Delight Cafe

A friend told us that her friend highly recommended this restaurant for its exceptional Cantonese menu. We loosely planned to have a group dinner sometime in the near future but we decided to give them a try for lunch today.
The restaurant opens at 11:00 am and immediately, folks started showing up. We were the fourth table to be seated. Menus were presented, tea was dropped off and then we waited… and waited… and waited.
Eventually someone came to take our order. We ordered three dishes.
Salt & Pepper Chicken Wings — 4 — generally, they were pretty good though one of us noticed a slightly off flavor.
Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice — 3 — somehow someone goofed up the order and we ended up with Fishermans Fried Rice which had Shrimp instead of Chicken. There was a small amount of salted fish and some Tobiko for crunch.
Chicken Curry with Steamed Rice — 3 — the Chicken was very tender but there wasn’t nearly enough curry flavor nor sauce to wet even ½ of the rice that they gave me.
Lunch is supposed to come with soup and there were bowls and spoons on the table but we didn’t receive any until I asked for it. The soup is a simple beef broth with carrots and daikon with various spices. Very typical of the types of soup presented at some Chinese restaurants with dinner.
Both rice dishes came out first, followed by the Chicken Wings and then the soup after I asked for it.
Paying attention to the experiences of other diners, it seemed that mistakes were made at each of two other tables. At one table, they asked why their meal was taking so long to come out. Apparently they expected one dish to be sent out as an appetizer while the server had planned to bring it out with entrees. Another table had ordered a tofu dish. The server specifically asked if the fried tofu was okay and the guest stated that he wanted unfried tofu. When the dish was served, they brought out fried tofu, which he sent back.
We’ll try it again sometime for dinner to see if it’s a different staff but if it’s like it was today, we’ll stay away in the future.

Been going here on and off since 2013. This resturant shares the same kitchen with Asian delight, a Chinese fast food place. I think it’s the same owner too. The food is okay, not fancy. It’s normal chinese food for the price. This place can get packed at dinner time. They did raise the price on the family dinner menu with in the recent years. I did notice that the restrooms can get messy to down right gross when both sides of the resturants gets busy.

Foods are good service are nice and price are pretty reasonable too. I brought some friends they all like it too

I think everytime I come here, the stars are going to go down… but in their defense this was a busy Sunday evening, here’s how this evening went:
We were seated in the corner table, waited for the menu for ten minutes. No one came by, so when a waitress came by we asked, she kind of threw it down onto the table which was kind of rude.
We got our menus, and waved someone down to take our order. He takes our order then leaves. Two dishes come to our table (both dishes were wrong) mind you, we didn’t get our tea or soup yet! A lady comes by and takes the dishes away and apologizes.
No tea and soup yet, so I ask, after thirty minutes we get a pitcher of tea. Finally our first dish comes by, still no soup or tea. They also never gave us our rice.
Finally they bring the second dish, soup and rice. Our first dish is cold at this point.
They get one star, because I like a few of their dishes. Not sure why they get two stars, but this experience was a bit aggravating, I asked for tea three times and soup twice, it took them 45 minutes to bring my tea and soup when tea is the first thing most restaraunt will give you.

It’s a traditional Chinese restaurant, with two aspects that stand out:
1. High Value — They still have a 3 dishes for $ 21.99 deal that’s almost unheard anymore. This used to be a trend in Chinese restaurants but they’re one of the few remaining in the area!
2. Crowded — They try and squeeze as many tables in as they can. Because they also own the other side where they sell Chinese fast food, the fire code for # of people allowed increases, but they put all those people on the side of the restaurant.
Tip: Make a reservation ahead of time.

Delight Café is your typical Chinese restaurant, plus infinity worse. All the food was saturated with MSG. What’s worse is… they have a to-​go deli in the front and my cousin saw them plating us food from the deli! Who knows how long that food has been sitting there, warmed in the open air?! Service was undeniably terrible as well. The waiters were staring at us and didn’t even move an inch when we were calling them/​signaling. I’d skip.

This is one of my dad’s favorite restaurant’s, it’s located in a shopping center in San Leandro, so there is plenty of parking. The customer service is very amiable and helpful, he knows the people who work there, and they know him! :)
They have a 3 dish special, in addition to a pot of rice and the house soup all for the affordable price of $ 21. The house soup that day was corn chowder, it was good but not served hot. That was a disappointment, with it being so cold and windy in the bay area, it would have been nice to have soup that was served hot!
I also found the restaurant to be on the chilly side, and the chairs were so worn there wasn’t much padding on left on them. But if you can get passed the lack of décor and atmosphere and just focus on the food, you’re good to go!

I am pretty pissed today. I will never go to this place again. I will not give any start if i don’t have to. I have been coming to this place since couple weeks ago for at least 3 times a week for lunch and sometimes, for dinner. I didn’t come for the prices; I don’t go and eat because the food is cheap. My number 1 pleasure is service, food and then prices. If the service is not good, i don’t care about anything else. I am a pretty loyal person; I will go back again and again if I like the server.
Today, I had a different server than the one I had before. This one is really suck. I feel like I was at a funeral service instead of a restaurant. I told her I don’t eat meat, so I ordered a pickle cabbage without meat. She looked at me blink, and said how do you cook it? I looked at her and puzzle, what do you mean how to cook it? I said, can you just take out the meat and cook it however way you cook it? I waited, waited forever for my lunch, it finally came, and i was speechless, the dish has 95% onions? I asked the server, where are the pickle cabbages? She said that is the way it is and walked away. I was so irritated and gave it back to her. I didn’t argue with her about not wanting to pay for the dish, i was with two other friends and just want to get out of there and never go back again. I don’t think I was unreasonable. I had way better service with other Chinese restaurant like the people at Ming Tasty. This place really sucks big time. Nothing more irritated than not able to enjoy your lunch or dinner. Do not go here. These people don’t care about customers at all. I would not trust them handling the food. You#@$% suck!!!

Food is very good and service is OK. Seafood porridge, meat and bitter melon in black bean sauce are dishes I recommend. Prices are different every time I go but are affordable. Portion size wise you get what you pay for.
5 stars for food and 3 for service.

I don’t necessary agree with «the customer is always right,» but if I’m paying, how about getting what I want without the attitude? I have been coming to this restaurant for their braised pork belly. When it’s good, it’s good, but when it’s bad, it’s terrible. I have a hard time ordering from the one particular male waiter, with the young Justin Beiber hairdo. He’s a total jerk. I tell him I want to pork soft. He says he has no control over it. When it came hard, I told him to remove it from the bill. He said I ate half of it. I told him I ate one slice. (Picture is uploaded). He said I had to pay for it, but he raised his voice. I did. But I left no tip. That was four months ago.
After that, on a Sunday, maybe a month ago, the jerk waiter wasn’t there. The lady who waited on me even asked me if I wanted it lean or fattier. I was surprised I had a choice. It came it out very good. Soft, not too lean. I asked her where the male waiter was. She said he had the day off.
Today, another Sunday, I tried again. Just my luck, he was the first person I saw and the only wait person on duty since it was around 4:30 pm. I guess at five the other staff comes on. Okay, I ordered the same thing, and I said I wanted it soft, not too lean. Again, this jerk said, «We have no control over that! You take it or not!» I told him that he always gives me a hard time, only him, and that the other wait staff are nice. He frowned and looked away.
Anyway the pork came out soft. I told him it was good. He said he tried his best.
So I don’t know what to rate this place. I’m pissed that he works there. To be fair, I watch him interact with other Chinese patrons and he’s not much nicer to them, but to me he’s an ass. I’m Asian but not Chinese. Does it make a difference? Maybe to him. At least today, I was able to deal with the other ladies when they came on at 5.
I wish the owner would read this, but they probably won’t.

Every time I’m here, it takes forever to get seated. Most recently, my brother and I waited for one whole hour to be seated, while parties who had signed up on the wait list after us were seated more quickly.
Anyway, when you arrive here, have a designated person from your group write their name on the wait list. Once you are seated, they bring you a pot of tea and teacups, like any other Chinese establishment.
The dinner special, in which you get 3 dishes for $ 20.99, is something I always get with my family. It also comes with a complimentary soup that you share. However, I have to note that the price used to be lower, around $ 18, and the portions used to be much bigger.
My personal favorite dish is the Honey Walnut Prawns. The plate used to be heaped with prawns and walnuts. Now, it’s either sparsely distributed on the plate, or lumped all together in the center of the plate when they could have clearly added more.
Also, don’t be deceived by the «Café» in their name. This is in no way a café at all, so don’t come here with your laptop expecting to have a cup of coffee or tea and get some work done. This is a restaurant, and a packed and noisy one at that.
It’s also a pet peeve of mine when Chinese restaurants have a bright and giant TV monitor glaring at the entire room. Can’t we have a dining experience without electronics?
There’s one bathroom. It’s decent, but not the cleanest.
There are better Chinese options out there.

My older brother brought us (my parents, sister-​in law, and me) here last night for dinner. It is a little bit on the small size in terms of how big this restaurant is. It was completely packed. Therefore, we had to wait for close to half an hour. It is no wonder once we sat down. There are two pages in the menu where you can order three entrees for $ 21.99. Of the three, I liked the beef with broccoli the most.
The service wasn’t the best, but then it wasn’t the worst. It is just that our group couldn’t pick the best table. One of the waitresses said that the one that we wanted had to go to the people that came after us, which was a party of 15.
Oh well! Still the food was very good and that is all that matters to me.

Service here is abysmal, as in practically non-​existent. If someone hands you a menu, consider yourself lucky.
The food is actually pretty good. We’ve eaten here twice and our favorite dishes were the salt and pepper cod, noodles with bitter melon, and kung pao chicken.
I recommend avoiding the free soup as it contains mystery meat replete with bones and gristle. It is free for a reason, folks.
The décor is alright. It’s a step up from a hole in the wall.

This only has to do with the Sheng Jian bao (SJB). I never knew about this place except running across it on Unilocal and seeing a picture of the SJB. I had to go in my quest for the same quality SJB I had in Shanghai.
Unfortunately this was another dud in my journey. It took 20 minutes to prepare and this version is simply a steamed bao filled with lots of cabbage and a little pork then pan fried.
No where near the heavier baked baos in Shanghai filled only with pork and great soup/​juice.
I looked at the other menu items and it seems like it might be a place to try the regular menu however.

Food is cheap. Quality is ok. Sanitation is bad. Really bad. The vegetables usually has a lot of flavor but covered in oil. My mom found a worm in the pea sprouts we had ordered and the waitress didn’t offer to switch the plate out or take it off the tab.
The restaurant is often crowded so the walkways are narrow. Seniors with walkers coming to this restaurant will have a hard time navigating the crowded place… as my grandma did.
It’s a good place for family dinners since there’s several big round tables and quite affordable but I feel like the food here is hit or miss.

After a glorious day hiking at Lake Chabot, on recommendation of a friend who mentioned the $ 20.95 special: your choice of three kinds to choose from 30 different kinds of food. Good sized portions.
We choose: fish filet with corn; chicken with veggies and taiwan pork chops.
The have a free large bowl of broth, comes with melon, carrots and celery. A good starter to whet your appetite.
The fish filet tasted as if they just dipped the filets in batter and cooked it minutes ago!
the chicken was juicy, tender served with sliced celery and snow peas. The taiwan pork chops was boneless, pounded thinly and quick fried with a hint of wine sauce. Steaming hot rice. The food is so nice.
Customer service: good.
Décor: ok to maybe ok. Seemed to be a bit short staffed. But this can be forgiven.
Parking: ok
Tip: this place is hard to find but worth it.

It’s been over a year since our last visit. Getting a table can still garner a wait, but our party of four was fortunate to arrive and get seated at an open table. Checking out the menu, we noticed that the «choose three items» special was no long $ 17.95, but $ 21.95.
We chose three items from the three items special list and an entrée from the regular menu. Our order:
Dry braised green beans with chicken — nicely braised with black bean with good amount of chicken fillets. (
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Braised beef stew in clay pot — The dish included tender pieces of beef stew and tendons and daikon. However, the dish had a lot more daikon than beef. (
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Sautéed filet of fish — stir fried with sweet peas, carrots, and celery, the fish was moist and perfectly cooked. (
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Clams in black bean sauce (regular entrée) — clams were cooked well in a tasty black bean sauce. Disappointed in the small amount of clams that were in this dish. (
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Service is still efficient, but given that prices have gone up and the portions have decreased in size, Delight Café is no longer be considered a reasonably priced place.

Ahh… Delight Café. I’ve been coming here with my family ever since it opened several years ago and so much has changed since then.
+/​-​THE FOOD & PRICES
When this place first opened, I was literally here every week and sometimes even twice in a day! The food was very authentic compared to Hong Kong styled cafes and the prices were so cheap. The best deal was the 3 dishes, 1 soup, and rice for $ 18.99. There was no other restaurant that could beat that sweet deal. I loved ordering their 椒絲腐乳通菜 (stir fried spinach with spicy fermented tofu sauce) because it has a strong spicy flavor that the water spinach absorbed. I also like their 粟米斑球 (cod fillet in sweet corn sauce) because the cods are freshly fried and then lathered in an amazing corn sauce. As the years pass, they have raised the prices for the same 3 dishes, 1 soup, and rice to $ 20.99 and a lot of the popular dishes require $ 1-​$ 2 extra. This was a huge let down for me because what I liked to order became much more expensive. For lunch, my family likes to get the individual rice clay pots because there’s a lot of meat in it and it is really unique. Their noodle soups from here are not bad either.
— THE WAIT
Since this is one of the «better» Hong Kong style cafes in San Leandro, the wait here can be miserable. It’s location is right in the middle of downtown San Leandro so finding parking can easily take up half an hour. When I came back here recently, it took them 30 minutes to get even the first dish out. The other dishes trailed behind really slowly and our normal dinner took over an hour. Tables nearby were complaining to the waiters about how their last dish hadn’t come yet and they were already done eating. This is probably why the line can be so long because dishes are coming out slower, so customers are staying longer to eat. I hope they can improve on this soon!

Good homestyle Cantonese style food here in downtown San Leandro! This place was kinda hard to find, it’s across from Safeway and CVS/​Pharmacy. Their really isn’t any store front sigage, really just Delight Café printed on the door so easy to miss!
We went here on a Sunday night for dinner at around 7 and it was full house. Must be a good sign right? We had to wait about a good 15 – 20 minutes before receving a table. Be sure to sign your name to the list as soon as you enter the restaurant!
As soon as a table opened, up they sat us down. The tables were all really worn out with scratch marks all over. We had to ask for tea because 10 minutes have gone by and still no tea…
Upon ordering, the waitress had informed us that they didn’t have one of the dishes we were trying to order…(Steamed Ground Salty Fish Pork Patty) That was a dissapointment there :(
What we ordered from the 3 for $ 18 menu
Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs
Fatty Pork with Preserved Vegetables
Curry Chicken
Sauteed Fish Fillet Rock Cod
Homestyle cooking at it’s best for San Leandro! The food was good, and tasty. It’s not bad, no one this place was packed!
Service on the other hand was not that good but well it’s typical of a Chinese establishment.
They also ran out of the complimentary dessert they give out to end the meal, that sucked too. :(

Delight Café didn’t look appealing on the outside. However, I’m sure we all learned growing up that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I came here with the family for lunch as my uncle heard that this place makes dishes with «wok hay» aka known as «breath of the wok». It’s basically the effect of cooking at very high heat properly to get this wonderful aroma in the food cooked.
Their menu is extensive as they offer a variety of home cooked style dishes (e.g., braised pork and pickled vegetable) and HK café dishes (e.g. baked pork chop over rice). In the back of their menu, they have an extensive list where you select three items for $ 18.99. It also comes with their house soup.
We ordered:
**These aren’t from the $ 18.99 menu
**Chicken Chow Fun — Decent chow fun dish. I liked that the chicken was moist as most places cook their chicken to death.
**Stir Fry Sea Cucumber & Fish Stomach — Mediocre. The sea cucumber could have used a bit more cleaning as there was still white spots on it.
**Steamed Oysters — I didn’t have one, but it looked nice and plump.
From $ 18.99 menu:
Fried Crispy Pork Skin — I didn’t try this either as there was too much fat. I was told it’s pretty good though.
Pork Kidney w/​Ginger and Green Onion — Tasty dish, but there was too much ginger and green onions and not enough pork kidney. This dish is hard to come by in restaurants now as it’s tedious to make.
Ong-​Choy w/​Bean Curd Sauce — The bean curd added extra «oomph» to the dish and the choy was crisp, not soggy. You could tell the chef sir-​fried it in the wok and didn’t steam it.
Sweet & Sour Spareribs — Just the right amount of batter and sauce. It was nicely crisp since it wasn’t drenched with the sauce. Great balance of sweetness and sourness.
Braised Pork & Pickled Vegetable — The pork was fried before it was braised, which my uncle liked. It was yummy and melted in your mouth. The sauce would have gone great over rice.
Braised Chicken w/​Chestnuts — This was probably my least favorite dish and most expensive dish. The chestnuts were store bought and there was too much bones in the chicken. I was expecting more chicken meat.
HK Milk Tea — Wasn’t too sweet, but you could barely taste the tea. It was just average.
Service is what you expect at a typical Chinese restaurant. I wasn’t expecting high-​class service.
The food was good, probably better than a lot of Chinese restaurants in SF. I would revisit the place if I was in the area, but don’t think I’d make the trip just to eat here. You can’t beat the price — definitely worth a try.
Notes:
–No longer offering free lemon tea or HK milk tea.