Uncle John’s Cafe

Uncle John’s Cafe
834 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213-623-3555

I found out about Uncle John's Cafe on You Tube!  Uncle John's, located inside the Stillwell Hotell,  is part diner and part Chinese restaurant.  You can get both menus from open to close, which is 3pm.  At 5pm, they became Downtown LA's answer to Boiling Crab, it becomes a Cajun seafood place.  I knew this would be Americanized Chinese food.

The restaurant is a small galley-like setup- with tables in the front, a counter at the back, and the kitchen in the far back.  It's got an updated decor.

Spicy Shrimp lunch special- $13.50. This was terrible.  I originally order kung pao shrimp, but got this spicy shrimp instead.  I wasn't going to wait and said it's fine.  This is just an orange chicken sauce with shrimp.  The sauce was bland with little flavor.  The shrimp was deep fried and I'm betting it was frozen.  The rice was the best part of this dish. 

Shrimp fried rice- $10. As you can see, they put a ton of soy sauce into the rice.  There are green onions, and eggs in this.  A bit salty, but overall average.  I've had better, I've had worse.

Shrimp chow mein-$11.  Large pieces of onion, some cabbage, and about six medium sized shrimp were in this dish.  It was too greasy for me. I would rate this average, again.

Service was good.

I wouldn't go back to Uncle John's Cafe, for the Chinese food.  I am going to go back for their seafood. 

Update August 31, 2019

Butterfly fried shrimp, with lemon pepper fries, $12. This was frozen butterflied shrimp.  Some pieces looked as though they stuck together while frying.  Nothing special, but there were about 8-10 pieces of shrimp.  The fries were bland and flavorless! 

Shrimp with mild house sauce- mixture of Cajun, lemon pepper, and garlic butter sauces- $15/lb. The shrimp were fine, the sauce was pretty good, the garlic butter stood out the most. 

Service is good.

I was surprised when I walked in, there was nobody in the restaurant.  A group of three people came in about a minute after me.  Then two people came in about 10 minutes later.  Maybe people haven't gotten the word that Uncle John's Cafe has a seafood boil at night.  Or, since this was Labor Day weekend, everybody was going out of town!  I would go back for the seafood boil.  I thought the shrimp was fine.  I wouldn't touch the fried shrimp again.