MAY FOLLOWER

I think this place might be good for vegetarians, but I went, looking for jook (congee) while I had food poisoning. I was the only person in there, but service was really, really slow. When they brought out my congee, I could tell from one bite that the meat in it was old, and going off or already gone bad. I never do this, but I told my server that the food was bad and I needed to send it back. She and an older woman working there started yelling at me when I did this, and when I walked out, ran out and yelled that they were going to call the cops on me, while taking down my license plate number. Not a good experience.

Food was tasty! We ordered a Mixed Fried Rice and a General Chicken to go. Service was great and prices were ok!

I just ate there today with my girlfriend, and I have to say, I was not impressed. My vegetarian general tsao's 'chicken' was absolutely ensconced in thick layers of deep-fried greasy batter and laden with sauce that tasted like sugar mixed with guar gum. The only vegetables on my plate were two lone pieces of broccoli. Long story short, the food was subpar and I left with a stomach ache because of all the grease. I felt queasy for the rest of the day. Thumbs down on this place. I guess I feel bad for giving one star, but in all honesty, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone given my experience.

This spot is a solid three stars. The seating arrangement is close, the volume is loud.The food on the dim sum is great! Are there better options? Sure, and if you can stand the two hour wait - more power to you! But this place hits the spot. My only constructive criticism is that the dim sum should be more readily available. Having to sit and order what you want can be somewhat of a disappointment, especially if your really hungry and you typically know that dim sum is a sit and immediately eat experience. If you can get past that, then you golden.

The chu chow dumplings were great. Service was perfect and fast, and they have those Chinese zodiac place mats. Love the sizzling rice soup.

Dim sum all the time. Not the best by any means, but if you missed your morning dose of dim sum, you can always come here.The dim sum portions are a little on the smaller end, but hey, it's pretty much here or nothing if it's late in the day. Can't really compare to legit places in chinatown, but it's good enough to satisfy a random dim sum craving.

When I first walked into May Flower, I was struck by how faded and tired it looked. I immediately realized that the reason it was popular was its location, right by the college.My first impressions were, unfortunately, borne out when the food started arriving. If you are looking for high-quality dim sum, you will need to look elsewhere. (The best dim sum by far in the East Bay is at East Ocean in Emeryville, but even the dim sum at King Tsin on Solano Avenue is much better that this.)It's not that everything was bad. The steamed shrimp dumplings and chinese broccoli were perfectly adequate, just uninspired, and with no other flavorings or sauces. The fried shrimp dumplings, on the other hand, were simply awful, greasy and with almost no shrimp in them. And one of my favorites, the egg custard, was so mediocre I didn't even bother to finish them. The turnip cake was virtually tasteless, with a faint hint of undesirable fishiness. And none of the other dishes had any flair to them at all.If you don't care about the quality of your food, and want a place nearby, feel free to go here.Otherwise there are plenty of much better Chinese restaurants in Berkeley, like the Taiwan restaurant just down the block.

I have been a regular customer at Mayflower restaurant for past couple months. I come here because they cater the food to my taste buds. I have to admit that the service here is horrendous. The waiter here hardly speaks or even greets customers besides taking orders and processing the credit card and handing food.

Frankly speaking, the hot and sour soup is authentic, just in the very Chinese flavor it should be. I'm Chinese so I'm sure about this. The General chicken is also OK.The way the lady treat me, however, really makes me sad. I've long known that those Chinese who don't speak Cantonese are often treated poorly in Chinese restaurants in America, but this knowledge doesn't alleviate my grievance, especially when the indifferent look on her face turns into a welcoming smile for a native customer, just in front of my eyes. And she placed my bill on my table before I'm finishing - when there are plenty of empty seats in the restaurant. I have to say it's a shame, a shame by its both meanings.

This place is good for a college student on a budget. All the dishes are really cheap! The food itself is okay. I had the Kung Pao Chicken Dinner special which comes with an egg roll, rice, and an entree. It was only 5.95. The chicken was cooked just right, but there was not that much chicken and a lot of onions. That was the only downside about the dish. I will definitely be coming back.

This is not high-end Chinese cuisine or even middle-end Chinese. This is a college-town Chinese restaurant, catering to college-age kids with college-age budgets. With that in mind, it's not bad. As a non-college age, many years post-graduate degree individual, I'm turned-off by the greasiness of the place and the stickiness of the tables and bathroom. It's gotten worse with age (both my age and the age of the restaurant).I've been here a handful of times in the past, principally because of its large vegetarian menu (even though it is not an exclusively vegetarian restaurant) and reports of its delicious faux vegetarian chicken. I returned recently to try its wonton soup, as I've been fighting a cold, and I wanted some curative elixir to assuage my ills.The soup was consistent with the food: nothing special. The food, as I recall it, tended towards the greasy side. To its credit, May Flower proclaims not to use MSG -- and I believe them from the taste -- but it's not great flavor with not great ingredients. I do recall, however, truly enjoying the kind of veggie-chicken they use.The vegetarian soup broth itself is nothing special. I've had thinner (tasting like water), and this wasn't quite like that. It had some flavor, but nothing amazing. The wonton soup, I was told, comes with essentially no vegetables, so they charged me $2.00 to add in mixed vegetables to my soup. It certainly made it better, but in the end it was just a pig with lipstick, if you catch my drift. Another gentleman wanted more garlic in his garlic veggie-chicken: $2.00 extra. I'm of the belief that any changes from the original recipe is $2.00 extra. It's okay -- prices here are cheap.They offer a full dinner (or lunch) that includes soup, eggroll, white or brown rice, and the entree -- all on one plate -- for prices as cheap as $6.25 (lunches are probably even cheaper). Even with a $2.00 extra charge, it's still reasonable. It is, however, catering to a college-age demographic, so it's cheap, oily Chinese. Full-size entrees (a la carte) are $7.25-$8.25 (or something like that). My small bowl of veggie wonton soup was $5.25 before the $2 upcharge. It was a reasonably-sized bowl, and even with the $2 charge for extra vegetables, if the soup would have been delicious, it would have been a bargain.I do recall the veggie chicken being tasty. There were strips of it in my soup, and that was the best part. The wontons weren't great.It's open until 10p, and that is (for me) its one attractive point. I wanted soup after leaving a Berkeley Rep performance, and it was about 9:15p. My beloved Golden Lotus (with the greatest vegetarian soup broth known to humanity) had closed at 9p. The only places of which I am aware that serve veggie soup that are still open past 9p are May Flower and Long Life Vegi House (across the street), which I imagine suffers from the same college-aged, cheap-ass focus that resides in the downtown of mediocrity (to be fair, I've never been to Long Life Vegi House, and I take its good reviews with the same quart of salt that I would any place about which cheap-ass college town folks rave about their food).I can't say I will never go back. It would be an unusual circumstance, for sure, and if so, it wouldn't be for several more years.I wish them well and thank them for their accommodation to those of us with vegetarian ethics.

The owners probably shouldn't have their kids standing around because I walked in expecting to be seated only to be greeted with a blank stare. Its automatically assumed that you work here if you're standing behind the counter right? I asked if I should seat myself and got a very bland "Yeah".Anyway, we came for dim sum because it was close. The dim sum was just okay, because a lot of the stuff just seemed kinda bland and not fresh enough. The only thing I really liked was the sweet rice wrapped in lotus leaf and the shrimp dumpling. I usually also order the short spare ribs in black bean sauce at the other places but was very disappointed here. The curry fish balls were too salty and overpriced. Pan fried turnip cake was a little plain. Although, I must say that the complimentary salad and jasmine tea were great. The dressing on the salad was soooo good...I almost want to steal their recipe.I will probably try the entrees here but wont be here for the dim sum.

This review is written as a comparison to Long Life Vegi House, another Chinese restaurant right across the street. I always go to Long Life, but they were closed for lunch (damn!) so I went to May Flower as two trusted friends have raved about it on separate occassions. Fine, I'll betray Long Life (LL) and try it out.Lunch special is 2 bucks more than LL. Boo.Brown rice is not nearly as good as LL. Boo.You get a little salad which has some pretty tasty dressing. Cool.Soup is nowhere near as good as LL. It's broth with a couple chopped vegetables floating in it. Tasted ok, but come on.I ordered the vegetable curry, since the vegi "chicken' curry is my signature vegan dish at LL. Curry was bland. I had to add salt, peper, and soy sauce. Some of the vegetables were crunchy, some softer. I was hungry and it filled me up though, so that's good. And there were leftovers. I cooked them up the next day at home (with more spcies and tempeh) and it wasn't too bad.You couldn't have gotten a smile out of the waitress for a $20 dollar tip I bet. Geez. She wasn't mean at all, but come on.Why would I ever come back here when I have LL?!?!

This place is close and decent, but it pays to wander a bit further afield. The food is pretty much blah American Chinese with a bit of a wild streak in their dim sum and vegetarian options. They have been very good about accommodating our large (unruly) groups.Curiously expensive, although there is some kind of prix fixe with soup that is not too unreasonable.