E Cafe

The best pan fried pork bun in Houston! The interior is very nicely done, the waitress are kind and friendly! I love a lot dishes in there, fish is very fresh, the shrimp is very good too. My favorite restaurant!!!

First time here, ate pan fried pork bun, drunken chicken and braised pork shank. Excellent food, friendly service, stylish décor and very clean. Definitely come again.

Whenever I am in Chinatown alone, I’d pass by this place for a quick lunch. I love their dishes, the quality of their food is very fresh, not greasy and not too salty. Their restaurant is very clean and the decoration is very classic.
Maybe it’s the location, this restaurant never have much customers eating there (during week day, lunch time), and even though their dishes are very good, but they never have a huge selection. Also, they don’t always have everything on the menu, what a bummer.
I believe it’s cash only, and you pay need to pay first.

Came here for a family dinner. A nice and quiet place that seems good for big groups.
Beautiful interiors. Incredibly well kept, clean, and just pleasing to the eyes
The host stated that they have a $ 6 lunch of your choice of 4 dishes with unlimited soup.
The spicy chicken was incredible!

AUTHENTIC!!! LOVE this place!!!
i love everything on the menu! Only one thing I am not happy about is that for some of the dishes you have to call 1 day ahead to order. I always forgot about calling in advance… :(

An Experience Better Be Forgotten.
I went to this restaurant first time recently not knowing the reputation of the owner. We went there with the relatives to welcome a relative and to celebrate my brother’s birthday. Since my sister-​in-​law recommended this place, I was gladly accepted her suggestion. Both of my male cousins and my husband reluctantly went along telling me that this owner can be a piece of work. Food-​wise, the kitchen offers a handful of good eats such as the pan-​seared buns, braised pork butt, and a couple Hubei regional foods.
First of all, I was pressured to finish ordering before all the guests arrived. They were extremely inpatient in taking drink orders. When it comes to ordering dinner, the owner kept going to my sister-​in-​law for direction knowing that I was the paying guest. My SIL is a soft, gentle person, the owner just hovering over my SIL for direction. As a matter of fact she practically was telling SIL what she wanted her to order for us. In the end, my SIL was upset with me because my husband told the owner to take dinner orders from me. But the owner kept pouring gasoline over fire criticizing our family and my brother. I suspect my SIL put my brother on the grilled in hell when they got home that night. This was an experience I never had before and never wanted it again.
Like another patron commented earlier, I had to do a LOT of self-​service, while the owner withheld over 17% tips. I am also giving it a two-​star review. It is the average of food quality and service. I can’t give a negative score for service. I rarely give bad reviews. This time I am taking exceptions.

The best if the fried bun (Sheng Jian Bao). Six in an order for six dollars, but the buns are well worth it. I also enjoyed the spare ribs — they are drenched in delicious sauce which mixes well with white rice.
Other then that, all the other dishes are fairly average — but the fried buns are worth the trip alone.

This is very good place for southern-​China-​style cuisine (not the Cantonese cuisine). Because its locatioin is a bit off the noisy busy Bellaire blvd, it is not as popular as it should be. I have been there multiple times, I always order the fried bun (Sheng Jian Bao), like Cynthia mentioned in another review, the bun is probably one of the best in Houston. The place is clean with pretty lanterns, reminding me of my own hometown, not crowded, again, because of its location. Some dishes need to be ordered beforehand, such the drunken chicken (Zui Ji).

Coming with one of my friends this Monday for dinner. The dishes were delicious and the price was reasonable, the service was also good, too. But after dinner I felt regret having paid them tips, WHY? The only reason is that the proprietress of this restaurant is a troll, who meant to introduce us new girl friends but failed. During the whole dinner, the proprietress kept circling near our table and chatting with us with some dirty words, at first, though feeling a little upset about those words we were still talking happily, cuz she was introducing an unknown girl to my friend and ringing that girl’s phone in front of us, coincidentally, we found that girl actually our schoolmate, and we had already been friends. As the story was going imperfectly but interesting and we were ready to finish our chat and focus on our dinner, the proprietress still stayed at our table and began to comment on our appearances, she praised my friends’ appearance and recommended me to appear more mature like my friend — who is 5 years older than me. I accepted her recommends with smiles. But she surprisingly began to criticise my appearance with exaggerated words and kept looking into my eyes straightly, I just felt myself been attacked, but she did not want to leave and kept talking loudly with bad words and ridiculous men-​women theories, like «All handsome young men finally find ugly wives and the same on all beautiful young women», «I became more beautiful after divorcing with my handsome husband», «WTF? You are not staying in houston after graduating? What’s wrong with you?» blahblah… Noisy words continued until the last 5 minutes before we finished our dinner. Well, the food here is really good and there are many parking places outside, but if you are a Chinese student coming here, just be careful of the proprietress — she may annoy you or even attack you, she THINKS herself rich so she does not care about her dirty words during the talk and never minds directly asking for your cell phone numbers, which pollutes the tasty dinner and the grace atmosphere. Any way, I will still come back some day later — when the troll is not inside

Closed down for a while, this place has reopened recently. Sorry that I’m giving it only 2 stars because to me, a pleasant dining experience is the sum of delicious foods and good guest service; foods here are not bad and reasonably priced but the service is awful.
I was there with the boyfriend’s company of 30+ people, seated in 3 separate tables, to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Practically, knowing the fact that Chinatown’s restaurants aint famous for excellent, personalized guest service like any of that at the 3-​star Michelin eateries, I was only expecting minimal service like at least clearing away dirty dishes and things that any busser would do. But, Nope! Not at all! No service whatsoever! When I asked the server for a fork, she said she was busy and then walked off! Utensils, paper napkins, straws, clean bowls and plates, etc. were all over there at a self-​serve station, meaning that if you wanted something, you would probably have to get up and go get it yourself! *tsk tsk tsk*
Also, the foods were served in a disorderly manner. The order in which our foods were being served was like a couple of cold dishes/​appetizers, shrimp, duck, ribs, desserts (?!) fish, veggie, chicken soup, sweet dessert soup, and dumplings! Dessert is usually the last course of a meal, right? Not always though! At E-​Café, desserts come in between the main entrees, which just feels so weird!
Food-​wise, it was a lot of ordinary, A-​OK Chinese foods for good value as in nothing impressive but cheap eats! Anyways, I’m not going back.

Ernest C., the first reviewer, took me to lunch here, and I have to admit — for $ 5, two meat, two veg, it was a good, tasty, bento-​box style lunch, just as he indicated. But, it was FREEZING cold in the place, to the extent that the food got cold quickly. The soup was rather wimpy, sort of like hot dishwater, with some random egg whites floating in it/​They could have done more with it at very little expense, and it would not have been so disappointing. How about some more scallions, for example? More ginger? Those aren’t expensive.

Lunch tray is a good price. Nice selection, tasty food. I liked it more than Chinese Café lunch tray. Dining room was a little warm. Definitely going back to try other selections.

The Shanghai style pan fried buns are probably the best I ever had outside of China. The pork filling is juicy and the bun is crispy and fluffy at the same time. Highly recommended! I will definitely return for these buns again.

Pros:
— Generally tasty food
— Lack of MSG headache afterwards
— Friendly and welcoming staff
— Clean restrooms
— Clean interior
— Quiet interior
— Wide variety of items for the lunch special
— Cheap $ 5 lunch special of four sides, rice or noodle, and soup
— Lots of people coming in and out on a Sunday lunch hour
— Lovely decorations inside and out
Cons:
— Lunch special items were a little greasy
E Café is tucked away in a small, new shopping center on Corporate Dr near the Bellaire intersection. It is across from Dynasty Mall.

I’d try any new things in town. When this restaurant first advertised on the Chinese newspaper, their half-​page ad grabbed my attention — as it sounded like a meditation hall. It vaguely mentioned $ 5 for 2 meats & 2 vegetables and a place to drink tea.
Then, I finally made it to this place. A giant mural of a Chinese bridge in a river town and a traditional double door to welcome me, that reminded me of Zhujiajiao Ancient Town near Shanghai. The rest of restaurant didn’t match the front décor and it also lacking style. Maybe it’s Jiangnan’s style, I’ll never know.
I was very disappointed with its English name. I thought it might be named by a non-​Chinese speaker — «a café located at Suite E.» However, the Chinese name has its unique origin — «Jiangnan Cuisine». (Jiangnan means «south of the Yangtze River»)
My lunch selections were not palatable to me. They were greasy and the roasted pork was not tender to me. I saw a few customers ordered dishes from the kitchen. I also wanted to try other menu items, perhaps at night. So, stay tuned.

Nice place to eat– fairly quiet though the place was at least half full. Décor is muted though not haphazard or traditional chinese as far as I can tell like most other places in Chinatown– more Japanese or noodle shop like perhaps?
Food wise, we got the combination trays, from which there is a fair amount of selection (about 10 each for veggies and meats). There is also a menu you can order from (no pictures though, so far) — got wontons and fried pork buns which were good and took at most 10 minutes to arrive.
Drinks– there were a bunch of canned/​bottle options, as well as teas/​tea packets. They also offer milk/​boba teas it seems.
Overall, a great and cheap place to eat. Makes me miss that I’m not living in Houston…

Great lunch.$ 5 for 2 meats and 2 vegetables. High quality bento food box. Please note — They will be closed for New Year’s in Feb. Their cooks are returning to China for vacation and the owners are taking the time to renovate the place further. Notice they were applying for a alcohol permit. They should reopen in March, 2012.