Eclectically Hong Kong

Before you start blabbering about how baked pork chops over spaghetti isn’t “authentic Chinese food,” I’m just going to tell you that you’re wrong.

It’s a very specific type of Chinese food: Hong Kong-style, in the vein of cha chaan tengs. Sacramento already has two cha chaan tengs that specialize in saucy pasta bakes and other seemingly not-Chinese dishes: Yummy Cafe and Macau Cafe. Cellar Bistro joined these two Land Park restaurants about six months ago, bringing more visibility to the cuisine because of its location: Old Sacramento.

Look for the prominent sign hanging above the boardwalk and then descend underground. The place can get packed on Sunday afternoons with Chinese families taking advantage of the restaurant’s bargain-priced set meals.

First, a little history: Cha chaan tengs began to take off after World War II, back when Hong Kong was still under British rule and all things Western were gaining popularity. These no-frills, affordable cafeterias offered unique dishes indicative of Hong Kong’s many international influences. Cha chaan tengs still exist in Hong Kong today, though they’re reportedly a dying breed. Luckily, more are actively opening in the United States

Cellar Bistro serves nine variations on the Hong Kong-style baked dish, with various proteins baked over rice or spaghetti and covered in a creamy white or red sauce. And cheese. They also come with a simple tomato-vegetable soup, surprisingly tasty garlic bread and a beverage—the Hong Kong-style milk tea and lemon tea are both sweet and delicious—for $10-$11. It’s a crazy amount of food that can easily feed two.

Fair warning: the red sauce tastes like a ketchup-heavy, sweet-and-sour sauce. Thickly glopped onto the other ingredients, you’ll probably either love it or hate it.

My favorite combination, the Portuguese chicken baked over spaghetti, actually didn’t carry the red or white sauce. And it’s not really Portuguese, rather, a Macanese yellow curry with coconut milk, potatoes and chunks of juicy chicken. It’s mildly spiced, but savory and comforting. You could order it over rice, but it tends to be a bit hard and undercooked. The spaghetti, meanwhile, arrives al dente.

In general, Cellar Bistro does noodles very well. There’s a huge selection of chow fun, egg noodle soups, instant noodles—again, a classic cha chaan teng offering—and even udon, only stir-fried instead of in a Japanese soup. The sizzling platter of udon with black pepper sauce, onions, scallions and tender slices of beef ($8) is excellent, as are the house pan-fried noodles ($9) with plump shrimp, barbecued pork, bok choy and just the right amount of gravy for flavor while still maintaining the crunch of the noodles.

Another eclectic offering is the Malaysian roti appetizer ($6), a hybrid of sorts between the traditional, Indian-influenced flatbread and a Chinese scallion pancake. Studded with green onions and served with a mild curry sauce, the roti is soft and pleasingly chewy with eight distinct layers.

The menu is so huge, I never got around to trying a few sections, including any of the Chinese-American standards. Generally, dishes were at least solid and better than most Sacramento Chinese restaurants. One major miss, though, was the shrimp with egg flower sauce—like the soup, but condensed—over rice ($8), which severely lacked seasoning. And, again, the rice felt low in quality.

Servers aren’t particularly attentive, but they get the food out fast. The huge, cavernous space lacks atmosphere, with multiple flat-screen televisions blaring sports and old Chinese movies. Still, it’s a cool refuge on a hot day—and a nice change of pace from Sacramento’s most touristy district.