3.5 stars. I'm unbelievably disappointed that Master Gua is gone. It disappeared so suddenly, too, and was immediately replaced with Tasty Kitchen, which is described as being homestyle Chinese food. The menu has a number of things on the menu that would qualify as homestyle and that I've never seen on the menu at other Chinese restaurants, so that was a point in its favor from the start and got me interested in trying Tasty Kitchen despite my overwhelming disappointment about the loss of Master Gua.
Dropped by this evening and there was only one other party eating. The waitress was very friendly and greeted us at the door, seating us near the counter. The thing I've been looking forward to trying the most since I saw it on their takeout menu was the egg and tomato stir fry. My husband got the braised pork belly. The waitress was trying to sell us on the current opening special, which is two entrees and a soup for $42.99, which is actually a pretty good deal. Unfortunately, none of the three soups sounded appealing to me, so we just went with the two entrees and a side of steamed rice for each of us. She was very helpful in providing my husband with other recommendations, though, which we appreciated.
The braised pork belly came out within just a few minutes, very hot and fresh. It had whole pieces of ginger and quail eggs mixed in. The pork belly was delicious, with a nice crispy exterior and tender interior, glazed with a great sauce. I just didn't love the really large chunks of ginger. Quail eggs have a flavor I don't really like, but my husband loved them and loved his dish overall.
I'll admit that I'm a bit ignorant about egg and tomato stir fry. I've seen photos of it and thought it looked absolutely delicious, but was unaware that there is more than one way you can make it (like menudo or pozole, for example). The versions I've seen didn't use ketchup, but at Tasty Kitchen, the entire stir fry is mixed with ketchup. Ketchup on scrambled eggs is good (I much prefer salsa) as well as on omurice, but it's just not what I wanted from this dish. The ketchup was overwhelmingly sweet in such a huge amount and was the only discernible flavor profile. I suppose it was the substitute for the sugar element that's a typical part of this dish, but it was too much and I didn't love it. However, the tomatoes were cooked perfectly, not mushy, and the eggs were scrambled real fluffy and light. This dish has the potential to be much better if they nix the ketchup.
Our total, for two entrees, two bowls of rice, and two Cokes was $57.57 with tax. We had a lot of food leftover and will get at least two meals out of this, so that's a major plus in Tasty Kitchen's favor. I may not have been a big fan of my dish, but there are many other things I want to try from Tasty Kitchen that will bring us back again. I don't know if I'll end up liking this place as much as I did Master Gua, and losing a malatang place is a serious loss to our food scene here in San Leandro. But a homestyle Chinese restaurant is different and unique and fills a void we had, too. So I'm hoping for good things for Tasty Kitchen in a spot that's seemed cursed for constant turnover ever since Hidden Wok closed many years ago. read more