Red Ant Cafe
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
12 Reviews for Red Ant Cafe
I've had better food before, but they were decent.
Their crab porridge had flavor and their coconut seafood rice was actually pretty good. it's an entire coconut shell stuffed w/ rice and they make this seafood w/ some coconut sauce and pour it on top. Smells and tastes delicious. Def. will be bck just to eat this dish! Extra star for this dish.
Service was ok. Seats a bit uncomfortable, but I must say that their decor at a restaurant like this is better than Bay Area.
went to Red Ant agen today in the morning at 8:00am
eww... fried instant noodle for 4.95 tasted horrible, it was like oil stirred with instant noodles and spam eww eww eww
not worth it....so oily and bad quality
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1 Previous Review: Show all »
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04/16/2008
the food was okay and i don't find anything special with their dishes other than the fact that the… Read more »
Are you kidding me, this is one of the worse HK Cafe I've been too. The food is like whatever, nothing really would wow you. Nothing memorable at all, except the bad interior that it has. Honestly, I don't even know why its called Red Ant. Can somebody explain that concept to me. I had some imitation Vietnamese French Beef Cube, and it was okay. The service is below average, because the servers can't really speak English that well and they do not know their product that well. Overall, bad food,. bad service, and bad atmosphere. That's why this place is getting a big 2 stars.
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3.5 stars. The food here seems to taste much better than both Maxim Cafe and Boston Cafe...but my Dad said its because they use more MSG. While the menu definitely has less variety than Maxim, there are several "exotic" items that are not found in most HK Cafe's. Also, they do not give you a soup at the beginning of the meal. I thought this was standard practice at HK cafe's..but apparently I'm wrong. Also, there is no free dessert like a Maxim Cafe, so it doesn't feel as good value-wise, although the taste of the food is really good.
The restaurant itself is rather small, so it does feel really crowded really quick. Parking is an absolute mess unless you come in the daytime on weekdays.
3/02/2008- I have been here a few more times, and the food seems to have really improved. I am upping the rating to 4 stars.
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They don't serve Ants here, I was looking for it due to the name of the restaurant... The food here is HK Cafe style of food...(Its Chinese food with a western twist) portions are quite large and the price is right... I ordered the filet mignon inside a crossiant... This was a WINNER...$11.95 you can't go wrong with this.. MUST EAT... order with the black pepper sauce... The Stewed Rice Pots were also good eats as well...
Parking here SUCKS big time so you can be going in circles for a while... too many HS / college kids showing off their rice rockets and drinking boba. ... eating up precious parking spots....
Due to the lack of parking, I give 4 ant hills for this place..
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Had the fillet mignon inside a croissant like pastry just as the user posted in this review page. It's probably the best thing to order here and comes with a side of vegies. My friend had the honey glazed ribs and that was really good too. The unique thing about this place is the healthy rice that they serve for 50 cents extra instead of white rice. I'm definitely coming back here soon!
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It's located in the Diamond Plaza, which automatically you can deduced parking is a nightmare... it's at the store where Noodle Hut used to be.
Well, Red Ant Cafe is my #1 choice for HK-style cafe food around Rowland Heights... now that Tasty Garden (next to HK supermarket)Tasty House (on Gale) is closed, my #2/#3 would be the Boston's, then follow Maxim. Unless there's absolutely no alternative (e.g. I can simpily skip a meal..), then would I step food into Garden Cafe. I think that's all the cafe around...
Red Ant got a neat selection menu. food is almost always served hot and yummy. I can't think of anything bad about Red Ant... other than... finding a parking to get here.
When I have a chance, I shall take some photo of the menu. I eat there all the time :-)
this cafe spot changed ownership so many times the past few yrs inside diamond plaza - the 1st one was the best little cafe then got changed to noodle hut then now this which is the worst 1 yet the 1st time i came in bad menu left then came in a 2nd time changed better menu & decor but still not as good as b4 or other hk-style cafes
Large portions. Cute dishes and salt+pepper shakers. Had the spaghetti bolognese and it was a little too sweet for me but good nonetheless.
--------------UPDATE!!!------------
I've been back quite a few times, and the food is still good! I had breakfast here one time and the steak and eggs were AMAZING! Especially for the price. So, yeah, still like it here.
-------END OF UPDATE!---------
I just came back from Red Ant Cafe, and I am stuffed. This hasn't happened to me at a HK Style cafe in YEARS. Like many have explained Hong Kong Style Restaurants are Chinese cafes, but all the food usually has a western twist. British style tea, french influenced food. Most of these cafes have 'tea time specials' from about 3-5pm everyday where you can order something off a special menu that comes with tea or coffee. At MOST cafes, this menu is the same. But, at Red Ant Cafe, they have a more diversified, interesting tea menu. They have the usual random protein + ramen choices. Toast, sandwiches, etc. My brother had the Bolognese pasta, and I had the Salt and Pepper fried chicken salad. I have to admit that the chicken was greasy...however...it was topped with this sauteed, chopped garlic and it was SOOOO good. Not overpowering at all. We ordered another one right away. My mom had the ginger pork chop special plate. (All three of the dishes we ordered came with tea or coffee) It had 3 HUGE pork chops in a not too sweet, but nicely ginger-y sauce. The salad vegetables weren't soggy at all!
Now, usually, I wouldn't give this place 5 stars for a number of reasons. First of all, the vegetables that came with the pork chops were overcooked, there was WAY too much milk in the tea, a REALLY obnoxious group of teens sat in the booth behind me and kept making my seat move...a bunch of little things like that. Red Ant Cafe still makes out like a bandit with five because compared to Garden and Maxim Cafe (Chinese People BACK ME UP ON THIS!) this place ROCKS! No watered down spaghetti on the side, no nasty frozen vegetable mixes, etc. The food is BOMB for a cheap-as-hell HK Style Cafe. Especially since everything we ordered 4 dishes:
2 Fried Chicken Salad
1 Ginger Pork Chop
1 Bolognese Baked Pasta
It came with 4 beverages (3 of which are refillable) and the total before tip was under $30.00!
They also have breakfast on weekend mornings and a pretty good lunch special menu.
Once again, I have to stress that although they are a pretty traditional HK Style Cafe, they have really mixed the menu choices up and things are more interesting.
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it's cafe food. what do you expect? come on... it's decently priced and the food is equally decent. had the grilled chicken with black pepper sauce, no surprises there. the lemon iced tea was good, the thai tea was bad. maybe it was an off day, who knows... the parking there is sometimes horrid. when i visited, it wasn't busy so service was decent. no complaints there.
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I came here to meet up with friends from school. Diamond Plaza is general crowded but surprisingly on Sunday at noon time, it wasn't as crowded as I was expecting. In fact, the freeway was pretty smooth and no traffic.
Red Ant Cafe is HK style cafe. I was told it's pretty good so my friends and I decided to come here. Their lunch special varies on the days so weekend has it's own lunch special menu. I didn't feel like any of the pork chop so decided to get their Red Ant Cafe Seafood Curry Fried Rice.
Usually, it's either not enough curry powder or it's too wet but Red Ant Cafe made it just right with right amount of curry powder and firey dryness. Even the taste was great. I didn't have to add extra soy sauce to salt it. I will definitely come back and try a few more dishes!
The cafe is kinda small. My friends and I got the biggest table in the room. It became very crowded at one point so it's a good sign that the food is pretty good.
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