Café 99

Visiting the area and saw this place. It chinese but Shanghai cooking style flavor. Like it but a bit too oily.
The dumpling and bun is really good .
Overall is great but wish it’s less oily.

These Shanghai Juicy Buns. (very thin dough dumplings delicately twisted at the top filled with broth and a tiny pork meatball then steamed) are identical to the quality and flavor at China Max in San Diego. One of the most difficult to make !
Their honey spare rib appetizer was pure heaven. The very best I have had… anywhere
The chef is classically and formally trained in fine Chinese cuisine. This is rare. The delicate use of spices can be new and sometimes different for the non Chinese. Our waiter was extremely helpful. Even after living and working in NYC and eating in their Chinatown for over 30 years, many of these dishes were entirely new and quite exciting. This is a wonderful adventure for the senses!
The décor is quite special simple and very elegant. The furniture lighting and art were carefully selected beautiful and atypical of what you will find. The restaurant Intimate and guests peacefully savoring these extraordinary dishes .
We have loved the empress rice with thin slices of salty Chinese sausage, their eggplant and the tofu dishes, the beautiful chrysanthemum fish — an exquisite dish of fried sole covered in a sauce with a delicate sweet sour flavor. We try new dishes every time
No lunch Monday’s and Tuesday’s only. (open at 4 pm those days).

Went because of a recommendation and went back once I found the Groupon.
Went around dinner time and was seated promptly. I ordered some tea and sat by the window. The place is small and intimate which I liked, not too loud.
My potstickers arrived and were crafted, they taste so much different from frozen ones. Amazing. Then I decided after much deliberation to select one of their several entrées.
I had a spicy pork belly dish. Plenty of food and I finished it the next day at home. Highly recommended. I was thinking about it for a long time after and had to go back and get some more (and the waitress remembered me and what I’d ordered a month earlier). Not an exaggeration. Wish I was eating some right now.
Price felt fair for a small local business where good is hand crafted and I enjoyed supporting them. Wish this place was closer to my apartment. Give it a try if you want a more authentic experience, this isn’t LeeAnn Chins.

Food was decent. One thing our group was disappointed about was too much oil in every dish we ordered. Very friendly staff, good service and very clean.

Food was good, staff was very friendly. Had the cilantro chicken. new for me and tasty

My experience was not very good. 30min after ordering we received our potstickers. We were greeted with oil soaked noodles that looked like they were fried for 30secs. The potstickers shouldn’t be ordered under any circumstances. The SEAFOOD panfried noodles came with a light tasteless sauce and did not have any shrimp (menu states it does). The dish was instead filled will imitation crab (not stated on the menu). I questioned the waitress and she said they have the right to substitute ingredients. Unacceptable when the dish is $ 15. I was hoping for better but I will not be dining there again. My asian father probably would have thrown the imitation crab at the waitress if he was there.

The low rating is solely tied to the dish I ordered. My other dining experiences at Café 99 have been solid. Their dishes taste great and the chef has been accommodating when I ask for something to be cooked with less oil or salt. So it pains me to give them such a low score but the beef noodle soup was such a disappointment.
Taiwanese beef noodle soup is known for depth and richness of broth and quality of meat. This possessed neither. Broth was light and watery. It literally tasted like someone dissolved a beef bouillon cube in hot water! Meat was mostly lean slices with no tendon. And portion size of meat was barely enough to fill me up.
At $ 11 a bowl this left me wanting more. Do not order this dish from Café 99. Stick with other winners in the menu. This item should be eliminated altogether!

I stopped here on the way to set up at the state fairgrounds for the TC Book Festival. Still able to catch the lunch specials. I got the baby garlic shrimp and Basil got the kung pao baby shrimp, both got fried rice and cream cheese wontons as options. The cream cheese in the wontons was stuffed and a little sweet, delicious and a pink sauce for dipping, would have liked that a little thicker. As good as mine was, that kung pao sauce was the best I ever had, and I was soon dipping my shrimp in it. The garlic sauce went great mixed in with the rice. I ended up bringing most of it home. I was surprised how clean and beautifully decorated this place is, including the bathroom, because it’s so unassuming on the outside. Me jumping to conclusions, yet again. Oh 99, I love you (Line from Toto song).

Rice was soggy. I wasn’t too impressed with my sesame chicken either. Made with dark meat and wasn’t fresh tasting. We were the only people in the restaurant. Mediocre food for the price.

Best Chinese I’ve had! Quantity and quality! Every time I get it, I’m never disappointed!

I have to be honest and regretfully revise what was previously a 5-​star review. I went recently and had a lousy experience… I am so disappointed because I have raved about this place, here and elsewhere. I call this The Great Dumpling Disappointment of 2015.
We ordered entrees and their Chive Dumplings. First of all, they served the dumplings AFTER the entrees (which I believe we waited an inordinate time for, as the restaurant was nearly empty). Why do so many Chinese restaurants not understand the concept of «appetizer?» Is there a cultural difference I am not aware of? And the sad thing is, they were not worth the wait… not by a long shot! A proper Chinese dumpling should be one bite, two bites max. These were at least four inches across… like they could be a bed for a Smurf. They would take a minimum for four bites to get down. Sadly, one bite would be all most people would want, because they were DISGUSTING! And I have enjoyed this dish at other authentic Chinese restaurants-​so I know what they should taste like.
It will be a while before I give this place another chance, and I will not be recommending it without reservations until then.

Excellent food, very authentic, not the typical chinese restuarant where everything taste the same. priced a little high but absolutely worth the money.

We learned about this restaurant from groupon. Huge menu, great variety. Excellent service. The waitress was very friendly and gave suggestions that were perfectly suited to our tastes. The parking is a bit confusing but seemed to be ample for the size of the restaurant. We saw a large group with a round table eating family style with a lazy susan which seemed helpful for sharing dishes. I would highly recommend.

I wasn’t wowed by this restaurant, but I think much of it had to do with the half almost empty 6 dollar wine glass that I ordered. I’m not a huge wino but I would’ve like it if I got what I paid for. Another then that the food was what I expected. I only ordered the pan fried potstickers and the sizzling steak which wasn’t really your typical «steak» it was more like beef slices. I would probably give them another chance but it’s not a have to. Definitely where locals tend to flock towards. When I was there there were a couple Asian families and a few couples there. Not a busy restaurant but steady.

My expectations were high. It was Fourth of July and I came here with my boyfriend. He loves spicy food and was excited to see the Chong King Spicy Chicken which had three chili peppers listed on the menu to indicate super spiciness. We started off with steamed pork dumplings. There was not much flavor in the dumplings and there was a substantial amount of water in them. The dipping sauce tasted like soy sauce and not much else. The Chong King Spicy chicken had good flavor, but it was definitely not spicy whatsoever. Really disappointed. The boy got a bite with a lot of ginger and he commented that the ginger assaulted his tongue.
Service was ok, but it was Fourth of July and only one other table was there, so I can understand why. The place is clean and cute.

We cant stop eating here… no place like it for beef lo mein… the general tso chicken is also spectacular. Easy to get to, off of Como at snelling. Plenty of parking. The owner and staff are so nice. We often order take out. The portions are large. We drive by four other chinese restaurants that we have tried and Café 99 is worth the time and effort. It is that good.

The best Chinese restaurant in the Twin Cities? That would be a disappointment because if this is the best the Cities can offer, well then, there is big time work to be done to hit that mark.
The restaurant is small and clean. You might be warmly greeted when you walk in, or, they might totally ignore you. The people working here are friendly, but the busier they are, the more frazzled they get.
The food, was hit and miss. Potstickers good. Spare ribs were mostly bone, very little pork, and the sauce was cloyingly sweet. Beef lo mein was a winner. Plenty of beef, with onions that had been stir-​fried until just barely crispy. Chrysanthemum fish is one of their signature dishes. My family all loved it. For me, meh. It’s a whole fish deep-​fried and then served drowning in what is described as a tomato sauce. If that’s a tomato sauce, well then, ok, but they must have added a pound of sugar. I did my best to scrape off the sauce, and that helped save the dish. I’ll pass on this if I ever return. The dry sautéed green beans were perfectly prepared and a welcome contrast to the other dishes we ordered. Our last dish was described as Peking Style chicken with bun. Silly me expected a nice soft bun with moist chicken, crispy skin and some hoisin sauce. What arrived was basically a chicken bao. It was awful! We’re talking hard as a hockey puck, and once you did get your teeth into it, the inside was stuffed with some chicken that was nearly tasteless, except for being salty. This was on the Specials menu – do the smart thing and remember I warned you. Don’t order it!

Stopped by on a mere whim since we were staying at a hotel nearby. Was looking for some good authentic Chinese food, so after taking a quick peek at the online menu, we decided to give this place a try.
Was pretty quiet and empty for an early Saturday night, so it was a bit of a surprise that it took a bit longer than expected for our food. Nonetheless, the waitresses were nice, friendly, and attentive. (Judging from some other reviews, this might not be the case on busier nights?) We were lucky that we went at a not-​so-​busy time of day.
We ordered the chicken wings, a fish dish, beef tendon dish, and the double-​cooked pork intestines. Though not as great as other dishes that I’ve had at other places around the twin cities (such as Grand Szechuan or Mandarin Kitchen), I would still rank Café 99 pretty high on my list of places to recommend and/​or try again.
There were only two of us, so it would have been weird for us to have ordered more food than we did. There were lots of other dishes that I would like to try the next time around. Because of the family-​style setting, I’d probably come with a bigger group (3 – 5 people) and order more dishes.

Wow, I woke up to find $ 5 Groupon deal for $ 20. What are the chances of that and finding good reviews on Unilocal.Well, we decided to get dinner that night. It is super close to the State Fairgrounds. It is across from the supermarket so easier to park behind the restaurant. For our entrees, I got the spicy, thinly sliced pork with Chinese cabbage. She got the roasted duck and scallions which was also good too. Our Groupon was honored and service was really good. This is the first place where I had authentic Chinese food. So, I think I will come back here with my parents. I would like to try the lobster eventually since I like it Chinese style with scallions, etc.

The taste? Not sure! Sitting there for 40 minutes without getting a glass of water… So disappointed…

We had high hopes for Café 99 when our friends suggested we order takeout for the group. They had eaten there before and really liked the food, especially the Moo Shu Pork. They noted that the Hoisin sauce really makes it wonderful.
We called in our take-​out order at 7 pm and the restaurant said to pick it up in 15 — 20 minutes. We arrived in about 25 minutes to find no one at the front; after another 5 minutes, a woman finally arrived to take our money; we assumed the food would be forthcoming. Instead she told us «it will be awhile; leave and come back.» Somewhat stunned and confused, we tried to ask for clarification but we had suddenly become invisible to her.
Shaking our heads, we walked around a few blocks, arriving back in another 15 minutes. Once again we were invisible. Finally we just sat down at a table to wait. It took awhile, but we caught the attention of the waitress and asked her when our order would be ready. Saying she would check, she ran in and out of the back a couple more times before she stopped at the register to figure out which order was ours. Eventually, she came out and said «Should be soon. I told them you were in a hurry.» In a hurry? It was now over an hour since we had placed the order.
We finally got our order after about an hour and 20 minutes. During our wait, we noted a couple nearby with empty plates and annoyed looks and saw a group of 5 or 6 get up and leave, their table still empty. All we got was a quick, sheepish «sorry for the wait» from the waitress, who was obviously not to blame for the problem. No told us how long a wait to expect; no one offered us a beverage as we waited; no acknowledgement that this was unacceptable; the way we were ignored was simply rude.
Café 99 is off the list of restaurants for both couples, and likely as well for the folks who walked out and for the couple at the nearby table. There are plenty of restaurants who provide customer service along with their food. There were two tables that seemed to get a lot of attention. As another reviewer noted, they seemed to be the «favored tables.»
In fairness, the food was pretty good with one notable exception… there was no Hoisin sauce in the bag to go with the Moo Shu Pork.

I don’t exactly know when this Chinese restaurant open, but fortunately, I found it on Unilocal and just arrived here.
While I have to say: it should be the top 3 Chinese restaurant in metro Twin Cities areas!
You would be surprised to see it is just besides Shanghai Market at Como Ave!

As many pointed out, the dining environment is pretty neat and mimic nowadays real small chinese restaurant feeling…
We ordered total 4 dishes:
One cold dish (sichuan spicy beef and tendon, or fu qi fei pian) is normally my favourite but i did not like the way they did it. Also the meat taste kind of mushy and sour. suspected it may not be the freshest.
One soup (west lake beef soup) that is good but they put too much pepper so it became spicy that our kids can not have it. This soup should not be spicy but just a little pepper.
The hot dishes are both good: la zi ji (sichuan spicy chicken) is very very good and the way i liked i. But the portion is small and not much chicken in side. The chrysma fish is very good as well and pretty authentic to mimic the hang zhou song1 zi2 gui4 yu2 (a classic and famous chinese fish dish) — A must try.
The service is a little bit slow (have to ask for adding water, etc.) but they are understaffed that night for sure.
I got diarrhea the next morning but not sure if it is because of the cold dish or the spicy food (you know it works on your stomach).
Anyway, would still like to go back for other dishes and just hope they manage their food quality and service right next time.