First of all, this is not a restaurant. It is a take-out kitchen only. It is located in and industrial area on the eastern edge of Boulder, near storage units, auto repair and some county maintenance offices. It is a bit hard to find as it is part of a commercial co-working kitchen spaces for start ups, food trucks and the like. The sign on the building says Salad Grounds, which I believe is a play on the phrase, "Solid Ground" a place for several small startups. In the middle window, there is a paper menu taped up for Formosa. Enter there, call through the entry for the Formosa staff, probably just the owner, Nancy. She has cooked at Boulder Chinese restaurants for over 20 years, and the ones she mentioned I may have had a few items over the years, but both are now gone. She is very friendly and appears to do all the work herself, from scratch. We should have called or texted the order in advance (which she mentioned was her preference) so once we gave it to her, we came back in 25 minutes and it was ready.I did not read the menu carefully and will choose more carefully next time. Her egg custard tarts are the best I have had in CO and as good as the Bay Area, SF Chinatown and Boston Chinatown. I also thought the chive pork pan fried dumplings as good as I have ever had and better than most in the area. Her BBQ pork steamed buns (bao) were excellent and clearly hand made, not reheated from frozen factory made as so many are. Very authentically hand shaped. The hot sour soup was also very tasty and a very large portion. Sesame balls were very good and lots of delicious red bean paste packed into a small, easy to handle ball. There were only a couple of misses, one was my fault, I did not see that the bean paste pastry had an egg yolk in it, which I do not like. Her crust was good, it was not the same bean paste as the sesame ball and the yolk is why I only buy Harvest Festival Mooncakes with "no yolks." I have bought them elsewhere for years but will ask next fall if she makes those too. The other fail was the congee as it was more fluid than I have had in the past. Maybe we got it too early and it had not yet cooked down to porridge consistency. The flavor was fine as intended to be blander on the vegetarian version, which had taro, mushrooms and tofu skin. I will call ahead next time, check on availability of some items and try a few new things I have seen mentioned in other reviews. It is a humble little space, but she has experience in cooking and that is all she is intending to provide. She has seen what it takes to have a retail restaurant in a building in the city of Boulder.
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"always get the cold sesame noodles, egg tarts, and all the buns. Great food, weird location for this take-out only spot. Call in your order and help the owner/chef save a few pennies from not having to use the app (also gets your order to the head of her line). Sometimes large orders take a while (we have a big family) but we're always happy customers because the food is worth it!"
"Brought my friend for her birthday celebration. She was excited and I was happy as her eyes lit up at all the dishes. She listened to the descriptions, mine were bad, and selected dishes. We ate and ate and then took leftovers home for her hubby and for myself. She enjoyed the experience and that's one of the reasons I like bringing people here. It's not intimidating and they welcome you. Definitely amazing service and great vibe."
