Kat's 9 Lives

For dinner Ms. Lin wanted to go to Fatima in SJ near Marina Foods. It's Islamic Chinese cuisine. They have their own parking lot behind the restaurant. Their interior decor was like most Chinese restaurants and they immediately spoke Mandarin to us as we walked in. The service was friendly and my water glass never hit the bottom. It's one of my pet peeves on how long it takes for them to refill the glass water. Surprisingly, they were really on top of it.
We opted out of getting the traditional Sesame Bread with Green Onion. Instead we ordered more items. For the appetizer we ordered the Chicken and Ground Green Beans Sheets. The flavor was intense and Ms. Lin didn't do a great job of mixing. Some pieces had a ton of mustard so it was spicier than most. The dish was garlicky and flavorful, but quite messy. While mixing the dish, our whole table was covered with splatter.
Ms. Lin also ordered her favorite Lamb with Pickled Cabbage Soup. It was a very light and flavorful soup. I personally don't like sourness of the pickled vegetables and the soup that absorbed the flavor. If you like pickled vegetable then you would love this dish. I just ate the lamb on top that was very tender. There are glass noodles inside the soup that adds to the texture. The soup was like a meal in itself.
For our main course we got the Beef with Green Onions. Usually this dish goes great the sesame bread because it brings out the flavor. The beef was tender but the pieces were cut a little too small. It was tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary. For the carb dish we ordered the Lamb Dough Slice Chow Mein. They were different from your typical noodles, they were homemade soft noodles. At first I was not a big fan of these homemade noodles but as we keep ordering it at different restaurants I've grown to like it more. The noodles were soft yet chewy and the texture varies from piece to piece. One thing I didn't like the eggs in the dish, but the flavor was still good.All in all the food was flavorful and very Chinese. The prices were not too bad, the whole meal was about $32 with tax. Ms. Lin sure had a lot of yummy left overs for the next few days! No fair! >_<# I am fasting today and now I am so hungry after talking about all that food. I would definitely go back to this place one day if I am craving Chinese food. If Ms. Lin still lived in SJ then I would probably go back more often. It's definitely one of the better Chinese food I have had down there with reasonable prices. =P