Do Re Mi Cafe

I’ve been meaning to write a review for Do Re Mi Café for the last few years but always forgot about it. I came here on multiple occasions with the 2^nd family. It is opened late and a very convenient spot to go to. Located in a Chinese plaza. It can get very crowded on the weekends and weekdays. In the late evenings, it will be empty. Be aware of Asian drivers. We always sat family-​style and enjoyed the awesome Chinese food. My favorite would be the walnut shrimps. They made the best walnut shrimps that I have tried! I am sad to find that they will be permanently closed. Do Re Mi Café will be missed :(

Looks like they are closed permanently. Went this morning and business was empty: no tables, chairs etc. Gonna miss Do Re Mi.

This was my favorite Chinese restaurant in San Jose.
Flew in from So Cal, mouth watering for my Do Re Mi, only to find they’ve closed… permanently :-(You will be missed.

We ordered only 3 dishes here: walnut shrimp, double winter tofu, and steamed vegetarian dumplings. It is unfortunate for me to say that 2 out of the 3 dishes were failures. The walnut shrimp is overcooked and not fresh. In addition, the sauce is not tasty at all. The best part of the walnut shrimp should be the melting mayonnaise that this restaurant failed to deliver. The double winter tofu was quite tasty, but they skimped out on the most important ingredients. Double winter tofu should feature winter mushroom and winter bamboo shoots. No bamboo shoots were in sight… Finally the steamed vegetarian dumplings were absolutely horrible: overly thick dumpling skin with weak fillings. Overall, I would not come back here again. The price does not justify the terrible food and mediocre décor of this restaurant.

Favorite to go food place personally l think the food here is great great for to-​go
Con:certain foods have long waits
Pro:food is always perfection

We came here around noon, and there was no wait. In fact, it was empty. Based on Unilocal reviews though, we thought it was worth a shot.
I ordered from the lunch menu that comes with white or brown rice and sour-​spicy soup. My friend ordered the beef noodle stew. The funny thing though is that I liked the beef noodle stew better than I did the string beans with ground beef that I ordered. There was nothing especially enticing or special about the string beans with ground beef.
I will check out the beef noodle stew next time.

OMG it is super slow i wait for like 40 mins just for a soup and noodle.
And i dont even got a cup of tea !

I would probably give three and a half stars but I don’t have that option. I think the prices are a bit high unless you can get two people to go in on the 3 for $ 21 deal (rice is extra). The sad part is they don’t allow you to use one of the 3 for something else even if its cheaper. The menu said you can substitute it for soup but when I tried to substitute it for a soup that was cheaper than $ 7 they wouldn’t let me. That being said, their On Choy (its not on the menu) and Shrimp with Scrambled Egg are pretty good. The sweet and sour fish is pretty horrible, its over breaded and it tastes as if they had it in the freezer for a year. The mapo tofu isn’t that bad but not great. The Walnut Prawns taste as you’d expect but they are more like shrimp not like prawns. The dish is a bit small as well but that happens about half the time I order it at various other restaurants as well.

Not good, but not bad. The food is overpriced though.

It was just okay for Taiwanese food in my opinion.

Authentic Chinese food. The workers are alright and the food here is good. But the portions are kind of small. It takes forever for them to bring out the food though, so be prepared to wait.

If there were half stars I would of given this place a 3.5 star rating. This place is good for take out or eat in as a family because of the 3 dishes for $ 19.95. This deal is good for working families that don’t have time to cook and is hungry after work. There’s a list that the 3 dishes can be chosen from. I like the fried spare ribs with pepper, Kung Pao chicken, fish and their sweet chicken tastes good.

Decent price for good chinese food!!!

Do
Re
Mi
Fa
Sloooow…service.
Only one server/​cashier and two cooks in a quarter full restaurant with disgruntled families impatiently looking around the room waiting for their waters, food or menus. Two frustrated patrons got up and left.
I feel bad for the understaffed café but they should have been prepared for lunch hour. Methinks it’s the typical old Chinese way of saving money and cutting costs on hiring employees.
This is the consequences for when being cheap backfires.
I’m saying this because it took roughly 15 minutes to get the first two dishes (which is perfectly fine), and another15 minutes to get one ice water, and then another 20 minutes to get the last two dishes which is completely off track. The food was okay but nothing special or worth really coming back for.
I want to give this place 2.5 stars because the lady who was the server/​cashier was working really hard to take care of everyone and apologized repeatedly. I feel bad for her but they seriously need to consider hiring more people.
On the other hand it was quite entertaining to see her run around; it was like a real life version of Diner Dash expert level. Cash only.

Do Re Mi, 1 2 3.
Whether you call it the Do Re Mi Café or the 1, 2, 3 Café (For those who are Chinese or Taiwanese) this place offers food that may make you think of home.
I came here with my partner and his father to enjoy lunch. We were in the mood for something spicy and most Szechuan places were beginning to close for their break. There was only one other customer when we walked in so we were seated right away. You are given tea when you come in and if you want ice water you will have to ask. The first few pages of the menu are in Chinese but if you keep flipping you will see it in English.
The most popular combo is the «Pick 3 for 20.95» deal. There is an extensive list of items that you can choose from. We decided to take advantage of this price and went for the Kung Pao Chicken (highly reviewed on Unilocal), Mapo Tofu, and Spicy Boiled Fish. Since I don’t speak Mandarin, my partner talked to his dad and slipped in an order of something else that he wanted me to try. However, I didn’t know what it was and just sat there puzzled.
The Pick 3 combo comes with complimentary egg flower soup that I thought was pretty average. It didn’t blow me away but I thought it tasted fine. The food started to trickle in one by one. First our rice came in a giant bowl for all of us to share. Then came the Mapo Tofu which looked delicious. Each piece of tofu was perfectly cut up into small squares and the sauce looked spicy. We were able to spoon some of it onto our rice to eat while we waited for the rest to come. Although I don’t eat Chinese cuisine regularly and am no expert, I thought the mapo tofu was pretty average but still tasted good. I don’t think there was enough spice in there. The next to come was the Kung Pao Chicken. Out of all the things we ordered, I think this one was the best. The chicken was definitely cooked just right. It was tender and the sauce added a lovely flavor over it. I liked the small little peanuts that they added as well. It added texture and crunch to each bite. The next thing to come was the secret item that my partner had ordered. It was placed on our table and I started to smell something foul. He turned to me and smiled and said, «Do you smell it?» And I replied with, «Yes, what is it?» I tried not to crinkle my nose so much because I’m sure it was a dish that my partner’s father liked. He told me to try it and I did. I dipped a piece of it into the soy sauce mix and took a bite. I could smell it when I put it in my mouth but it had a crispy exterior and tasted like odd tofu in my mouth. It was definitely edible, but not my favorite. Later I found out that it was stinky tofu, something that’s extremely popular in Taiwan. I’m glad I got to try something new, but I’m definitely not a fan. The last thing to come out for us was the boiled fish. It comes in a giant bowl of spicy liquid soup. The liquid does look sticky but you can reuse it to put more boiled fish in. There were plenty of pieces of fish in there. I was actually surprised to see how generous the portion was. The fish was tender and tasted nicely with the sauce.
I wasn’t amazed by the food but was happy that I got to try more cuisine from my partner’s culture. The amount of food was definitely enough to feed all 3 of us and leave leftovers. The service wasn’t very good as we had to call the woman over every time we needed her for something.
It is CASH only. The total was around 31 $ which is quite a good price to feed 3 hungry people. Overall, it was a meal that satisfied a hungry stomach.

One word. COCKROACH.
Sat at a table eating with my family and a cockroach starts crawling around our table. I jump out of my seat and my mom tells the server that there is a cockroach. She comes over with a napkin and proceeds to try to kill the cockroach in front of us. After she gets it, she just walks away and continues working. No apologies.
Of course, I lost my appetite and was disturbed by the worker’s attitude about it. No apologies and they gave us our bill to pay once the rest of my family was done eating, which was very soon.
Horrible service and never coming back!

This is my go-​to restaurant when I am in the mood for soup. They have an extensive soup menu, and are one of the few restaurants I’ve found where you can get a big full-​meal soup that isn’t loaded with rice or noodles. Usually I get either the minced beef and egg white soup, or the hot and sour soup. With the former, the beef is minced to order and mixed with tons of shittake mushrooms, carrots, and peas. Their hot and sour is probably the best I’ve ever had and has lots of tree ears and bamboo shoots.
Tonight I decided to branch out, and order crab meat and fish maw soup, along with a non-​soup entrée: the fried egg with preserved turnip. I had no idea what to expect but it sounded good. They brought out an omelette… in soup. My husband ordered pan-​fried dumpings, which I thought would be potstickers, but they were actually pan-​fried soup dumplings (XLB). He ordered beef chow fun and specified «dry», otherwise maybe it would have been a soup. They even brought out a complementary dessert — yes, soup: a small bowl of sweet dessert soup with beans and sago.
I am not sure if this is typical, but the woman who works there remembered me and my bike and my usual order, so maybe she thinks that I only eat soup. In any case, it was awesome and I will continue to give them my business.

Really good chow mein. A lot different than you probably have had in the past.
Be like nike.

Everything I’ve gotten here has been amazingly tasty and fresh. I’m not sure if it’s the same person cooking all the time, but you definitely get a homey feeling, and I’m pretty sure it is a husband and wife who run it. I have come here for lunch when it’s busy, and for takeout after work when there are a couple people in the restaurant enjoying a dinner in a homey environment. Whenever I come in, I am waited on promptly and the food is out in minutes.
Also, I’m not sure about the comment I saw saying that you shouldn’t come here for «Americanized» Chinese dishes like orange chicken, etc. This is, bar none, the absolute BEST orange chicken I have ever had in my life. When your pregnant coworker suggests we go here for lunch due to her overwhelming orange chicken craving, and that this is «the best orange chicken in the world,» you take notice.
Other good dishes we have tried: green beans, noodles, soups, etc. Everything has been great and I highly recommend it.

Yet another MSG filled Chinese restaurant with good portions and pricing! I actually really like their dishes here because there is variety whether you want meat, veggies, or tofu. They have this deal where you can get three dishes and soup for $ 20, which is a great deal if you are feeding a family. What I usually get is pea sprouts or tofu, spicy chicken with bamboo shoots, and fish fillet. All three of these items are soooooooo good. There are plenty of other dishes you can choose from as well. The soup is usually the sweet and sour soup. I have also gotten wonton noodle soup here which is also yummy. I recommend not getting the noodles with it because there is no flavor, so just get wonton soup.
**TIPS**
1) Cash only! If you need cash for this meal, head over to 99 ranch, buy a candy, and get money from your debit.
2) Enjoy!