For the final meal, I decided to go to Top Shanghai.. I haven't read particularly good critiques about this place but Gingeri was busy and we felt like shanghai cuisine. 
When we went there it was around 5, and they said we had to leave by 6:30. The room was rather quiet and thought she was just saying that and didn't really mean it. At 5:30, people began coming in like droves. holy crap, this place gets busy. and is she ever intense when she is booking reservations. wow .
Pictures of various dishes are on the walls so you can just look and choose what you like. We chose the honey beef with buns because it looked good in picture. We also had the beef roll ups, chicken wonton soup, pork cheeks (?), green onion pancake, and xiao long bao. They have a very extensive list of food in the menu.
The beef roll ups (I don't know what it is called so I am just going to keep calling it this), wasn't very good.. not enough filling and too much onions. The best I've ever had is still at Long's. The pork cheeks were apparently bigger than usually served. The green onion pancakes were ok. a little too oily, xiao long bao were mediocore. my favorite was the honey beef and buns. Too bad there weren't enough buns, but you would put the beef in the buns and eat it. They were delicious and juicy with really great sauce. The chicken wonton soup wasn't bad at first nice big wontons and veggies etc. until my brother stopped, and asked if we would stop eating if he had told us there was a bug in his soup. but it wasn't a bug that could be ignored. it was a huge black bug hidden within his vegetable. ... .. Gross.
what a wasted dish. They took it away and told us to order something else..
We ordered two desserts: fried banana and fried sweet potato. They took a while to come out.. probably because the restaurant was jam packed by 6 now.
The fried banana was okay. but the sweet potato was very good. It was soft and tasty. yum.
I don't think I'll be back though. The meal had some highlights, but the bug kinda killed it for me.
I went to honolulu cafe for breakfast before class one day. They have these combos for 5.95 with a tea/coffee (or one dish for 4.95). They have a western side and a chinese side. Western being eggs, omeletes, toast, spaghetti, noodles, etc. and chinese being congee.
I chose the chicken spaghetti in soup and french toast, eggs, and ham. friend had the fish congee with chinese donut.
The spaghetti was clear and had a good taste. chicken was weird, but I didn't expect much. I had this taken to go because the toast et al was enough for me! the ham was really oily.. so were the eggs. The french toast is not like the usual western style, it's asian style. I think they take two pieces of bread with butter (or condensed milk in between) and then deep fry it. I haven't had this version in a LONG time but it was tasty and yummy. not something I can eat a lot but good nonetheless.
The congee was tasteless. The restaurant is pretty big with usual cha chan teng service etc.
I also went to The Boss in Chinatown for breakfast last weekend. They have a more extensive menu with a breakfast combo as well. I had the luncheon meat+ egg macaroni and they had the breakfast combo. It was sausage, eggs, a bun, and beef noodles. Also comes with tea/coffee.
Maybe I don't know enough about cha chan tengs, but I personally prefer The Boss over many others I have been to. Although some ppl find the prices more expensive, but you usually can't go wrong with the food they serve. They aren't particularly amazing, but they can satisfy.
If you have any recommendations on cha chan tengs, I would love to hear as I am slowly craving these type of restaurants once again.. (and mexican restaurants but I already have an extensive to go list for those atm :D)
