Crave Asia - Berkeley

As a regular, I consider Crave Asia a hidden gem in Berkeley. Their Mongolian steak with fried rice is unbeatable. Very reasonable prices, easy street parking around the corner, welcoming and professional staff makes me coming back.

Amazing fried calamari and foods delicious as usual. I love the menu selection and variety that includes items that are out of the common normal most other restaurants carry. Only diappointment was that each time ive been there they havent had the milk tea ive been waiting to try and the main reason for going at all.

It's solid Chinese take-out/delivery. Some items are really good (hot sour soup, dumplings), some are good but mysterious (their orange chicken is like no orange chicken I've ever had but still good), and then some others are kinda meh (mapo tofu here was pretty bland). Cheaper than other places though, so fills in a good niche.

I was shopping at the North Face Outlet last weekend when I discovered this small hole in the wall restaurant at a busy corner. It really did appear to be one of those hidden gems that no one really knew about yet would turn out to be one of the best in the area. I proceeded to do my yelp research on this place and found a whole bunch of mixed reviews so I was a bit hesitant to try this place but decided to have a go anyways. Seemed like the goto dishes for yelpers was either the orange chicken, mongolian beef, or general's chicken so I opted for the Orange chicken over rice with some eggrolls as appetizers. I must say, the orange chicken had some crispiness to it which immediately made it better than most other places I've been to where they've had it sitting around for awhile only to turn the orange chicken soggy. It went great with the rice! Now the egg rolls tasted like egg rolls from any other restaurant which were also nice and crispy. It was oily as usual and tasted fresh as well. All in all, I'd give this place 5 stars for their efficient service (took only 15 minutes to make my food) and the quality food as well.

Cozy vibe. Super nice owners. Good food