Main Street Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet
“My folks loved the oyster pancake, but I thought it was ok (maybe I'm too americanized).”
“My husband brought me take out from here: pork w chives and sweet bun…yummmmmmy!!!”
“My favorite dishes are – the
– Ma You Yau Hwa – Sesame Oil Pork Kidneys – amazingly prepared.”
Main Street Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Absolutely speculator! Taiwanese food is amazing. The staff are very nice and attentive. This is my second time here, and I've been returning for the sliced fish dish which is in the front page of the menu listed as the popular dishes. The flavor is not too heavy and not too oily. I'm a big fan of fish so I'm in love with this dish and it pairs nicely with a bowl of white rice! The other thing I would recommend is the salt and pepper chicken which also comes in pork! Again, delicious and will fulfill your heart! Everything taste fresh. Definitely try this place!
This is in the area of Main St that's not super crowded. Street parking was not super easy to find. We arrived around 8pm on a Saturday and a table for 2 just freed up next to the cash register. If you read through the reviews here, they'll mention a lot of off menu items. Even reading the wall, I think some of the items mentioned in the reviews are off menu and off wall, so best to ask if they have it and if you can't speak Mandarin, show them a photo.
We got:
1) Three Cup Chicken (三杯雞) – They actually forgot this and brought us our check when I was like uhh we're still missing this (in Mandarin).
2) Oyster Omelette (蚵仔煎) – In general, there's too much starch in this dish. It was ok – oily and crispy on edges as it should be.
3) Loofah with clams (on menu) – Enough clams with actual meat. They also make it with tofu.
4) Fly heads (蒼蠅頭) – on the menu under their Popular Dishes, #21. This was very good. I asked for a little spice. We cooked flat Chinese noodles the following day and mixed it with the leftovers.
I think our bill was $38 for these items, before tip. I think it's southern Taiwanese food? but I'm not sure. Best to come with more people to try more dishes.
Over the last year, I have had my fair share of Taiwanese food from all the UYEs I been attending, so I think I have an OK understanding of what to expect. I was invited to check this place out since my friend raved about the food, I was impressed. The place looks like a very run of the mill Chinese restaurant with a bunch of Michelin Recommended signs out front.
The food:
Stewed Pork Ribs and Napa Cabbage- The pork was so fall apart-y! lol The cabbage was cooked down but was left with such a wonderful natural sweetness that really went well with the soy based sauce it was cooked in. I think the pork had a nice amount of fat and for the most part, it was very tender but the pork did run a tad salty. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Three Cup Tofu- This dish was awesome, the bean curd was fried cubs and were so perfectly light and crispy and really went well with the basil and ginger sauce it was tossed in. The ginger was cut paper thin and almost became sweet like candy from the wok stir fry. Highly recommend. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Kidney Dish- This can be served cold, but we got the one served hot with ginger and green onion and I LOVE the fact that they use Thai green chilies, but beware, they are like fire! The chilies are basically like fire nuggets so be prepared if you get one. So, I was a little skeptic about the kidney dish since innards don't really tickle my fancy. The texture of the kidney dish was excellent, it had the right texture of being firm and tender, I also feel I enjoyed the kidney dish more since it didn't have a strong organ-y funk. The sauce was so flavorful and the addition of the Thai Bird's eye green chili was a little surprising but being Thai, was a very welcome addition. And I don't know how much of a difference it made, but I love how they score the kidney for added texture and the edges of the kidney had nice fire marks from the wok. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Conch w. Basil- It was OK, yet again, the green chilies were like fire! I thought the conch was just an OK dish. The conch weren't that flavorful, the sauce was nice and the Thai chilies were a nice kick of heat but the dish was my least fav of the night. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Shredded Pork With Bamboo Shoot- So simple, so good. It's basically shredded pork with stir fried bamboo, it's just a simple homey dish, but beware of the bird's eye chili, they will light yo ass up, literally and figuratively.
Ba-wan- It was kinda like a dumpling with with pork with a sweet sauce on top. It was interesting, the dough is made out of rice flour and it is soft and smooth, it's an interesting flavor.
Fried Oyster Thin Noodle- In terms of flavor, it was fine, the oysters were OK, but the noodles were so overcooked, like completely gone. I would skip this dish.
You know a restaurant is solid when it's located in the middle of nowhere and yet has a line out the door while the 2 restaurants adjacent sit empty. I stopped by at 5:30pm on a Sunday and still had to wait about 15 minutes, but around 6:00pm the line starting trailing out the door.
While everyone else says the menu on the walls are the way to go – I did find some dishes on both the wall and menu (which is quite extensive itself). So don't panic if you don't read Chinese. Another easy way to go, especially if you've been standing there eyeing everyone else's food, is to point at other tables.
The cooking style and dishes all tasted like something made in grandma's kitchen, although grandma could probably lighten up on the oil…I would especially recommend getting a few vegetable dishes, which are a nice change from the usual sauteed in oyster sauce leafy greens you get at Cantonese places.
I've been several times to this Michelin-recommended eatery, and the conclusion I've drawn is that the food here is either a hit or miss. I've had dishes here that I've gone gaga over, and others that have made me wonder if there were a child in the back playing kitchen. Good news is that the good dishes are consistently good, like the clams with garlic, and the "fly head" (I don't know if the dish is actually named as such or if it's just colloquial). Unfortunately, however, there's no way to know if a dish is going to be good or not unless you try it, so when you find something you like here, I suggest you stick with it.
On the plus side, the service here is always great, and prices are low. For around $40 including tip, you can feed a family of 4.
Very greasy and salty. The Taiwanese classics of oyster noodles had Taiwanese BBQ sauce (sha cha sauce) on it which is not classic at all.
The restaurant is neat and tidy. Affluent waitresses welcomed you warmly. You will feel you are home. Authentic Taiwan food, with reasonable price. I ordered "Fly heads" and Taiwan style braised tofu. Fly heads is kind of spicy.
Not sure if I was reading the right Yelp reviews, however, somehow I was misled. We seemed like their first customer of today for them. At first I thought I walked into a Buddhist temple with Buddhist soft temple chime playing on their speaker. Was this the common music they played or it was just something to give them a kickstart for the day? Can anyone tell me? I didn't mind at all. I thought it was very unique. On the walls, you can find unique Chinese / Taiwanese sayings /motos taped and I think some words of wisdoms for the staff and boss. This was unique. Definitely deserves the star I am given.
As far as the food, it deserves no star if I had the choice. The food we ordered were tasteless. We ordered:
* **Oyster noodle- been craving it for months. The usual place I used to goto had closed. My parent was already on the way to another restaurant but I had them turnaround and goto this place as per Yelp just because, it has the oyster noodle that I've been craving for months. To my disappointment, it was very blend and tasteless. I've been back to Taiwan and had the traditional oyster noodles there. Here, I didn't know what I was eating. It was just bunch of vermicelli noodles, thrown in with bunch of salt and some sour brown soup based. Sigh.
* **The Taiwanese pork chop over rice was very small portion. It was plain and lack of taste.
* **smelly tofu- served with about like 8-10 small pieces of tofu and with like 2.5 baby cabbage leaves. Really??? Usually restaurant would load up the cabbage and be cheap on the smelly tofu. But this place gave 2.5 cabbage leaves. Whoa!!
My mother wanted the soup noodles. The waitress said it's too hot today therefore they don't serve that today. Am I missing something here??
I definitely won't be back and I felt bad for telling my family to turn around and head to this place instead.
Please do yourself a favor, do not even try and waste your time.