90 Kabob is a small Chinese snack restaurant and tea house that specializes in skewers and also serves beer and yummy desserts. This is an afternoon, evening, and late night joint, open until 2am on weekdays and 3am on weekends (closed Wednesdays). The shop opened in October 2015 in Orient Center, next door to Viet Tofu. This is a nice little low-key spot to grab some delicious skewers and drinks.
The restaurant, tucked away in the back of the plaza, is tiny. There are two booths against one wall and a banquette with tables against the other with more tables in the middle. Maximum seating capacity is about 25 customers. The restaurant has decor, but it's minimal. This is a low budget place, but it's got some charm all its own.
90 Kabob offers about 40 different types of skewers that consist of various meats, vegetables, and seafood. They have standard stuff like chicken, beef, lamb, and fish balls. Unlike Kochi Maru down the street where they serve ox penis, there's nothing too crazy on the menu here. Some of the more unique items include chicken feet, ginkgo, gluten, kelp, Pacific saury (whole fish), whole squid, and squid head. Most skewers range in price from $1-3 each.
Along with skewers, other savory foods include noodles and noodle soups ($9-11), sandwiches ($7-8), and snacks like fries, wings, and octopus balls ($4-8). Desserts and sweets include waffles with fruit toppings, Chinese dessert soups, Chinese pancakes made with fruits like mango, papaya, and durian, and more ($5-7). Prices are approximate.
As for drinks, they serve both traditional Chinese teas as well as milk teas, bubble teas, fruit green teas, and fruit smoothies. Traditional teas are served in candle-heated glass teapots with two glasses for about $5-6 per pot including refills. Milk teas, bubble teas, and fruit smoothies cost about $4-5 each. At the time of writing this review (March 2017), 90 Kabob has a Yelp check-in offer where if you spend more than $25, you get a free milk/bubble tea.
Here are the items I tried (using menu names):
Skewers
* Chicken - $1.00
* Lamb - $1.50
* QQ sausage - $2.00
* Chicken feet - $1.50
* Pig belly with mushroom - $2.50
* Pig belly with scallop - $3.75
* Chicken skin - $1.00
* Mushroom - $1.50
* Whole eggplant - $3.00
* Fried tofu - $1.25
* Okra - $1.50
* Squid (whole) - $2.50
Snacks
* Taro French fries - $3.75
Dessert
* Mix fruits sago with mango juice - $6.25
Tea
* Rose "tea house" - $5.50
* Lavender - $5.50
* Black milk tea (regular size) - $3.25
The skewers are relatively cheap, but they add up quick. Overall, they were pretty tasty. A lot of them used the same seasoning which can be described as salty, spicy, and addictive. MSG, perhaps? The skewers themselves are the thin disposable wooden type.
All skewers are cooked to order, served hot out the kitchen. Give the staff some time to prepare your order.
My favorites were the lamb, QQ sausage, chicken skin, fried tofu, and okra. The others, with the exception of the chicken feet, were good too. Generally, the skewered meats were tender and flavorful. The squid was expectedly chewy, but not bad at all. The squid comes with lime wedges for additional flavor, but I don't think it's needed.
"QQ" in Chinese and Taiwanese cuisine refers to appetizingly chewy food. 90 Kabob's QQ sausage is basically sweet Chinese sausage. They serve three small sausage links to a skewer and I highly recommend them. The chicken skin, fried tofu, and okra were all fantastic. These skewers are lightly fried.
The chicken feet and whole eggplant actually aren't skewered. They're served off skewer. I love chicken feet at dim sum, but 90 Kabob prepares their chicken feet differently. You get two chicken feet per order and they're fried. You have to eat with your hands and gnaw away at the skin, cartilage, and tendon wrapped tightly around the various small bones. The skin, cartilage, and tendon don't fall off the bone like they do at dim sum. Instead, it takes quite a bit of work and effort to eat and I don't think it's worth it.
The whole eggplant is splayed out and the "open-face" vegetable is cooked with garlic and spices. Like the other foods here, there is a lot of flavor (almost too much).
"Pig belly" on the menu simply refers to bacon. The bacon-wrapped mushrooms and scallops were A-OK. The mushrooms were enoki mushrooms, served in tight little bunches. The scallops were small and of OK quality. Four bites of each are served per order.
The taro fries are more like taro chips. I think these are a great shareable snack; crispy, crunchy, and they come with a dipping sauce.
I liked the mixed fruit dessert. It came with freshly sliced banana, kiwi, mango, and papaya with tiny sago balls (sago is similar to tapioca). It was sweet, cool, light, and refreshing.
The traditional teas were decent. They were fragrant and flowery, particularly the rose tea. The lavender tea is better. The regular (black) milk tea was surprisingly good and I'd order it again. read more