Happy Cafe

I just finished my delicious dinner from Happy Café! I got the broccoli beef and black bean chicken and it was so yummy. Finally, I found good Chinese food in Hollister!

awesome service very friendly and attentive to us… wish there was more seating but overall a great place… food presentation was nice and clean food tasted fresh… will be back soon

The BEST Chinese food in Hollister.
Since a few of the other local Chinese restaurants have begun to slip in quality and serving size, we decided to try the Happy Café.
While not the WORLD’S BEST Chinese food, it is the best available in San Benito County.
I was craving Chinese soups, and ordered a few to go. Hot & Sour soup is to die for!
While the menu is huge, the servings are generous. The staff is a little on the curt and rude side, but genuinely Chinese.

The place is small but cozy. The staff was attentive and the service is quick. The corn egg flower soup was really good. I ordered the Mongolian beef. The meat was tender and they did not skimp. It was a bit on the salty side for my taste but overall it had good flavor. The price is good for a lunch special.

Best Chinese food in Hollister. Great lunch plates. Also love the fact they offer individual dinner plates so that you aren’t forced to over-​order family style.

Happy Café has the best Chinese food in Hollister. The sesame chicken is delicious — the only downside is it’s not an option for the lunch specials. Their wonton chips are the best I’ve ever had. This is my go-​to place!

Best Hot & Sour Soup in Hollister and CANNOT beat their lunch special. Always get the kung pao chicken with steamed rice. One of my favorite things in this world! When I’m under the weather hubby stops here to get me the hot & sour soup. Huge & lasts for a couple of days, just what I need to make me all better. My absolute FAVORITE Chinese restaurant in Hollister, hands down!

ok so this place has some good food for the price. talking about the lunch specials and dinner plates. the only downfall is the place is sometimes crowded and no room to sit so maybe a to go order is better but you will not get the soup that comes with it. I haven’t been to this place since I had a hair in my food. the waitress was nice enough to ask me what other plate would I like. of course I got a different choice because I didn’t want them just taking the hair out and giving me the same food. oh and by the way one of the waitress could be a bit grouchy, I guess everyone has there ups and downs.

It was ok… nothing is rush home to tell my friends about and definitely not a place on my list to come back soon

Eh, had the chow fun was pretty tasteless, brown and OILY. The egg roll was ok, so if I order again, it’ll definitely be something else!

First time going there today for a take out order. The Shrimp fried rice was terrible. Over cooked dry gummy rice. Shimp over cooked and the food was cold. I will never go there again.

Crab meat ragoons and hot and sour soup are to die for. Super reasonable pricing throughout the entire menu, and also great lunch specials that include: soup, appetizer, and entrée, with choice of steamed or fried rice. Mongolian beef is one of my top entrees on the menu, really great place for Chinese food.

UPDATE 02-​03-​2016
Still loving Happy Café! Great specials! Ice cold beer!
UPDATE 12-​01-​2015
This place is still great. Love the fast and friendly service.
UPDATE 10-​21-​2015
They changed up the specials by rotating between included egg roll or crab cheese wonton. This place is still great and still one of the best values in town.
UPDATE 05-​15-​2015
I like that they change up the daily soup that you get with their lunch specials.
UPDATE 03-​16-​2015
They have three tables outside.
I still recommend being EARLY!
Ok I’ve been here several times now. Don’t know how I missed this place before. I’ve been missing out!
Right up front I took off one star ONLY because they need more seating LOL. If you don’t come early /​late for lunch you will wait.
That’s the only reason for the one star. Everything else is great!
Ingredients are fresh. Meat is sliced thin. Portions are big.
They have several types of drinks including beer.
Cashew chicken was probably the best I’ve ever had. I’m not kidding. I’ve been to china four times. Hong Kong six times. Seriously the best.
Orange chicken was an unexpected delight. They serve it mildly spicy while maintaining the usual sweetness Think Kung pao without the extra zing. I thought it was great.
Spring rolls are crunchy and tasty. Pretty amazing as it’s mostly vegetables.
The crab cheese wontons are also very good. smooth and creamy.
Hot and sour soup was real good although I might be used to a little more vinegar or something. Do they put vinegar in it? LOL
Fried rice your standard faire. I didn’t try the steamed rice but seems very popular based on others.
The staff is very friendly and attentive.
The chief is a busy guy. Makes great food. Not sure about the white sox hat though LOL sorry chicago
Check this place out but be early!
Nine tables inside. Two tables outside.

The food was actually tasteless, the service was horrible and the cookie was soggy. Not to mention that my water glass had crusted food on it. All in all the worst Chinese food I’ve had.

Decided to go here because we felt like having chinese food for dinner. Since China Garden is closed we were recommended by our family friend to try this out. We called in our order that way it would be a faster pick up. We ordered crab meat Rangoon for an appetizer. Then for dinner we had sweet and sour shrimp, chicken fried rice, Kung pao chicken, and Mongolian beef. We weren’t sure about this, but we’re satisfied with what we ordered. We will definitely be dining here again.

My family and I ordered take out from this restaurant last night. We got sesame chicken, steamed rice, vegetables deluxe, egg rolls and wonton soup. Everything was, overall, very bland/​tasteless. The dishes just didn’t taste like what you’d expect – they all had the same, faint but mildly unpleasant, flavor.
The wonton soup was probably the worst that I’ve ever had and it had a faint fishy taste (even though we requested no shrimp) overlying that same (mildly unpleasant) bland flavor that everything else had. I had a few bites and then just could not eat any more.
The sesame chicken was the most flavorless that I’ve ever had In addition to being bland, it had an unpleasant texture. I’ve never experienced a texture like this before. The chicken was firm and slightly rubbery when you first started to bite into it and then soft in the middle. I am not certain what could possibly cause this texture, but I suspect that they may be pre-​cooking the chicken and then adding the breading/​sauce later? The breading did not stick to the chicken and, instead of being crisp, the breading was soggy and peeling off of the chicken into little congealed lumps. The sauce just didn’t taste like anything… completely flavorless.
The vegetables in the vegetables deluxe were cooked well (not over or under-​cooked), but the dish was flavorless and tasted pretty much like everything else. It really could have used some garlic and other flavorings/​seasonings. The sauce that the vegetables was in was very watery, not even slightly thickened.
The egg rolls were okay, but they were very oily. The steamed rice was a bit odd too… I’m not sure exactly how to describe it, but something was off with the texture.
My husband threw out the leftovers last night, after dinner, instead of saving them for lunches like he usually would. He saw me, this morning, writing this review and commented that he was «even disappointed in the rice.» When I asked him what he thought was off about the rice, he said he wasn’t sure and «maybe it was old.» Then, he said that the food wasn’t good and that «everything was bland.» He did say that he liked the people who worked at the restaurant and that they were friendly and seemed to want to provide good customer service.
Overall, I just cannot recommend this restaurant. I would give the food one star out of five. Overall, I rate this restaurant as two stars, with the second star because the people who work there were friendly and the seating area was clean.

Simply love the lunch special. All the plates hace great flavor & made fresh. Very affordable

Happy café is a great addition to Hollister’s lunch options. The food is great and so are the prices. Jenny and Jane are the best servers!

I’ll give this place points for convenience. They feature individually-​portioned dinner specials which are just like the lunch specials. My husband & I were staying at a hotel in Hollister after attending the Renaissance Faire at Casa De Fruta. It was REALLY hot & we were too exhausted to go out to dinner. We wanted Chinese food, but not the traditional Chinese-​style takeout with a bunch of dishes in containers, because we had no plates or serving utensils. So being able to each get our own dinner was perfect. So why not more stars? Well, after reading all the great reviews about the food, we found it to be pretty hit or miss. The potstickers were very good, better than most. My Mongolian Beef was tender, but had way too many white onions, & not enough green onions. It also didn’t have any of those little crunchy rice noodles that it usually has. My husband’s Kung Pao Shrimp was bland. Have you ever heard Kung Pao described as bland? The biggest disappointment though was the fried rice. It contained no vegetables! Just rice & egg. And it was unusually dark brown in color, as if it contained a lot of beef broth/​soy sauce. Just odd.
But again, for convenience, I’d probably go back, & just order something different. I’ve uploaded photos of their menu, because they don’t have a website.

Love their lunch specials for $ 5.95. Includes entrée, soup, wonton, fried or steamed rice. M, W, F the soup corn chowder is served and T and TH hot and sour soup is served. Lunch is served until 3 but for $ 1 more lunch specials become dinner specials