88 Cafe, Livingston, NJ

Posted On December 2, 2018

 

4.25 Stars

88 Cafe

Chinese Cuisine and Sushi

106 E. Mt. Pleasant Ave

Livingston, NJ 07039

(973) 533- 1833

www.88cafenj.com

88 Café is a moderately priced Chinese and Japanese restaurant in Livingston, New Jersey.  Their take out menu states, “We take great pride in using the latest culinary techniques and using only the finest ingredients for our dishes.  Our menu offers a contemporary Chinese cuisine and we also serve the most exquisite Sushi in town that will delightfully satisfy your appetite”.  I don’t know that it is the most exquisite sushi in town, but I can say that the food at 88 Café is consistent, and it does satisfy the appetite.  In the interest of full disclosure, I should let you know that our family dines at 88 Café on a regular basis.  There is a reason for that.  The food is, indeed, fresh. The service is good, and if you have family members, as we do, who like to mix and match their Asian cuisine, then 88 Café is a logical choice.

Big baby and I arrived at 88 Café today at about 3:45 PM.  Just in time for “Linner” or “Dunch” as the kid would say.  We were seated promptly, and the waiter immediately brought us ice water and hot tea.  As always, there was a bowl of crispy noodles and a side of duck sauce on the table.  After looking over the menu briefly, Big Baby ordered egg drop soup, an egg roll, and beef lo mein with only broccoli and carrots.  I ordered miso soup, seaweed salad and chicken in garlic sauce with no carrots.

 

 

Big Baby says:

Atmosphere: 8     Cleanliness: 9     Food:  9.5     Service: 10

Overall Score: 9

The food was very tasty.  The beef lo mein was very good.  It tasted very savory, somewhat sweet, and the meat was very juicy.  I had white rice on top of it, and that made it taste even better.  My egg roll was very tasty and it had the right amount of crunchiness and the right amount of vegetables and stuff inside the egg roll that made it taste very, very good.  The egg drop soup that I ate was very filling.  It tasted like liquid eggs that were warm.  The fortune cookies are always delicious, and I usually get to eat my mom’s.

There were not very many people there, and it made it not very loud.  That meant that it would be a lot better for having conversations.  It was not very fancy, but the atmosphere was still good.  The wicker chairs are very pretty colors and some lights.  I think the windows there let you get a good view of the neighborhood.

The waiters came to the table almost immediately, and served us within ten minutes of arriving.  They were also very polite.  The service was very quick.  They were very nice about the lo mein only being with carrots and broccoli, and they never complain about bringing my water with no ice.

It was very clean; in the bathroom and in the restaurant.

I like going to 88 Café because the food tastes good and the waiters are polite.  I suggest going there for lunch or an early dinner.  When it is not an early dinner, it gets crowded, and thus louder.  I also like how clean they keep it.  I like the way they present their food.  The dishes they serve the food on are always clean, and the food just generally looks good.   I suggest eating the beef lo mein, pepper steak, spare ribs, or salmon roll and egg drop soup.

 

Mama Foodie says:

Atmosphere: 7     Cleanliness: 8     Food: 8     Service: 10

Overall Score: 8.25

The atmosphere at 88 Café is nothing fancy.  It is a simple room with windows on three sides.  Most of the dining room is in a raised area where there are several tables, both round and square, and a wait station.  The lower portion of the restaurant has a few more tables, the host stand and the sushi bar.  There is no seating at the sushi bar.  The ceilings are high, and there are narrow columns along the border of the raised dining area.  The light walls, high ceilings and wicker chairs give it a light, airy feeling.  When the restaurant is not crowded, it is a quiet intimate place, and a really nice place for a quick bite.  However, the acoustics are terrible, and when it is crowded, it is very difficult to hear yourself over the din.

The miso soup was packed with tofu cubes, seaweed and scallions.  The overall flavor was excellent, but the soup was a bit crowded.  The overcrowding did not deter me in the least.  The soup was a great choice for a cold weather day.  The seaweed salad was pretty good.  It was crunchy with just the right amount of dressing.  There was just the slightest metallic aftertaste to the dressing.  The winner in my dinner was the chicken in garlic sauce.  It had the perfect amount of spice, and the garlic flavor was not overpowering at all.  The vegetables were crisp-tender, and the chicken was perfectly cooked.  I had a bite of Big Baby’s egg roll.  I give their egg roll an A+.  We have ordered them several times and they are always crunchy and never greasy.  They do come to the table piping hot, so consider your selves warned.

I have absolutely no complaints about the service here.  We have been dining at 88 Café once or twice a month for about 2 years.  The waiters are kind to Big Baby.  They have taken an interest in learning our names and the correct spelling.  They remember our preferences from visit to visit.  Our food always arrives promptly and with no errors, even when we make special requests.  Water is refilled without asking, and the staff is very attentive.

Overall, I think 88 Café is a great local restaurant.  I highly recommend it for a quick tasty meal.  You can’t go wrong here.  We have never been disappointed.

 

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