I went there last week for the first time for dinner - I'd been here before, but only for dim sum (which is pretty good, by the way.) Joy Luck Place has one of the most elegant interiors of any Chinese restaurant I've been to, with a bright skylight in the middle and nice-looking wood tables and chairs. The dinner was good and reasonably priced. For the six of us, we ordered the Boston lobster, Peking duck, minced chicken in lettuce cups, bamboo hearts, and shrimp w/Chinese vegetable, all for about $90. I liked all of the dishes, although I prefer my lobster steamed and not stir-fried. The duck was the best - I always love eating the crispy duck skin with the sweet plum sauce and steamed roll - mmmmm.

All-you-can-eat places never appeal to me, probably because I'm not a big eater and never feel like I get my money's worth. Hot Pot City is no exception - worse, you have to cook your own food. There is some novelty in the first meal there - it's kind of interesting to pick out the raw meats & veggies, and then cook it yourself. But since the average diner isn't sure when the food is cooked and safe to eat, there is a tendency to overcook, and all the meat ends up tasting a little tough. I agree with a previous poster that the soup pots are too small. The biggest drawback is that I always leave this place reeking of smoke. If you're willing to wait until after 10pm, the price of dinner drops a bit.

My coworkers and I come here for lunch a lot. It's a great lunch place. The food is of consistent quality, the service is quick, and the waitresses are extremely nice. The potstickers are good, and so is the family-style tofu, although it can sometimes be a little spicy. I also like the eggplant (also spicy.)

This place is hard to find - it's behind the 76 gas station on the corner of Wolfe and Stevens Creek. The food was good, not exceptional. I had the sushi plate, and an order of spicy tuna rolls. The fish was fresh, but the presentation of the nigiri wasn't as nice as I've seen elsewhere. The tuna rolls were nice and spicy, but again, looked a little lopsided and dilapidated. The atmosphere is nice - there are tatami mats behind the screen doors for larger groups. Overall, a nice place to eat sushi, but not exceptional.

The best thing that can be said about Ming's Restaurant is that it has one of the nicest interiors of any Chinese restaurant I've been in. The food is OK - not anything to rave about, but it's nothing to complain about, either.
We went for dim sum on a weekday, and had hoped to get a wide variety of food. Unfortunately, they only had a few carts out, and the same cart kept passing us by over and over again. We didn't get the variety that we were looking for - no turnip cake, no mango jello, no taro root dumpling. These were all items I'd all consider to be standard at a dimsum place, but were not seen in the hour that we sat there. The service is terrible. We asked our waiter if we could order the "chicken and sweet rice in lotus leaf" from him since we hadn't seen it. He looked at us blankly, and just turned his back on us and walked away, without saying a word. The worst thing is that they charge you for tea service, something I've never seen in all of the other authentic Chinese dim sum places I've been to. Their prices aren't cheap to begin with, and the fact that they charge you $1 each for tea was just a little too much. I might go back if I had some guests I wanted to impress with decor, but otherwise I think I'd avoid Ming's and go to either Mayflower or ABC in Milpitas for better food, service, and free tea!

Decent dim sum, if you're willing to wait at least 30 minutes for it. If we're not willing to wait that long, we usually go down the street to the ABC restaurant in the newer plaza. Mayflower's atmosphere is typical of a Chinese dim sum restaurant: loud, noisy, and crowded. They have all the traditional dim sum items: dumplings, char siu bao, etc. as well as many new creations of their own. I tend to stick to the traditional itemss. My favorite tea is a blend of chrysanthemum flowers and pooh-ni leaves (I have no idea how "pooh-ni" translates into English).

We took my mom here for dinner last week, and I really like the atmosphere they've created. The restaurant decor is cozy, and it's a treat to watch the chefs cooking in the open kitchen. The staff is friendly and capable. The food was good, too. I had the mushroom risotto, which had a wonderful creamy texture and great mushroom flavor. Others at my table had the duck (highly recommended), NY Steak (large portion!), seafood linguini (lots of seafood variety), and mushroom ravioli. The ravioli was the only disappointment. Although it looked interesting (the ravioli was striped with black squid ink), the plate was entirely filled with oil and my mom felt it was just too much oil for her taste. Also, appetizer portions seemed rather small. But overall, this was a good place to go for dinner, and I'd go back again.

I went to Sent Sovi with my sister, who was being treated by her company (which is the only way we would even think about eating somewhere this outrageously expensive). We had high expectations because of all the rave reviews we've read. We were severely disappointed by the food, and the service was spotty as well. We started with a cold carrot soup, which was too salty. In fact, our whole meal was overly salty. I had duck for my main entree, and my sister had rabbit? Both had so much salt in it that I couldn't taste the other flavors. And the service, which was raved about here in the reviews, was nowhere near as good as was claimed. Our waitress brought us our bill before we had even had dessert. If the prices had been a little more reasonable, perhaps I would have enjoyed my meal more. Unfortunately, the food served at Sent Sovi is not worth the price you pay for it.

Good, hearty, and LARGE quantities of food at really good prices. I split a whole order of pasta with 2 guys, and all three of us had our fill. The half order is enough for two people to share. The atmosphere is fun - there is butcher paper and crayons on the table to draw on. The wine is served in an on-your-honor system. You serve yourself from the open bottles on the side tables, and then mark down each glass you drink. They serve delicious garlic bread balls as an appetizer.