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    Wong's Café

    3.0 (41 reviews)
    InexpensiveChinese, Seafood, Soup
    Open 11:00 am - 9:00 pm

    Order Wong's Café Takeout or Delivery

    Wong's Café Photos

    WONG'S CAFÉ ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Quiet
    Good for groups
    Good for kids

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    Recommended Reviews - Wong's Café

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    Hunan beef
    Mary T.

    Wong's Cafe is an institution in Rochester. It is the first Chinese restaurant that opened in this city and has been going strong for over sixty years. It used to be in downtown Rochester. It moved to its current location a few years ago, which is around the block from where I used to live. When I lived in Rochester, I didn't order Chinese food much. I can probably count the number of times that I ate at Chinese restaurants on one hand. It wasn't my thing, mainly because I was interested in other cuisines and made Chinese food at home. I did know about Wong's Cafe when I moved to the city, thanks to ordering delivery during my first two weeks moving into my new surroundings. Its current location used to also be a Chinese restaurant. Although I could walk over there from my apartment, I never tried the food there. Every time I visit my old neighbourhood. I'd see the large Cantonese Wong's Cafe sign. I'm not sure why there was the need to add Cantonese to the name. I'm guessing that most Chinese eateries in Rochester have a combination of Cantonese, Hunan, and western items on the menu. Perhaps it offered more Cantonese items? After shopping at Target, I wanted to have dinner here. I drove over and parked in the lot. It's across from the Asian grocery store that I like. I walked in and was immediately greeted by a nice woman. I got a table in the dining area. There were a few folks eating dinner. I looked at the menu. Your best bang for your buck with variety is getting the Wong's family dinner. You get a choice of soup or an appetizer, and either pork fried or steamed rice. There are five different combinations to choose from. I ordered a Diet Pepsi. I also got combination 5 of Wong's family dinner. The soup was hot and sour. Appetizers consisted of your choice of egg rolls or fried crab rangoons. Aside: I despise seeing crab rangoons on a menu in a Chinese restaurant. It caters to western folks who enjoy cream cheese mixed with fake crab as filling. Cream cheese is not a staple in Chinese culture. I like it on bagels. You'll never see me make wontons and stuff them with cream cheese. Ick. So, I got the hot and sour soup. I have heard great things about their egg rolls. Next time, I'll give them a try. Combination 5 consists of Hunan beef, sweet and sour chicken, and pork fried rice. You can substitute the pork with whatever protein that you like if pork isn't your thing. My Diet Coke arrived first. It was cold and yummy. I got a refill during my meal. My hot and sour soup arrived next. It was delicious. I loved the chunks of tofu, mushrooms, and more. It was comforting and authentic. I was expecting my dinner to be all one one plate. Nope, it's fancy at this eatery. You get each item in silver vessels with stands and covers. It was a mini family-style meal. So cool! The pork fried rice was yummy. I loved the pork, onions, peas, and egg. It was flavourful and reminded me of how my mom makes fried rice. It was authentically delicious. The sweet and sour chicken surprised me. You got solid chunks of white chicken meat that were lightly battered and fried perfectly. The sweet and sour sauce was light and tangy. It wasn't overly sweet. I loved it. The Hunan chicken was yummy. I was asked how spicy I wanted it. I didn't how how spicy this place does dishes, so I went with mild. I could have done medium. The chicken and veggies were perfectly seasoned. I loved the flavours. The veggies included carrots, snow peas, onions, broccoli, mushrooms, celery, and baby corn. I loved the variety. Delicious! My server asked if I needed a box towards the end of my meal. I was confident that I could polish off everything. I did. The food here was so good. I got the bill and paid with a credit card. I signed the bill and tipped. Done! I used the washroom before I made the drive back to Eagan. It's a single stall and was clean. I wished the woman a great evening. I noticed the specials as I left. There was a beef flat noodle dish that sounded good. Next time! I'm so glad that I finally tried Wong's Cafe. The original owners have handed the baton to a former head chef. The tradition continues. I look forward to returning for more good food. (496)

    Serving plates
    Michael C.

    Great ambiance. Loved the service. Best orange chicken I've had in Rochester. I would recommend this place for good, filling dishes, also much higher quality chicken than any local Chinese restaurant.

    Big bowl soup with Chicken and an egg.

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    1 year ago

    Tasts nothing like old Wong's! Gummy fried rice, salty egg foo yang, runny sweet and sour. Very disappointing. I used to love Wong's!

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    3 years ago

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    3 years ago

    I am hooked on the chicken chow mien only place in town like it there egg rolls also are great

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    14 years ago

    Amazing service and fantastic food at a decent price. Best in Rochester!

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    10 years ago

    We ordered the Mongolian beef and the orange chicken. We liked the orange chicken better but both were just okay.

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    7 years ago

    They serve applesauce with their egg rolls! The chef has a heavy hand with the cornstarch. What else do you need to know? Dreadful....

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    10 years ago

    Slow service and the food tasted like it was from the grocery store and heated up very unimpressed

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    Page 1 of 2

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    First Meeting Noodle - Southwest

    First Meeting Noodle - Southwest

    4.7(255 reviews)
    4.6 mi
    $$

    We were in Rochester MN for 2 days. I looked at Yelp's Top Ten and noticed First Meeting Noodle…read more Right up our alley. Watching your noodles being pulled and boiled is a true treat. We ordered Sichuan Wontons in Chili Oil and Scallion Pancakes for a first course. The wonton noodle was the best I've ever been served. We had Green Beans and Curry Chicken Noodle for mains. We brought lunch ingredients to make sandwiches at our conference. Instead, we returned for more wontons and pancakes. Our companion was interested in calamari (spent ~45" too long in the fryer) and a bowl of chicken noodle soup that was too big to finish. I thought the broth was good, but I'm partial to a saltier ramen style broth. Shops with hand pulled noodles should offer small scissors. You could pull on a single noodle in your bowl like forever!

    We walked into First Meeting Noodle for a late lunch on a Sunday at 1PM and there was surprisingly…read morea line of customers waiting for seats. We ended up waiting about 15 minutes before getting a table. Beef Burrito ($9.50) - We ordered with cilantro on the side as one of the people in our party has the mutated OR6A2 gene. It's a pretty simple dish. I'm not sure if they make their scallion pancake in house or not. It's rather dense and not really that flaky, salted well and has the thick hoisin sauce to boost the sweetness and saltiness. The beef is relatively tender roasted beef shank, sliced thin, dressed simply. Most of the flavor here is from the hoisin. (4/5) Oil Splashing Noodle ($10.50) + Beef (+$3.75) - Starting with the pulled noodles - these are excellent. Pulled long with very consistent thickness, so everything cooks to the same delicious level of bounce. The hot oil sauce, unfortunately is sub par. It's far, far too sweet, almost like eating a dessert, and while there's a balanced amount of vinegar acidity and some nuttiness, there's no heat at all despite the redness of the oil. There's also a good amount of chopped garlic and peanut right on top, but they get lost in the sweetness. Ordering with beef just adds some sliced beef shank, the same as used in the burrito. It's a fine addition albeit not very exciting. (2/5) Taiwanese Tomato Beef Brisket Noodle Soup ($13.50) - Again, the noodles are excellent here, although they get softer the long they sit in the soup, which is to be expected. The broth here is also far too candy sweet, although this a bit more flavor complexity here from the beef braising spices, the beef itself, and some tomato umami. There's just enough flavor that the broth doesn't feel bland, but it's still very weak compared to a good Taiwanese beef noodle. There's a couple of slices of tomato, an almost invisible amount of pickled mustard (suan cai? zha cai? I can't tell given how little they give). Finally the beef brisket which is also quite weak. It's lean and I believe not braised for long enough, resulting in it being very tough and stringy. (2/5) I feel like these dishes have been adjusted too far to suit the Midwestern American palate. The food served at First Meeting Noodle is far, far too sweet for my tastes - it's a bad sign when a dish that's supposed to be spicy and umami foremost, then tangy, has sweetness as by far the strongest flavor. Then again, this is probably the only hand pulled noodle place within an hour drive, so maybe I should give them some slack. Bathrooms - Two individual rooms, one for men, one for women Food: [2.66/5] Service: [ ] Other: [ ] Final Rating: 3/5

    Photos
    First Meeting Noodle - Southwest - Kitchen

    Kitchen

    First Meeting Noodle - Southwest - Condiments

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    First Meeting Noodle - Southwest - Exterior

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    Exterior

    New China - So much filling

    New China

    3.8(31 reviews)
    5.9 mi
    $

    Food was cooked fresh & very hot. Large portions. Both meals lacked flavor. I will not go back…read more Atmosphere was not good. Boxes of trash bags on top of the garbage. other boxes (empty looking) on the floor in small dining area/hallway. only a couple small booths. In direct line of a cold blast of air when a customer opens the door.

    A few weeks ago, I was shopping in the southern part of Rochester. Kohl's and Five Below are my…read moreusual places. As I parked to visit the latter, I noticed New China. It intrigued me. Having Chinese food in Rochester is still foreign to me. I didn't order any when I was a resident. It's funny how I now have an interest returning as a visitor. I looked at the reviews and they were decent on Yelp. I decided to check out their online menu. One thing led to another. I ended up placing an order for pickup on New China's site. You don't pay through it, but you are prompted to create an account and specify your phone number. You order takes roughly 25 minutes to complete, which was more than enough time for me to shop at Five Below before picking up my order. Their food caters to both Americans who may feel intimidated by Chinese food and, surprisingly, to Chinese folks who want authentic food. My pain point was seeing cream cheese rangoons (wontons) on the menu. First, I can't see my ancestors taking out a rectangle of Philadelphia cream cheese to replace the traditional pork filling in wontons. Second, I find it gross seeing them on a Chinese eatery menu that I will not touch them if they were the last food item available on this planet. My rant is over. The menu item that gave me a glimmer of hope for some authentic Chinese cuisine was the shrimp with lobster sauce. I went for it. I drove over to the eatery after I was done shopping and parked steps away from it. The restaurant is next to a radio station blasting country music. There are stairs and a ramp for those who require accessibility help. You can dine in. I saw a couple eating when I walked in. Dining spaces looked limited. I was immediately greeted by a woman. There were four women in the kitchen literally cooking up a storm. I said my name and she found my order that was already packed. I asked if this place accepted credit cards. Yep, every credit card imaginable is accepted here. I paid and all was great. She handed me my food. I thanked her. She wasn't the friendliest. Come to think of it, they were probably more focused on cooking the food than being friendly. They were highly efficient, though. I drove an hour back to Eagan. My food was still hot when I got back to my hotel room. I was impressed. I got the following items: - Steamed dumplings with garlic soy sauce - Shrimp with lobster sauce on roasted pork fried rice - House special lo mein with roasted pork fried rice Each meal came with an egg roll. Everything was packed carefully. The egg rolls were yummy. They were crispy and packed full of filling. They were perfect. The steamed dumplings were authentic and delicious. They didn't have any fancy crimping. Each filling was packed full of flavourful pork filling. The garlic soy sauce worked well. I had roughly half of the two meals for dinner. Perhaps less than half because I ate all the dumplings. The shrimp with lobster sauce was so comforting. It reminded me of a Hong Kong-style dish where you know there's fried rice, but you can't see it because it's drenched in flavourful lobster sauce. The shrimp were perfectly done. I love barbequed pork in fried rice and it was fabulous. I liked the cubed carrots and pork, peas, onions, and more. I would get this dish again. It was delicious. The house lo mein was a winner. It had chicken, shrimp, barbequed pork, and veggies. The noodles were true lo mein ones. It was different having the lo mein paired with fried rice, but I didn't mind. It was such a carb-heavy, yummy meal. I had leftovers for lunch the following day. It was perfect staying in my hotel room working remotely and not having to think about what to get for lunch. The leftovers were equally as yummy a day later. It was a pleasant surprise taking a chance on New China and discovering that it offers authentic Chinese food. Just avoid the cream cheese appetizers. I'd return for more when I'm back in my old neighbourhood. (26)

    Photos
    New China
    New China - Cross-section of my egg roll

    Cross-section of my egg roll

    New China - Egg roll

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    Egg roll

    Wong's Café - chinese - Updated September 2026

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