Food: Shwe Myanmar Review [Delivery]

Restaurant: Shwe Myanmar Burmese Cuisine, Livermore

Delivery service used: DoorDash
Date ordered: 28th May, 2020

Dishes ordered:

  1. Crispy Yellow Tofu – $10.00 – 9.8/10
  2. Shwe Myanmar Tea Leaf Salad – $12.00 – 9.5/10
  3. Eggplant Curry – $12.00 – 9.8/10
  4. Coconut Rice – $3.00 – 9.8/10

Portion sizes: Good. The eggplant curry was a little more substantial but the other dishes were sized for one portion… or it could have just been due to us being SUPER hungry that we pretty much wolfed the entire thing down.

This is one of our favourite restaurants and before the lockdown, Jacky and I used to eat there every other week. It’s a family-owned small business and the owner is so lovely. I feel like the portions are slightly larger in the restaurant, but perhaps it’s also because we go there so frequently they just see us and give us a little extra <3

That said, the crispy yellow tofu typically comes as 8pcs according to the menu, but we received 12! I think it’s because some of them were ‘older’ and had been re-fried, but I really appreciate them giving us the extra pieces, and the re-frying made them even crispier. We love this dish; without a doubt it is the one item on the menu that we absolutely must order every single time.

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Food: Ros Ni Yom Review III [Delivery]

Can you tell? We like this place a lot. Or, at least, we did. Unfortunately, today’s meal was disappointing.
You can read my first review of the restaurant here, and my second review of the restaurant here. Edit: Read my latest review of this restaurant here.

Restaurant: Ros Yi Nom, CA, Livermore

Delivery service used: The restaurant’s own (free over $30) – we had to call to order because their online ordering service was not working for us.
Date ordered: 20th May, 2020

Dishes ordered:

  • Khao Pad Gai Tod – $13.00 – 7/10
  • Tom Yum Fried Rice – $14.00 – 6.5/10
  • Pineapple Fried Rice – $12.50 – 7.5/10

Flavour: I don’t know if the chef was just having a bad day or if it was a different chef entirely. The Khao Pad Gai Tod today was dry. Last time we didn’t even get the sweet & sour sauce that was supposed to come with this dish and it was still full of flavour and the chicken was juicy and tender. This time, the flavours were… lacking. And the chicken was old and dry. We definitely needed the sweet & sour sauce.

Such a shame, because last time Jacky was drooling over my dish. Now that he ordered it for himself, it was disappointing. I do think they gave us extra chicken though, which was nice, and the breading was still crunchy… but it was all just so dry. It’s the complete opposite of last time; this time, all the rice dishes could have benefitted from more oil.

Just look at it… I can make the colours more vibrant and the lighting brighter but you still can’t hide that it’s dry:

I was wrong about the tomato too. I don’t even get what the point of the tomato was anymore. All 3 dishes had one block of tomato haphazardly thrown into the mix. Like, just one quarter of a tomato. Why?

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Food: Saigon Cafe Review [Delivery]

Restaurant: Saigon Cafe, Livermore

Delivery service used: DoorDash
Date ordered: 17th May, 2020

Dishes ordered:

  1. Pho with Rare Steak Slices (Large) – $13.00 – 7/10
  2. Pho with Rare Steak, Brisket, Tendon and Tripe (Large) – $13.00 – 7/10

Flavour: I mean… it’s not bad. It’s not the best pho I’ve ever had, but it’s okay. I personally find the broth too sweet and somehow a bit salty all at the same time. You can taste some other spices like star anise in there too but… I don’t know. I find it lacking, somewhat. It’s like it would have benefitted from simmering in the bones and spices for another few hours to bring out a richer, deeper flavour in the broth itself, rather than over-seasoning to supplement taste.

I ended up pouring some more hot water into the broth to dilute it a little, which worked out well because I feel like we didn’t get as much broth in proportion to the quantity of dry ingredients. In addition, I’m more of a lime-with-my-pho type of girl, but they tend to serve theirs with lemon. I do appreciate that the meat and herbs were very fresh though.

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Food: Ros Ni Yom Review II [Delivery]

Edit: Read my latest review of this restaurant here.
Read my third review of this restaurant here.
Read my first review of this restaurant here.

Restaurant: Ros Yi Nom, CA, Livermore

Delivery service used: The restaurant’s own (free over $30)
Date ordered: 9th May, 2020

Dishes ordered:

  1. Chicken Satay – $10.00 – 9.8/10
  2. Pad See Ew Chicken – $12.50 – 9/10
  3. Khao Pad Gai Tod – $13.00 – 9.5/10

See my review of the first 2 dishes in my previous review of this restaurant here. Yes, I did indeed order this the second I finished my review of the restaurant. Let that say something about my feelings for this place and those dishes lol.

Flavour: The Khao Pad Gai Tod was lush. That chicken… so succulent, so juicy, so perfectly crispy on the outside and so wonderfully soft on the inside… No wonder it’s a chef special. The fried rice complemented it well, though I found it mildly on the greasy side.

The description on the website says, “Deep fried boneless chicken over fried rice with egg, garlic white onion and tomatoes. Topped with cilantro and cucumber and served with sweet and sour sauce.” However, I did not find any sweet and sour sauce in our delivery bag or in the box, so perhaps they forgot to give that to us. (The sauce pictured belonged to the chicken satay.)

The tomatoes are actually a couple of thin slices of tomato placed between the chicken and the rice, presumably to stop the chicken from getting soggy sitting on the rice. I’m guessing they put the slices in there raw, and it then absorbs heat from the chicken so by the time it arrives at your door, it’s nice and soft while the chicken remains crispy. Smart.

Needless to say, the fried rice part consisted of rice fried with egg, garlic, white onions and scallions. There were no tomatoes mixed in the fried rice, thankfully.

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Food: Caraway Indian Cuisine Review [Delivery]

Restaurant: Caraway Indian Cuisine, Livermore

Delivery service used: DoorDash
Date ordered: 8th May, 2020

Dishes ordered:

  1. Butter Chicken – $10.99 – 9/10
  2. Navratilova Korma (9 vegetables cooked in creamy onion sauce) – $9.99 – 9.5/10
  3. Goat Biryani – $10.99 – 9/10
  4. Garlic Naan – $3.99 – 9/10
  5. Bonus yoghurt/minty thing – free – 6/10

As you can see, the photo was from taken from half way through. I was pretty much stuffed by this point, Jacky continued to eat a bit more haha.

Portion sizes: substantial! They really pack as much curry as they can fit into the container. The biryani came in a larger plastic tub. It’s definitely enough for 3-4 people… or 2 with very large appetites.

Flavour: yum!!!! Both of the curries were so full of flavour, creamy, cooked well. The chicken was tender and the veggies were soft (as I like them).

The goat biryani was dry, but we were going for that as the carb to eat with our curries. The goat meat was seasoned well and some pieces were so tender they fell apart on my fork when I tried to spoon it out.

I was particularly impressed that the garlic naan actually had a strong but not overpowering taste of garlic (my pet peeve is getting garlic naan where the garlic has clearly just been thrown on, and the rest of the bread does not have a hint of garlic taste). I loved getting a mouthful of the coriander to balance the richness of all the other dishes as well.

I think the yoghurt sauce is also there to cut through any potential heaviness or grease. I personally am not a fan of American dairy yoghurt but even so, I didn’t hate this one; it tasted refreshing and had more of a liquid consistency, but I didn’t have much because I did not find either curry too creamy or heavy. I’m not going to count that towards my overall rating because it was a bonus extra rather than something we ordered. Can’t knock free.

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