Baby Cafe Allston

Went to Baby Cafe in Allston for lunch on Friday, atmosphere is great and love what they done to the place. Service was quick as it was not crazy busy

However food was okay. The French Toast inside was too thick and doughy. Baked pork chop rice was a bit different than what I was used to in HK style. Milk tea flavor was pretty good.

I haven't had Hong Kong cafe-style food in ages, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The restaurant itself is very spacious and clean, with tasteful tree decorations. We arrived around 11:45am on a Saturday and had to wait for a while to get seated (around 30 minutes), which provided plenty of time to peruse the menu and reviews. The food came out pretty quickly after ordering (other than the sizzling noodles, which took an additional 25 minutes). Our water was never refilled (we were seated for about 1.5 hours), and it took a long while to flag down a waiter to get the check. In the end, we spent nearly 2 hours in the restaurant (including waiting), which felt a bit long.

We tried the baked Portuguese chicken rice ($16.95) which had rave reviews online. I've never had this dish before, but was pleasantly surprised! I don't usually like creamy sauces, but this sauce was not heavy and was pretty addicting. It was a great combo with the rice and chicken. I would get this again.

The oyster sauce Chinese broccoli ($14.95) was quite tasty. I had a negative image of this dish in my mind from previous experiences (undercooked yu choy and a thick glob of oyster sauce), but this dish was not that. The yu choy was well cooked, slightly crunchy but also tender, and the sauce was soupy, garlicky, and savory. It was a great way to eat vegetables, and made me reevaluate my feelings towards Chinese broccoli. I'd like to try some of their other vegetable dishes next time, but this one was great!

The sizzling seafood noodles ($20.95) came with a Hong Kong milk tea which was pretty well-balanced in terms of sweetness and tea flavor. The noodles were certainly crispy, and the seafood was decent. I especially liked the scallops. The sauce is a standard white sauce. Overall I liked this dish for its mix of textures, but would prefer more seafood for the price tag.

The Hong Kong butter toast ($7.75) was great! It wasn't too sweet and hit all the right notes of condensed milk, buttery fried goodness. I'd get this again.

The smashed cucumber salad ($6.95) was pretty standard. Quite garlicky, but I would've preferred stronger savory/spicy flavors.

We spent about $88 for 3 people including tip, which was not a bad deal for the amount of food we got (we were stuffed and had some leftovers). The menu is huge. I can definitely see myself coming back in the future! It's a pleasant dining experience and brings me back to my SoCal Garden Cafe days.

Had the dry beef rice noodle and baked pork chop over rice. Also had the baby ice milk tea and regular ice hk milk tea. All were delicious. A bit pricier than other places, but decor is nice, restaurant is spacious, and everything is clean. Also, coming from the burbs in the West, going to Allston is way better than having to trek to Quincy. Portions are large. Service was not slow but we also went on a weekday for lunch. I can't wait to go back to try other dishes.

Went here for dinner around 8pm and it was busy, but still a couple seats open! We were unsure of the official hours, but the waitress told us for today (4/18/24, Thursday) that they were going to be open until 10:30pm.

We ordered the Hainanese chicken and rice, wonton and beef stew noodle soup, baked fish fillet spaghetti, iced milk tea, lemon tea, and the mango dessert soup! All the food, drinks and dessert were super tasty and a reasonable price!

The staff was very attentive and kind as well!
I will be coming back again!