California Grubbin'

food: 4/5 experience: 2/5 overall: 3/5 One of the most well-known Chinese bakeries in Sacramento is tucked in a little corner behind Bel Air supermarket, off a busy street at the edge of South Land Park. That bakery is ABC bakery. Get here early because they sell out quick. Yes, there is a large Asian population in the South Land Park/Greenhaven neighborhood. Their most popular products, of course, are the baked buns - specifically the BBQ pork. A thick, doughy roll with delicious filling. The rolls are nice and fluffy, slightly sweet, just as a bao should be; and they put a decent amount of filling in them. The BBQ pork is surprisingly sweet. Other rolls are chicken (see below), curry chicken/curry beef, hot dog, pineapple, taro, and a cocktail bun. The one-dollar (!) steamed options are the BBQ pork (above), plus chicken and egg custard. Chicken tastes like a typical dumpling/wonton type filling but this egg custard tastes like straight pudding. Delicious. I'd n...

food: 4/5 experience: 4/5 overall: 4/5 First impression of this place was pretty bad. It's a small joint in a strip mall and there's not much decor on the walls or anything. It's very sparse, and uh, intimate I guess. There's a display of pictures of food on the counter which looks fast-foody and you order from the takeout menu even if you're sitting down. Definitely ghetto. But. This place has a steady stream of customers for a reason. I had to try it. And I can see why it's so popular. We just got some appetizers and soup. It was all good. And geez the portions. Enough to feed a party of four per plate. Wontons: 4.5/5 These were the star of the show. Nice and crispy and cheesy. Not in the traditional folded-up shape I usually get at Chinese but it's all about what's inside. They gave us eight of these. Chicken egg rolls: 3/5 Not a big fan of egg rolls anyway and these were pretty plain. We only got one of these and for good reason. ...

food: 5/5 experience: 4/5 overall: 4.5/5 I'm not a big fan of Chinese personally, for obvious reasons (everything is soy). But dim sum is another story. And dumplings? Oh boy. I can't resist a good dumpling. Journey to the Dumpling brings the goods. They have several varieties of dumplings including the delectable invention, the soup dumpling! It's a dumpling full of a meat soup. They have a pork one and a shrimp one. These yummy concoctions are to be eaten with a spoon and a fork at the same time. It's a technical skill, trust. But you shall reap the rewards of yummy, soup-filled, steamed hot pastry goodness. Cute presentation as well. Dim sum presentation gets props. They also have regular pan-fried dumplings which are no doubt just as good. Being a Chinese restaurant they do have your typical rigamarole of Chinese cuisine including noodles (in soy broth), fried rice, etc. but I'm not interested in any of that. Give me the dumplingz all day.

food: 2.5/5 experience: 2.5/5 overall: 2.5/5 Ma Jong's is Sacramento's hipster answer to Chinese food. They have takeout but it's visually appealing enough that you can sit down. You order at the counter, grab a number, and wait for your food. Unfortunately for me, as goes for most Chinese food, nearly all their dishes are laden with soy. I chose one of the very, very few menu items I could have, the pineapple stir-fry. It was pretty damn meh. Since the sauce wasn't full of soy, apparently that meant it had no actual flavor. Just the flavor of the pineapple, vegetables, and meat. I could have made this at home for much less. I still remain solidly unimpressed with Chinese food, for obvious reasons (it's full of soy, fried, and damn unhealthy).

food: 4.5/5 experience: 3/5 overall: 4.5/5 So I know I've given five star reviews for strip mall joints. But a gas station is where I draw the line. Apparently I drove all the way from Sacramento to Davis for some gas station Chinese food because this place is rated higher than like, any other Chinese place in the entire county. And I got exactly what I expected: a styrofoam box full of a heap ton of cheap food stir-fried in some sauce for... a reasonable price. Not cheap. There's not really seating, per se, so everything is in a to-go box. I got fish curry. I couldn't place what fish it was but it was really good. Maybe the kind they use in fish sticks? Is that cod? Anyway. It had an extra fishy flavor and nice succulent squishiness or whatever. The curry tasted like typical packaged curry you get at the grocery store which is still good. Was it good, yes. Was it great, uh, well it was pretty good. Was it worth five stars in spite of being gas station food, ...

food: 2./5 experience: 3/5 overall: 3/5 Meh. It's a buffet. You can't go in expecting high-quality food in mass proportions. Most of it is bound to be past its prime and if you come for dinner it's been sitting out all day. And this one is in a mall after all. Yes they have unlimited crab legs. But they're possibly the cheapest crab legs you can find with hardly any meat in them. They do have oysters which are really good. But again that is negated by the fact that their shrimps are clearly very old and rubbery (ew!). The sushi is very standard. Most all of it has imitation crab salad in it. I tried pretty much all of them and only one was good out of about ten. For the price you can definitely make it worth your while. I guess you get a two-hour limit. Plenty of time to gorge yourself on average unspecified Asian food. If I were to you I'd just have sashimi and fish since that's the most bang-for-your-buck kinda stuff. I didn't try their d...

food: 3/5 experience: 3.5/5 overall: 3/5 This place is not too bad if you just want some Chinese. They definitely have a selection. And holy crap this venue is big. Apparently they get used for weddings a lot. The chairs are always decked out. Not much of a vegetarian selection other than vegetable plates and one egg foo young dish (not sure about the sauce though, probably not). Seriously that's it. Unless you're one of those I-cheat-with-fish-because-they-don't-have-feelings vegetarians. I've been here a couple times, one time as a vegetarian and one as definitely not. First time they did custom make a tofu dish for me. Mixed vegetables with garlic sauce and tofu. Pretty visually unappealing. They didn't put much tofu on it so I asked for extra and after balking at first they later said it would be fine. No extra charge either. It really was not too good, that day or as leftovers. There was a lot of it though. Second time I came with a group just to...