Thank to everyone who attended my landmark UYE (Unofficial Yelp Event). We had 110% attendance -…read moremore the merrier. As you heard from other reviewers, this was my first Chinatown Crawl style UYE and celebrating 3rd Annual Asian Heritage Celebration in Houston. We moved from one business to another business as a group. It was nice to see Tracie A with her kids & her +1 (Trent), Eugene L & his +1 (Amber), Jose C's family. As well as the Around the World UYE regulars: Belly G, Mike M, Eddie S, Cherry A, Matt S and his wife Anh D. I also met a few new faces: Andrew Z, Millie C, Steven W, and Kevin L. Also, special appearances: Greg F, Olivia K, Na S and Shawn S. I'm honored to see this event as "Best UYE in Houston". Read my blog at http://iyelpalot.blogspot.com/2016/07/best-uye-in-houston.html. For few of us Yelpers love to party but couldn't attend at Official Yelp Events. So, we organize meet up parties to cater these crowds. One thing I learned from this UYE is to consider gluten-free option. So, at my next Chinatown Crawl UYE, I have prepared items to include vegan and GF dishes. Coming up... Time for Taiwan UYE @ Lai Lai Dumpling House in August.

This was my first time ever to the Dun Hung plaza, the parking lot was packed but luckily the…read moregarage was pretty empty. I was a little late getting to this UYE, so I missed the Fit Japanese store. Bummed out about that! I did get there just as everyone was getting to Strings Noodles, though. Lou greeted my kids and I right away, We were seated and handed some pretty awesome personalized name tags that said " Asian Heritage Month UYE Chinatown Crawl". The tags even had the date! My heathen children even got their very own name tags. Lou let us know that the tea and the starters would be on the house. All of the starters were amazing but my favorite was the pickled green beans. I have never thought to pickle a green bean and now I feel like I had been missing out. I would go back just to get them. We were handed some sheets of paper that had different noodles to pick from, kind of made it easier for everyone that way. I ordered thin noodles with beef in a spicy broth. The noodles were some of the best I have ever had. The soup had a hard boiled egg in it and it just soaked up all the amazing flavors. The wait staff was great with my kids too, my daughter specifically. she doesn't do all that well in restaurant settings, but it was quite a pleasant-ish visit. I will for sure be returning! When we were done we headed to Six Ping and got some pretty tasty pastries. I got a Taiwanese Red Bean cake and it was so good. it wasn't too sweet and it had tons of flavor. My kids thought the Hello Kitty cake was hilarious, the look on their faces was even funnier when I said I wasn't buying it. HA!! And then! We went to Nu Café and it was a life changer. Oh man the Shaved ice is like nothing I have ever had before. I didn't know shaved ice could be so good. I got the Coconut shaved ice with condensed milk, strawberries, and rainbow jellies. It was glorious! Oh my I want to leave work right now and go get some! It was sweet but not too sweet, it was incredible. Lou definitely went above and beyond for this UYE. Thank you, Lou!

Thanks James, for hosting!…read more It was a good group and a great turn out, to enjoy the crawfish for the season, which I had never done. I think everyone had a good time socializing and trying the dishes. I like a lil savory and little sweet with my meal, so the concept works for me. I took my leftover crawfish sauce from my 1lb that I had there, home, and made a great at home ramen! The mild spice level had me sweatin' at home, lol!

So nice to catch up with the coolest Yelpers in Houston Chinatown. Thanks to James R for hosting a…read moreUYE in my backyard (I live in Chinatown). Yeah, can't wait till the next UYE to meet more Yelpers.

Ay ya ya. This was the worst UYE I have ever hosted. If you missed it, don't feel bad. But I am…read moresure everyone had a good time. I really wanted to find an occasion to celebrate my birthday but hard to find time. So, here we go. Thank goodness no one took a photo of their name tags. I didn't prepare any. I was busy and I rushed from work that day. I barely picked up the cake from Olympic Chinese Bakery. Alan already arrived. With my original RSVP, there were just few Yelper friends. We know each other. So I thought we'll be okay without name tags. Oh boy, more people arrived. Ok, I had no choice but think quick rabbit. I dug out of my trunk and found some old name tags from past events. Who cares? I had a pen and there we go... The food was already pre-selected. Thanks for the owner of 75 Yummy Kitchen, Sherry. But the waitress came to take order again. That's where the mess started. She ordered extra something because she said 4 pounds of meat were not enough for 12 people. Then, she added some expensive side dishes. My original plan of $12 per person jumped to $17.50 with tips. Plus, there was no sign on the buffet line to tell people don't pick food from there for sheep scorpion hotpot. I was so embarrassed to tell my guests. I can't call this a Chinatown Crawl, because all stores are closed at 9 pm during weekdays. We stayed til the restaurant about to close. I don't see anyone else writing a review besides Alan. Okay... Mmm... Well... I'm not coming back to this restaurant for my UYE again. p.s. Sherry left Yummy Kitchen in April. Everything we had is not the same any more. **57th review of 2017**

Another great event hosted by Lou. I haven't had hot pot in years and being able to share with a…read moredozen people over the course of two hours made this a fun event. I brought a friend of mine who isn't a yelper and after this experience she will likely create an account. I'm looking forward to the next Chinatown UYE!

We had a great time!! Thanks to Lou for putting this great Chinatown crawl together. Parking at the…read moremetropole center was a breeze, plenty of spots were open. Lou had two big tables for all of us at Lai Lai dumpling house. I saw a bunch of familiar faces! Great to see Olivia and Cherry again, and meet Marci and all the others. First we had two different styles of dumplings, Chinese style and American. The Chinese style had a thinner dough and more veggies while the American kind had more meat and a thicker dough. The ants on a tree was sooooo good, the minced pork in it was so tasty. Lou ordered for us and the food was just cranked out so fast! The soup dumplings and the pan fried dumplings were some of the best I have ever had! I also really enjoyed the general tso chicken, it was fried so well and had a ton of flavor. I don't really want to talk about the stinky tofu. It was uh, yea, stinky. I wish we had gotten a video of baby Rose trying it. I surprisingly really liked the thousand year old egg with tofu. The sauce on it and the egg were my favorite things of the night. I really did not expect to like it as much as I did. I got some really good stuff at Olympic bakery! The sun cakes are so good and the taro ones too! I wish I had gotten more. I got a coconut tart too but it was rather dry. I love coconut but I would definitely pass on that one next time. Oh my lets talk about star snow ice! I got the vanilla shaved ice with egg pudding, almond pudding, fresh strawberries, rainbow jelly, red bean ice cream, and condensed milk. Oh my yum!!! It was amazing! Best red bean ice cream ever! Everything was fresh and the flavors all together worked so well. It was the highlight of my evening!

Thanks for everyone's attention. My #ChinatownCrawl UYE is taking off to a new level. Yelpers and…read morenon-Yelpers followed me on Instagram and other social media just to stay in touch with my quarterly event. That's awesome! Time for Taiwan was created with an idea from Taiwanese Tourism to promote traveling to the island from abroad. I'm happy to help them promote this 35-day long event in Texas. It drew over 200 Yelpers in 2 locations - Houston and Dallas. Last year, my Yelper friend Jamie A suggested hosting an UYE with one of the participating restaurants. We met at Café 101. We had an interesting turn out. This year, I boosted it up with #ChinatownCrawl style for more exciting food choices and extensive variety for my guests to enjoy. The idea of crawl was to dine, dessert and shopping on one evening. This 2nd annual #TimeForTaiwan UYE featured Taiwanese cuisine at Lai Lai Dumpling House, breads at Olympic Chinese Bakery and boba tea at Star Snow Ice. Please read the reviews on this biz page. They described the details better than me. If you've never been to my #ChinatownCrawl UYE, here's your chance. I'm hosting #NightMarket Tapas UYE next Friday, December 9. For details, check the event page. Psst, for those who answered the survey and missed the question on the theme color. The correct answer is green for Formosa - the former name for Taiwan.

Last Saturday, Olivia K. organized this UYE to support the Houston Food Bank. I signed up for it…read morebecause I had heard about the food bank and wanted to check it out plus to support Olivia's UYE. Following her instructions I registered with Houston Food Bank and selected our work time of 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on last Saturday morning. I arrived at 7:45 and parked my car. Walking inside I noticed a large crowd of people there. Many were in their corporate sponsored t shirts showing teamwork. I signed in and they gave me a red apple sticker to put on my shirt. Olivia had formed us as a team representing Yelp. First there with me was David G. then TJ M. and his lovely wife Mimi showed up. Carlos A. ( Big Guns) arrived and finally our host Olivia K. The orientation of all of the volunteers (my guess about 200 people) started promptly at 8 a.m and lasted about 10 minutes. We were then sent off in groups to work depending on the color of our apple sticker. Our group was assigned (with maybe 60-75 other people) to unpack and process banana boxes of groceries donated by different grocery stores. The boxes would come by our work station on a conveyor system. We would remove the boxes, take each item out and wipe it down and then put it in another container depending on what category it fit in to. Canned goods, drinks, pet food, candies, non food products, etc. After about 1 1/2 hours we all took a 15 minute break. The work was fairly easy and at 11:30 we were told to stop. In closing we were told that all of the volunteers that morning had processed about 15,000 lbs. of product that provided approximately 12,000 meals. We left at 11:45 a.m. David and Carlos had other commitments but Olivia, TJ, Mimi and myself then went to the nearby Nickel Sandwich Grill on my recommendation for lunch. I want to thank Olivia for organizing this event. I now understand the Houston Food Bank much better and enjoyed my tour of duty along with getting to visit more with my fellow Yelpers. I recommend that we do this again as it is for a very worthwhile cause. When we do, will you join us?

Everybody loves Cherry…read more Thanks to Belly G for hosting this UYE for Cherry A. Red Wok was a great place to host a large party like this. I was here to mingle with old Yelper friends and meeting new Yelpie fans. I didn't get to try the food. But I'll be back soon. Because it's close to Chinatown. So. Who doesn't know Cherry A? She is the beloved Elite Yelper who was visiting her hometown of Houston briefly in June. She usually hosts annual badge celebration at the beginning of each year. Houston is different without her. I can't wait to see her again soon.

Thanks to Lou for organizing an awesome UYE. We had a great time. It was a nice turnout where we…read moregot to try individual hotpot. We had a full house and it was more comfortable to have the whole place to ourselves. The staff were very attentive and helpful to each table. Easy to order from their menu and services were pretty quick. For some, it was their first time trying hotpot so I hope they enjoyed this new experience. Hot pot is always fun with a group of friends. I sat with some of my good friends, Jason, James, and Tri. After dinner, we got to hangout with each other a bit more. Also got the chance to meet the new Houston CM, Jando. What a great night to see some old friends! Looking forward to the next one.

6 years ago I went to my first UYE. It was my first Yelp experience ever. It was Lou's event…read more This event was almost to the day of that yelp-iversary. In his usual fashion, Lou brought culture, fellowship, and food together for a great evening out. There were a few faces I was familiar with, and some new ones as well. We had an opportunity to hear from the store manager, another guest was someone involved in the community, and the new CM joined us for the event too. A good few of the OG group came out, and we had a great time. This particular event, we weren't able to get everything in, so we had dinner and dessert. We didn't get a chance to hit the market. There will be another event in March if you're interested in checking it out

Thanks everyone for joining my explanation crawl. This UYE was open to everyone. I always wanted to…read morecome Katy Asian Town. It was supposed to happen in 2020, but CoVid happened. I can see Katy Asian Town has transformed into a busy foodie central. I think they are all occupied. There is a nearby mall also filled with Asian flair. Thanks to Sara for introducing some restaurants to other guests. We had a good time to browse restaurant after restaurant. There were too many restaurants to choose from. Here is my observation: There was a lot of walks. Some people had to stop and rest. Traffic was not friendly to pedestrians. Some parts of crosswalk were not well lit. So. Next crawl UYE, I will only focus on restaurants at the same building. Stay tuned for more of my Chinatown Crawl UYE at crawl.ChinatownHTX.com .

Thanks to Mister Lou for creating this cozy crawl hangout. It was so nice to get out and about on a…read morechill and calm Friday night. The weather was chill and so were the peeps. Just the way I like it. We all noshed on some tasty and unique grub at YELO cafe. It's a street style Asian eatery consisting of fusion Malaysian/Chinese/Vietnamese foods. We all shared a few of the bites we ordered and sipped on some refreshing iced tea. Lou has some awesome friends that I was introduced to; we all made our way towards a few cafes that night. Relished on a few jokes, ate some white rabbit cake and hopped on to the next spot. I love friendly and talkative people. This was a fun gathering and it warmed my heart. Thanks Lou, for hosting this event. I look forward to collaborating and I know many more awesome events are in the works. Until next time!

My Yelper friend Eddie S told me last month, he ate Kim Son Seafood Buffet almost every night. I…read morefirst didn't believe him. But after he described how inexpensive seafood buffet was, I told him and another Yelper friend Karina T that I dare Eddie to show up at this Chinatown Seafood Crawl UYE. So he did. And I lost my bet. For me this was my 3rd nights in a row to visit Kim Son Seafood Buffet. I lost count how many trips we went to the crawfish line. But at the end, I crawled out of the restaurant. I was overly full. Please. No. More. Food. For. Another. 24. Hours. Seafood is plenty and very reasonably priced ($17 weekday dinner and $19 Friday to Sunday). If you like seafood, try this I-dare-you game with your friends. Wager is a paid dinner at Kim sin Seafood Buffet. I dare you beat him eating 6 plates of Crawfish in 30 minutes.

Amazing atmosphere. 1 million laughs a minute. Owners are amazing people that genuinely care about…read moretheir guests. Live music every Sunday makes the venue unique and special. There isn't a place on earth like it.