Chinese Cafe

I was out at lunchtime today, and it was a raw, windy, rainy, cold day. So, as I was cruising down Bellaire, I see this sign, NO.1 HOT SOUP. Sounded perfect, so I go in. I initially ordered the Korean Hot Soup, one of a few hot pots prominently displayed on the wall, but was told that it was not available. I settled on the seafood and tofu hot soup, paid for my order and sat down. Ten minutes later the server brought the hot pot and I was impressed. A mini-wok full of seafood soup sat bubbling before me which included two very nice shrimp, mussels, fish cakes, pieces of fish fillet, squid, chinese cabbage, baby bok choy enoki mushrooms, and probably other things I just cannot recall now. The soup itself is a broth of all the things in the hot pot...it is not seasoned otherwise. That's left up to you. The soup comes with white steamed rice on the side, or you can elect to have noodles in the soup instead. Soy sauce, vinegar, chili paste are already on the table, and a "spicy sauce" is available on request. The shrimp were perfectly cooked when the soup arrived at the table, and the rest of the soup was delicious...I couldn't find a thing wrong with it. I cleaned the bowl, natch. The place serves other foods as well, and the next time I'm there, I think I may order from the menu. Perfect? I thought it was. A rare five out of five stars. Outstanding! Read full review...

This is the second time this week I stopped here for lunch, and it continues to impress. This time I had their lunch special. The offerings changes daily, but it comes with two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, choice of soup and rice, for an amazing $4.60! Walk to the counter and order, sit and before long, a tray of goodness is placed before you. I chose the hot and sour soup, and it's not the sucky soup-from-a-mix that most faux-chinese places serve. Made fresh, it had generous amounts of chicken, tofu, bamboo shoots, egg and black fungus in the bowl. The flavors were well-balanced...a hearty, well-prepared soup that I hope to enjoy again and again. The two meat dishes consisted of beef and scallions in black bean sauce and chicken with water chestnuts. Both, again, were freshly prepared and absolutely yummy. The stir-fried cabbage was the vegetable dish for the day, and it was great as well. Chinese comfort-food lunch...how can you go wrong? Read full review...