Big Brother Cafe

Alright, after almost a year going to this place for multiple late nights… here’s MY review for this place.
Out of Cousin’s, Venus, and Big Brother… Big Brother is definitely the best of the 3 here. it’s more authentic and the service here is much better.
Seriously… if you have Anthony and I’m assuming his siblings asking how the food was during your visit at a CHINESE CAFE without you demanding for a new plate, that shows some sincerity. I’ve been here so often that I knew what days not to come because one of the cook made the dishes too salty, but it was fixed after comments were noted about the orders.
Free wifi, awesome late night specials, HK TVB dramas, opens past 1AM… what MORE can you ask for in a HK chinese café?
The only thing I wish they would consider is having a dessert menu similar to creations and Kowloon Tong in SF.

I only go here when I crave for Cantonese food, other than that I wouldn’t really recommend it.
The chicken steak with rice in black pepper sauce is pretty decent. The seafood soup was a bit disappointing, and then the satay beef with pan fried noodle (we got chicken instead) was terrible! There was no satay flavor what so ever and not authentic at all!
There drinks weren’t that great either. I should definitely find someone new to get Cantonese food.

Very Solid
I bought dinner for my wife and I yesterday (it was my good deed for the year).
There’s a Three Items For $ 18.88 menu.
I don’t want to quibble, but I should have been charged $ 20.63, not $ 20.65. I know that Three Items For $ 18.90 doesn’t sound as good. It’s also easier to give change for $ 20.65. Still, customers shouldn’t be overcharged at all.
The hours are great: Sun-​Thur 11 a.m.-2 a.m.; Fri & Sat 11 a.m.-3 a.m.
The hours are pretty surprising. The only other places at the shopping center that really stay open late are Wingstop and Safeway.
The menu is HUGE.
There are over 250 selections (ex: Two Kinds Balls in Special House Soup– yes, this could have been worded better; Ma Po Tofu; Beef Stew Noodle Soup; Russia Beef with Rice; Black Pepper Fried Pork Chop; Curry Fish with Rice; French Toast; Club Sandwich; Luncheon Meat & Egg Sandwich).
The menu is so large that it’s hard to tell if anything is repeated (I can safely say that no items are exactly repeated).
There’s a nice selection of drinks (ex: Hong Kong Style Milk Tea; Citron Tea; Lemon Coke; Ice Red Bean Drink; Green Apple with Jelly; Ovaltine).
Soft Drinks are $ 1.75 each. Most of the other drinks are $ 2.45 or more.
Good Prices:
Lunch Special (Mon-​Fri 11 a.m.-3 p.m.): All the selections are $ 6.50 or $ 6.95 (you can add a drink for $ 1).
Tea Time Special (3 – 6 p.m.): The combos are only $ 4.75 and include drinks.
Most of the other dishes are $ 7.50 or less.
It’s cash only here, and the restrooms are for customers only.
Despite being young and kind of goofy, my cashier was quick and attentive. He even greeted me right away.
It didn’t matter that I ordered food to go. I was given a cup of water shortly after I sat down.
I was told that the wait would be «15 minutes,» but my order was ready in 8 (when I came in, there were only a few customers eating inside). I didn’t even have time to finish my water.
I said no when asked if I wanted steamed rice. I believe it would have been extra (as alluded to above, many other meals do come with rice).
Casual Environment:
The cashier spent part of the time talking to 3 guys playing cards. They were also watching the Bengals play the Falcons (the Samsung TV inside is small, but nice).
I also saw the cashier when I scouted the place a month ago (I took a take home menu and stood around outside like an idiot). He saw me, but left me alone. Good boy.
One of my friends was treated rudely here by a woman (she and her cousin also didn’t like their drinks), and I take that seriously.
The seating capacity is about 70, and the tables and booths are very nice (most of them seat 4).
Descriptions of some combo items are on the right wall.
The ambiance is otherwise minimal.
Party trays can be ordered.
This is a big negative for my wife:
«What kind of Chinese restaurant doesn’t [serve] orange, lemon, or sesame chicken?»
Epic Fail:
We received a large container of what may be the House Special Soup (I posted 2 photos).
I think of whatever we received as Vegetable Broth or Some Kind Of Mess.
The broth had a funny smell to it. It basically smelled like my upper lip after I’ve gone jogging.
Only my wife dared to try it. She liked the carrot pieces that she had okay, but only gives the broth a ⁶⁄₁₀. I dumped most of it down the sink.
Note: Although nothing similar to beets is used, I could be referring to their Russian Borsch Soup (the misspelling is theirs).
My wife after I grabbed her camera and took away her broth:
«You take pictures of food now? Are you becoming like one of THOSE people? How does the other shit look?»
My wife was actually surprised earlier when I planned on buying 2 meals for myself. She should know how much I eat by now.
No, I always try a few things before I review a Chinese restaurant. This enables me to have a decent «sample size» to base my rating on. I also order a lot in case I never return to a place.
American Broccoli w/​Beef: 7.5÷10.
My wife was pleased with her food, but not thrilled.
Black Bean Sauce w/​Spareribs: 8.5÷10.
I’m glad that I went with my gut (I briefly considered ordering something else instead).
My spareribs were juicy and meaty (only 1 was quite fatty). The meat practically fell off the bone.
I dock a little because of portion size. I would have still been hungry had I not ordered another meal.
You should be given more spareribs instead of so many onion and bell pepper pieces.
No one is to blame, but most of my sauce spilled out, and so I can’t comment on it.
Beef w/​Scrambled Eggs: 8.25÷10.
Good and fairly filling.
My eggs were cooked well, but my beef was a bit disappointing (it was juicy, but not really tasty, and some of the meat was pink).
I’m glad that the onion bits were at a minimum. I have to say «No onions» when I order a similar dish from another place.
Although my wife and I like Asia Express more (it’s just a few doors down), the spareribs here are actually better.

I surprisingly enjoyed my meal quite a bit here. Sure it was one of those heat wave days and Big Brother had no fans or a/​c on… just the door open… so you get the whole hot/​humid HK vibe.
Whenever I first try any HK café, I always get the baked seafood over rice. This is my favorite dish at these types of establishments. Given that it’s the East Bay and the seafood isn’t the most fresh (it’s most obvious in the mussels), it still turned out well because the seafood wasn’t overcooked and cut into bite-​sized pieces.
The white cream sauce was not as heavy as some other places and they give the right amount proportional to the rice. This dish tastes even better the day after if you mix it all up. The cheese is light on the top but I just add more to my leftovers at home.
There’s a lot to drink here. They start you off with some tea and you get soup with most of the meals. I really wanted some hot HK milk tea (yes, even on the hot day) so I literally had 3 things to drink in front of me.
My dad had the bittermelon and beef rice dish and he liked it. The bittermelon is bitter and even moreso because they cut it into big pieces. I would come again for any HK café specific cravings. It’s still cash only here.

I love Chinese food, but most of the restaurants poisoned me after several visits and I have to switch to another one. Finally I found Big Brother café.
I’ve visited it regularly for about half a year and so far everything is fine. I’m quite happy about the quality of their food, the service and the price. I love the red bean ice, pork rib with pumpkin pot. The dishes on the regular menu are much better than those on the 3-for-18.99 menu.
I hope they can expand their menu to add variety. Although I decide to try some new restaurants, this café is the default place for me to go.

First time we came here we ordered the fried rice which was really good. They gave us soup as an appetizer for free and it was good; tomato based and veggies. The tea was also free and yummy.
The 2^nd time we came here we decided to try the 3 for $ 18.88 meal. And it was terrible! The spicy chili chicken was undercooked! AND we found HAIR in it! We complained and got $ 6.50 deducted. My bf felt like throwing up and I felt bad. We didn’t know who the manager was and wanted to talk to him/​her, but felt bad for the waitress so kept our mouth shut. The house prawns were ehh, it tasted like what my mom makes at home and I don’t really like it. The house tofu was also ehhh, not my type of flavor. Rice was $ 1.25/person? Altogether our meal was $ 21 (esp after excluding the $ 6.50 plate). Pretty pricey for a bad meal.
Won’t be coming back here, the quality of the foods doesn’t even match the already affordable price. Maybe we ordered the wrong items? But we were very disappoint. Service was good, our waitress was very friendly and apologetic.

My friends and I were looking for a place to get some milk tea on a Thursday night at 1:30 AM, so we decided to pop into this place after looking around on Unilocal.I ordered the Hong Kong style milk tea, which was $ 2.25, and my boyfriend ordered the hot lemon tea, which was $ 1.75, the cheapest drink on the menu. They only gave me a plain small plastic cup’s amount of milk tea, which I could have gotten for free at the New China restaurant across the street with any order. However, it didn’t taste bad… the tea was creamy (I liked it that way), but they literally filled almost half the cup with ice. So I would say it’s not worth it. As for my bf’s lemon tea, it was merely tea with a lemon in it. I wad definitely expecting more from the drinks, especially when I could pay the same amount and get more with it. But I would say I had almost no choice, especially at 2 AM.
Oh, and they only take cash, like other Chinese food joints around the area.

OMG this place rocks. Open hella late and serves REALLY good food. The food is at PAR or BETTER than the stuff in San Francisco, no joke.
HK Style Café food, so you get the Beef Borscht Soup with your order. They have milk tea, spaghetti, macaroni, chow fun, whatever you want, soup noodles, the list goes on and on. I love this place because I can literally order any dish and it will be something I like.
This is one of my favorite type of food.
Service is pretty friendly and nice. Hope this place doesn’t get too crowded once ppl read my fabulous review. Lol. I’ve been trying to find a late night café in the area and WOMP, I am so happy that Big Brother is here.
Anyways, 4 stars for the food alone. The Beef Satay Chow Fun is to die for and the best I have had anywhere so far. The price is regular and won’t break your budget.

As far as HK Café’s go… this place is «meh».
I ordered a wonton noodle soup from their late-​night special menu. It did the job and the service was good, but it was lacking flavor. It was four wontons, egg noodles, broth, and iceberg lettuce. My friend ordered a beef chowfun with egg, which was much better, but still does not compare to Sam Woo BBQ or most other Chinese places in the Bay Area.
Service was good. Food, not so much.

Not a whole lot going on after 1am around here. I originally wanted to get wings next door but I was too late. So I hit up the café. Well if you want to feel safe somewhere this is it. At least at the wee hours, you’ll be sitting with half of the police force. Realized they were cash only so that severely limited my options. Got a wonton noodlesoup and an HK style milk tea The broth on the soup as a little bland though the noodles had a nice texture and the wontons were good. Milk tea was also solid, though they brought be a cold one first and then a warm one after saying: this one’s on the house”. The guy working is really nice and it was clear he had a rapport with the local PD. So after midnight you’re really reduced to a handful of places so if all else fails, this will do in a pinch. 3.5 stars

Was in the area with my Mom, so we popped in for a quick lunch. We ordered:
Salt & Pepper chicken wings — YUM
Mongolian Beef over rice — YUM YUM
Baked Spaghetti — YUM YUM YUM
Pro’s: everything we ordered was delish and portions were a’plenty, so we had a lot to take home too! Service is quick and super duper friendly. Lunch was $ 24 including soup, drinks, tax & tip. Yayy!
Con’s: can’t think of any… so we’ll definitely be back for more! :)

My mom is too lazy to cook so she suggested this place because it’s cheap and close to home.
This is indeed great food for a café. Don’t come here if you’re expecting some nice gourmet Chinese food. It’s good, cheap, fast, and pretty damn tasty. They have a great assortment of dishes in the «3 for $ 18.88» menu.
If you check into Unilocal,you get 5% off!
Big Brother doesn’t like charge cards, so bring cash!

I came here twice here for lunch during weekday. Place is clean and spacious. It wasn’t busy. Ordered beef chow fun, bitter melon beef with black bean sauce over rice. Tasty and not too greasy. Also they have Unilocal check-​in special, 5% off order.
Lunch comes with choice of drink. Comes to about $ 8 person. Iced milk tea was good! Lemon ice tea was a bit too sweet for my taste.
On the second visit, we have wet scrambled egg and beef over rice and tomato beef over rice. Tomato beef was good. Scrambled egg beef was a bit bland. We did notice the dishes were clean and they used minimal grease in their dishes.
Overall good HK café style food. We’ll be back to try other items. I feel it is better than Venus. Cousin’s food is a bit tastier, but this place gets points for being cleaner and spacious. I’ll write another review after a few more visits.

good food, bad location, cash only
russian borsch soup too sour
linda c says they put grey buckets of raw meat on the floor, have yet to see this
look for specials on the wall; free refills like LA.

I don’t mind that the pork chop rice had atomic red «tomato» sauce. I don’t mind that we had to repeatedly ask for utensils. I don’t mind that the «waiters» had bad attitudes. I don’t mind that it is Cash Only.
What I DO mind is seeing a grey bucket of RAW meat on the floor next to the bathroom, with flies nesting all over the meat. I don’t care if the meat is spoiled and going to be thrown out, but you should NEVER let paying customers see that. Um, really? Did they think that people wouldn’t see that and immediately lose their appetites?
After throwing up my mediocre food in the toilet, I returned to my seat and vowed never to return. And… I haven’t.
If restaurants posted grades in NorCal, this place would be shut down!

Just like Tam/​Venus Bakery Café in Newark, these guys here are a CASH only joint and just like Venus they are a HK Style Café. However, I think I like the quality of the food here is a lot better! (very much on the contrary of what other people said). Furthermore, the service here is quick and friendly. I came here because my friend claimed that this place is much better than Venus, and boy is it a gap forward up for me.
As far as interior goes, Big Brother does have a few cameras: P just for security reasons and aside from that there’s not much to it. There are booth seating on the side wall. And they even have free wifi here (you will just need to ask for the password)
I’m a huge fan of baked dishes though the calorie count might be off the roof, I absolutely love it! And I had their Baked Pork Chop over Fried Rice in Tomato Sauce. The fried rice here is absolutely delicious and the rice itself wasn’t overly hard from the baking. I find that Venus always tent to cook their rice with insufficient water, so the rice is always overly hard or dry. Notwithstanding, I find Big Brother Café’s rice absolutely perfect. I was able to finish my whole dish and worry about that guilt later. My friend had the Baked Ham & Chicken over Fried Rice in Cream Sauce while another friend whom joined us late had a snack of potstickers. Everything was with positive feedback.
This is probably the best late-​night HK Style Café in Union City. 4.5 Stars!
—–
+ Pro: All your favorite HK Style dishes are available here.
— Con: Not the best location.
\(^.^)/​Overall: Delicious baked rice dishes that are available late-​night!

This place has your standard HK-​café foods from Congee to noodles and they are open late, plus they are 5 minutes from my house.
The downside of it the food is not that great, it is missing some flavor profiles, it is like going through the motions but that special flavor I associate with HK-​café foods.
Prices are not that bad

Love this place! They open until 3am on the weekends when everywhere else is closed.
My friends and I often crave for Chinese food, especially hot soup base after karaōke at night, this is the only place that was opened.
My favorite is their beef rice noodle soup and spam & egg instant noodle!

3.5 stars.
So in comparison with Venus, I would have to say I would rather go to Venus instead. The food here is okay, kind of on the bland side. With the exception of their Russian brostch soup. That was really tasty. The meat sauce in the baked spaghetti was salty, and their iced milk tea was still warm when it came out. You would have to drink from the top of the drink where the ice is but drinking it like that, the drink tastes very watered down. Their iced lemon tea isn’t bad, but I would say Venus’s has more flavor. I wish that they had the afternoon/​late night specials like Venus does where the portions are smaller but cheaper and that you can add drinks for $ 1.
But on the plus side, they are open late which is awesome for late night eaters like myself. Open until 2am from Mon-​Thurs and till 3am Fri-​Sun. The location is just like 5 mins away from Century Theaters so good place to go eat after a late night movie. It is spacious, clean, and the service is really friendly.

Mediocre at best. A valiant effort in trying to topple the mighty local mainstay, Venus Café, but ultimately falls way short unless some major retooling is put into place. I should’ve known better than to have trusted the initial 5 star rating after eight or so reviews, as the majority of them are from the infamous one review wonders with the same question mark side profile picture. For now, I’m giving them 2 stars, but with room to go higher if they work on a few of their deficiencies.
Grand opening was the auspicious date of 8/​8, which was a Monday. The first opportunity I had to come on down was the evening of Friday, ⁸⁄₁₂. The moment I stepped in, I immediately recognized some of the kitchen staff from the old Bubble Act in Milpitas (
), a place known as a fun hangout with good drinks, but so-​so food.
That’s not to say that Big Brother (literally Big Brother Big in Chinese, a term with various usages) is horrible, but it is just rather unspectacular, and I can’t see why anyone given the choice would choose this place over Venus. Let me just break it on down:
Food: More akin to the much maligned Top Café (
) than Venus or even Cousin (
). Portions are very small, and sauce not ample, yet still gunky and thick.
My benchmark item for all HK cafés is the baked pork chop over rice. The fried rice is decent, but the two piece of pork chop are thin and tiny, perhaps half of what you’d get at Venus, and worse of all… have BONES.
The Portuguese chicken is rather bland, and the accompanying spaghetti, tasteless and soggy. Perhaps their traditional Chinese items are more palatable, but the HK café style fare is not impressive in the least.
Service: It is quite apparent that all the workers are not trained waiters and waitresses, but rather friends and family. They don’t even bother to wear uniforms, and you can hardly tell that they work here. They forgot one of our drink orders, but overall are fairly attentive. However, they oddly insist on constantly filling up your tea cups even if already full to the brim!
Environment: Modern yet minimalistic décor reminds me of the real HK cafés back in the mothership itself. A flatscreen TV in the back above the kitchen counter plays the latest and greatest in HKTVB, so you know that they are trying to cater strictly to HK people. One side of the dining area has wooden booths with padded seating, while the rest is all regular chairs and tables. There is also a larger round table for moderately sized groups.
The path leading to the unisex restroom area is slightly cluttered, with supplies strewn about, and most unsettling to me was the sight of EXPOSED MEAT in buckets just sitting out in the hallway. Who knows what type of things the random patrons might do to it, not to mention the potential insects and bacteria! This would receive a capital F if the Bay had an LA style sanitary grading system. Because of this alone, mondo points have been deducted.
Area: For now, they claim to be open until 2am on weeknights, and 3am on weekend nights. Although the surrounding vicinity is not bad, per se, it’s also known to have random riff raff congregating around, so depending on how business goes, whether they retain this schedule remains to be seen.
In the end, I am glad that HK cafés are starting to catch on, with more and more sprouting up in recent months. However, in order to do battle with the established heavyweights, they need to bring it much harder than this.