don't judge till you've tried it! Also to the people who are like AH there is MSG. First of all, we don't REALLY know do we? Also, you're only eating out rather occasionally (or so I hope for your health) so a little MSG is not the end of the world. There was also a study published by Harvard a few years ago that eating some MSG is okay in moderation. You guys can look it up if you are interested, it's a good read. :) Enjoy! I'll be back for sure.
(4)
Ed F.
Been there 2X and in both cases the entrees were outstanding. Appetizers are good, entrees are the best. Plenty of food, good service, nice open location.
(4)
Allen G.
My family and friends had dinner tonight at Steam. There are a few comments I have and I will summarize so as not to waste anyone's time. The Good: 1) the food is tasty and well prepared 2) it's in a convenient and fun location The Bad: 1) Value is not good. The prices are very high for the quantity of food you get. Dishes are very small. As an example, I ordered seafood fried rice and it was so skimpy that I thought it was an appetizer and I'm not kidding: I was waiting for my entree to show up. Further, I was told it was a combo of shrimp and scallop. There was so little seafood in it, a vegetarian would have been comfortable eating it and would not have noticed anything looking like a shrimp or scallop. At $14 there should be much more food on the tiny little plate it was served on. The best dish I tasted was my wife's flounder in black bean sauce; small but very tasty. 2) the restaurant is very,very noisy; making it difficult to converse with your guests or companions. 3) service: the waiter took our order, delivered the food, and presented the bill. 'Not much attention. I hate to give it only two stars because the dishes are tasty. It's just overpriced for what you get. If you eat like a bird it's fine. But, if you're 5'10" and weigh 180 or so, and you're hungry, you'll need to eat two or three entrees by yourself to leave satisfied. I don't like to embarrass the ladies, but if I'm back to Steam again by myself I'd order the seafood fried rice again, just for the satisfaction of returning it and explaining why. Steam, like most vapors, is very difficult to catch much of with a fork. Advice to Steam: Get larger plates and put more of your tasty food on them... Charge a little more if you have to.
(2)
Anh T.
I had low expectations when I saw the menu and heard descriptions about this place: an expensive, nice ambiance - dim sum restaurant. It's hard not to be prejudiced but that just isn't what I always imagine dim sum to be and rarely is there an exception. I ordered a few unique dim sum items with scallops, seafood dim sum, and other stuff that had a modern twist to the traditional. Also, I got the beef noodle soup as was recommended by others. I thought the beef noodle soup was good, but the noodles that came with them were terrible. Overall this place is overly expensive and has subpar food.
(2)
Paiyu G.
While our waiter was very friendly, that place needed way more customer service. When we walked in the restaurant, several waiters passed by us. We were completely ignored and no one cared why we stood there. We sat closed to the front door and while we were dining, a lady waited at door and asked the waiter who was cleaning the table next to us if she could sit down (there were a couple of empty tables around us). The waiter simply said "I'm not a waiter" (... then.. maybe he was just a janitor? ) and had no courtesy to tell the lady who she could ask for to seat her... Flavor was okay. We like dim sum places in San Francisco way better.
(2)
Josh G.
I heard the restaurant is good so I decided to give it a try myself and the outcome was quite bad. They provide rude service and covertly change the amount of tips you give! The facilities are brand-new and the food is good, like the bean sprout dumpling. Some of the dim sum, such as mushroom veggie buns, don't match what the menu picture shows and don't taste that well. All the items are a bit overpriced, even compared to other Palo Alto downtown restaurants. What displeased me is their rude service. The waiters are unresponsive--they don't respond to you when you courteously say thanks or hi, and they look cold and arrogant; I requested some vinegar and the waiter said yes, yet it was never brought to me and I had to ask another one for the something, who put a plate of weird-tasting vinegar on my table with a "Bang" and left saying nothing. To be honest, I've never seen worse service offered by restaurants in the Bay Area. So the quality and the food and service couldn't match the price at all. I was thinking of giving them NO tips as these rude people don't deserve it, yet out of courtesy I still wrote two dollars (in a clear way ppl would never read wrong). When I looked at my credit card report, I found that they changed the amount of tips I offered from 2 to 7 dollars! I was so shocked BECAUSE this is ILLEGAL! I have heard that some restaurants change the amount of tips because few customers would notice the difference, but I never imagined that this nasty thing would happen to me! For all the other customers, please take attention of your receipts--they may have changed your tips and charged you more! Definitely not recommend this restaurant that offers bad service and changes the amount of tips you write! Quality service and honesty are essential for a business yet they are short of both...
(1)
Elise L.
Went there for brunch today with a group of friends and had a great time. The restaurant was very cute- typical downtown Palo Alto, people watching, restaurant. We ordered the wonton soup, BBQ pork buns, shrimp har gow, spinach seafood dumplings, vegetable mushroom duplings, beef chow fun, and the pork and shrimp shui mai. I didn't try the wonton soup but heard from my friends that did try it that it was very good. I couldn't help but notice that portion were very small, as were the beef chow fun. The beef chow fun, which we all did try, was very good. For the more dim sum dishes- everything was very good other than the shrimp har gow. I wasn't really impressed. The dough was much thicker than it's supposed to be and just felt off. Nonetheless, I did have a very good time with my friends having brunch. The service was very good, and the servers were very attentive. I would recommend this restaurant, especially if you're in the mood for some dim sum in a fun downtown setting.
(4)
germaine n.
Food is mediocre. Nothing that great had the filet with maggi, shrimp fried rice with double egg and a Siu Mai. Let's talk about service. It sucked!!!! We sat down at 2:35, got our menu and order at 2:55. At 3:35 we are asking about any of our food. Still nothing. Food Came at 3:45, bill came at 3:55. Wow! Really? Food has barely been touched and we get the bill. I know what you are think, close after lunch right? Nope. It's a Sunday and they open all day. So mad that I'm actually spending my lunch time writing this. For the price and the fancy facade. Waiter can't speak a lick of English or acknowledge your concerns. Not ok and won't be back.
(1)
Gina L.
Whaaaaaaaaa??? So, guess what, today was my THIRD day dining here for lunch in the past FIVE day work week. LOL. Ordering the SAME Spicy Wine Seafood Noodle Soup. The quality consistency was definitely there all three visits - big thumbs up for that. However, as I handed my credit card to my server, he opened the bill for me and I noticed that they bumped up the price from $10 to $12 (before tax). OK, not a HUGE deal, considering the fact that, as mentioned in my first review, the seafood quality is great. BUT... I noticed that this third time around, my dish seemed to consist of less seafood than the first two times I dined here. They seemed to have added mushrooms (white, slim and long stemmed... too bad I'm drawing a blank on the name) in place of seafood quantity? Delicious as the mushroom were, I would take the extra seafood! Especially if you're going to raise the price. Anyways, it just seemed funny to me because that was my third visit to the establishment within a time span of five days, and all of a sudden, they jacked the price up on MYYYY dish. When I inquired about the pricing to my server, he said they had just changed their menu. I couldn't help to think that they noticed I might start eating them out of house and home with that Spicy Wine Seafood Noodle Soup for $10 multiple times per week and decided to raise the price!
(4)
Alexander B.
Excellent soup and dumplings. The hot and sour soup and vegetarian pea shoot dumplings are particularly good. Ordering is efficient and service has been consistently good for me with small parties.
(5)
Bay Arean C.
String beans w/ preserved vegetables are a 'must try' ! Good vegetable dumpling dishes - light food if you are looking for something other than salad in the summer.
(4)
Dee Z.
Considering I usually get dim sum in San Francisco from the take-out places that are organically grungy - dim sum in a clean, swanky place is definitely an upgrade. It was a little more expensive, which was expected... I tried the ha how, mushroom dumplings and the shrimp-peashoot dumplings. All very tasty and not greasy. This is a first but I had sticky rice in lotus leaf and the sticky rice did just that - it was stuck to the leaf...scraped as much as I could but it was seriously glued to the leaf. It did taste like any other sticky rice in lotus leaf even if it wasn't a Cooking Papa sized serving. Tried the braised beef noodle soup - which is pretty substantial and serves as a meal if you're just by yourself. I thought it was tasty - it had big chunks of beef that were very tender...there was also bok choy along with it and being a big vegetable eater - I could have used more vegetable matter to balance all the meat. Noodles don't count. You know what I really enjoyed??? The fact that I asked for chrysanthemum tea - and they had it!!!!!! Hellooo...in Palo Alto! A big plus if you are gorging on dim sum. I would go back to try more items now that I know I can wash it all down with one of my favorite teas.
(4)
Kd C.
One of my favorite Chinese places to eat and how can you not like Palo Alto downtown. You'll experience good service and good food. I like it there!
(5)
Diane N.
I really do like this place! The only thing is it's really overpriced for what you can get in a more authentic Chinese restaurant (this place to be is more of a fusion of American and Chinese). I feel like the dim sum was okay, nothing special honestly but the other dishes are so delicious! My favorite so far is the Thousand Island Tofu. It was crispy and luscious, and I enjoyed the egg for that nice texture! Oh, and a must to try to is the Mango Pudding. It is so different than all the other mango puddings I have had in Chinese restaurants. It has tapioca balls in this one and it makes it the most interesting texture combination. The creamy with the pops of tapioca in your mouth, it was great.
(3)
Aries G.
My friend and I were both hungry and we were walking down the University Avenue in Palo Alto .Steam satisfies our palate . The dumplings and main dishes were very delicious. I cannot give a 5 stars cause it was a bit salty for me. Definetely I will come back.
(4)
Aureliano C.
I loved't. Long time neighboring China Delight and Jing-Jing around the corner are also favorites that are consistent and won't letchya down, but Steam just adds a new element of Chinese fare and offers a more modern look and feel to it. Food's excellent in my opinion. The server was friendly and smiley which was fun. I always recommend them to anyone lookin for a good plate of Asian food. The not too distant P.F. Chang's IS NOT my idea of good Chinese cuisine. I've a feeling you'll not be disappointed.
(5)
Andrew P.
I don't know where the bad reviews for food come from. We had Mongolian chicken and filet mignon and they were delicious. I strongly recommend the black sesame balls for dessert. For 5 stars, I miss more friendliness from part of the staff (probably the ones on top of the management) and also they should throw away the plastic chopsticks: they're too slippery for some dishes.
(4)
Joyce H.
I love that you can dim sum here all day! The hot and sour soup was really great. I loved that it was spicy enough to clear my sinuses. Awesome! It also had a lot of the traditional Chinese veggies like wood ear mushrooms and bamboo. I would recommend the veggie spring rolls, chicken dumplings and veggie fun gow. These are the dishes I had and enjoyed. I wish I could have ordered more. I was looking around and the chow fun looked amazing. The look of the restaurant is beautiful. Large front window, nice wood tables, is clean, and has a modern feel. I sat at the chef's counter and the service was still good. It's worth checking out if you love Cantonese food.
(4)
Kirsten A.
I have never even heard of this place before, but I expect that, as turnover rate in Palo Alto is extremely high. Steam is a great place to go for a lunch break in downtown Palo Alto, as it is walking distance from pretty much everything. The food is more traditional Chinese (Dim Sum). I especially enjoyed the spicy garlic chicken and pork rolls ("fluff balls"). I have no idea what the latter was called, but it was quality. The service was good; I would have liked to have my food at once, but I understand they are a new business and got busy. I got the main dish first and waited more than 20 minutes to get the sides, which again is fine, but I was in a little time constraint. This place is definitely worth checking out though. In Palo Alto, who knows how long it will last!
(4)
Jess C.
* Mixed Mushroom Beef - 2 STARS: I liked the mixed mushrooms but the beef was low quality and overly salty. It kind of reminded me of something you might find at Su Hong, a bit too oily. * Beef and Basil Clay Pot - 2 STARS: They use the same sauce and cut of beef as the mixed mushroom. Low quality, salty, oily and tough. I would recommend neither, and suggest selecting a different protein. * Kung Pao Chicken ($12) - 4.5 STARS: Of all the stir fried meat plates, I liked this flavor the most. It is spicy and topped with peanuts. The chicken is really tender. * Shrimp Rolls: I have yet to have a bad shrimp roll, but if you like shrimp or shrimp dumplings I think you would like these crunchy little egg rolls filled with shrimp. * Pea Shoots ($12) - 3.5 STARS: Fresh and stir fried with whole garlic. Pretty good, pretty standard. * Braised Beef Noodle Soup - 4 STARS: This slightly spicy beef noodle soup was pretty good and chock full of meat, but I wish the noodles were a little more al dente. Finally I don't need to trek over to Cupertino Village for something similar! * Spicy Wine Noodle Soup ($8) - 5 STARS: This is my favorite soup of all the ones I've tried here. It's super spicy, and the seafood tasted pretty fresh. I wish there was more seafood! * Duck Soup with Rice Cake - 2.5 STARS: The broth in this soup reminds me of egg drop soup because it's thickened but mild tasting. This is the first time I had nian gao in a soup dish, there were no noodles. There were some pieces of really salty duck, and some chicken (which tasted better than the duck). Overall, it's a pretty interesting mild broth with a little bit of meat and nian gao. * Sponge Cake Dessert ($4) - 5 STARS: Really hard to find a great ma-lai-go. Surprising that Steam delivered a perfectly sweet, and airy sponge cake!
(4)
Thomas H.
Food was 3 stars, ok, but really small portion! But the one less star is because of the 18% auto gratuity without telling us for party of 4. Then my pet peeve of restaurant not telling us that they've added gratuity when the credit card receipt comes and leaving the "tip" line blank
(2)
Vladimir P.
I am not sure that the food was much better than China Delight (aka "the cheap Chinese"). I have noticed though that it was more than twice the price. The decor is very nice, food is standard and the service is absolutely abysmal. Although we have ordered at the same time, my lunch companion had watch me eat all of my food and some more before his food arrived. Then I watched him eat his food. In short, I do not recommend it and shan't return.
(2)
Heather R.
My husband and I have eaten here a handful of times. We always enjoy our meal and consider it one of the better restaurants right in university. It's not the super fast, super cheap dim sum you find in the city, but hey it's Palo Alto...come on you can't expect them to provide those kind of prices with the rent they pay for their space. So don't listen to all the haters....just give them a try for yourself.
(4)
Ashlee C.
Steam was very average in my opinion. Service was slow and inattentive. Though we were seated immediately, it took ages for a waiter to take our order. The food was fairly bland, and extremely greasy. We tried a noodle dish (I wish I could remember what it was called), a "chef recommended dish". SO BLAND! I was really disappointed. I thought the dim sum was priced well; the entrees seemed a bit pricey though.
(3)
Randy F.
**Update** Came with a slightly larger group and the experience was quite different. Items were unavailable from the dim sum menu and the service was quite inexperienced/sporadic. The soup noodles tend to be average (spicy seafood noodle and rice cake with duck) and the dim sum isn't to Taipan standards. If they want this place to succeed, they need to put more into it. Improve the dishes, work on service, and develop consistency. Sad as my first visit was so nice. ============== Really love the concept and think it's perfect for Palo Alto. - Open-air kitchen - Sleek, modern design and high ceilings - Indoor and outdoor patio seating - Dim sum and Hong Kong cuisine available most of the day (11-930 pm) Steam is a spin-off from Taipan and, as a fan of Taipan, (very good dim sum albeit a bit pricey) I was interested in seeing how their next venture would be. While early reviews pointed to some service issues and a menu too similar to Taipan, they seem to have made some adjustments in the first weeks. Service was excellent with waiters asking how items were, explaining and suggesting dishes, and checking on me frequently. It literally was among the better service I've received at a Chinese restaurant so I applaud their effort from the wait staff to the busboys. The menu had a small section of dim-sum, but the more interesting fare are the Hong Kong cuisine, something that I thought was always overshadowed at Taipan. Comfort foods like noodle soup and rice dishes are new and the more casual atmosphere fits with the more reasonable prices. I ordered a sampling: Braised Beef Noodle Soup - the broth was very good and the braised beef was very tender. Nice cuts of bok choy. The noodles were prepared well but too similar to instant ramen noodle. Would prefer a more fresh-pulled noodle to distinguish themselves. ($8) Shanghai dumpling - forgettable, but I had to order. The xiao long bao skins were too thick and there wasn't no soup at all. Very affordable though like all their dim sum. Taipan's shanghai dumplings were better but no all-star either and pricier. ($3) Bean Curd Shrimp Roll - a common dim sum dish but served very nicely and in a different, more elegant presentation. Very tasty. Overall, I left Steam happy. We so infrequently see new Chinese establishments in the area that I'm giving an extra star as kudos to Taipan for branching out. I'll happily come back and look forward to trying some of the other dishes like sticky jasmine fried rice and beef or the tiger prawns in special sauce. Steam has potential and it could be a more upscale Cooking Papa for Palo Alto with the right improvements. 3.5 Stars with 0.5 Stars for great service on my visit and potential. Steam accepts credit cards, including American Express.
(3)
Hib.zi R.
I only gave this place three stars because the dumplings are really good, but the service gets one star, barely.
(3)
Beard L.
Dumplings are always served steaming hot--I wonder if they make it after the order is taken. I was also a fan of their beef noodle soup because their meat is so tender and has full flavor, but last time I ordered, half of it was fat. Also, it would taste much better w/ fresh noodles opposed to instant noodle types.
(3)
Elizabeth T.
I really like TaiPan so I obviously hauled myself over to Steam the moment I caught wind that the TaiPan owners had opened a new restaurant. I would normally rate this at 3.5 but I liked the BNS and black sesame balls enough to bump it up and give them the benefit of the doubt this round. Braised beef noodle soup was one of the better ones I've had in the bay area Black sesame balls (dessert) are a must. Imagine super soft, fresh mochi-like texture with delicious black sesame goodness inside. I will be back for these alone. Shiu mai was ok. A bit on the small side Bean curd shrimp rolls were fried (not what I expected). Not bad but too greasy for me. Shanghai Dumplings (XLBs) tasted good but I consider them to be failures as XLBs. All the soup had leaked out and the skins were a bit too thick. If they had called them just regular dumplings then I would be raving about them. Chef's special tofu in a clay pot is worth trying but I'm not a big fan of anything pickled or spicy. Pea sprouts with garlic were alright. Nothing noteworthy. Steamed custard buns were really good and tasted better than the ones at TaiPan Thousand layer cake turned out to be a spongey bun-like cake layered with yolky baked custard. to me, it was like a more dry and less sweet version of the steamed custard bun. +Takes reservations -Crowded seatings; kept getting bumped into by customers and servers -Slow service -Not on OpenTable (TaiPan is though)
(4)
Marc K.
Congrats to Steam for creating an upscale Chinese place that looks trendy, is clean, and feels better than eating in a traditional Chinese restaurant with their dirty bathrooms, dirty floors, rude waiters, and rushed service. With that said, I do enjoy eating in those places too, but it's a totally different experience. So, on to the review. First, I find it funny when people review this place and say "it's not as authentic as the little dim sum place I go to in Milpitas or Cupertino." Of course it's not, for all the reasons above. If you want the taste of China, go to one of those places and enjoy it. If you want good, clean, fresh food that is prepared well, then I would say Steam is a good option. Does it taste like you got it at a night market in Beijing. No. Does it taste good? Yes. We ordered a variety of their dim sum dishes, all of which were good. Their Xiao Long Bao is not called that though, and I think it was called pork dumplings. So be careful if that's what you want to order. All of their other dim sum dishes are labelled correctly and some even have pictures. Off of their dim sum dishes, we also got a beef dish (with basil) and it was cooked well. Some of their dishes were a tad salty for my taste, but not overpowering. Service was good. Prices were actually pretty good for a University Ave restaurant. My one flaw that I found. I asked for tea and the waitress told me they only had Jasmine, which was ok. However, when going to the bathroom in the back, along the counter you can see jars of all kinds of teas. I asked the man standing there if they served them and he said yes. So, if you are a tea drinker, go over and look at their variety of teas before you order yours.
(4)
Holly B.
Delicious little snack! We got the steamed green beans and the veggie dumplings. Loved the beans with a passion! I will def come again but it didn't fill me up. Next time I'll get their famous jasmine fried rice! Yum!
(5)
Tiffany C.
Strolled by this place the other night while taking the new puppy out for a walk, and we were very intrigued by the new dim sum/Chinese food place that we had never seen before. Plus, they have outdoor seating area and allows dogs, so there was no question that we would be trying them out. The servers there were all very friendly, even bringing out a little bowl of water for the pup, stopped to ask us questions about the puppy and made conversation. The menu consists of a lot of noodle and rice dishes, as well as some other traditional Chinese dishes, and then the dim sum and baos as well. We ordered the mao po tofu, shiu mai, xiao lom bao (no clue what it's called in english sorry!), pan fried beef noodles (hong kong style noodles). One thing I don't like is when places have rice as a separate item from things like mao po tofu. With something as saucy as that, who wouldn't want rice with it? In my opinion every place should include rice with a meal like that. But anyway... Food wise, mao po tofu was really good, just a little too spicy for my liking. The shiu mai and xiao lom bao were delicious and the pan fried beef noodles were delicious too. Also, we didn't order any, but the mango pudding looked delicious (little kid sitting at the table next to us had some and I was very tempted). It's nice that they opened a place like this on University Ave. I'd definitely recommend stopping by and having some yummerz food.
Takes Reservations : No Delivery : No Take-out : Yes Accepts Credit Cards : Yes Good For : Lunch Parking : Street Bike Parking : Yes Good for Kids : Yes Good for Groups : Yes Attire : Casual Ambience : Casual Noise Level : Average Alcohol : Beer & Wine Only Outdoor Seating : Yes Wi-Fi : No Has TV : No Waiter Service : Yes Caters : No
Dominik B.
Been a regular and happy customer for about a year, solid food, no issues. Something significant has changed recently -- most of the food is suddenly weird and overall tastes worse, and I get instant stomach cramps 10 minutes after eating here. They started to put some new substances to the food that can't be digested.
(1)Izzah A.
Short review: High prices for mediocre food, mediocre service, and mediocre atmosphere. Save your money and go elsewhere. Longer review: Frequented this restaurant around 3-4 times since its opening in 2013. The first time I went, I was excited about the prospect of good Cantonese food and dim sum in Palo Alto (finally!). Nevertheless, food quality fell short of my expectations. Yet, I kept wanting to give this restaurant another chance, but each time brings the increasingly familiar feeling of disappointment. This was the case again when I went very recently. Waiters did not appear enthusiastic; the dim sum was not on par with other dim sum places, and finally; the restaurant atmosphere isn't very conducive for conversation as it's really noisy.
(2)Jasmine M.
We had high hopes for Steam as usually everything in dumpling format tends to please me. Sadly, the salt+pepper tofu was unbearably salty and dry. It felt like it needed some sort of sauce? The mushroom + veggie dumplings were good but nothing spectacular. Also- vinegar was noticeably absent from the table? Overall - I will not go back :( I was hoping for a good azn addition to University's varied fare.
(2)Babo K.
The worst experience ever. My wife and I waited about 30 mins for a high chair. But they gave it to other customer by mistake (or maybe intentionally) and asked us to have our lunch, holding my 6 month-old daughter on my lap. I wonder whether they could ask us to do that if we were Caucasians. I complained, but their answer was "don't come back!". I seriously considered to take a legal action but couldn't figure out what to do. I admit that I may be overreacting now, but it was the worst experience ever in any restaurant.
(1)Jessica C.
I'm not going to compare this to other dim sum places because they serve dim sum at night! This is a rare thing for me to find and usually when I find a place that does to dim sum for dinner, it's not that great but I eat there anyway only because I need a flavor fix. So compared to those other places open late, this was great in my book. They have a small selection, but we ordered other dinner dishes to make the meal more filling. The tastes were delicate, fresh and piping hot which differs from most dim sum places is that it's not sitting in a cart for a while losing steam (pun intended, pun SO intended ^_^) . We ordred the har gau, siu mai, chive dumpling, pork buns, fried shrimp balls, eggplant and chicken thing, and the seafood rice cakes. All were hot and tasty. The har gau skins were nice and thin, and shrimp although small was fresh. Siu mai was great, not over peppery which sometimes happens when the meat is not fresh. I really liked the chive dumpling, great flavor, and liked it more here as I don't usually like this dish but the dumpling skin here was thin and really quite nice. As usual with all chinese places I will try to order the rice cake if they have it, and the flavor was awesome. I think my one complaint was that some items come in orders of 2, where it would have been nice to have 3 or 4 for a group to share. Definitely will be back when I have a night time hankering for better quality night time dim sum. Didn't experience any of the bad service mentioned in other reviews, I guess I'm used to the Canto style service, so this compared to other dim sum places was FAR superior than I'm usually used to. It also helped that every time the waiter came by we'd order some more food, so we'd always have something to eat while waiting for something else.
(4)Chris L.
The dimsum looks shriveled up compared to regular dimsum. The shu mai is a third of the normal size and looks like a mini portion. All portions are small. I liked their veg five crop fried rice the best. The other dishes are not better than normal Chinese places and this place is overpriced. Basically Westernized dimsum with Western prices. I bet they are making a killing here, especially with the westernized idea of tip!
(3)lizzie s.
As a vegetarian, I ALWAYS check the menu before I eat anywhere. This place looked promising. While they had plenty of options for me to choose from, The tofu dishes were not good at all and the steamed buns were OK but not delicious. I hope their meat-centered dishes are better, but I do not recommend this for fellow vegetarians.
(2)E W.
Overpriced Dimsum sub par quality very disappointed!
(2)Schelly Y.
Dim sum offerings in downtown are pretty slim so when the craving arises I will take what I can get. Most of the items we ordered were okay but we ordered some dumplings that had the worst texture. The dumpling skin was a bit thick and the meat filling was mushy.
(3)Valeria F.
Mm, yummy! ^^ Cool outdoor seating, nice modern decor. We ordered the spicy chicken and something else, it was all really good and the portions were large! Good place for people watching, pretty quick service given how crowded it was. Ordered a sake bottle for $45 which looked super cool too. Split it between the two of us (mostly my friend) and actually finished it..^^ Nice place, would come again!
(4)Sophie Y.
This place seems like it's very Americanized Chinese food on first glance, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised with the food here :) The XLB were pretty good and they had an ok amount of soup inside. The meat inside was soft and broke apart, instead of being in a clump like some other places. I also got the beef noodle soup. I wasn't a huge fan of the thin noodles, since I generally prefer thicker noodles, but the beef was pretty good. The bowl initially looked like just soup + beef + noodles, but as I ate, I started to find SURPRISE BOK CHOY in my soup! (Good surprise, not a bad surprise!) I thought there was just one stalk of bok choy in the soup, but as I kept eating, I kept discovering more and more SURPRISE BOK CHOY! There turned out to be 4 stalks in the bowl :) I also tried the garlic pea sprouts that my coworker ordered and they were super delicious, they probably ended up being the most popular dish at the table.
(3)Abhimanyu C.
This place deserves four stars! The food is good but not always great! Straightforward tasty Chinese food!
(4)Pierre B.
Not too bad. Reminds me of Bao Dim Sum House in Los Angeles, but in an airier environment, with less attentive service, and food that's just not as good. Dim sum is on the pricier side at $3 for three pieces. Steamed BBQ Pork Buns, Shanghai Dumplings, Har Gow, and Shu Mai were okay; they just didn't have as much flavor as Koi or HK Lounge's. We also got the Wonton with Red Sauce ($6) and the Beef Chow Fun ($8), which was quite oily. Chicken Wings were quite good though ($5). In conclusion, the dim sum here is not as good or comprehensive as at Taipan (their sister restaurant), but it's much more affordable. If in Palo Alto, this is probably the dim sum place to go.
(3)Natasha P.
It's pretty hard to find quality Asian food out here. I'm an SF girl so my standards can get the best of my PA experiences sometimes. But, Steam, Oh, Steam. Shrimp dumplings, Schezuan shrimp, green beans, beef cubes, sesame balls.... Sure, it's on the pricey side but this place is swanky, modern, airy and comfortable, and the food is not greasy and fresh. Definitely my new favorite spot in downtown Palo Alto!
(4)Andrea P.
Overall this restaurant is okay. I kids love it but service is often limited and the restaurant is loud. Location is great but not ideal for parking. Food is good but a little limited. I recommend the appetizers of potstickers and spring rolls, my kids adore the potstickers, but other than that there's not much to be said.
(3)Jamie T.
Dim Sum is pretty good here - given that you are in the prime of downtown PA, on University Ave. Lucky Stanford students have something closer to eat at now. Back when I was at Stanford, nothing good around unless you could drive. I heard this place is the same owner as Taipan so dimsum is definitely pretty good. I think their meat is really tender - it's pretty good for $8 Beef Niu Rou Mian. I love their decoration - wood and all.
(4)Stella C.
Horrible service, my friend and I placed the order 35 minutes ago and are still waiting...the only thing that came was a fly. Not gonna come back
(1)Adam L.
First of all, I am considered a non-judgmental foodie by many who knows me, and was raised in Hong Kong, where the real deal Cantonese food are, love both cheap local AND high end places. I would give 4.5 star and round up to 5 if the service goes up a notch any day. I do not understand why people complaining the food here not being "authentic." Perhaps their perception of authenticity in Hongkie food comes from else where. Although I do have some issue with their service, any of your truly enjoy authenticity of Chinese food would realize, service in any Chinese joint here in the US is subpar compare to Asia's high end restaurants. Yes, this is not the cheap joint in Milbrae or Daly City or Santa Clara etc. Steam is in downtown Palo Alto where there is a premium for everything. As long as food is good I am willing to pay few more bucks when I am here. Food here is great. Not too many dim sum items but perfect for a lunch during the week, or s casual dinner. I am all for places offer less variety in exchange for quality. Same of dishes and rice/noodles. Portion is decent enough for you, unless you haven't realized that you have been eating too much. Quality is great too, comparable to a mid tier places anywhere in Hong Kong. Recommended items for first timers, all very basic items: - Fried tofu with pepper and salt - Shrimp dumplings and Shu Mai - Pan fired dumpling with shrimp chives - Sweet and sour pork (YES, THIS IS AN AUTHENTIC HONG KONG DISH) - Stirred fried beef rice noodle
(4)Sandy O.
Comically terrible service and mediocre food. I will definitely not return. As a frequent diner in restaurants in and around University Avenue there are so many better choices. I had dinner with friends tonight and we finally had to accost our waiter in order to place our order after waiting more than 45 minutes. He was even reluctant to take our order then. They kept seating tables but we were not the only ones to wait inordinately long to order food.
(2)Vicky L.
Solid 2.5-3 star range. The dining room is nicely decorated given that the previous predecessors of Mediterranean Wraps and Andale didn't do too much. The high ceilings and the strange wood bars in the entry hall make it so that the acoustics are funky and conversations aren't the easiest to hear. They have long tables so unless you're lucky with your timing, you're stuck at a communal table bumping shoulders with two strangers... These aren't LARGE communal tables like Nopa... these are regular 4-6-8 tops! Food wise it was beautifully presented but not super "authentic." Been curd shrimp rolls - interesting take on the traditional dim sum treat. Dipping sauce was lack luster. It normally is served with black vinegar or the Asian Worcestershire sauce. They served it with a chemically tasting sweet and sour. Taiwanese rice noodles - not authentic at all. They used jump huge dried shrimp in there. House Special Tofu Clay Pot - Definitely have had better! Mongolian Beef - Presentation was beautiful, the flavor was good but the beef was sliced in such large pieces that I had to gnaw my way through. Prep chefs need a refresher on knife skills! Overall it was an okay experience for Chinese food in PA. Hostess was very pleasant and service was good. I'd recommend taking out the funky hallway near the tables so that the waiting diners aren't staring at the ones eating while "caged in" with the wooden slats. They could adjust the floor plan so that more tables are placed and use more two tops that can easily be moved to accommodate the occasional large party instead of forcing smaller parties to use communal tables.
(3)E S.
This review is based solely on the service...or lack thereof. I had high hopes for this eatery. It looked clean, open, and classy for a dim sum joint. The vegetarian options also lured us in because it's a rarity to find in Chinese cuisine. Anyhow, as we were walking up, a pushy guy cut us off outside and demanded that, what seemed like the only waiter, seat him. The waiter looks over the guys shoulder at us, glared questioningly at my husband, and waved us inside. He wanted us to bypass a family with small children waiting patiently by the "please wait to be seated" sign. This all felt wrong, and without any exhange of greeting or direction, my husband and I chose to fall back and wait behind the other family. We waited...waited...the other family finally got seated. The waiter seemed to forget about us but then a slightly friendlier busboy decided to approach us and seat us and grabbed a highchair for my toddler. More waiting...waiting. The restaurant wasn't even all that packed. Finally, the cocky waiter comes over, flings a couple menus in front of us and plopped a couple glasses of water down for us--no offer of water for the kid. Whatever, I can share with her. But then, we watched him casually strut around without so much as a smile for anyone or anything, off in his own dickfaced world as I, and others, tried to catch his attention to place an order. He walked by many times with what seemed like a well rehearsed avoidance turn when we tried to get his attention. We aren't the kind of people to yell out for service or be overly assertive, nor should we have to be. We had a bunch of food just ready to be ordered, and we kept sitting there hopeful that another waiter would emerge from the back, but finally, an antsy toddler and the fact that we were so irritated by constantly being ignored, we chose to walk out. This jerk of a waiter didn't deserve a cent of tip and I'm so sorry for this restaurant if this is the first and only face available to represent its food. The whole experience was so off putting that I doubt I'd have any interest in giving it another chance. To the owner of Steam: please staff your restaurant with more than one waiter on a Friday night. Especially if the only waiter you're going to have on the floor is completely avoidant and rude. We decided to give our money to a family friendly sushi joint next door that delivered impeccable service and appreciated our business. Trying to give my money to Steam was a complete waste of 45 minutes of my life.
(1)Jose A.
I like going to Chinatown for its cheap dumplings and food but the food here is an upgrade in terms of quality i.e less greasy.I also like the Singaporean noodles.
(4)Michael W.
Not bad. But the portions are so small!! Honestly, this is pretty good for Asian food in Palo Alto, and I would come back. I came at 6pm on a Tuesday to find my friend already sitting down at a 6 person table. There wasn't really many other people in the restaurant at 6pm. The rest of our 6 person party filed in shortly. We got: Har Gow - decent Shanghai Dumplings - okay Scallop Dumplings - decent Siu Mai Steamed Pork Buns - alright Hot and Sour Soup - decent, could have been spicier/more sour Vegetable Clay Pot - Pretty good, a lot of tofu Vegetarian Fried Rice - Pretty good actually! A lot of flavor for using.. purple rice? Everything was pretty decent, and I liked the fried rice a lot even though it was some kind of colored rice. I wish there was a Chinese menu.. the order receipt comes in Chinese, so why isn't it on the menu?!
(3)Shauna M.
FANTASTIC!!!!!!! Delicious, great menu, fantastic service, very cool interior and great location on main street in downtown Palo Alto. Very reasonable prices given the area and good portions. I highly recommend giving this place a try!!!
(5)A C.
Why this place doesn't have higher stars is strange to me. No more driving all the way to cupertino's A&J restaurant for yummy noodles, this place has fresher/leaner meat and the broth, oh my! Very flavorful and perfect! Had the spinach dim sum, yummy!
(5)Henry L.
Came here for lunch and walked away with a total "meh" feeling. On the one hand it's got some fancy decor. For a restaurant in the heart of Palo Alto, it's pretty decent Chinese. On the other hand, compared to all other Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area and even the so-so dim sum places, this place just doesn't really stack up. We really wanted to get a sense of their dim sum -- which was a very limited selection of 10 items. We ordered every single item on that list... which shouldn't be that surprising but it was to the waiter. They are most definitely having their birthing pain right now. Service was painfully slow. We had to ask for things multiple times. Things like menu, water, place settings, the usual important items. Our dishes also did not arrive in a timely manner. When we were paying our last dim sum dish arrived. It would've been nice to have arrived with its 9 other siblings. As far as the food quality/quantity, it wasn't that great. The XLB skins were too thick and stuck to the paper. It pretty ruins the XLB. The cha shu bao skin was a little too chewy. I was expecting for more fluffy. Each item is only $3, but the portion was also a little smaller than most places. I'd say about 15-25% smaller than the average dim sum in Cupertino. Bottom line: I was not impressed. Decor is pretty, but it also makes the place crazy loud. Service was poor (I assume it'll get better). The food quality was totally subpar for dim sum in the Bay Area.
(2)erika c.
The food is good but expensive and the service BLOWS. Our order took forever, the servers hardly ever came by, and one of the women clearly hates her job. If you have time constraints, don't bother.
(3)Stephanie C.
Steam is a nice and fancy restaurant, different from most dim sum places. Don't expect those carts full of food to be rolling around this restaurant! We were seated along the table right next to the kitchen so we got to see them cooking and making the Xiao Long Bao. The dish that really stood out to us was the Braised Beef Noodle Soup. The noodles were just alright, but the broth was one of the best I've ever had! The meat was also very flavorful. I would definitely recommend it to everyone since the amount of food you get for the price is way higher for this dish than the dim sum dishes. We ordered the Bean Curd Shrimp Roll - my boyfriend's and my favorite dim sum dish. It was a little different than other dim sum places, longer and rounder. They were also slightly less fried, but I liked it better than most that I've had. It felt like there was a lot more shrimp and veggies with a thin layer of bean curd. The Siu Mai was pretty good, but very tiny. As were the Fried Shrimp Balls. We finished with the egg custard buns. Also good, but not great. The Braised Beef Noodle Soup and the Bean Curd Shrimp Roll are the reason why I gave Steam 4 stars; the other 3 dishes we ordered were probably just 3 stars.
(4)Catherine N.
I love that you can come to Steam and get dim sum at any hour of the day. This place is casual but still super trendy and modern looking. I feel super classy sitting in this restaurant, but it is super casual at the same time! Best of both worlds. I love all of the dumplings, and the shanghai dumplings. I also love the mussels with black bean sauce, since it is something that I am always craving, strangely, and I'm glad now there is a place that I can get it! It's a great place to come with other people and share! We had a team lunch here and it was a good bonding experience as well!
(4)Melanie L.
We wandered in off of University Ave drawn by the nice design, outdoor seating, and yummy menu. The service was mediocre and the food took forever, especially for dim sum. When the food arrived it was quite good. We ordered all of the basic dim sum and my favorite was the chives and seafood. I absolutely love sesame balls and was eager for dessert so I could have some crispy sweet goodness. They were good but not outstanding. Not quite cooked enough but not bad. We enjoyed the great location and watching the people stroll down the street.
(3)C r.
Food is OK. We've been 3 times in the last few months. Will go back. Downside...very noisy from open kitchen. Would be better off if they put up glass walls. Don't go on a cold night as the door never stays closed and most tables get the cold air rushing in.
(3)Grace T.
If a place is going to charge Yank Sing prices, their dim sum better be spectacular. Unfortunately Steam's dishes were only okay - I can't even compare them to normal dimsum because on top of that, some dishes seemed very confused (were they supposed to be fusion? Did the chefs just make stuff up?). Portions were TINY. $15 for a main dish anywhere else would get at *least* double the amount we received here. Waiters got out order wrong and don't speak English well. They tried though. The only thing they really got going for them is a nice ambience, but I came here for food. Very limited selection of dim sum. Definitely avoid if you are trying to get authentic dim sum or Chinese food.
(2)Aya J.
So here is my pros/cons analysis of the Steam: Pros: -nice interior -good location -couple tables are available outside -decent Chinese food Cons: -service is bad ( we waited for our server forever, and actually had to walk to one of the servers ourselves) -very limited service- no suggestions, no explanations- good if u know what u want and don't care that your server doesn't understand when u ask for wooden chopsticks -we ordered beer, which never came, but surprisingly appeared on the bill -dim sum and potstickers are way smaller than I've seen before.. The price is unfortunately not proportional...
(3)Dave C.
Food was ok, but as a table of vegans it wasn't very easy to figure out what we could safely order. I hated the dry erase menu system. They brought 4 to the table, but then made us consolidate our orders onto 1. Plus the marker didn't mark very well. The Counter does this kind of self service order form much better. Also the acoustics were pretty awful. Lots of hard surfaces make it a real echo chamber for noise.
(2)Anna G.
Very slow service. We waited for food for like an hour and 20 minutes for a change. Food is good, service is bad
(3)K L.
I love dim sum on a Sunday so instead of our usual dim sum spot, we stopped here since its fairly new and wanted to check it out. The decor is modern and clean with open kitchen. Their menu is pretty simple, it has dim sum (not full dim sum menu tho), noodles, and other main dishes. We ordered most of dim sum dishes like har gow, shanghai, spinach, mushroom, shrimp ball, chives, pot stickers, sticky rice... Etc but I have to say, I would not come back here for any of the dim sum. Only thing I will come back for (only if I'm really desperate & starving) are string bean dish and fried chicken wings, these were pretty good. Also the service was pretty bad. We ordered tea ($2.00 per person) and one of the tea cup was really dirty and when I pointed that out to our waiter, he said nothing and just took the cup!! The waiter never ask you if you need anything, they will just bring you the food you ordered and give you the check at the end. I didn't expect such a poor service and dissatisfying food here... I hope they do improve but I doubt I will be coming back.
(2)Katharine A.
I was excited to eat here. I've seen lots of places go in and out of this space over the years and I got a little spring in my step the first time I passed by...Dim Sum in Palo Alto was a good concept. Execution was a bit different. First, the space is just poorly done. The tables (mostly communal) are too close together and just uncomfortable. I was jostled more than once by the waiter when we were eating. The slats lining the entry and the dining area just serve as awkward barriers to both customer and waiter. Very bad idea indeed! Design standpoint may have been approved for looks, but it FAILS in function. The service was really, really slow. Inconsistent and just bad. The server was really friendly, but the food came out cold and just wasn't good. The dishes we got didn't seem house made. Dim Sum wasn't up to par with other more authentic places. I want this place to succeed, but they have to try a lot harder if they want to.
(2)Vivian W.
Came here once a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty empty for most of the meal (before noon), but the second time I came for take out only around 12:30 pm, it was really packed. I was told to come back in 15 minutes for my take out but it actually took them over 30 minutes (largely due to the pan fried chive dumplings). I've only really had the dim sum. It's a limited selection including har gow, siu mai, chive dumplings with seafood, spinach with seafood dumplings, etc. At $3 a plate, it's not expensive compared to your nearby options (since Tai Pan charges nearly double for most dishes). On the other hand, despite being overpriced, Tai Pan offers excellent dim sum while Steam's is only average. But the pickings are slim in downtown Palo Alto so I'll still probably go back, especially to try the other dishes!
(3)Gaurav J.
Atmosphere is not bad. Food is alright, but there are some serious misses. Service is quite poor and often rude.
(2)Meilin L.
I don't usually go out to eat Chinese food, because I know authentic Chinese food and it isn't authentic out there. BUT, I LOVE dim sum and if there's the opportunity to eat it, I am ALL for it. I had heard about Steam from a friend who praised their menu for being vegetarian-friendly. Yes, it's true. But I'm a meat and seafood eater, so that didn't really matter to me. My guest and I ordered the Singaporean rice noodles, sticky rice in lotus leaves, scallop and shrimp dumplings, shrimp and spinach dumplings and vegetarian dumplings. The noodles were good, and so were the dumplings, but I don't know that they are good enough to warrant a return. However, I reaaaally liked the sticky rice. I could potentially go back just for that! It looks like other reviewers commented on the poor service, and I'll have to agree. I appreciate that in a time of drought the waiters will not refill our glasses of water, but having to repeatedly ask - almost 5 times - to get our glasses refilled was too much. It would also be nice to see a smile or two, to make us feel welcomed. Because yes, eating at a restaurant is also about the experience.
(3)Edward W.
3.5 stars My girlfriend found this new dimsum place so we decided to drop by and check it out. I ordered the braised beef noodle soup, bean curd shrimp roll, fried shrimp ball, and shiu mai. The braised beef noodle soup was actually a decent size. I didn't really like the noodles since they were kind of thin and mushy, but the broth was very flavorful. The lack of vegetables was a little disappointing although there was plenty of delicious beef. For the dimsum, I liked the bean curd shrimp roll, shiu mai, and fried shrimp ball in that order. The bean curd shrimp roll wasn't too fried, the shiu mai was mostly shrimp, and the fried shrimp ball was okay. Everything here seems to be miniaturized although the prices are about the same as normal dimsum. This place seems quite upscale for a dimsum place. I like that you can see into the kitchen and watch your food being made while you wait. I'd recommend the beef noodle soup and the bean curd shrimp roll.
(3)Alice C.
This place lacks the grimey and cheesy Chinese decor that has been prevalent in the bay area dim sum places. They serve a mixture of Taiwanese street eats and Cantonese dim sum. Yes, there are Shanghainese looking items on the menu, but from what I've had, I think it's the Taiwanese version of the same foods...it's complicated =p. The service is decent, except that they don't have a standard menu with Chinese on it yet, and the waiters don't seem to understand the English names of the items very well. Food was good. The beef brisket noodles were tender, not overly oily, and delicious. It was not spicy enough and didn't come with pickles, but for what it was, it was good. We also sampled an array of dim sum, from the spicy wontons (non-peanut version) and char siu bao, to the fried shrimp rolls. Everything was decent -- it was not overly authentic, but like the mister said, the food tasted fresh. Much fresher than other dim sum places would offer. It's a nice casual place to get some dim sum without having to deal with the rush and queue at other places. You're not getting the "real deal", but hey, if it tastes good, does it matter?
(4)Marina N.
There were 5 people at the place, but the server did not find time to check on us for a single time while we were waiting for our food for 30 min. Neither I got my tea that requires no cooking I suppose. After 30 min of waiting I grabbed the server and asked why we did not get our food or even tea. I got no apologies or explanation. We waited a few more minutes and had to leave the place. What a disgraceful service. Never again. Never.
(1)Bob C.
I've never written a review just based on eating leftovers. But now I am. My girlfriend brought home three boxes of leftovers from Steam, and I ate them for dinner. I didn't even bother heating them up, but they were all excellent. In fact, their leftovers are better than most restaurants' fresh-from-the-kithen dishes. I will definitely try dining in sometime. What I had was very, very tasty.
(4)Amanda L.
I came here for dimsum and it was NOT good. The steamed dumplings tasted like they had just been defrosted - they were soggy and completely fell apart as soon as you picked them up. The shumai was not tasty, and the pork buns were also pretty meh. The mapo tofu was the only redeeming part of the meal.
(2)Pete S.
Chinese cuisine the way it was meant to be. Best dim sum in Palo Alto, possibly the bay area. Fresh ingredients, and you know this not just because of the taste and texture of your food, but the kitchen is open and you can see the chefs preparing your meal.
(5)David J.
Their food deserves three stars, but I'm deducting two stars for the slow, slow service. I sat out front, where the wait staff were seldom seen. I had to wait 10 minutes to order and then 50 minutes more for my meal to arrive. If I hadn't flagged down a waiter and complained I think I may have been there all day. The couple next to me sat down at the same time as me and were finished eating and getting up to leave when my food finally arrived. Then after finishing my meal and putting a napkin over my plate I waited another 10 minutes for the check to arrive. Fortunately, I had a good book to read. But I was annoyed at the way I was treated. No apologies from them, and no tip from me.
(1)Alia S.
I am generally pumped at the idea of having easy access to a dim dum place, however, Steam disappointed. I went there for a quick to-go fix. I got a bunch of shrimp har gow, and another dumpling with mushrooms, and a sweet bean paste bun. Not inedible food, but...bleh. The rice wrappers had no "chew" to them--they kind of fell apart at first bite in a grainy way. No me gusta. I hardly even remember the other dumplings. Same experience with the wrappers, but at that point I had given up any hope of really enjoying the flavors, and just needed to get some food in my stomach. As a side note, for to-go the wait time was suuuuuper long. And they got part of my order wrong, but I just said it was fine because I didn't want to wait any longer. I guess I would try it again, if a friend really wanted to go there, but otherwise I'd just forget about it.
(2)Que F.
Pros - At the counter facing the kitchen, you can see the flawless execution of the 3 chefs in the front. 2 at the wok and the other one gathering the ingredients in small stainless steel bowls as the order pour in. - The wok chefs worked effortlessly in pretty tight space between the range and the island. - The garlic pea sprouts came out perfect, cooked just right - not too overdone and not too over salted - The green beans with preserves were quite good, could be spicier - The vegetables sautéed with chicken came out perfect - Steamed mushroom (vegetarian) dim sum excellent - nice and hot - but did not get served until half way through the dinner - Fresh food, nice ambiance, and clean - Food was served in decent amount of wait (except in wrong order) Cons - We ordered dim sum for appetizer and the first dish we got was the green beans with preserves steaming hot but no rice. We had to wait for the rice to arrive before starting - The vegetarian egg rolls were most likely fried in over used oil and had a very strong taste - Pricey (but then again it's Palo Alto)
(4)Diane W.
Solid food, good service. Comfortable decor. Much higher price tags than usual Chinese/dim sum restaurants, but it's a place you can do a business lunch at, so that's what you're paying for. Their vegetarian options for dim sum is quite impressive.
(4)Heather E.
We had 6 of the dishes and I didn't enjoy one of them. I would not come back here. Very pricey too
(1)Jisoo Y.
This is one of my favorite restaurant. I like dimsum but you have to try Szechun style tiger prawns. They are so fresh and spicy but yummy. The interior of the restaurant is modern and clean, the staff are very friendly.
(5)Ilian G.
Delicious even if dim sum selection is not as expansive as other places. I was worried initially that it might not be authentic - fear not! Legit.
(4)Wow Z.
This place has the worst service ever. It was empty when we arrived - 3 tables seated in the entire place. Sat down and took ten minutes for them to even acknowledge us. Ordered tea and a few other small dishes. Waitress too busy checking her phone to even bring the tea. After 30 mins of waiting for our food, we asked what was going on. 10 mins later, no acknowledgement so just got up and left. Terrible - never again.
(1)Jing H.
This is basically a Chinese dim sum place, but relatively expensive, (maybe reasonable since it is on University Ave.) The food quality is good, very tasty, and nice food presentation. Atmosphere is nice too. I had fun here hanging out with friends. We girls paid about $25/person.
(3)Swe B.
They have really good dimsum which is why I trek out here for a post work treat. But the service is appalling! I came here today to eat their dimsum - I was on my own and not too hungry so only ordered one order with tea and was rudely told that they couldn't serve me because it didn't meet the minimum. No mention of minimum £¥ anywhere. And it wasn't so much the rule as it was the way it was told to me. Downright rude! I come here fairly often and you'd imagine that they'd want to keep that going, but no bite. If their sesame balls weren't this good, I really would rate this place a -15.
(2)Harshal R.
Has a awkward sitting (4 different parties of 2 people shared table for 8) Awful service. We didn't get bowl with the soup (which was served in very large container) . "Kitchen is busy, maybe after some time " is what our waitress told us when we asked for a bowl. Giving 2 stars only because food was decent.
(2)Nigel J.
Went with the family and were surprised by how good the food is - very fresh - delicious. One snag - our first dish came out and sat on the table for at least five minutes before the essential other dishes came out. The servers just shrugged off our questions. So some kind of issue there. But ... very good food ... will definitely go back.
(4)Joyce R.
This is a hard review to write, because this is our fourth visit and we have loved the food each time. The selections are always delicious and we enjoy our meals here, however the service was so poor tonight it was distressing. We were there early--around 5.15 and the place was not yet full, but it was hard to get a waiter's attention to order, the waiter was not around to assist us through the meal, and it took quite awhile to get served. I hope this was a one-time problem, because I enjoy this place so much.
(2)Jennifer D.
I love the food here. Steamed spinach seafood dumplings ...scallop dumplings ...any dumplings are amazing if you like dim sum. Try the string beans too! Great patio on a cold night ...the heaters are mega HOT. Service is just ok.
(4)Tee W.
I walked in hoping for something light and tasty. Oh YEAH DIM SUM in Palo Alto! I love dumplings and this new place is close to where I live, so I was hoping it would be at least good enough to become a regular spot for me. Sadly the service was so bad, I left without ordering. When I walked in, the waitress passed by me with no eye contact. Then another male waiter passed by, and obviously avoided looking my way. Like, I KNEW he saw me standing there. Finally, another waiter was about to walk by me so I stepped out and I asked if I could just sit down at the "bar" area where you can watch the chefs cook. She looked confused and was speechless, looking wildly around for help, until finally some older guy came up with a smile and "sure sure sit there". Are they AFRAID of customers??? The place wasn't that busy - only about half the tables were filled. I sat down, which was a bit awkward - not like you're sttting at a sushi bar - more like sitting facing a wall. Finally someone came and cleaned my dirty area (I was the only one at the counter), and handed me a menu. Then the real waiting began. I quickly picked what I wanted (you write it with a marker on the menu), and then I sat and sat, although there were 6 wait staff in the restaurant making every effort to avoid making eye contact. Finally, after getting out my iPHone and spending 10 minutes on YELP reading the other reviews of the terrible service and having to wait 45 minutes AFTER ordering, I decided to bolt. Nobody even noticed my leaving, much less asked me to stay.... Doesn't matter how good the food is if you can't get service. These people need some SERIOUS intervention in the service department. Clearly these folks have not figured out how to manage customers. Another review talked about how nobody greeted them at the door either. Well, they still haven't fixed that. Maybe they aren't savvy enough to even read their YELP reviews and try to improve? The chefs looked like they knew what they were doing - the food they were cooking looked and smelled good, but the other reviews said the portions were extremely small for the price. I don't even care about that if the food is tasty. If they fix their service issues, I would love to go back and try. I'll be watching YELP to see if things improve...
(1)R. B.
As my husband and myself are walking towards our fav sushi bar, we came upon Steam. We looked at the menu on the outside and we noticed they have Dim Sum! We love Dim Sum, so we opted to eat here. As we walk in about 11:30 on a Friday for lunch, we were greeted and seated right away. Our server was friendly and mostly attentive. We ordered a variety of Dim Sum including: *Pea shoot and prawn dumpling ~ what a mouthful of joy! Fresh and tasty; we add a lil bit of the chili sauce on the table and hit a home run! *Spinach and Seafood dumpling ~ also very tasty *Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai ~ one of our all time fav dim sum ~ loved it, just like I remember *Steamed BBQ bun ~ not a big fan of the "bun" but it was spiced right, very light in texture and quite a tasty filling *Braised Beef Noodle soup ~ they use the more chewier pieces of beef, which is ok, but the broth in this soup is phenomenal! Very good. The ambience is nice although the tables are a bit close to each other so we overheard the whole conversation from the neighboring table who were talking loud. I don't believe they could see us, LOL We both liked this place. We will go again to try more Dim Sum!!
(4)Erica A.
jasmine beef fried rice. bbq pork puns. hot & sour soup. :) really nice outside under the heater on a cold day.
(5)Sophers M.
This place is really swanky and cute, and I love the outside seating area. I went with a friend and had the broccoli beef and chow fun. The broccoli beef was good, the meat fresh and lean and everything was well-seasoned. The chow fun, however, tasted almost burnt, though the noodles were a nice consistency and the vegetables in the dish were good also. I'm guessing the sauce just burned or there wasn't enough of it. May try this place again to give it another shot.
(3)Gayathri K.
Food is great but the service is terrible!!! The most unfriendly people Ever !!! They even ignore you when you ask for something! The wait staff seems to care less about people who eat here!! I give it 4 stars only because I love the food. It's been fresh and tasty during every visit. Kids love it too! If you are craving real dim sum, find an authentic dim sum place.
(4)Yesenia B.
At about 1pm today, my husband and I were walking down university and hoping to try something new. We were in the mood for Chinese and we walked right by Steam, saw the menu and decided to give it a try. We checked out Yelp, read good things about the food and proceeded to walk in and stand along the left wall, waiting for someone to acknowledge and seat us. Unfortunately, we stood along the left wall for almost 10 minutes without so much as a "hello". We read on Yelp several others saying the food was good but service is poor. And today, we sadly confirmed that. We will never visit again and can't recommend anyone else patron this establishment. It's sad to continue to see how many people do not understand that the customer experience is more than just having nice food and chic decor. Service is the reason business will succeed or fail and this restaurant is guaranteed to fail soon unless they take specific measures to delver better service. I don't expect this restaurant to be in business next year. Most restaurants fail and competition is too high to have poor service in today's world. A simple, "Hello! Welcome to Steam. We will be right with you." is free to give but today cost them my business and earned them a poor review on Yelp and Facebook. One waiter walked back and forth past us several times as he cleared a front table and brought food to tables. Another waiter walked past us several times refilling water. Yet another person was attending orders in the computer. None of them even had the decency to look is in the eye or greet us. We left very disappointed without even a glimpse of attention from anyone on the staff. I truly hope that being a 20s African American married couple had nothing to do with why we were not served, but that's the problem when things are handled poorly. We are left to wonder why we were not ever acknowledged and sad we did not get served. Avoid this place.
(1)Shannon L.
Definitely a lovely atmosphere. Our waitress didn't understand us at all so it was hard to communicate but since it wasn't busy it was fine. Not really what I would call a DimSum place - more like Asian fusion. Good food and prices were okay.
(3)H. H.
Food was pretty good, service at the start was friendly and quick. After the food was delivered, however, we never saw our waiter again (when we wanted more drinks or the check) and we had to aggressively wave him over for several minutes when it was time to pay and leave. If you like a restaurant that is as noisy as a night club, then this is the place for you. Terrible acoustics, loud chairs scraping on the floor the entire time, hard to talk with the other people at my table. When we walked out after lunch, it was like walking out of a night club. For this reason alone, I'm not going back.
(2)Peyman M.
Steam is overpriced. A little fancy decor doesn't mean this Chinese food is any better than a myriad other places nearby. The food is average at best. Service is also average to poor. A final thing to note: if you complain about a dish and send it back, you are likely to get back a re-made dish that is exactly the same except that it is about 25% smaller portion. Just so you know.
(2)Roee A.
Great food, great service. After we had amazing BBQ pork buns our waiter ran after us for two blocks to return sunglasses we forgot.
(4)HB S.
Tasty, fresh dim sum and chinese entrees. But the restaurant design is poor - there are zig-zag wood panels in all directions, so sound is just reflected everywhere and you hear everything at once, making it very difficult to understand people at your own table. People literally have to yell to be heard by people they are sitting next to, which of course adds to the noise problem. Looks nice, but the wood is not functional.
(4)Shervin Z.
amazing food. probably the best Asian food I've ever had. very flavorful. Shu Mai was amazing and the chow mein and the spicy chicken. make sure to ask for vegetable chow mein while you are there because it is delicious and you will not find it on the menu. It is a must go in Palo Alto.
(5)Jennifer C.
Really good food but awful service. The table next to us had their desert brought out first. My soup came out first but my companion's soup came out after they brought out a few dishes. It took a while to get the bill and we had to wait about 10 minutes after we finished to get the desert we ordered at the beginning. We ate mainly the dim sum. As a fan of dim sum, the food was good but there were not that many dim sum options.
(4)Tiffany H.
Yum!! The two of us had: chive shrimp dumplings bbq pork buns xiaolong bao spicy seafood noodle with wine szechuan chicken The dumplings were all slightly smaller than standard chinese restaurants, but very delicious. The seafood noodle was a great deal at $8, full of yummy fresh seafood. However, the noodles were a let down, almost spaghetti like in texture. Fresh noodles, please! Chicken was flavorful Rice and tea comes with extra fees. Total pre tip was $30, and we were stuffed to the brim. Will definitely return to try other dishes.
(4)Michael W.
For those of you living in Palo Alto, you know that there are no good dim sum places around (except for Taipan which is ridiculously overpriced). Steam helps to fulfill those cravings if you don't want to drive all the way to Cupertino. Came here for dim sum at 11am on a Sunday, was not crowded until around 12:30pm. The decor is very modern with an open kitchen. You order from a menu, which is then prepared, instead of ordering from carts. The dim sum menu is a bit limited, we ended up getting most of the items - har gow (shrimp dumpling), siu mai, pork bun, crispy shrimp roll, vegetable spring roll, fried shrimp ball, seafood dumpling, pan-fried chive dumpling, custard buns, black sesame balls, green beans, and HK fried noodles. All of the dishes that they had were pretty decent, though not to the level of what you'd find if you go farther for real dim sum places. However, the food tastes less greasy and salty, so it feels like it's healthier for you (didn't have food coma after lunch). Dim sum was $3 per order with 3 items per order. Overall, pretty good fix for dim sum that is close for the Palo Alto area (much better than Ming's), but choices are limited and not as good as farther dim sum places in Cupertino.
(3)Mae S.
Basic dim sum, great taste but small portions and pricey. $2.00 per person for tea? Crispy calamari was doughy (where's the calamari?) Excellent eggplant, basil beef, mango pudding. What's with the service? Guess we did not order fast enough. She gave us the evil eye when we said we needed more time. The waitress was trying to get us out the door. When we ordered dessert, she asked us to take it out so she could have the table. When we asked her to cut the pieces for us, she refused. No smiles, just plain grumpy. Why tip her?
(3)Ilana C.
This review is for their service exclusively. We came in just to get dessert. We volunteered to sit at the counter to not take up space because we saw they were busy and we weren't going to order much. after 10 minutes, no one had given us menus or water or spoken to us. i asked the bus boy for some menus. after 20 minutes, we flagged down a waiter and we ordered just a couple desert dim sum items and my husband ordered tea. after 35 minutes, we got the dim sum and tea. we weren't in a rush so we weren't upset. i noted that i would probably never come here for dinner because i would not be happy waiting over 30 minutes for food. We of course never got asked if we wanted more hot water for the tea or if we wanted anything else. eventually we managed to pay by flagging down a waiter twice. in addition to this mess, they charged us double for tea. which, by the way, a Chinese place charging $2 for tea? it should be free. it turns out its $2 per person. even if only one person orders and you only get one pot, they will charge you for everyone at the table. RIDICULOUS. i actually asked them to drop it since only my husband had tea. they said that was their policy to always charge per person. the dim sum we had was good, but nothing extraordinary. not sure why i would come here over mountain view and cupertino.
(2)Jean M.
Decor: 4 It's got clean line design which looks good but Atmosphere: 3, depends. Audio does not work for an eatery. The hard surface tends to bounce sound around and I couldn't hear what people around me were saying half the time. Also, if it's a bit nippy outside, don't sit near the door. It's nice looking place tho. Service: 2. It took forever to get our food. The dim dum & appetizers came at 35 minutes and the main dish at 55. If you are in a rush or are hungry, this is not the place. Food: 4. The food was well prepared and flavorful. Definitely Hong Kong style. However, a bit in the salty side, so if you have high blood pressure, avoid. Overall: a solid 3, if you have time to spend enjoying a leisurely dim sum style dinner.
(3)Emily R.
Nice decor. Good food, but the portion is too small compare to other dim sum places.
(4)Donald E.
Just left Steam STEAMED! Owner's intent with the name? Probably not, but fitting. Ordered Tso Chicken (they make you mark your own order form) and waited 25 minutes on a very not-busy Saturday early afternoon for Kung Pao Chicken to be served. Huh? I won't be going back.
(1)Viktor P.
[Brief summary for the time-pressed available at the bottom.] I just visited Steam for the second and final time. I had heard of a new Asian restaurant on University Avenue, so I thought I had to try it out. The first time I went I was only there briefly; what I remember is that the food was good but the portions were rather small, especially for the price. Today, I had a full meal there and was unfortunately quite disappointed. Nevertheless, I will start with the positive: the food itself is good, and they also have a wide menu that covers many top-hits of general east-Asian food. The waitstaff was accommodating and helpful. Unfortunately, that's about it. For the negative: first, the food was extremely slow to appear. The appetizers came after a long time, and it was still longer after they were cleared away before we saw the first entree. For a type of restaurant like this, 25-30 minutes is just too long. And the first entree came alone. Other entrees trickled in at about 3-4 minute intervals, and the portions were small enough that, after we gave up waiting for everyone's food to come to start eating, most of our party finished their meal before others had eaten a bite of food. The combination of portions too small for the price and the speed (or lack thereof) with which the food arrived did not make for a very positive experience. When the check arrived, we found a 19% service charge applied on top of the tax for our party of 6. We had a number of problems with this: (1) We were given no notice that any service charge would be applied to any size party. There was no indication on the menu, and no indication at the front of the restaurant. In fact, there was no indication at all. (2) We were a party of 6. Applying such a heavy service charge on such a small party seemed inappropriate. (3) The service charge was calculated on top of the tax, which is a noticeable increase. To put it in perspective, the average entree costs about $12 and the average appetizer costs $4.80, as of December 2013. A family of 4 ordering one entree each with a single appetizer and no drinks would pay a mandatory service fee of $10.88 on top of 8.5% sales tax. All in all, we did not feel the restaurant acted transparently or candidly with this charge. Summary for the time-pressured: While Steam does offer a variety of good menu items and has accommodating and helpful waitstaff, the very slow and intermittent service, as well as the small portions in conjunction with high prices, and an additional 19% after-tax surcharge on top of all this make it a poor choice.
(1)Ana B.
Pros: great food, inexpensive, friendly atmosphere, location Cons: slow service, missed items on menu (heard other customers commenting on their orders as well), smaller dish sizes (which I am OK with but other may not agree). Summary: great potential after initial quirks are ironed out
(4)Trader H.
beef noodle soup is pretty good
(4)Rob C.
not bad for the area. very nice decor, but expensive prices. nobody really wants to pay $3 for dim sum, such as only 3 crispy and oily shrimp chive dumplings. also avoid the cha siu bau, off, gooey tasting. tried chicken eggplant claypot and beef noodle soup. stir fry dishes seem ok, of course not a "cooking papa" level, but for palo alto, taipan is it, so this is their alternate place with a fair number of americanized dishes for a short menu.
(3)Izam H.
so, the braised beef noodle soup is really great, and so does duo eggs seafood stir fried rice. dim sum is just so so, might be a lone line during dinner time, the best time to enjoy food here is prolly between 5 and 6.
(4)David S.
I usually go for dim sum on Castro Street in Mountain View but decided to try a new place so came to Steam. Big mistake. Started off ok, but a few dishes in and it felt like some of the dumplings had not been steamed enough since the filling was mushy and not fully cooked. Got the Shanghai dumplings and bit in only to find that the filling was cold. After spitting it out realized that it was still raw. Having raw pork in your mouth is not fun. I am just hoping that I do not get food poisoning. Told the manager and they didn't offer any fix. Five minutes later, I saw that the couple two tables down had the same problem and returned three dishes. I will never come back to this place again. I guess that is what you get when you want to try a cleaner place and enjoy the University Street ambiance. Drive a little further to Mountain View for good dim sum.
(1)j b.
The restaurant is quite chic and decorated in a modern style and the service was good. Unfortunately, the food was pretty bad. Not awful. Just not good. The dumpling dough was mealy and wet. The dumplings themselves were not tasty. Their "haw gow" was the best of the bunch and it was only ok. We had their "HK" style chow mein which was better than the dumplings but not worth a visit by itself. We won't be back.
(2)Caroline P.
I had lukewarm expectations given the reviews I had seen, but the food was very good - not too oily and quite tasty. The dim sum is just OK, but the other dishes are great. Definitely worth trying!
(5)Han C.
Just had my first experience at this place and the food was delicious. I was surprised by their calamari and eggplant -- foods that I normally don't like, but this place cooked them so well that they melted in my mouth and had excellent flavor. We didn't order too much of their dim sum options, but the overall experience I had here was great. I really liked everything that was ordered including mushroom beef, some kind of fried fish, and shrimp+egg+tofu on a sizzling platter, The atmosphere is pretty and exceptionally clean for a chinese restaurant with quality. My only complaint is that the portion size what a bit small. The prices seem reasonable for the area in my opinion.
(4)B. P.
We have been to steam on many occasions now. We are never disappointed with the food and have tried most things on the menu. Prices are good. Service can be spotty, but it has improved significantly since they have opened.
(4)Lisa H.
We can't comment on the food because the service was so terrible that we were driven out. We came in on a Sunday morning when literally 3 tables were occupied. We had a party of 2 but asked for a 4-top because we intended on ordering a lot of food. First the waitress pushed back on the request but offered us a 4-top inside. Then AFTER we sat down, with my husband in CRUTCHES and clearly having difficulty moving, some guy comes and asks us to move again. They had an empty restaurant and NO ONE waiting!!!
(1)Miranda S.
This is a place that LOOKS like an upscale, sophisticated joint -- what with its glass walls, teak interior and clean styling -- but is really just that greasy hole-in-the-wall Chinese place found in Everytown, USA. Menu is limited, everything is cooked in way too much oil. Well, the potstickers are OK but my husband had the beef and broccoli and it was extremely gristle-y. I had the spicy eggplant in the pot, which had really good gingery seasoning but was swimming in oil. We both had heartburn afterward.
(1)Dean H.
Decent but no comparison to more authentic dim sum places. Clean, good service. Tasty hot sauce.
(3)Catherine W.
This place really surprised me, given the location. The food was excellent, the quality of the ingredients was terrific. My favorite was the tofu and mushroom dish, as well as the green beans and thousand layer cake. Interior was clean and orderly, service was pretty prompt, and the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. I'm totally going again.
(4)Penny C.
The seafood noodle soup is descent but don't bother with beef chow fun. It's not worth $10. The portion is dim sum size but they charge full dish price. The atmosphere is pleasant but food is okay. Most likely won't go back again.
(2)C S.
Most authentic Chinese food I've had in the US. Try the shanghai dumplings.
(5)Karine M.
No organization for seating, no wait list. When we arrived and asked for a table outside, they told us we would have to wait 10-15 mins, we did. Came back, had to wait 10-15 more and still no seating. Agreed to dine inside, which isnt pleasant at all since it is reminiscent of a cafeteria where youre sitting way too close to everyone. Food is too pricy in my opinion for the tiny portioning. Had to fill up on rice. Ordered the "thousand layer cake", it tasted like sweetened starchy potato and corn mush, i don't know maybe this cake was too authentic for me haha but it was not good. Generally disappointed.
(2)Cindy C.
Clean and not greasy food. Recommend the black sesame balls. I love that you can get dim sum all day here!
(4)vafer t.
food was only so-so. there's so much better. if you want to pay for overpriced chinese, go to Mings. service was spotty at best. not just our table either as I saw 2 other tables having trouble as well. maybe because we were seated outdoors? either way, even if service was good, I'd still opt to go elsewhere.
(2)Kat Y.
This place definitely needs better restaurant management. We waited for 20 mins for the appetizer and 40 mins for the main dishes. We saw a lot of people looked frustrated since they had no food on the table after waiting for a long time. Some people raised their hands to try to get help from the waiters, but they totally got ignored. The table next to ours got their shui-mai completely RAW; UNCOOKED. We were so shocked. I hope the customers next to our table didn't get sick. I have had dim sum for at least 30 years in my life, and this is the first time I saw a dim sum restaurant served uncooked dishes. I was in awe. I checked the yelp review, and found on MARCH 1ST, there was ANOTHER customer also posted that he or she was served with RAW shui-mai. How can this restaurant made the same mistake TWICE within a week. Then I saw a lady offered a free dish to the other table to compensate the 2 raw dishes, however, there was no formal apology. They didn't even FOLLOW THROUGH to cook the two dishes of raw shui-mai. I saw the other customer waited for another 20 mins and finally decided to cancel the order. Anyway, as a bystander, this is what I observed and I think this restaurant needs a major re-organization. The owners also owns Tai Pan in Palo Alto. They should be somewhat experienced to run the second restaurant. I definitely think they need to hire more cooks in the kitchen, and hire more waiters to ensure all customers are well-taken off. I could see all the waiters and waitresses were really busy, but they were obviously short of hand. The bottom line is, it all comes down to a good restaurant management; and how you should run a restaurant professionally. One last thing, the menus are all wrinkled and need to be replaced with clean ones.
(2)Miles C.
I used to be a little iffy about this place but I have a few go-to dishes that are simply outstanding. - Szechuan chicken - Filet mignon beef cubes with Maggi sauce - Fried asparagus and prawns - Pork buns - Fried rice These are all consistently amazing, some of the best chinese food I've had in the Bay Area.
(5)Shani P.
Much of the food is awesome and for those dishes, I will happily come back again and again. The service is always a bit spotty but I don't care, they are always very friendly - it's just busy and they aren't very attentive. All that said, I have taken my kids there twice and they have been attentive enough that it was enjoyable. Pricing is a little high, especially for the vegetable dishes, but quality is good and it is always very fresh. A couple things to note: 1) Nothing really comes out in a specific order. Your entrees may come out before the dim sum items. That's just how things go there....so don't fight it, just embrace it. 2) The shanghai dumplings are amazing. The texture is a bit weird but the taste is very delicate. They are REALLY hot though, so let them cool a bit or you will burn your mouth badly. 3) Skip the won ton soup, it's not good. I have tried it more than once and unfortunately it wasn't just a bad day. :(
(4)Alan A.
I had beef ramen. It wasn't particularly delicious, belonging more in the typical range of Chinese restaurant dishes. The chilli was not very spicy either. However, I was impressed by their effort at serving healthier food; there wasn't too much oil. I also had har gau/prawn dumplings (虾饺). These came in petite portions, which served my appetite well given that the ramen was filling. I can imagine that the average American would expect to be served bigger portions, but regardless one might enjoy a meal here that seems healthier than the usual oily Chinese food.
(3)Henry L.
Not a bad chinese food place in downtown palo alto The place is actually quite nice. The price is actually pretty low when you consider it's right in downtown palo alto, and the food is definitely high quality. The dim sum is freshly steamed, the fried rice has just the right amount of oiliness, and the beef noodle soup has a pretty flavorful broth. The shu mai is Huge and meaty! And the shrimp dumplings are also large and watery. Overall, a pretty legit place. The decor is clean and bright, and the serve staff are all very friendly and quick. Overall, a pretty nice place to eat often!
(4)Persimmon V.
Great food, we sat outside, great service (except for the hiccup with getting something we didn't order). I'd definitely go back.
(4)Mike L.
A large group over coworkers wanted to stop by here while in town, so we had to check out the spot and order a variety of things. Overall, I wasn't terribly empressed. It isn't the best dim sum I've had and commands an above average price due to it's location. We ordered several different dishes and nothing really stuck out to me as memorable...if that says something. It felt like almost every dish tasted the same - bland and lacking dimension that good dim sum has. Service here is also pretty hit-or-miss. The staff is far from attentive, and it seems very disconnected. My water stayed empty for quite some time.
(3)Eric B.
I can't really think of a time when I haven't wanted to go to Steam. It never gets old, and everything on the menu is delicious. For the price, there is no better Asian food option in Palo Alto. The best thing to do in my opinion is get a bunch of different dishes and share them. The ambience is nothing special, but the food makes up for it. So worthy of five stars.
(5)Karla G.
It's hard to judge a restaurant when you are by yourself because the sample is so limited. I liked the menu, service, and atmosphere at Steam. My two dishes (some dumplings and a main course) were beautifully prepared and presented. I was happy eating both of them. But while the food was okay, it lack a certain something, a distinction that set the plates apart and above average. I'd happily eat here again, and I recommend it warmly. But I just can't get to four stars yet, though it's a close call. The value is good, and I'll be back for sure! Hopefully I'll get to give them an upgrade.
(3)Mansi A.
The dumpling offering enticed me into checking out Steam, but overall, this place is just OK. We tried the following items: - Vegetarian Pea Shoot Dumplings: Pretty tasty! I hadn't had pea shoot dumplings previously, so these were something new for the palate and the flavor was also great. - Vegetarian Mushroom Dumplings: The pea shoot ones are the way to go. These were lacking considerable flavor. - Hong Kong Pan Fried Noodles w/Chicken: I don't see this dish on other menus very often, so had to check out the crunchy noodles topped with a chicken and vegetable gravy. The dish came with a very small portion of chicken topping the noodles, so not all noodles were soaked in the gravy. It was less than stellar in terms of flavor, but was still nice to eat this dish after so long. - Szechuan Spicy Chicken: Your standard Chinese fare. Not spicy. Overall, the dumplings were OK, but nothing to really return for. All of the other dishes we ordered? Pretty much along the same lines. The food was good, but on the average side, and for the quantities served, pricey for what it's worth. However, this is University Ave, so that's somewhat expected, as well.
(3)Jeff C.
We went for dim sum this morning, arriving around 11:15am. It took 15 mins for the kitchen to start preparing our food, but everything was pretty good (except for the mushroom dim sum that I found a bit bland). Their dessert were yummy - and bonus points for having gluten-free soy sauce. Definitely a great alternative to schlepping to Koy Palace or NewPort Restaurant.
(4)Rochelle 'Shella' T.
It has a good location and good-sized resto along Palo Alto's busy street. They have good service and ambiance, but the food is too bland for my taste. Other than the Beef Noodle Soup, the other dishes that we tried were either bland or were mediocre. It's still a good place to grab some Asian fusion food. But I would prefer a more flavorful approach to the Xia Long Bao, Beef Fried Rice, Fried Prawn and Aspagrus than this place. It's good to bring young kids, since it's very casual and a lot of patrons also have young kids with them. The kids loved the Beef Noodle soup. We had 3 toddlers and one infant. The 3 toddlers ate most of the Beef Noodle soup. This place is good for families and friends, who are looking for Chinese fusion food. Based on experience, the 'play-safe' approach to the food, it will be an ok meal in a nice busy restaurant.
(3)Abigail L.
Don't ever get spicy seafood noodle soup... Disgusting......... I tried won ton soup before and it was disgusting too. I don't know what is wrong here Pan fried chives seafood dumplings were ok. But rest of them are not really recommended.
(1)Ken B.
The spicy chicken is great, but pricey. it was more reasonable before they raised the price. The pot-stickers are the best. I like to add chili oil to the sauce it comes with. Several times now, several of the chicken dishes have been so salty I could hardly eat them. dangerous for people with high blood pressure. One can always add salt, but the reverse is impossible. the ingredients are always very fresh. The beef noodle soup is very tasty. The wonton soup is good but so bland. It needs a few drops of toasted sesame oil. When I asked for some, I can't believe they told me they had NONE? The garlic spinach is very good, but you can choke on it because they don't cut the spinach. So far, It's the best Chinese food in Palo Alto. It is not the Americanized crap you normally find elsewhere.
(4)Alyx F.
Okay, first you need to set your expectations correctly: 1) Their food is expensive for dim sum. This is a very posh restaurant in Palo Alto and not your local hole in the wall dim sum joint. If you don't like that, then you should go to your local spot. 2) Their food may or may not be authentic, but the bottom line is that it was very good and I ate everything on my plate. Not a single bite of food was left over at the end of the meal. Alright, that being said, I really enjoyed my meal here! I was fortunate to have come on a night where their service was on-point (since I had read reviews about bad service here). We ordered everything to share, so I got to try a lot of different kinds of dumplings and also a noodle dish. Everything was very tasty - there wasn't a single dish that we got that I wouldn't have again. The dinner for 4 people came out to about $80 pre-tip. We had ordered probably 8 dishes total and we were all STUFFED when we were leaving. $20/person for dinner is high, but not unreasonable especially for Palo Alto. Could have ordered less too and that would have helped. :) I will be back when I'm in the area and craving some noodles or dumplings!
(5)Philippe A.
I had dinner there with my kids and I was very impressed with the quality of the food - I can honestly say this was the best Chinese food I've had in Palo Alto. We ordered all vegetarian and gluten-free dishes and every one was excellent. Notable dishes where the vegetable fried rice and the salt and pepper tofu. Highly recommended!
(5)Sierra M.
Very busy location on University in Palo Alto. They have a nice little area to eat outside, good for people watching really good dim sum! Specifically because the individual pieces are actually bite size and not falling all over your face while you eat! lol very tasty! I definitely recommend the Braised beef noodle soup YUMMY!
(4)Gizelle P.
Went here today for lunch. Ordered the har gow and the Hong Kong noodles with seafood. First of all I got shuttled to a corner to eat. I prefer people watching so I felt as though my experience was stifled. Har gow was tasty but the dumpling fell apart as soon as I touched it. And the sauce for the Hong Kong noodles was way too runny so it doesn't stay on the crunchy noodles like the dish usually entails. I wish I has gotten the beef noodle soup. Overall tasty though. I was a little confused as to what seafood I was eating. Prices here are way too expensive for the quality of food I got. Oh well, maybe it's just life in Palo Alto. Too bougie for me.
(3)Derick P.
We ordered the braised beef noodle soup and the har gow. Both were excellent. It's a bit small and there can be a long wait. But the ingredients were fresh and tasted really good and authentic. I would recommend if you are in mood for dim sum.
(4)Ali W.
I've walked by Steam for over a year and never thought of stopping in as dim sum is not high on my list. However, friends wanted to go today so I obliged. The ambience is a KILLER. PLEASE can you put something on the bottom of the chairs. The scraping and pulling across the floor along with loud echoing voices made me want to leave immediately. The noise is the worst part of the entire experience. Don't go if you want a quiet evening to communicate with friends. The Food: 1: The green beans were fantastic, I think I could have eaten the full bowl by myself. 2: The Singapore Noodles were okay - a bit tasteless. They needed more spice and more curry flavor desperately. 3. The beef with maggi was fabulous. Tender beef; beautifully cooked broccolli and delicious red onions made this a favorite for all of us. 4. There was other food ordered which I didn't try - so don't feel it my place to discuss. Suffice it to say, I will return IF AND WHEN they get the noise levels down. That constant scraping sound echoing off the walls and screaming children is enough to drive you to an insane asylum. While I'm at it...hey parents, you're kids may be cute, but I don't really want to hear them banging, screaming and running everywhere while you just ignore them. I go out to dinner to spend time with my friends and would like to hear what they have to say!
(3)Yik Lun L.
Probably the worst Shanghai dumpling I've ever had. The skin on the top is incredibly thick and dry, while the bottom skin is soggy and doughy. The filling is a mysterious mush. Gross. For $4.80 you get four of these little nightmares. The beef noodle is too sweet, though the meat is decently cooked. The Taiwanese fried noodle is pretty decent but for what they put in there I wouldn't pay $12.
(2)Meyer C.
Casual dimsum place. Dropped by this place on a weekday but it was one of the few overcrowded, perhaps the second busiest place on that day from my viewpoint. Basically I tend to avoid overcrowded eateries but strolled up and down the university avenue for some time and finally decided to eat here. I had two companions at that time. The server was reticent and brought some laminated menus to us. Waited until the server came a second time and realized we had to mark menu items on the menu using a marker. Thst's what we did and and when finally ordered items arrived one after anofher they were excellent so three of us shared each item. Perhaps next time I happened to be in this area I will try this place one more time.
(4)Sean B.
This place has been sitting there quietly on my bookmarks for quite a while now. I love dim sum, but I was a bit off-put by the three star ranking. Generally, businesses on this stretch of Palo Alto are a bit pricey, so I would have thought that it would really need to step up and impress folks to stay in business. But finally, curiosity, and a siu mai craving, got the best of me, so in I went to check out this local eatery. Three stars about sums it up, really. The prices were high, as I expected, compared to the San Francisco dim sum places I frequent, or even compared to Koi Palace, the almighty dim sum mothership in Daly City. The setting was cute, as one would expect of Yuppieville. Service was just okay, nobody was really engaged, it was pretty much boom here sit menu bye. Items were dropped off without so much as a word. Not atypical for authentic Cantonese fare either, truth be told. The har gow and the cha siu bao were both just okay. Enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but certainly not in the upper 50% I've had. The siu mai, and fair is fair, were really quite good. Top 25%. But yeah, it wasn't very fast, they weren't very friendly, the venue was cute and the prices were stiff, for what was overall pretty average dim sum. If you're in the neighborhood, it'll satiate your craving alright, but I certainly can't imagine encouraging anyone with a dim sum craving to make a special trip here, as I've encouraged folks to do seeking other dining experiences from time to time. Yeah... three stars about sums it up.
(3)Sang P.
Note to self, avoid this place if possible. I stopped by for a quick bite & the man who seated me wasn't the most pleasant. I should have gotten up & left. I ended up ordering the chive dumplings & scallop & seafood dumplings. They were average & I should have just gone to a dim sum place. Lesson learned.
(2)Brett G.
Service was infrequent and absent minded (waters remained empty for most of the meal). All the steamed dumpling dishes were not very good. Centre was not hot and the dumpling casings were slimy. The Pork buns and szchuan chicken were actually pretty good though. I complained about the quality of the dumplings and the waiter didn't seem to care too much. Won't be back.
(1)Jessica Y.
I was surprised by Steam tonight- the food is pretty good here, although the portions are a bit small and prices are expensive (but what do you expect in downtown Palo Alto?). My bf and I ordered the salt and pepper fish, and the eggplant/minced chicken clay pot. The fish was delicious, with a nice crispiness on the outside, and flaked meat inside. The eggplant was oily, but definitely less oily than other chinese restaurants and the sauce wasn't filled with that cornstarchy stickiness. Both dishes were authentic. We didn't try the dim sum- $4.80 per dish is a bit steep in my opinion and I would rather drive a few miles farther south for cheaper dimsum with greater variety. But if you are looking for cantonese food close to Stanford and are willing to spend a bit (it came out to be ~$20 per person), I would check out Steam.
(4)Raghu H.
Looks can be deceiving- on a rather busy street next to an amaaaaazing ice cream store, steam looks like a great spot to people watch and have some flavorful food. The atmosphere is great, modern decor with plenty of outdoor seating- but the food does the location a disservice. Suuuuuper bland. There are so many hole in the wall Asian places that pack a flavorful punch and this place is less tasty than your average "foreign food aisle".
(1)Annie S.
Pros : 1. Excellent food 2. One of the better food places in Palo Alto 3. Variety of dishes Cons : 1. Expensive 2. Language barrier with waiters 3. Slow service
(4)Stan L.
This was a surprise find thanks to Yelp. We came here just past 11 am on a weekday. By the time we were finished, an hour and a half later, it was packed. So come early! Steam is an American Chinese restaurant with a modern decor. I believe it's called Steam because the forte of the menu are the steamed dim sum dishes. Prices are reasonable, though just slightly above your typical dim sum restaurant, and the food is good. Scallops Seafood Dumpling-beautiful presentation. I almost didn't want to eat it and just wanted to stare at it. Flavors of the dried scallops, scallops, shrimp, vegi, roe were amazing without overpowering. Definitely will order again. Chicken Potstickers-bigger than your average potsticker. Good taste but I feel it's a bit overpriced, $8, for 6 pieces. Shanghai Pork Dumplings-this was weird. Not all the dumplings were consistent. Some had the soup/juices found like a traditional Xiao Long Bao and some didn't. The juices, in the ones that do have, had below average flavors. Skip this. Shui Mai-ok flavor but tough texture. Maybe too much pork to shrimp ratio. Braised Beef Noodle Soup-soup flavor and noodle texture is above average. The winner here are the braised beef. They are very soft in texture, even though the pieces are smaller in size compared to other restaurants. Mango Pudding-skip this. Nice presentation but that's about it. The mango was sour and the milk/cream on top tasted like frosting. Not very traditional and kind of weird. Steamed Black Sesame Ball-Winner! Winner! Winner! Best sesame ball I've ever had. Soft, chewy, rice Mochi texture with rich black sesame in the inside. Peanut dressing provides a nice textural contrast. I'm going to come back here because of this dish. Some ups and downs. But the ups were way up. Service was ok but I found it funny that even though all the staff were Chinese and serving Cantonese dim sum, none of them understood when we spoke Cantonese to them. Bathrooms were very clean, as with the rest of the restaurant. Again, can get pretty busy so get here early.
(4)Susan C.
Heads up to those with allergies: All ingredients NOT listed on their menu!!!!! I have a shrimp allergy and was not informed there were shrimp pieces in my scallops order. Upon biting into my "scallop" dumpling, I recognized the shrimp meat. Too late. I had only a small reaction due to my quick awareness, but still scary. Food was still very good, but too expensive. Side order of steamed broccoli for $12? Really? Service was slow after getting my food. Couldn't get my waiter's attention for the check.
(3)Jeff H.
I had low expectations of Steam because I've had bad experiences at these "Ethnic food marketed to Whites" places, but contrary to those expectations it turned out to be actually...good! I was pleasantly surprised. You'll pay downtown PA prices, but you'll get a good meal at least. My dim sum appraisal always starts with shrimp dumplings (ha gow) and pork dumplings (siu mai). The ha gow was solid, with thin skin and a fresh shrimp taste. The siu mai was also good as I especially enjoyed the shrimp within the pork dumpling. Everything isn't as oily as other Chinese places too, so there was a fresh rather than heavy feel to them. Both are four dumplings for $4.80. In addition to dim sum we ordered two entree dishes. I really liked the Sichuan Chicken as it was very well cooked (for my Cantonese friends, it had "wok hay" or a fragrant infusion of authenticity), and was also decently spicy. Not bad for $13 but don't expect huge portions. Speaking of spiciness, the spicy sauce on the table was also really spicy and therefore good. A+ for spicy lovers. We also ordered the famous beef noodle soup. It was good, but maybe could have been more flavorful. Still a solid choice at $12. Overall it was a very pleasant experience. It had a more upscale atmosphere than most dim sum places with a "nice" ambience created through cloth napkins and pristinely clean everything. Add in a central location and you've got a 4-star worthy place. It's not the cheapest, but you could do a lot worse.
(4)Cherri W.
I ordered the vegetarian hot and sour soup to go. It cost $8.50 before tax. What I was served was less than 16oz of soup (the container was almost 3/4 full. Pic posted) that was neither hot (spicy) nor sour. I added chili oil, rice vinegar and soy sauce when I got home. Next time I'll just make my own. To be fair though, the service was fast and very courteous. I only tried the soup so I can't speak for the rest of the food but the value for your money here is really low. Looking through the menu, prices seemed a bit high even for Palo Alto.
(2)Nessa R.
My friend and i visited this place the other day while walking around dwntwn pa to find an early dinner. We felt like having some dim sum so we chose this place. It was pretty empty, but then again it was midday on a weekday...most restaurants along this street are the same way. Anyways, we were seated quickly by a very friendly server who earned his star for this review :) We ordered the pork buns, shrimp shu mai, pork and shrimp dumpling, crispy shrimp balls, chow fun, ma po tofu, and walnut shrimp (and yes, there was on two of us). Everything was delicious and came out super quick. The walnut shrimp may have had more of a mayonnaise taste to it and wasn't as crispy as some other places ive tried. But the ma po tofu was really flavorful and the tofu had the perfect consistency. The only con to this place....it is a tad but overpriced. My friend told me she'll take me to some places in sj just as good but not as pricey.
(3)Lily L.
MSG headache! Food: The fried calamari came out hot but not crispy. Either their oil is not hot enough or they just didn't fry it long enough. The flavors were good but it missed on the texture. The Sui Mai (pork dumplings) were probably the best item I ordered. It had a nice pork and shrimp flavor but screamed MSG. The Ha Gow (shrimp dumpling) were OK. At least the wrapper (outer dough) was soft and the shrimp tasted like shrimp. The wonton soup would make any Chinese chef cringe. The wonton wrappers were probably too large and they add very little meat filling so they ended up wrapping the wontons in such a way that there were multiple layers of wrapping over the meat making it a tough little dumpling. They gave 5 in the bowl so I was trying to split one of them to portion it out evenly between two people and I couldn't cut it with the fork. It was too hard so I gave up. When eating it, it was just hard and didn't taste good since it was just wrapping. The soup tasted like can beef broth with soy sauce. Major disappointment. The Szechuan Spicy Chicken w/Garlic was nicely flavored but the chicken was a bit overcooked (dry). It was a decent dish though. Ambiance: Steam is a nice looking modern California style restaurant. It is small but the big open window makes it seem bigger than it is. It even has a cute little patio for outdoor seating. The fan noise from the open kitchen can be a bit noisy so sit further away if possible. It seemed cleaned and not crowded like most dim sum places. Overall, the environment was pleasant. Overall, I would not go back. For the dishes mentioned above, it ran us $49.00 (no drinks). The portions were small so we were still hungry after the meal. The environment was nice but the food was lacking. Lacking except it had an abundance of MSG. Boy did I have an MSG headache afterwards. Steam is to Dim Sum as P.F. Chang is to Chinese food. If you like the Americanized version of stuff, this might be up your alley. If you like good authentic tasting Dim Sum then skip this one.
(2)Sahiba J.
Love this place! Most dim sum restaurant's I've been to are not as clean and nice as this one. That being said you pay for the atmosphere with their expensive menu. Their dishes are extremely flavorful. Some of my favorites are the Shanghai dumplings, Taiwan Stir Fried Noodles, Szechuan Spicy Chicken w/Garlic and the Tiger Prawns w/Special Sauce.
(4)Cathy L.
Food was good and it's one of the few decent Chinese/dumpling places in the university area. But service takes FOREVER. Don't come hungry because this will soon turn to hAngry (esp with kids, dear gad). But it's relatively family-friendly and again, the food was really good. Not sure we'll come back because of the wait for food (even appetizers take forever, main dishes are at least a 20-minute wait, AT LEAST, even for something simple like fried rice). Just getting the attention of waiters flying by is difficult.
(3)V J.
Came for lunch on a Thursday. Service sucks. We waited for 10 minutes before we had to seat ourselves. It was another 15 minutes at which point we had to stop a waiter passing by and asked him to take our order. He just heard what we want and rushed away. Overall it was a sucky experience. On the plus side they do have good food.
(1)Amy M.
Dim sum at Steam is by far the worst dim sum I've ever had (and I've had a lot of dim sum). All of the dumplings and ha gow were oversteamed -- way too mushy and gummy. The dim sum was sloppy, cheap, and definitely frozen. I decided it was edible, but that's about as far as I'd go. I didn't try their entrees or noodle dishes, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt; maybe those are the things to order. To top it all off, their service motto seems to be something along the lines of "can't be bothered". I'm used to rude service at hole in the wall Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, but at a restaurant like this in Palo Alto charging premium prices for subpar dim sum, it's maddening! Don't bother asking for anything from the staff here unless you're prepared for some heavy eye rolling and attitude. Some would argue that they get a pass because Palo Alto doesn't have many places serving dim sum. I would argue that you're better off going to 99 Ranch and buying your own frozen dumplings to eat at home.
(1)Amy T.
This is purely for the dim-sum. Great staff! You definitely get more than what you pay for. I highly suggest you try all of their dim-sum.
(5)Leslie H.
I was warned by a friend who likes AUTHENTIC Asian foods that Steam is not good, food wise. Steam's food wasn't bad tasting, but the prices are absolutely ridiculous. I got a stewed beef noodle soup, and it was $12! The portion sizes were good, the beef was stewed well and the bokchoy was also nicely cooked. But the noodles were boring and overcooked, though they did absorb the rather one-note beef-based broth fairly well. I would have liked to try the dim sum, but they were $4.50 each for 3 pieces! My friend's beef fried rice had pieces of bell pepper, which I found really strange. Service was okay, if a bit slow. The patio seating is nice for people watching, but I really don't know why their prices are so high! There are so many other options where you can get better quality and more reasonably priced Chinese food, but maybe not on University Ave.
(2)Anna P.
All right! That's it! Dishonor! Dishonor on your whole family! Make a note of this: Dishonor on you! Dishonor on your cow! - Mushu from Mulan. Service = horrible. Not attentive, no one speaks English. Food = what I got to try wasn't worth the calories, even if it would have 10 calories per piece, still wouldn't be worth the calories Lie factor = present. If a customer tell you that they have a garlic allergy, you go to the kitchen and CHECK if there's garlic in the food. Moreover, you don't lie to the customer when they call you out on it. You don't continue denying it, and you definitely don't say "You can't change what's inside, so I brought it anyway." That is not how allergies work.
(1)M T.
I have to change my rating. I have eaten here a number of times with my wife, and it has always been very noisy in my experience. Last night the noise was deafening -- no way to enjoy a dinner out with my wife. She was hungry but I had to tell her I could not stand the noise; it was making me sick it was so bad. I said I would leave except that we had already placed our order. She suggested we change it to take-out, which we did. I stood outside away from front entrance while she waited inside for the order. Ate it at home -- in peace and quiet. Food OK, but not worth it for the high prices you pay for what you get. I will never eat here again.
(1)Chris D.
Third time I've been here and they are again out of the braided beef noodle soup... I think there really is no such thing. My alternates were ok... Comparable to P.F. Changs - and by that I mean really not good...
(1)Jeremy C.
On University Avenue, it is a hotspot for sure. Good ambience, enjoyable food, but WHY seat a single father with 2 smartphone-absorbed kids next to a table with friend & I when the entire restaurant had available seating? The guy was so bored that he listened to our *private* conversation and we ended up leaving early because it was uncomfortable to have this uninvited 3rd wheel sitting in with us.
(3)Bishan K.
Awfully pathetic service! Waited 20 mins for the noodles while the mains were at the table long ago. And response? Yeah they are coming. That says it.
(1)claudia y.
we came here on a sunday afternoon and sat outside with the dog. we had siu mai which came so late we thought they forgot. we had string beans and also the beef noodle soup. the noodles were mushy and not good at all. the soup base was salty ...
(3)Michaela L.
Tiny ha gau, and the potstickers are chicken, not pork. Not bad, but nothing I'd seek out.
(3)Vibhor C.
Average dim sum with good ambiance and service.
(3)Norman S.
You don't many choices for decent Asian food in DT PA so Steam may make the cut if you're really hankering for Asian food but don't want to trek to San Mateo or South to Cupertino, Sunnyvale and the like. The interior is modern with lots of wood and nice natural light. Service-wise is less successful. Looks like they opened relatively recently so they may still be ironing out the kinks. There's not area to wait for a table so you just hang out until the wait staff directs you. There's sitting at the counter next to the open kitchen but we skip it since it tends to be a bit smoky. As for food: Wonton in chili and oil: Essentially steamed wontons in a chili paste that tasted similar to the one they provide on the table. The wontons had a good amount of meat in them but nothing spectacular to report in terms of flavor. Fisherman's noodle: Thin rice noodles in fish broth that also had sliced fish and ground pork. Rather skimpy on the slices of fish. Broth, fortunately, is not overly salty or fishy smelling. Average. Taiwan fried rice noodle: Thin rice noodles but stir fried with bits of char shiu pork and egg. This one turned out saltier than needed. Again, average. The last dish took forever to show up and only came for my lunch partner after I had finished my Fisherman's noodle. This was despite checking with them several times on the order. Another thing, there's zero description of the items in the menu so you have to take your best guess or ask the wait staff. All in, a mixed bag in terms of service and food. Still, probably the best Asian you can find in DT PA and that's not saying much.
(3)Elisa L.
Really beautiful and modern interior design. They seem to be quite popular too - we were lucky to get a table on a Saturday afternoon, although it was a bit crowded as we had to share one end of a table with a larger group. Delicious xlb and shrimp dumplings. Mango pudding served in a dessert wine glass was a bit awkward to eat but it was worth it. Great quality and great service. Would love to come again.
(4)Kevin M.
This place has pretty decent food, mostly like the dumpling/dim sum/noodle soup places around the bay area... except in Palo Alto. AKA, nice interior, fancy tables, jazzed-up view of the kitchen, and (unfortunately) higher prices, scarcer parking, and somewhat slower service. I took some friends here for an introduction to dim-sum and they loved it! However, since I've been to other, cheaper places, I'm giving it three stars -- but definitely give it a try, especially if you've never had this sort of food before, and if you want a nice atmosphere to enjoy it in!
(3)Christina N.
Came here for dinner with a friend and was surprised to find out that they served dimsum for dinner. This is probably one of the few places here serving dim sum but not in a cart! :P The food was pretty decent, but a tad pricey. Then again, it is in Palo Alto, so I guess I'm not surprised. The ordering is done on a laminated menu and a non-permanent marker where you can check off the items you want on the menu. The dim sum selection is pretty limited, but it has the "main" couple such has shrimp dumpling and pork dumpling.. which is really what most people order anyway :P I loved the sesame ball dessert. Chewy mochi like skin on the outside and black sesame filling inside. Yumms!
(3)Ken K.
Quite a number of you are pretty spot on with your assessment of Steam. This restaurant, probably as a result of the local demographic, does the path of least resistance and offers a kind of a generic one size fits all menu. The décor is pleasant, and with an open kitchen, gives a fairly non traditional approach without the hassles of crazy waits at real dim sum restaurants (and also without the entire lineup). In some cases it's casual dining with convenience, but at the sacrifice of specialization. Looking at the menu, you have some bare bones basics of Cantonese dim sum (minus cheung fun, which to me is a huge representative of classic steamed fare, unfortunately absent, probably due to the additional labor and equipment involved...insert sad pouty face), representative regional Chinese items minus XLB, and a few moo shoo poo poo sounding type dishes. The waitstaff and perhaps the chefs are Mainland Chinese. Perhaps this approach works better in Palo Alto in case Mark Zuckbook shows up and declares this place his favorite Chinese joint? So let's be clear, this is not a tea house. They don't ask you what kind of tea you want to have with your dim sum. So it's not really a proper yum cha joint. They give you a laminated menu, with a dry erase marker to make your selection, and that is the "environmental check sheet". :-o But it kind of feels like a Chinese made to order all you can eat pseushi restaurant (like Sushi 88/Sushi 85) where you mark your selection to give to the chef... Anyways, ended up with the following Braised beef noodle soup - unmistakenably Northern Chinese style. The good thing about the broth is that it is not sweet at all, and not watered down. But the approach is not quite my style. The noodles tasted like dry packet kind, very thin. Beef were brisket cuts with no tendons, but tender to the bite for the most part with some chew. At $10 this is a very pricey braised beef brisket noodle soup, but most of you have no qualms paying $10+ for MSG'd up tonkotsu ramen (and are willing to line up for mediocrity!). At this rate I think I would rather spend $15 for Ko-Bay beef Pho at Tamarine further up the street and walk out more satisfied, although with a skinnier wallet, at least that broth is stellar compared to this one. Ha gow - $4.80 per steamer for 4 pieces. Pretty decent, standard...11 pleats per gow (expertly done are 13, but very difficult to achieve with ones this dinky). Did I say dinky? Yes...shrinky dinky! Small sized! Perfect for preschoolers or even someone in elementary school. So by that token they are expensive. Pee Wee Ha Gow! :-o Cha Siu Bao - Three BBQ pork steamed buns. Decent renditions although the dough after steaming came out a little on the wet side, can't really complain otherwise for Palo Alto. If you look at this place as a restaurant that also serves dim sum, rather than a yum cha joint, it might be a bit less disappointing. Better than nothing I suppose, considering there isn't anything earth shattering that's Chinese directly on University Avenue.
(3)John F.
The basic concept is you take normal dimsum... Jack the price up 50% and serve it in a nice setting... Now I was all down for this... I thought ok...it is overpriced, but maybe they use higher end ingredients... I was wrong. Bassicly I paid a ton of money for sub par dim sum and horrible service. Our first dish arrived 15 min after we ordered. The next dish did not arrive until the 30 min mark... Our last dish arrived when I was trying to flag down our waiter for the check. So to recap....over priced.... Sub par... Poor service.
(2)Chris N.
Unfortunately, Steam has some of the worst service I have received at a restaurant - if not the worst. We put in a phone order, walked down, and once we arrived it took about 15-20 minutes to even get someone's attention to let them know we had arrived for pick-up. The waiter did nothing to actually retrieve our order though. We had to flag down another staff member 5 minutes later, who eventually printed the bill and gave us our food. While we were waiting, the first waiter actually gave someone their take-out meal, and then snatched it back without any explanation or apology. It would have been funny if it wasn't so unpleasant for the guests. The food was okay, but the service has ensured I've added this to my 'Never Eat Here Again' list.
(1)John B.
High quality food, great fried rice and vegetables. The service can be slow. Overall, a good experience
(4)Eli O.
Shanghai short ribs and shanghai soup dumpling were so good. Try black sesame balls for desert. I didn't like spicy wine seafood noodle soup. Not so much flavor. Good price and good service.
(4)Chris S.
Good Hong Kong style food. The cha siu bao, har gow, siu mai were pretty good. On my second visit, I had the braised noodles and mushu with vegetables. They also were good. The decor is modern and cool. Bathroom was clean, which is good considering I'm used to unkempt bathrooms in Chinese restaurants. Steam's owner also owns Taipan (the other dim sum place in downtown Palo Alto). I think Steam's food is better (although my memory of Taipan might be rusty).
(4)Caferio Y.
Arrived before the evening rust. Got seated and presented a mjnu quickly. All sounds great so far. But now is where they start to take a nose dive. , we selected her food put it on the little hill chart and then it took another 15 minutes for them to come pick it up. Seem to have 5 shops in the kitchen you would expect a food to be prepared for a quickly and out to the table probably but no that's not the case, an hour and 15 minutes later the food finally arrived. Yes it was hot and for the most part flavorless. Seafood pan fried crispy noodle was crappy. Beef chow fun was over cooked. Egg rolls soggy and the charge for jasmine tea. Though the dim sum was ok, the type you buy at ranch 99 and toss into the microwave yourself. I strongly recommend NOT wasting your time or money here.
(1)MichLee A.
BEWARE Without any warning or note on the menu they charged our party of 4 people an automatic 19% tip!! The service was lackluster and definitely didn't earn this. The food here is fine. Pretty standard for a dim sum place with some other Chinese options. That's why it gets 2 stars instead of one.
(2)Tri T.
This isn't dim sum but if you like food that's not really flavorful and authentic, come to Steam! Presentation is good and the service was fine to include nice patio seating but I didn't really come for any of that, just the food. The dumplings were off as well as the ribs. I didn't finish much because it just wasn't good. Oh yeah, you pay the Palo Alto premium as well.
(2)Nicole L.
On a national scale, this place is probably a 3.5 (taking places like Flushing, NY and San Gabriel Valley, CA into account), but for Palo Alto it is a 6. Therefore, I've settled on giving it 4 stars, because I know I will end up eating here on a weekly (if not more often) basis. If you are an ABC in Palo Alto, you know this town has terrible options for Asian food. However, Steam does a good job of capitalizing on its Asian Food Desert surroundings and charges you a premium for good-though-not-excellent fare. Can't argue with the strategy. Here's what my officemates and I have tried and liked: - Pea shoots (I can and do eat the whole box at my desk in 15 minutes) - Har gow - Beef Noodle Soup - Shrimp Rolls Here is what we've tried and thought decent, though not running back to order again: - Siu Mai (packed too tightly, and not enough flavor) - Pan Fried Chive + Seafood Dumpling (poor ratio of filling to skin) - Spinach Seafood Dumpling (same problems as above) - String Bean Appetizer (not the right blistered texture, and accompanying aromatics were not charred enough) Here is what we look forward to trying next: - Salt + Pepper Tofu - all the clay pots Nothing was straight-up bad, which is more than I can say for a lot of other PA joints (I'm looking at you, Jing Jing, China Delight, Rangoon Ruby, Three Seasons, Madame Tam...) In short, see you next week, Steam!
(4)Rebecca N.
Holy cow! Talk about poor service. When I ordered the beef noodle soup, I asked if the broth had any port in it, because I don't eat pork. The server said no, then asked if we were sharing everything. I said yes. So imagine my surprise when the lotus leaf sticky rice had...you guessed it...PORK (no, the menu did NOT say it contained pork)! When I complained to a server (not the same one, since flagging ANYONE down in this place is practically impossible), she got VERY defensive and told me that "we're very busy, we don't have time to think about that kind of thing." Well, thanks for that. In that case, I don't have time to think of a decent tip, or of ever returning. We didn't receive all of the food we ordered, but that's ok, because, of what we DID get, the ONLY thing that was really decent-tasting was the soup. So not even worth overlooking poor service for yummy food.
(1)Meg H.
To have Steam open in Palo Alto is a breath of fresh air -- it has an open kitchen (which is so unusual for a Chinese restaurant), very attentive and fast service and modern decor. The Szechuan Garlic Chicken, Mixed Veggies with Prawn, Eggplant Claypot with Minced Chicken are all excellent. This is a wonderful addition to University Avenue.
(5)Priyanka K.
Over priced and sub par food. Liked the spicy chicken. Would definitely go back for the chicken. Dimsums were average.
(3)Sherrie H.
I wish I could take the time to comment on the food, but we never got any! I tried to dine at Steam with a friend on a Monday evening. I had been following the construction of the space featuring a beautifully designed open air kitchen and was eager to give it a try. We were welcomed and seated at the counter in front of the kitchen. The good encounter stopped there. The restaurant was less than half full with many guests finishing up their meals, on staff there were abut five servers standing around and socializing. On occasion they would split to clear a table that had just left, then back to the chit chat. We were the only two seated at the bar in this very small location and we were just feet from the wait staff. They continued to walk by us several times, including the individual who sat us. We patiently sat there drinking the water that was poured for us upon sitting. We decided that after sitting over 10+ minutes without being approached and finishing our water that we'd venture elsewhere to dine. The employee conversation appeared a much higher priority than our dining experience in the over-staffed and low attendance environment we had entered. Perhaps I'll try once more when I have time to waist.
(1)Amanda D.
It's unfortunate that I have to rate this restaurant one star because the food was good (not great) but In order to enjoy your experience at a restaurant it starts with service , and their service was extremely poor. It took forever to get our check, and while ordering we had to repeat our order multiple times. This is why I will never eat here again: After reviewing my credit card, I was charged twice, two different amounts. I had to call the restaurant about 3 times and each time they told me there wasn't a manager available. When I finally had someone on the phone who actually took the time to do some research he told me "it wasn't possible" that they could have made that mistake. I had to go through my bank to file a dispute because they wouldn't take care of it on their end. This restaurant wont live long.
(1)bruce k.
Ordinarily I'd give a very good to excellent restaurant a 4/5, but Steam is in Palo Alto and should be judged a bit differently, that is, in comparison to other Palo Alto restaurants - most of which are terrible and seem to think that their Palo Alto address is a license to charge more and do less. I could go on at length about bad Palo Alto restaurants, but that is not the point here. Steam breaks that bad pattern and is very very good. The food and service is great. I read a few complaints here ... more than makes any sense since the place is so new. To complain about the service on a restaurant that just opened is just malicious - give them a chance to ramp up to speed in service - the important thing is the food. Steam's style of Chinese cuisine is revolutionary to my taste buds at least! ;-) I have been there twice now and the food has been excellent! Not soggy, wilted, too salty or greasy like almost all of the Palo Alto Chinese restaurants are. The food at Steam is perfect, way exceeded my expectations. The noodles, the meat, the veggies were all fresh and prepared conscientiously and expertly. I love this place and plan on coming back here often. To find another good Chinese restaurant in Palo Alto is a real treat. I usually do not like traditional or regular restaurant food and that is why I seek to find a new interpretation of cooking, with fresh good ingredients and care in preparation. Traditional places pack too much bad stuff into their food, like junk food, salt, oil, MSG, skimp on ingredients or swamp anything good with cheap noodles or lettuce or something. I downgrade that when I see it. I don't see that at Steam. I just could not believe how good the 5 crops fried rice was, I have never tasted anything as unique or tasty ... and it was vegetarian! If you are expecting the average normal pile of white rice floating on a pool of grease that you get in most other Chinese places - forget it, everything you get at Steam ... so far ... has been unique thoughtful and a real treat! Since it has opened recently and I have been there only twice so far, and been very impressed, I will be back to write more at some point and go into detail more on the food. Also, I got fast friendly service here with a smile, and I was sitting on the patio ... so the complaints about service are either a lie or out of date. These guys are serious about surviving with excellence in Palo Alto and I think they will do great. 5/5 ... I hope they can sustain their excellence, if they do they have a loyal customer with me! - have to add a little note here since I found out that the owners of Tai Pan run Steam. I think Tai Pan is bad in just about every way, but especially the prices. Steam's prices are very good for Palo Alto and extremely good for University on Palo Alto. The food is better than Tai Pan. The one thing nice about Tai Pan is the comfortable seating, but Steam is so small they have to pack people in. I hope once Steam gets established they do not start raising prices, because Tai Pan just seems like a total rip-off joint from their prices and portions. I'm rooting for Steam so far.
(5)Grace Z.
Free and fast wifi! Recommend the thousand island tofu, very freshly made and good taste, decent and clean environment
(4)Martha E.
Stumbled across in Palo Alto looking for Asian food and was pleasantly surprised. We ordered the Kung Pao chicken and Taiwanese stir fry noodles and were pleased. The wait staff seemed a bit frazzled tonight but the dishes were hot and tasty and the tea was refilled without having to ask! A decent choice if you're craving dim sum on a random night!
(4)Vivian L.
The dimsum here is not very good at all. I think it's over priced? 3 dollars for 3 little pieces. I ordered the Sui Mai, Shanghai Dumplings (xlb), and pan fried chives seafood dumpling. All were tiny and just whatever. Nothing too special. Probably best for when you want a snack. But the beef noodle soup was pretty good. The broth was a bit watered down but it was a lot better than other Taiwanese places with gunky and oily broth. Good amount of flavor too. The beef was also real tender and flavorful. Comes with thin noodles as well. Pea sprouts in garlic was delicious. But couldn't justify the price of $12. Their pricing is random with the beef noodle soup being at $8 and having much more substance than the pea sprouts which were too pricey for its portion. One thing I approve of is their Egg Custard Bun (brownie points to you!). Once again overpriced ($4 for 2 pieces) but the custard was nice, soft and creamy. The cream didn't clump up like many other places. Service is kind of sloppy and all over the place but I got my food so no complains. They also tape your order on your table while crossing each item off as your dishes arrive. Overall the dimsum sucked, the kitchen dishes were good, weird pricing, clean plates, clean interior, good atmosphere. Steam is a great addition to downtown Palo soooooooo I'll give them 4 stars. I'm a fan, but wouldn't go out of my way to eat here. (Sorry I'm super indecisive about my ratings..anyone else the same?)
(4)Antonia T.
We ordered two dishes, a tofu with seafood and the second dish was egg plants in a clay pot plus one order of fried rice at Steam this evening. The egg plant clay pot arrived after 20 minutes, followed by the fried rice another 20 minutes later. The tofu seafood dish was canceled after 45 minutes of waiting. I had to get up twice to remind the waiter that we were still waiting for our food and we could not just eat the salty egg plants by itself. We also had to ask for the beer twice before it was brought to us. Portion was very small and the fried rice tasted as it it was scooped up from a rice cooker, definitely not fried rice. I left the tasteless fried rice and was very hungry after spending $32 for two dishes. It was a big disappointment. When I asked the cashier, I was told that they were short handed. The whole experience was very disappointing to say the least and we will not be returning to Steam. BTW, I am not a big eater and for me to say the portion is small is an understatement.
(1)Tom D.
I have to agree with other reviews that they tend to over-steam their dim sum. My baskets arrived with their contents mushy and kind of gross. I did enjoy the hot and sour soup though. I thought the service was okay, though weird that they taped my order to the counter to make sure I got everything. Also, I sat at the counter - SUPER LOUD! Great if you don't want to talk to anybody.
(2)Evan B.
Sure the place looks nice and has a hip cool name, but it's very average. Food was ok, nothing to write home about, but I didn't have a huge issue with it. The service was just terrible though. You'd expect when you order spicy food to get some water refills, but our server literally didn't come to our table once after we got our food. Overall I was a little let down. The food and the experience don't live up to the nice decorum sadly.
(2)Clarisse M.
2 stars because this place made me a bit sick right after eating their shrimp har gow. This is a fancy take on dim sum and a bit overpriced. No servers with dim sum carts asking you what you want -you just order off their menu. Service wasn't so good when we came. Had to wait about 30 minutes for our first order of dim sum to come out. I did like the atmosphere of the place and their modern decor.
(2)Katherine L.
To be clear, most of the food wasn't bad... The portions were small, the prices were high and c'mon, it's dimsum -- there's much, much better in the bay area. I understand that Steam is on University and it's convenient and that food on University tends to be on the more expensive side, but there's better food on University. The nail in the coffin was ordering the cold tofu dessert with a ginger syrup. It came out in a cutesy bamboo serving dish (this place has better presentation than almost any other dimsum place) but it was frozen. Tofu doesn't freeze particularly well, you end up with jagged ice crystals and icy chunks. I pointed it out to a waitress who just kept telling me "Its supposed to be cold" -- I know it's supposed to be cold, but it's not supposed to be FROZEN.
(2)A. S.
Stopped in to have a snack today; we ordered several varieties if dim sum. All of which were fresh, at perfect temperature, and very tasty. Even the tea was first rate. I'll definitely be back.
(4)Critical E.
Great looking restaurant, but terrible food. No flavor, questionable chicken, and overall very unsatisfying.
(1)Kim N.
Im a fan of Tai Pan so i was glad to hear they were opening a new concept. Or so i thought. A sleek interior and exterior, with a patio for nice sunny day. When we looked at the menu it seemed like just a sub set of what they offer at the main branch. Got siu mai, pan fried chive dumplings, stir fried noodle cakes with seafood, chicken wings and shanghai dumplings. The Cantonese fare was good but the other dishes were average. I was a little disappointed. Service is still struggling a bit so I think it needs some work.
(3)Madison W.
Another typical University Ave destination - stylish in a cheesy East-West way. It's fine, the food is like that of it's sister restaurant Tai Pan, but prepared and served from an open kitchen. Service is REALLY REALLY slow - I had a business lunch that took over 80 minutes for just two dishes. I think it was too busy and the server forgot our order?!?!?! It's good Chinese quick eats - be prepare to pay $2-$-3 per dish more than you would for similar food in San Mateo, Cupertino, Milpitas... but then again, it's University Ave.
(3)Leslie T.
DELICIOUS! My boyfriend, friends, and I, have all tried about 3/4 of the menu and gone there 3 times so far since it has opened. We absolutely love it! Food: Every dish is served hot, with the freshest ingredients, and all the right blends of seasonings. You can see the cooks in the open clean kitchen and can tell that everything they are using is fresh and done by very good chefs. Price: Dishes are fairly small in size, but standard compared to other Dim Sum restaurants. Prices are exceptional, especially for the quality of the food and the area where the restaurant is located. Service: Since it's a new restaurant, they're slowly getting into the swing of things. All the servers are very helpful but are also learning how to keep up with the increasing demand of the restaurant. Decor/Space: Very modern and sleek design though not a lot of space to move around. Tables are close together. I ENCOURAGE ALL TO CHECK IT OUT!
(5)Mercedes R.
Very good Dim Sum - texture is perfect Delicious dumplings and steamed buns Not sure why there are such negative reviews, I enjoyed dinner here and will go back soon!
(4)Bonnie H.
I'm just glad there's something decent to eat on University Ave now! We didn't get the dim sum, but I thought the food was pretty authentic for such a nicely decorated modern restaurant. We had the eggplant and minced chicken in clay pot which was spot on.... which is great because it's one of my favorite Chinese dishes! We also had the Seafood and egg fried rice... fried up pretty perfectly. Not too oily with big pieces of seafood and it had tiny dried shrimps giving it a nice briny punch, but not overly so (like you would have with dried salted fish, which I love, but my dinner companion doesn't. So it's a good middle ground.) It also gives it an authentic flavor. We also got the wonton soup which was not great. It was all pork, and usually I like my wonton with a little shrimp in it. It also came in this huge chic-y modern bowl. It was giant, and it in were these 6 wontons floating in the middle. It just looked a little ridiculous. There wasn't really room for it on the table since the wontons came after our other food. That really bothered me, so I downed the wontons so that the waiter could take it away. I guess for the price, the dishes felt a little small, but everything was really fresh. I mean, you can pay $6 for fried rice at some oily Chinese place, but it's going to make you sick... so I'd gladly pay up for something tasty that won't make you sick. A very welcomed restaurant on University!
(4)Vinny L.
The entrees were good with decent portion sizes, but portion sizes for the vegetables are way too big (and they charge you for it!). The quality of the food was good, but there is better around in Palo Alto. The service was good and the food came out quickly (although there was only 1 other table, to be fair). We only had 2 entrees, with rice and 2 side orders of vegetables - no drinks of any kind, just water. I hate when people complain on Yelp about the price of food and not the quality and taste - but in this case, I need to point it out. The biggest problem I have with this place is the price - $62 (inc. tip) for lunch is crazy. Bottom line: If you're passing by and want to know if it will be a good meal and safe to eat at - I think you'll be fine - but you'll probably leave feeling a bit ripped off given all the other options available in the area.
(2)Holley E.
Beautiful restaurant, service was ok. Original service was not helpful nor friendly but everyone else seemed pleasant & helpful. Service was quick but appetizers should've been brought first but came last. Food looked beautiful & looked perfectly cooked but the flavors were HORRIBLE! I've never heard of an Asian restaurant using cinnamon much less in vegetable rolls. Dipping sauces tasted like cough syrup, dumplings were soggy & over-cooked & the meat appeared to be not fully cooked, no rice was offered. We ordered Mongolian Beef which was delicious but not what we were familiar with; Kung Pao also good but would've been better with rice; pan-fried noodle dish w/chicken which was well fried & horrible; pork dumplings - horrible, we took a small bite & put it back & the dipping sauce smelled & tasted horrible; vegetable rolls would've been delicious minus the cinnamon. We were taken back by the sight of the pan-fried noodle dish which appeared to be placed in a deep fryer & not pan-fried. We let the server know it was not what was described or expected & asked if they had a chow mein style dish which we requested & turned out good but bland. In the end we were charged for both noodle dishes regardless. Our bill in the end was $70+ & a complete waste of money! A sign should've been lunch hour mid-week the restaurant only had a couple customers when nearby Asian restaurants had a line out the door. Waste of money, time & undoubtedly the worst Asian food I've ever had.
(1)Sidney C.
Just to correct some of the other reviewers' comments. This place is a Hong Kong style bistro. It's even on the sign. It is NOT Taiwanese at all. The only dish that's remotely Taiwanese is "Taiwanese rice noodle"... which is not very authentic. The Beef Noodle Soup is also HK style beef noodle soup, NOT Taiwanese tyle.
(3)Robert B.
I like this place, I want to love this place, but I just can't get over a few perennial problems. The dishes tend to run on the sweet side and the service (particularly trying to be seated as there is no hostess stand and no assigned person to welcome/seat guests). The beef noodle soup is good, the tofu and preserved veggie clay pot is awesome and the soups are great. Dim sum offerings are identical to those of Tai Pan down the road because they are owned by the same people! If they manage to fix the overly-sweet nature of their dishes, they'd get a solid 4 stars because the cooking technique and seasoning are otherwise great. Keep a better eye on the door and you'll have a 5 out of 5!
(3)Vince T.
Who would have expected to find good Cantonese dim sum in Palo Alto? I chanced upon them here on Yelp while looking for some Chinese food and had no expectations Steam would impress even after I sat down. Their English-only menu did not clue me in on how authentic the food may be, and I was actually pleasantly surprised when the staff spoke to me in Cantonese. The Har Gow (shrimp dumpling) looked pretty good, but I was truly blown away after the first bite--it is the best Har Gow I've had in a long time! The Vegetarian Spring Rolls were delicious, as was the Seafood Stir Fry Rice Cake. I am going to be coming back here a lot, and I was actually impressed enough to write this review! I can't wait to back.
(5)Daisy D.
They should get two/three stars for food because it is not bad but the service is HORRENDOUS. We were a party of six last Sunday night. Sitting down, we were given a plastic menu each to place our orders but then a grumpy waitress came and started to erase our choices from each menu and putting them on one. So why hand out six? Did she have to stand there at the table and do this and make us feel silly? Then the wait began. Seriously, it was ridiculous, the place was not that full. Finally soup arrived without the ladles, but at that point we did not want to wait another 15 minutes to get the ladles so we just spooned it out to the smaller bowls. By the way, while we waited for our food the people sitting next to us complained to us about the long wait they were experiencing as well. Then ONE MAIN DISH arrived for one person while others were still waiting for the appetizers! She had to start eating because waiting for the rest us would mean eating cold food. Ten minutes later other appetizers arrived. Totally disorganized. I mentioned to the waitress that they should serve the dishes at the same time for the entire party to which she responded "We can't do that" in an unpleasant way. Really? Every other restaurant can... Fifty minutes later the last of the dishes arrived but by that time some of us were ready to cancel the order they have not yet received while some of us were done eating...Add to this grumpy, unsmiling staff and you get the picture. If the service stays this bad, good luck surviving in that spot. It's not a cheap place either.
(1)Andrew K.
The food is less Americanized than I would have imagined after wandering by this place and deciding that it was worth a try. The food turned out surprisingly good--I really liked both the string beans and mushroom fish in a clay pot. The dim sum dishes (we got xiao long bao aka shanghai dumpling and steamed pork bun) were pretty average. Prices were quite good, esp for Palo Alto, though portions were small. Basically, you are trading quantity for atmosphere/service when compared to a traditional Chinese restaurant. A few weird kinks of Steam: 1) they insist on serving appetizers first, meaning we got the string beans well before the clay pot dish; I think they even expected us to finish them before serving the clay pot, as if we should be enjoying a multi-course experience. I had to fend off gf before she finished all the green beans--I like enjoying my Chinese meal family style with lots of courses out at once! ;) 2) Steam goes for a minimalist decor, which is all well and good, but those weird curtain-esque wood panels hanging from the ceiling basically makes it impossible to navigate the restaurant. The seating area is small already, and having those extra barriers was just...annoying and strange. Am I overly picky? Heck yes. But I'm sure the poor waiters trying to navigate their way to my table appreciate my insights.
(4)Joey P.
I just wanted to put in a good review for this place because I would like to help it get going. I've only been here once thus far, but I'm going to be back. I live right off University and since Windy's has left I haven't found a decent / reasonably priced Chinese place to replace it. I think Steam does the trick. The prices are very reasonable. In fact I wouldn't be surprised they raise them soon because its much lower than comparable places nearby. Dim sum $3 each. Main plates $9-12. Beer $3-3.50. Soda $1.50. Super cheap, relatively speaking. Braised beef noodle soup was great. Little oily but very tasty. The sticky fried rice wasn't special but really good nonetheless. Service will improve with time. Steamed black bean balls were good. Pork buns and shu mai were pretty good and there really isn't anywhere else near to get them. If you're a dim sum snob go somewhere else but if you are looking for decent Chinese on University at a good price...Steam is quite good.
(4)Sasha H.
Wow, Steam. You have a new fan in me. I'm definitely coming back. Try the delicious Spicy Seafood Noodles with wine sauce. The shu mai and shrimp balls were also excellent - rich without being greasy. Don't expect friendly service here - they are all business. And service was a bit slow. But with the food tasting how it did, it was well worth the wait.
(4)Jaclyn C.
The dim sum was decent while more pricy at the same time. For the same price as other dim sum places, the portion is about half or two thirds. I had braised beef noodle soup - the beef was good, but the noodles were not chewy and the soup was alright. The service was not so well, my friend and I waited for 20 minutes to be seated while there was an empty table, and it took another 15 minutes or longer for the food to come. Might go back to try other Asian dishes as it is one of the few in Palo Alto, but I would probably still go a bit farther for better Asian food.
(3)Jade D.
what a horrific food... wonton soup and the wonton was as hard as a sandwich! but it did nice to put a few pieces of veggie inside the soup because there's only 4 pieces of small wonton for $6 and taste full of artificial favor! i do love the design of this restaurant and i do see the cost behind it. Very ample space of the restroom for just a toilet. if you visit, you'd know what i mean.
(1)Tamara A.
I thought it was tasty and the prices were about what you would expect to pay at other places for a meal. I would not get the Steamed BBQ Pork buns again but we liked the fried rice and the other dumplings we ordered. Two dim sum and a fried rice was not quite enough food for 2 people. I would get at least one more thing, two if we were really hungry.
(3)Hazel H.
Great food from the folks at Taipan, but in a more casual yet designerly setting. The open kitchen is interesting and reassuring. We enjoyed all of our dishes and prices are reasonable, but portions are on the small side.
(4)Bryce F.
Whenever I find a Chinese restaurant with extremely beautiful interior, I'm always tempted to try it. Most of the time, the best Chinese restaurants are hole-in-the-walls with dirty bathrooms and waiters who aren't even attentive. So when I passed by Steam after my debate tournament at Stanford, why not give it a try? Upon entrance, we were seated and given a paper menu that was wrinkled and was filled with little dabs of sauce from the tables before. Definitely a minus. Steam should invest in some real menus, but I will admit, the paper menu itself was beautifully designed. We ordered XLB, Shrimp and Chive dumplings, Braised Beef Noodle Soup, and their special clay pot. Unfortunately, we were told they ran out of XLB. I was disappointed. How can you call yourself a Dim-Sum place and run out of XLB? :( Instead, we went for Siu Mai and Walnut Prawns. The shrimp and chive dumplings were great. Though the outside seemed extremely oily, the flavors and presentation was expertly executed. Their Niu Rou Mian, or braised beef noodle soup, was really, really good. The broth was so flavorful with a hint of spice. Only downside was that they gave pieces of beef fat and very little pieces of beef itself. I'd highly recommend getting that soup. Their special clay pot, however, was a huge downer. Instead of using fried tofu, they use the type of silken tofu that you'd use for Ma Po Tofu. Sauce also lacked flavor. Soon enough, the Siu Mai and Walnut Prawns came. Siu Mai was nothing special, just average. The Walnut Prawns were not only beautifully presented, but were delicious, crunchy, and perfectly done as well. Definitely a plus. Overall, service was average In conclusion, perhaps I'd come back here just for the beef noodle soup, walnut prawns, and maybe some XLB to see how it is. But for the clay pot and siu mai, not sure if this place gets dim sum justice. Food: 22 | Decor: 28 | Service: 20
(3)Darlene M.
I have been looking for a dim sum spot near where we live for such a long time! My boyfriend is vegetarian so it made finding a dim sum spot sort of difficult. Having Steam open up was wonderful! it's close enough to walk (or drive). The dim sum was delicious. the hong kong style noodles with seafood was exactly what I was looking for. After eating my fill, I don't feel heavy. The food isn't greasy. Take out was great. The only thing that would have made it 5 stars is if they delivered!!
(4)Kyle D.
I went into Steam for a quick bite of Dim Sum in the afternoon. While it felt different than traditional Dim Sum restaurants, I thought the quality was pretty good. If you're on University Avenue, it's worth trying the BBQ Pork Steam buns and the Shiu Mai. Nice people, too! 4 stars for pretty good dim sum and friendly service.
(4)Iri T.
Food is very good. Service is terrible. Took them 25 min to bring just part of our food
(2)Ashley G.
This place is easily the worst restaurant I've ever been to. I don't usually leave reviews this poor, but I was less than displeased with this place. I ordered a simple chicken dish with a glass of wine. My wine - for some reason - came in a can. Now I now this isn't a 5 star restaurant, but what the hell? At least pretend like it came from a bottle. Second problem, I have a very severe nut allergy. To the point where I am anaphylactic. Now I am totally used to needing to stress this fact to waiters, so I explained this to our waiter (who barely spoke English) and it took him like 5 minutes to get the gist of what I was telling him, which was - NO NUTS. OF ANY SORT. He walked away claiming that he understood, but I was so nervous by the time my food arrived that I didn't want to touch it. My friend on the other hand ordered a bunch of stuff. They forgot like half of our order and we had to constantly keep reminding them. By the time everything came out, we were over it and wanted to leave. I didn't eat anything and left hungry, and needless to say, I didn't tip.
(1)Ennie L.
Overpriced greasy Chinese food and dim sum on University, sounds about right. Their beef noodle soup is one of the saltiest I've ever had, their xiao long baos is a joke. It looked like everyone around me was eating fried rice so I guess you can't go wrong with that. I'm giving it 2 stars because the ambiance is nice and they have a patio where I could bring my dog, the service was also pretty good. So if you're craving Chinese food with MSG and willing to pay the premium then this is the place for you.
(2)Michaela S.
I was impressed by the vegetarian options! Very tasty and full of flavor. The service was attentive and helpful!
(4)Justin S.
I've been to Steam twice now -- once for dinner on a weeknight and once for lunch on a Saturday, and the difference was night and day (pun kinda intended). I was excited to try out Steam for its all-day dim sum, and went around 8:30pm on a weeknight. We ordered around 6 dim sum dishes for $3 each and they were brought to the table in a reasonable amount of time. The portions are smaller than you might get elsewhere, but they also seem less greasy, which lets me pretend I'm eating healthy. Taste-wise, it's not the best dim sum I've had in the area but it was good enough to go back, at least living fairly close. When I went back with a different friend on a Saturday, the service was terrible. When we hadn't received our food or heard a peep for 45 minutes since we'd placed our order, we started to think their ordering tablets malfunctioned and didn't actually place our order. We eventually got our food, but I was wondering whether our good service was the norm and this was an abnormality or vice versa. My 4 and 2 star visits average out to this 3 star rating. Perhaps I'll visit one more time in a few months to determine the final verdict.
(3)Tom C.
- Extremely slow service, including over 40 minutes to deliver a General Tso chicken, during which each person at our table's food was brought out one by one and left to cool while waiting for everybody else. Even small bowls of steamed rice took 40 minut
(1)Uncle J.
This place should have "People hate us on Yelp" sign. We love coming there. The food is great and prices are much lower than in typical american dim sum places. Yes, you can get much lower prices in this hole in the wall in Chinatown, but you are on University avenue in Palo Alto. Some people left negative review about impersonal service or wait. I think they need to go back to McDonalds, where they came from. Yes, you do have to wait. They COOK the food for you.
(5)Renee P.
I had high hopes because of its connection to Tai Pan restaurant but was disappointed, both in the quality and price--4 potstickers for $7 and they were small and tasteless. Nice ambiance, though.
(2)Vidhya T.
The food was TERRIBLE! We are a vegetarian family and the mapo tofu was the worst we have ever had. The mu shu filling had zero flavor. The dumpling wrapper was sticky and the vegetables inside were just a mush. Yikes! $45 down the drain for two. Worst part was we were really hungry. The service was decent but nothing to write home about. If you want good dumplings and high quality Cantonese food, go to Tai Pan.
(1)Joie P.
Food is OK. Nothing amazing. Better service would really help this place though. We got here at 910pm and asked to sit outside because we had a dog with us. Dim sum is usually quick. The manager/ waitress told us that we could not sit outside because they would be cleaning the area soon because the restaurant was closing at 930pm. That was weird because there were two guys sitting outside in the middle of their meal still. There were still lots of people inside the restaurant too! The waitress manager then told the two guys sitting outside that they needed to sweep the area soon. Super rude. Foods not worth the bad service.
(2)Dathan B.
The steamed black sesame balls are incredible. Decadently rich, and just the right amount of sweet.
(4)Jason W.
This place is very good. I had some of the standard dim sum dishes here (Shumai, Har gaw, string beans, and the steamed pork buns) and it stacks up pretty well with the chinese restaurants that target a more chinese clientele. The service was also relatively fast, contrary to what most of the reviews say here.
(4)Nick J.
Food is good, the shrimp ball is very good. However the service is terrible, just don't get why they prefer customers to leave and not order more. The management needs to work on customer experience.
(2)Emily M.
I ate there today for lunch. It was marginal at best and they absolutely are putting MSG in their dishes. What grossed me out the most was how absolutely gnarly the women's toilet was - covered in pubes and dust. Also, no paper towels. A wise friend told me to always check the state of the bathrooms in Chinese restaurants, as it usually reflects their sense of pride and cleanliness in the kitchen. I wish I had seen the bathroom prior to my meal. I would have walked out.
(2)Francisco Z.
I've been here a few times and refined my order to perfection. The trick is to order anything with shrimp and the spicy asparagus. The pork dishes in general were not that good (pot stickers, pork buns), and the veggie/mushroom ones were OK.
(4)Kelly N.
So I walked out the door and asking myself why I decided to come here when I live in San Jose where Asian food are cheap and good. My bf is Chinese and love Chinese food so we decided to give it a try. We order Siu Mai, Xiu Long Bao, Gralic Spicy Chicken and Fried Noodles. Whats up with $3 for 3 pieces of Siu Mai and XLB. I found nothing special, did you hide gold in there somehow owner? Garlic Chicken and Fried Noodles are acceptable for $9. Now the service, it's very random. I believe the owner is actually a server as well. He didn't check on us because we are Asian? because we are young? or because we looked like we wouldn't give him 25% tips? Whatever the reason was, it ain't fun to me. Coming back? Not anytime soon!
(2)Samir K.
Great Chinese food. We really liked the hot and sour soup (with chicken) and the szechuan tiger shrimp. The dumplings were good too. Nice contemporary ambience also.
(4)Sonal A.
Just opened today- had veggie chow mein, hot and sour soup. Both good- not oily. Great spot for kids! Will be back.
(5)Elaine L.
Call me an authentic yam cha gal. This place was too overpriced, and the food was too salty. I was very disappointed by this place. I'd rather go to Fu Lam in Mountain View for my dim sum fix.
(2)D. K.
Had a pretty good dinner at Steam last night. The food wasn't mind-blowing, but it definitely satisfied my Americanized Asian cravings. The Mongolian beef and beef friend rice were tasty, and then we got a whole bunch of vegetarian / shrimp dumplings. Service was prompt, and the location on University was great. Wouldn't go out of my way to go here, but if you're in the area and looking for a good meal, do it.
(3)Camille T.
I'll give you the freshness that were the dumplings, but i will take the fact that ordering 3 dim sum items took more than an hour, and 20 minute waits in between each dish of 1 inch dumplings. Totally agonizing. Will not be back.
(2)Marie R.
Steam had delicious food at a great price! The siu mai were particularly delicious, as was the General Tso chicken. The entree plates were a good size for two people and the service was speedy and friendly. I would definitely come back here for a quick lunch!
(5)Deepak N.
I would have given them 4 stars for food. I was with my family and we ordered veg / non-veg dim sums and some mains. Must say that that the food is good (kudos to the chef) but I believe that even the roadside stands in China deliver better customer service than these guys. I did go through some of the other customer reviews as I was posting this review just to avoid writing this review if I am a one off case. However this customer service (dis-service) is a their known phenomenon I believe. First the food came late .. and then they got the mains before the appetizers... and that too only one main not for the whole table. How weird is that? In which part of the world you do that. Then the dim sums came after 20 mins and by then my mains dish was cold (it still tasted great). It was not even busy at that time. When we tasted the veg dish, it had a flavor of egg (may be cooked in the same pan) and since my mom-in-law is a vegan she could not bear the taste. We asked for the waiter and he got his boss finally after 15 mins. We told him about the problem and he gave us this strange look (either I am stupid or you are stupid look). He said well I don't understand the problem. Really !!! Smells of egg in a veg dish.. how hard it is to understand? He said I can take this off the bill. Never asked if we wanted to order anything else.. no apologies.. nothing. But that I believe this is a trait in Chinese, Asian and Indian restaurants. If a customer complains, they seem to loose the plot. People don't come to your restaurants to take food off their bill. They come to get food on their table and have a good time. Mistakes also happen. Just apologize and ask them if they want something else. You are in the hospitality business.. not that hard. Will I go back again? Yes for the food and keep my fingers crossed that they will serve us better this time.
(1)Shan S.
wow, the BBQ buns are the best I've ever tasted in Bay Area so far, although it's a little pricy.
(4)Karsten T.
Good relationship between price and value. Low cost for University. Wait time longer than expected though. Good place for a quick dimsum if you don't want to pay extra dollars for one of the 2 top places in town.
(4)Sonia K.
The dim sum here is delicious! My favorite is the spinach seafood. Perfect amount of food for a light lunch- highly recommend!
(4)Chris M.
Eh. I've had so much better dim sum at so many other places, and this really was not worth the price, the wait for food, or rarely having the waiters bring us water. I'm fairly sure the pot stickers were frozen first, which if true is just sad. And, if not true, is a testament to how exceedingly average they were. The shu mai were ok, but nothing I couldn't get at my neighborhood dim sum place back in the midwest, and my standard out here is much higher. Terribly mediocre, I doubt I'll be back.
(2)Jenna W.
Service was quick and attentive. Loved their sesame balls dessert, it was made fresh and fried right before I ate it! Their dumplings, Steak with Maggi, Wings, and Beef Chow Fun were so tasty. I love this place.
(5)Liz J.
We stopped in last night and were seated quickly. Water was placed on the table for us without asking. We looked at the menu and ordered Har Gow (shrimp dumplings), Jasmine sticky rice with beef and a side of green beans. The dumplings were hot and tender with thin rice skins which I prefer. Never had the sticky rice with beef and it was excellent. I loved the way the beef was in small pieces and didn't overwhelm the dish. The red pepper gave it just enough kick to make the dish interesting. They also had bits of egg, and scallions in it. Delicious. The green beans were nicely stir fried and also carried a bit of heat. Nicely done. Didn't have a problem with service. She repeated our order to make sure it was correct, food came out on time, water was refreshed, and then we were left to enjoy one of the most beautiful evenings I have spent in Palo Alto. Glad there is now a place to get good dumplings at night!
(5)Christopher D.
Love it! Love the menu and the pen for ordering. Service is average, but where isn't it, especially in Palo Alto. Dim sum is really good. Great soups. Great everything. We try something new every time and it keeps getting better. The seafood dim sum is amazing. Great string beans too.
(4)David B.
service - 0 food - 2 location - 4
(1)Calbeejo L.
The husband and I were walking on University Ave looking for a place to eat and stumbled upon this place. We thought the food was excellent. Prices were reasonable and service was attentive. I just read the reviews from last week after eating there; guess they took the Yelpers' advice, hired a few more cooks to be on duty, and put a few more waiters in the restaurant. I am from Hong Kong, so I have high standards when it comes to Cantonese food. The favors were authentic. Most impressively, the shrimp dumplings (har gow) did not come apart when we ate it! Will come again for morning dim sum soon.
(5)kat g.
I'm undecided on Steam- I like the concept, like the look of the place and thought the food was tasty but I think it's still working out the kinks. The menu definitely needs descriptions. While everyone knows what potstickers are, do you know what five island fried rice is? It would definitely help the customer if they had a legit menu versus the folded paper we got. We had to spend a few minutes asking about dishes and we aren't that high maintenance! Another table next to us did the same thing. Don't go here is you want a quiet meal when the restaurant is busy- it gets super loud. I don't know what they could do to improve this but my husband and I were basically shouting at one another. The dishes we had were tasty - not super large potions than a regular Chinese restaurant but everything tasted good. I think overall we would go back but maybe wait as it gets it's mojo.
(3)Kris B.
I love Dim Sum and this was a very different kind of dim sum experience. The ambiance is very urban chic, and the service was great. I loved the huge jars of loose tea displayed on a counter outside the kitchen. The food was typical dim sum and very good. They also had other offerings, and we tried and loved the pea shoots with garlic, and salt and pepper tofu (who knew that tofu could be this delicious!) And for dim sum, I thought the prices were pretty reasonable. An overall great dining experience.
(5)Olivia H.
The food quality is good but the quantity is lacking especially the dim sum. We ordered some shu mei and seafood dumplings. There were only 2 dumplings on the plate! We also got the beef noodle soup and eggplant claypot. They were both good but also small in portion. I would also prefer thicker noodles in the beef soup. I think if you want a swanky asian place, you'll like it here but if its good food and a good value that you are looking for, don't come here.
(3)L H.
Disappointing. The menu offerings of dim sum stopped me in my tracks. However, this has been the worst meal I've had this year. The BBQ pork buns were dessert-like, too sweet, filled with sauce and very little pork. I also tried their pepper beef cubes, toughest cut of beef to try and chew. The staff doesn't understand and can't communicate very well in english and can't answer questions about the non-descriptive menu items. Save your money.
(1)Katie C.
Don't get tricked by the fancy, modern decor of this place. I ordered a shrimp dumpling and the shrimp was completely uncooked, gray, and rock hard. Service takes a while and the workers seemed impatient. Never coming back here again and one of the worst dim sum places ever.
(1)Benedict C.
I dunno what's worse the service or the food. Both are horrible. Don't bother. If u know and like food, go elsewhere.
(2)Sherri C.
Wow -- the bathroom is huge! It's the size of a studio apartment and a bed could fit easily in there. But on to more useful info: it's clean and you can use it if you go to this nice place on University Ave called Steam. I hesitate to call this Americanized Chinese food because it's actually quite good despite the purists' opposing views. Not so not-Chinese as PF Chang's, but not as traditional as other places in Cupertino or Sunnvyale (e.g., Cooking Papa's). Steam offers a lighter style of dumplings, noodles and entrees. The cooks use a lighter hand with the oils and spices, which hubby prefers and I am totally fine with as long as the food tastes good. And the food tastes wonderful. We especially like the filet mignon cubes with Maggi Sauce, fish filet with Szechuan Sauce, the egg tofu with mushrooms, all the steamed dim sum (try the vegetarian ones, too!) and Taiwan stir-fried noodles. The braised beef noodle soup is okay, but if you're craving the real deal their version won't cut it for you. The interior and exterior has a spare wooden decor that I really like. Like the food, the surroundings are clean, simple, elegant and tasteful. I'll meet anyone here for yum cha anytime of day.
(4)kira d.
My brother wanted to bring me here when he came home for Thanksgiving. I was slightly skeptical because of the average reviews on Yelp but this place was surprisingly good. The best things on their menu are the eggplant and the Shanghai dumplings. Normally, I am put off by eggplant. It has a strange texture and flavor. This dish erased all doubts I had about the vegetable. It was packed with flavor. The Shanghai dumplings are like soup turned inside out. Usually, won ton soup has the dumplings in the broth. This dumpling has the soup inside the dumpling. It rocked my soup loving world. I will definitely be back!
(4)Wonhee P.
The food itself is actually okay, if you don't have your hopes high. Dim sum will taste like it should taste, and the ingredients will be higher quality than expected (at least with Shumai I thought so). I've had their shumai, shrimp balls, xiaolongbao, and rice in lotus leaves. Xiaolongbao is no good at all (but it seems like no place gets it right any way), but other dishes are all good (but very pricey). I've also had their beef noodle soup. I think it's way too thick, too flavorful if that makes sense, to the extent that I wanted to water down the soup. Service-wise: had a bad experience once and then a weird weird experience. Bad: Once I came alone for a quick dinner before going to drinks with friends, and the waitress would not seat me at one of the many many many open tables. She argued with me to try to get me to sit at the bar. Why? Weird: I was seated alone for a quick lunch once, and the waiter came and tried to talk to me, asking what I am studying, what my name was, etc. I'm not sure what to make of that. Over all, for a quick fix of dim sum within Palo Alto, this place is not bad, but you pay way too much for the food you get.
(3)Brian J.
The service is seriously lacking, especially for what they charge and the decor. You can accept less than expected service in a place with a bit more grit (that also prices their dishes accordingly). I teach nearby and went here once for a quick dinner before a late meeting...that was the last time I'll ever go. Steam is indicative of everything I hate about Palo Alto, especially University Avenue. Drive to San Francisco for real dumplings.
(2)Rosie C.
Unfriendly and slow-as-molasses service. We ordered two popular dim sum dishes (chive dumplings and siu mai) and it took 30-35 minutes to arrive. When asked if our food was ready, they came back with the excuse that the chive dumplings needed to be steamed then pan-fried.... but does it take a day and a half to do that?!? When we asked for our check, it took them 30 seconds!! (Quickest part of their service!) Nice decor and awesome downtown Palo Alto University Ave location .... Such a shame they suck. We have no intentions on ever returning.
(1)RK P.
We've been to Steam several times, but this last visit sealed it. Great location, decent food, but terrible service and overpriced, even for University Avenue. Food - the broccoli was good, kids loved the pot stickers. Spinach with garlic was decent, as was the spicy szechwan chicken. Singapore noodles were ok, too much turmeric. After waiting 15 minutes and asking for a waiter, it still took another 5 minutes for someone to come take our order. Then, they charged us 18% gratuity for 3 adults and 2 young children!
(3)Ron Y.
Good + beef noodle soup + steamed black sesame ball (dessert) OK + scallop dumplings Meh + sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves (they were bland) Very pricey, since you're right on University Avenue. I spent $30 for lunch for one person. Each dim sum dish (3 pieces) is $4.80.
(3)S S.
Went here today for brunch, and ordered the famous beef noodle soup along with some dim sum (scallop dumplings, char siu bao, spinach dumplings, mushroom dumplings, shu mai). The food was very delicious, and very authentic too (I'm Chinese and have eaten at many dim sum places in China and the United States). The dim sum menu is brief compared to larger dim sum places like Fu Lam Mum in Mountain view, but what they do have is very good, and I think quality over selection is always key. The ambiance is very nice compared to most dim sum places in the South Bay. It's a small place but looks classy inside, with open kitchen, which I love (always feel good when you can see what is being cooked, plus I love cooking and it's so fun watching other people cook too). I like that the dim sum are not super huge like many of the to-go dim sum places in SF. In my experience the dim sum in China is actually not all that big, and a shao mai should have the diameter of slightly larger than a quarter, not half my fist in size. The smaller dim sum is more exquisite, and I think abetter reflection of what quality dim sum is like. The beef noodle soup is so delicious, the meat seems to have been slow cooked, because it is very tender. The bok choy is also the perfect amount of softness. Some reviewers have said it's big expensive at $12, but it's huge portions, and considering ramen is about $12 I think this is a very reasonable price for so much noodle, meat, and vegetables. They are also not stingy about the meat and vegetables, so it's not just a bowl of noodles and one piece of meat and one piece of bok choy, I promise. You'll like it :) I also recommend the scallop dumplings. They are so so good, and the presentation is great. There are fish eggs on the top, and the dumplings are folded open-top, a very unique fold. The Cha-Shao bao was also very good, and the meat inside is well cooked, not a wad of pinkish mystery stuff! The size is also good, with excellent meat to bread ratio. There is a slight aftertaste, almost like tea, I can't quite describe it, but overall I liked it. Customer service was okay, but it wasn't like they were super welcoming either. I would say slightly above average for a Chinese restaurant, and slightly below average considering this is downtown Palo Alto. But they were not mean, and I think as long as they are not mean I don't really care how the service is if the food is yummy. They charge $2 for tea. I was like WHA?? Whatever, just get the water, the tea isn't worth $2 and is free in most Chinese places. I thought they were pretty fast bringing food out. I know some people say in the reviews they are slow, but I went at 11:30 AM on a Sunday and it was very fast. There were quite a few tables by 12:00 PM filled. Try it out! Don't judge till you've tried it! Also to the people who are like AH there is MSG. First of all, we don't REALLY know do we? Also, you're only eating out rather occasionally (or so I hope for your health) so a little MSG is not the end of the world. There was also a study published by Harvard a few years ago that eating some MSG is okay in moderation. You guys can look it up if you are interested, it's a good read. :) Enjoy! I'll be back for sure.
(4)Ed F.
Been there 2X and in both cases the entrees were outstanding. Appetizers are good, entrees are the best. Plenty of food, good service, nice open location.
(4)Allen G.
My family and friends had dinner tonight at Steam. There are a few comments I have and I will summarize so as not to waste anyone's time. The Good: 1) the food is tasty and well prepared 2) it's in a convenient and fun location The Bad: 1) Value is not good. The prices are very high for the quantity of food you get. Dishes are very small. As an example, I ordered seafood fried rice and it was so skimpy that I thought it was an appetizer and I'm not kidding: I was waiting for my entree to show up. Further, I was told it was a combo of shrimp and scallop. There was so little seafood in it, a vegetarian would have been comfortable eating it and would not have noticed anything looking like a shrimp or scallop. At $14 there should be much more food on the tiny little plate it was served on. The best dish I tasted was my wife's flounder in black bean sauce; small but very tasty. 2) the restaurant is very,very noisy; making it difficult to converse with your guests or companions. 3) service: the waiter took our order, delivered the food, and presented the bill. 'Not much attention. I hate to give it only two stars because the dishes are tasty. It's just overpriced for what you get. If you eat like a bird it's fine. But, if you're 5'10" and weigh 180 or so, and you're hungry, you'll need to eat two or three entrees by yourself to leave satisfied. I don't like to embarrass the ladies, but if I'm back to Steam again by myself I'd order the seafood fried rice again, just for the satisfaction of returning it and explaining why. Steam, like most vapors, is very difficult to catch much of with a fork. Advice to Steam: Get larger plates and put more of your tasty food on them... Charge a little more if you have to.
(2)Anh T.
I had low expectations when I saw the menu and heard descriptions about this place: an expensive, nice ambiance - dim sum restaurant. It's hard not to be prejudiced but that just isn't what I always imagine dim sum to be and rarely is there an exception. I ordered a few unique dim sum items with scallops, seafood dim sum, and other stuff that had a modern twist to the traditional. Also, I got the beef noodle soup as was recommended by others. I thought the beef noodle soup was good, but the noodles that came with them were terrible. Overall this place is overly expensive and has subpar food.
(2)Paiyu G.
While our waiter was very friendly, that place needed way more customer service. When we walked in the restaurant, several waiters passed by us. We were completely ignored and no one cared why we stood there. We sat closed to the front door and while we were dining, a lady waited at door and asked the waiter who was cleaning the table next to us if she could sit down (there were a couple of empty tables around us). The waiter simply said "I'm not a waiter" (... then.. maybe he was just a janitor? ) and had no courtesy to tell the lady who she could ask for to seat her... Flavor was okay. We like dim sum places in San Francisco way better.
(2)Josh G.
I heard the restaurant is good so I decided to give it a try myself and the outcome was quite bad. They provide rude service and covertly change the amount of tips you give! The facilities are brand-new and the food is good, like the bean sprout dumpling. Some of the dim sum, such as mushroom veggie buns, don't match what the menu picture shows and don't taste that well. All the items are a bit overpriced, even compared to other Palo Alto downtown restaurants. What displeased me is their rude service. The waiters are unresponsive--they don't respond to you when you courteously say thanks or hi, and they look cold and arrogant; I requested some vinegar and the waiter said yes, yet it was never brought to me and I had to ask another one for the something, who put a plate of weird-tasting vinegar on my table with a "Bang" and left saying nothing. To be honest, I've never seen worse service offered by restaurants in the Bay Area. So the quality and the food and service couldn't match the price at all. I was thinking of giving them NO tips as these rude people don't deserve it, yet out of courtesy I still wrote two dollars (in a clear way ppl would never read wrong). When I looked at my credit card report, I found that they changed the amount of tips I offered from 2 to 7 dollars! I was so shocked BECAUSE this is ILLEGAL! I have heard that some restaurants change the amount of tips because few customers would notice the difference, but I never imagined that this nasty thing would happen to me! For all the other customers, please take attention of your receipts--they may have changed your tips and charged you more! Definitely not recommend this restaurant that offers bad service and changes the amount of tips you write! Quality service and honesty are essential for a business yet they are short of both...
(1)Elise L.
Went there for brunch today with a group of friends and had a great time. The restaurant was very cute- typical downtown Palo Alto, people watching, restaurant. We ordered the wonton soup, BBQ pork buns, shrimp har gow, spinach seafood dumplings, vegetable mushroom duplings, beef chow fun, and the pork and shrimp shui mai. I didn't try the wonton soup but heard from my friends that did try it that it was very good. I couldn't help but notice that portion were very small, as were the beef chow fun. The beef chow fun, which we all did try, was very good. For the more dim sum dishes- everything was very good other than the shrimp har gow. I wasn't really impressed. The dough was much thicker than it's supposed to be and just felt off. Nonetheless, I did have a very good time with my friends having brunch. The service was very good, and the servers were very attentive. I would recommend this restaurant, especially if you're in the mood for some dim sum in a fun downtown setting.
(4)germaine n.
Food is mediocre. Nothing that great had the filet with maggi, shrimp fried rice with double egg and a Siu Mai. Let's talk about service. It sucked!!!! We sat down at 2:35, got our menu and order at 2:55. At 3:35 we are asking about any of our food. Still nothing. Food Came at 3:45, bill came at 3:55. Wow! Really? Food has barely been touched and we get the bill. I know what you are think, close after lunch right? Nope. It's a Sunday and they open all day. So mad that I'm actually spending my lunch time writing this. For the price and the fancy facade. Waiter can't speak a lick of English or acknowledge your concerns. Not ok and won't be back.
(1)Gina L.
Whaaaaaaaaa??? So, guess what, today was my THIRD day dining here for lunch in the past FIVE day work week. LOL. Ordering the SAME Spicy Wine Seafood Noodle Soup. The quality consistency was definitely there all three visits - big thumbs up for that. However, as I handed my credit card to my server, he opened the bill for me and I noticed that they bumped up the price from $10 to $12 (before tax). OK, not a HUGE deal, considering the fact that, as mentioned in my first review, the seafood quality is great. BUT... I noticed that this third time around, my dish seemed to consist of less seafood than the first two times I dined here. They seemed to have added mushrooms (white, slim and long stemmed... too bad I'm drawing a blank on the name) in place of seafood quantity? Delicious as the mushroom were, I would take the extra seafood! Especially if you're going to raise the price. Anyways, it just seemed funny to me because that was my third visit to the establishment within a time span of five days, and all of a sudden, they jacked the price up on MYYYY dish. When I inquired about the pricing to my server, he said they had just changed their menu. I couldn't help to think that they noticed I might start eating them out of house and home with that Spicy Wine Seafood Noodle Soup for $10 multiple times per week and decided to raise the price!
(4)Alexander B.
Excellent soup and dumplings. The hot and sour soup and vegetarian pea shoot dumplings are particularly good. Ordering is efficient and service has been consistently good for me with small parties.
(5)Bay Arean C.
String beans w/ preserved vegetables are a 'must try' ! Good vegetable dumpling dishes - light food if you are looking for something other than salad in the summer.
(4)Dee Z.
Considering I usually get dim sum in San Francisco from the take-out places that are organically grungy - dim sum in a clean, swanky place is definitely an upgrade. It was a little more expensive, which was expected... I tried the ha how, mushroom dumplings and the shrimp-peashoot dumplings. All very tasty and not greasy. This is a first but I had sticky rice in lotus leaf and the sticky rice did just that - it was stuck to the leaf...scraped as much as I could but it was seriously glued to the leaf. It did taste like any other sticky rice in lotus leaf even if it wasn't a Cooking Papa sized serving. Tried the braised beef noodle soup - which is pretty substantial and serves as a meal if you're just by yourself. I thought it was tasty - it had big chunks of beef that were very tender...there was also bok choy along with it and being a big vegetable eater - I could have used more vegetable matter to balance all the meat. Noodles don't count. You know what I really enjoyed??? The fact that I asked for chrysanthemum tea - and they had it!!!!!! Hellooo...in Palo Alto! A big plus if you are gorging on dim sum. I would go back to try more items now that I know I can wash it all down with one of my favorite teas.
(4)Kd C.
One of my favorite Chinese places to eat and how can you not like Palo Alto downtown. You'll experience good service and good food. I like it there!
(5)Diane N.
I really do like this place! The only thing is it's really overpriced for what you can get in a more authentic Chinese restaurant (this place to be is more of a fusion of American and Chinese). I feel like the dim sum was okay, nothing special honestly but the other dishes are so delicious! My favorite so far is the Thousand Island Tofu. It was crispy and luscious, and I enjoyed the egg for that nice texture! Oh, and a must to try to is the Mango Pudding. It is so different than all the other mango puddings I have had in Chinese restaurants. It has tapioca balls in this one and it makes it the most interesting texture combination. The creamy with the pops of tapioca in your mouth, it was great.
(3)Aries G.
My friend and I were both hungry and we were walking down the University Avenue in Palo Alto .Steam satisfies our palate . The dumplings and main dishes were very delicious. I cannot give a 5 stars cause it was a bit salty for me. Definetely I will come back.
(4)Aureliano C.
I loved't. Long time neighboring China Delight and Jing-Jing around the corner are also favorites that are consistent and won't letchya down, but Steam just adds a new element of Chinese fare and offers a more modern look and feel to it. Food's excellent in my opinion. The server was friendly and smiley which was fun. I always recommend them to anyone lookin for a good plate of Asian food. The not too distant P.F. Chang's IS NOT my idea of good Chinese cuisine. I've a feeling you'll not be disappointed.
(5)Andrew P.
I don't know where the bad reviews for food come from. We had Mongolian chicken and filet mignon and they were delicious. I strongly recommend the black sesame balls for dessert. For 5 stars, I miss more friendliness from part of the staff (probably the ones on top of the management) and also they should throw away the plastic chopsticks: they're too slippery for some dishes.
(4)Joyce H.
I love that you can dim sum here all day! The hot and sour soup was really great. I loved that it was spicy enough to clear my sinuses. Awesome! It also had a lot of the traditional Chinese veggies like wood ear mushrooms and bamboo. I would recommend the veggie spring rolls, chicken dumplings and veggie fun gow. These are the dishes I had and enjoyed. I wish I could have ordered more. I was looking around and the chow fun looked amazing. The look of the restaurant is beautiful. Large front window, nice wood tables, is clean, and has a modern feel. I sat at the chef's counter and the service was still good. It's worth checking out if you love Cantonese food.
(4)Kirsten A.
I have never even heard of this place before, but I expect that, as turnover rate in Palo Alto is extremely high. Steam is a great place to go for a lunch break in downtown Palo Alto, as it is walking distance from pretty much everything. The food is more traditional Chinese (Dim Sum). I especially enjoyed the spicy garlic chicken and pork rolls ("fluff balls"). I have no idea what the latter was called, but it was quality. The service was good; I would have liked to have my food at once, but I understand they are a new business and got busy. I got the main dish first and waited more than 20 minutes to get the sides, which again is fine, but I was in a little time constraint. This place is definitely worth checking out though. In Palo Alto, who knows how long it will last!
(4)Jess C.
* Mixed Mushroom Beef - 2 STARS: I liked the mixed mushrooms but the beef was low quality and overly salty. It kind of reminded me of something you might find at Su Hong, a bit too oily. * Beef and Basil Clay Pot - 2 STARS: They use the same sauce and cut of beef as the mixed mushroom. Low quality, salty, oily and tough. I would recommend neither, and suggest selecting a different protein. * Kung Pao Chicken ($12) - 4.5 STARS: Of all the stir fried meat plates, I liked this flavor the most. It is spicy and topped with peanuts. The chicken is really tender. * Shrimp Rolls: I have yet to have a bad shrimp roll, but if you like shrimp or shrimp dumplings I think you would like these crunchy little egg rolls filled with shrimp. * Pea Shoots ($12) - 3.5 STARS: Fresh and stir fried with whole garlic. Pretty good, pretty standard. * Braised Beef Noodle Soup - 4 STARS: This slightly spicy beef noodle soup was pretty good and chock full of meat, but I wish the noodles were a little more al dente. Finally I don't need to trek over to Cupertino Village for something similar! * Spicy Wine Noodle Soup ($8) - 5 STARS: This is my favorite soup of all the ones I've tried here. It's super spicy, and the seafood tasted pretty fresh. I wish there was more seafood! * Duck Soup with Rice Cake - 2.5 STARS: The broth in this soup reminds me of egg drop soup because it's thickened but mild tasting. This is the first time I had nian gao in a soup dish, there were no noodles. There were some pieces of really salty duck, and some chicken (which tasted better than the duck). Overall, it's a pretty interesting mild broth with a little bit of meat and nian gao. * Sponge Cake Dessert ($4) - 5 STARS: Really hard to find a great ma-lai-go. Surprising that Steam delivered a perfectly sweet, and airy sponge cake!
(4)Thomas H.
Food was 3 stars, ok, but really small portion! But the one less star is because of the 18% auto gratuity without telling us for party of 4. Then my pet peeve of restaurant not telling us that they've added gratuity when the credit card receipt comes and leaving the "tip" line blank
(2)Vladimir P.
I am not sure that the food was much better than China Delight (aka "the cheap Chinese"). I have noticed though that it was more than twice the price. The decor is very nice, food is standard and the service is absolutely abysmal. Although we have ordered at the same time, my lunch companion had watch me eat all of my food and some more before his food arrived. Then I watched him eat his food. In short, I do not recommend it and shan't return.
(2)Heather R.
My husband and I have eaten here a handful of times. We always enjoy our meal and consider it one of the better restaurants right in university. It's not the super fast, super cheap dim sum you find in the city, but hey it's Palo Alto...come on you can't expect them to provide those kind of prices with the rent they pay for their space. So don't listen to all the haters....just give them a try for yourself.
(4)Ashlee C.
Steam was very average in my opinion. Service was slow and inattentive. Though we were seated immediately, it took ages for a waiter to take our order. The food was fairly bland, and extremely greasy. We tried a noodle dish (I wish I could remember what it was called), a "chef recommended dish". SO BLAND! I was really disappointed. I thought the dim sum was priced well; the entrees seemed a bit pricey though.
(3)Randy F.
**Update** Came with a slightly larger group and the experience was quite different. Items were unavailable from the dim sum menu and the service was quite inexperienced/sporadic. The soup noodles tend to be average (spicy seafood noodle and rice cake with duck) and the dim sum isn't to Taipan standards. If they want this place to succeed, they need to put more into it. Improve the dishes, work on service, and develop consistency. Sad as my first visit was so nice. ============== Really love the concept and think it's perfect for Palo Alto. - Open-air kitchen - Sleek, modern design and high ceilings - Indoor and outdoor patio seating - Dim sum and Hong Kong cuisine available most of the day (11-930 pm) Steam is a spin-off from Taipan and, as a fan of Taipan, (very good dim sum albeit a bit pricey) I was interested in seeing how their next venture would be. While early reviews pointed to some service issues and a menu too similar to Taipan, they seem to have made some adjustments in the first weeks. Service was excellent with waiters asking how items were, explaining and suggesting dishes, and checking on me frequently. It literally was among the better service I've received at a Chinese restaurant so I applaud their effort from the wait staff to the busboys. The menu had a small section of dim-sum, but the more interesting fare are the Hong Kong cuisine, something that I thought was always overshadowed at Taipan. Comfort foods like noodle soup and rice dishes are new and the more casual atmosphere fits with the more reasonable prices. I ordered a sampling: Braised Beef Noodle Soup - the broth was very good and the braised beef was very tender. Nice cuts of bok choy. The noodles were prepared well but too similar to instant ramen noodle. Would prefer a more fresh-pulled noodle to distinguish themselves. ($8) Shanghai dumpling - forgettable, but I had to order. The xiao long bao skins were too thick and there wasn't no soup at all. Very affordable though like all their dim sum. Taipan's shanghai dumplings were better but no all-star either and pricier. ($3) Bean Curd Shrimp Roll - a common dim sum dish but served very nicely and in a different, more elegant presentation. Very tasty. Overall, I left Steam happy. We so infrequently see new Chinese establishments in the area that I'm giving an extra star as kudos to Taipan for branching out. I'll happily come back and look forward to trying some of the other dishes like sticky jasmine fried rice and beef or the tiger prawns in special sauce. Steam has potential and it could be a more upscale Cooking Papa for Palo Alto with the right improvements. 3.5 Stars with 0.5 Stars for great service on my visit and potential. Steam accepts credit cards, including American Express.
(3)Hib.zi R.
I only gave this place three stars because the dumplings are really good, but the service gets one star, barely.
(3)Beard L.
Dumplings are always served steaming hot--I wonder if they make it after the order is taken. I was also a fan of their beef noodle soup because their meat is so tender and has full flavor, but last time I ordered, half of it was fat. Also, it would taste much better w/ fresh noodles opposed to instant noodle types.
(3)Elizabeth T.
I really like TaiPan so I obviously hauled myself over to Steam the moment I caught wind that the TaiPan owners had opened a new restaurant. I would normally rate this at 3.5 but I liked the BNS and black sesame balls enough to bump it up and give them the benefit of the doubt this round. Braised beef noodle soup was one of the better ones I've had in the bay area Black sesame balls (dessert) are a must. Imagine super soft, fresh mochi-like texture with delicious black sesame goodness inside. I will be back for these alone. Shiu mai was ok. A bit on the small side Bean curd shrimp rolls were fried (not what I expected). Not bad but too greasy for me. Shanghai Dumplings (XLBs) tasted good but I consider them to be failures as XLBs. All the soup had leaked out and the skins were a bit too thick. If they had called them just regular dumplings then I would be raving about them. Chef's special tofu in a clay pot is worth trying but I'm not a big fan of anything pickled or spicy. Pea sprouts with garlic were alright. Nothing noteworthy. Steamed custard buns were really good and tasted better than the ones at TaiPan Thousand layer cake turned out to be a spongey bun-like cake layered with yolky baked custard. to me, it was like a more dry and less sweet version of the steamed custard bun. +Takes reservations -Crowded seatings; kept getting bumped into by customers and servers -Slow service -Not on OpenTable (TaiPan is though)
(4)Marc K.
Congrats to Steam for creating an upscale Chinese place that looks trendy, is clean, and feels better than eating in a traditional Chinese restaurant with their dirty bathrooms, dirty floors, rude waiters, and rushed service. With that said, I do enjoy eating in those places too, but it's a totally different experience. So, on to the review. First, I find it funny when people review this place and say "it's not as authentic as the little dim sum place I go to in Milpitas or Cupertino." Of course it's not, for all the reasons above. If you want the taste of China, go to one of those places and enjoy it. If you want good, clean, fresh food that is prepared well, then I would say Steam is a good option. Does it taste like you got it at a night market in Beijing. No. Does it taste good? Yes. We ordered a variety of their dim sum dishes, all of which were good. Their Xiao Long Bao is not called that though, and I think it was called pork dumplings. So be careful if that's what you want to order. All of their other dim sum dishes are labelled correctly and some even have pictures. Off of their dim sum dishes, we also got a beef dish (with basil) and it was cooked well. Some of their dishes were a tad salty for my taste, but not overpowering. Service was good. Prices were actually pretty good for a University Ave restaurant. My one flaw that I found. I asked for tea and the waitress told me they only had Jasmine, which was ok. However, when going to the bathroom in the back, along the counter you can see jars of all kinds of teas. I asked the man standing there if they served them and he said yes. So, if you are a tea drinker, go over and look at their variety of teas before you order yours.
(4)Holly B.
Delicious little snack! We got the steamed green beans and the veggie dumplings. Loved the beans with a passion! I will def come again but it didn't fill me up. Next time I'll get their famous jasmine fried rice! Yum!
(5)Tiffany C.
Strolled by this place the other night while taking the new puppy out for a walk, and we were very intrigued by the new dim sum/Chinese food place that we had never seen before. Plus, they have outdoor seating area and allows dogs, so there was no question that we would be trying them out. The servers there were all very friendly, even bringing out a little bowl of water for the pup, stopped to ask us questions about the puppy and made conversation. The menu consists of a lot of noodle and rice dishes, as well as some other traditional Chinese dishes, and then the dim sum and baos as well. We ordered the mao po tofu, shiu mai, xiao lom bao (no clue what it's called in english sorry!), pan fried beef noodles (hong kong style noodles). One thing I don't like is when places have rice as a separate item from things like mao po tofu. With something as saucy as that, who wouldn't want rice with it? In my opinion every place should include rice with a meal like that. But anyway... Food wise, mao po tofu was really good, just a little too spicy for my liking. The shiu mai and xiao lom bao were delicious and the pan fried beef noodles were delicious too. Also, we didn't order any, but the mango pudding looked delicious (little kid sitting at the table next to us had some and I was very tempted). It's nice that they opened a place like this on University Ave. I'd definitely recommend stopping by and having some yummerz food.
(4)