One Plus One Cafe

I ordered the beef stew with instant ramen noodles. The noodles were just like top ramen and the beef stew was made with tripe. I was not a fan but maybe it’s because I’ve never had this style before. It was very fatty and made me nauseous. My friend ordered the kung pao chicken and rice. Of the four of us, we all agreed this was the best plate, but it was very salty. The other two orders were for sandwiches, and they were not happy with the quantity of meat. You really had to eat the kung pao with the rice to make it palatable. The service was so slow. It took 30 – 40 minutes to prepare four orders with no customers in the café. They seem to do a lot of large catering orders. On the flip side, the sno cones are very tasty and are only $ 2.00 each.

I really want them to succeed. It’s a little family restaurant run by an old lady and her daughters. I only tried their breakfast but it was below average. I don’t see any heart put into the cooking. The owner was eager to know our feedback and I hope they get better when I go back next time.

It’s a family run business. Went there on Friday morning around 10:30am. Ordered a beef congee with noodle, and a ham and cheese omelette.
Noodle is a bit salty, and cheese is in dice still (would be nice if it’s hot and melted). Congee is ok, salad is GREAT, very fresh.
Not a fancy place to go to. But it’s nice and quiet. Service was good. There’s only three tables including us. Plenty of parking space!
Will return to try other stuff on the menu.

I usually enjoy eating at family run restaurants. Though most of these places are poorly decorated and lack that corporate sanitized feel, they make it up through the food and warm service. So what the hell happened to this place? This family run place is saturated with that tackiness feel, as I sat there reading all of the rhetorical, nonsensical inspirational signs throughout the place. As I scratch my head some more, I can’t help but just wonder who the heck in their right mind would plaster all of the hand drawn signs on the window? Why would they mess up these windows for? Anyways, after getting myself past all that, I finally take a look at the menu and again get reminded more of this tackiness. This is probably the worst looking menu that I have ever seen. The first place where they actually serve instant noodle for a staggering price of over $ 5 if you want the trimmings. Really??? Instant Raman noodles? I can really go off on that but I won’t And just ordered a regular chow fun because how can you really mess up chow fun right? I can’t believe they messed up this beef chow fun. Maybe I’m too used to flavor and texture on my chow fun and this place certainly lacks the flavor and right texture. It is certainly edible, but then again lots of things are edible. The milk tea was actually decent and that is why this place gets only a two star. This place is actually only a few months old and already it is on life support. I say just pull the plugs and let it go peacefully.

So I got a deal from
for $ 10 off of $ 20 minimum purchase. I looked at the reviews on Unilocal and i thought it was a new place so I gave a try.
First, the hk style atmosphere is just not there and the environment was not pleasant. It looked like they didn’t do much to decorate the place and make it look welcome. They just painted the window with words like chicken, pig and beef in Chinese. They painted some prices for their foods on the window and something like wifi, coffee.
I went there on Sunday and 10:30am and it was only us and one other table with another person. I found out this place only opened for 2 – 3 months.
Everything looked old and unfinished there. The menu looked too simple and prices are about the same as other hk cafes.
Let’s talk about the food. My mom said the coffee is not good but surprisingly my ice milk tea was really good. If this place looks nicer, I probably will return just for the milk tea. The food was so-​so, like something your mom can make at home for bigger portion and more delicious I think. When I eat out, I don’t want to eat something that can be cooked at home.
I was surprised that they can make egg Benedict but the eggs were cold and the steak was like diced beef. Kinda disappointed.
With the $ 10 off coupon and we ordered for dished, I paid $ 30. It was okay but not good enough for me to return to this place. They need a lot of improvements in the design decoration and food.
I hope the business owner will review the comments carefully and make improvements to their business. I saw the hearts and efforts they put in this place but it’s not just good enough for the market I think. The 3 star is mainly for the milk tea I had.

It started with the Hong Kong coffee. First, it wasn’t hot; it was lukewarm. Second, cream and sugar were already in the coffee. I didn’t tell them I wanted cream and sugar in it. (I DID want C&S, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make.) Give the coffee drinker his ingredients and adjust the taste to his liking. I complained to the manager, who made another cup for me. (I asked her to add C&S this time.)
Mrs. G’s noodle soup — the broth the didn’t taste very good. My beef dish — OK.
Would I come back? No, not even on a coupon deal (like the one we used).
I thought about giving only ONE star, but this place just seems new and inexperienced, so I’ll give them a second for effort. (I didn’t consider this to be an EPIC fail.)

Pros: Very satisfying ma n pa service.
Cons: The ma n pa service and experience. This place is a Hong Kong style café, but feels like your sitting inside a hospital cafeteria. Not only the place looks like a hospital cafeteria, the food taste like its also served from one too. The food tasted bland and wasnt quite up to restaurant quality level yet. I rate this place in par with my mother’s own home cooked meals and unfortunately, that’s not saying much. I ordered the most basic chinese food and sadly, the texture and taste couldn’t be more off. There are a lot of imporovements to be made here and hopefully there’s still time.

Just opened a few months ago but it’s a shame that this place doesn’t have more business. It’s kind of in a weird location and it doesn’t really stand out for people to know that there’s a restaurant here. They probably need to do some advertising.
I was able to try the garlic noodles with chicken during lunch. The dish was good, large portion, and lots of chicken. They gave me a side of garlic bread and a free kiwi juice (real fruit used) before I left.
Prices are good and family-​run service was awesome.

Staff was nice, but the food was pretty bad. Signs around the restaurant advertised a ham and egg sandwich for $ 1 but it was $ 4 on the bill and it looked like something a 3 year old could make. They also forgot the lobster balls that I ordered.

Finally there is a genuinely Hong Kong style café in El Monte and it serves breakfast. A family style restaurant which serves good food at reasonable price. Not many people knew about it so it’s pretty quiet in the morning. I like the toast and egg with fish ball noodle. The service is outstanding and friendly. Highly re on ended for breakfast and lunch.

The service was nice but food quality was still at home style not yet reach restaurant standard.