Light Cantine

I have not been here in a long while, last time I went it was Meet Fresh and I was not a fan, but Light Cantine is fantastic. It's no longer just dessert, but also savory items. I got some duck, takoyaki, and shaved ice. It was all delicious! The shaved ice especially was good, it has definitely improved since I was last here.There is a lot of seating and it is open pretty late which is cool! I was hungry around 9pm after a movie at AMC (which is right behind!) and was unsure if anything would be open since it was a weekday but Light Cantine was, and I had a great experience.

Came here a couple more times after my initial review, and i have to update my review to 4 Stars. First of all, for takeout, they give significantly less portion. We ordered 3 dishes. See my takeout diahes pictures.And all three dishes seemed like they were appetizers in quantity. The flavor was a bit off as well in that there was a bit too much salt in some of the dishes. Some dishes were too dry. Some dishes did not taste fresh. Some dishes, the flavors did not mix well.I can't speak much to authentic cantonese food, but I question if this restaurant serves it. The diners are all chinese, which is a good sign.However, I do not enjoy my most recent two experiences there.Because the food just wasn't up to par. I ordered a duck dish, the salt and pepper ribs, a cauliflower dish, a rice noodle dish, and a pork belly dish. Their dishes overall are not consistent in terms of saltiness, flavor, quantity.I can't speak to their dishes which is there specialty as well.

After driving past this plaza every couple of weeks for the last year and seeing the tantalizing signs posted outside the building, Light Cantine is finally open. This business takes over the old Meet Fresh location and also expands into the closed Myst Auto right next door, creating a spacious interior with two large seating areas. They are currently in their soft opening phase, so traffic is slow and some menu items aren't available, but we still managed to order a number of items as we stopped in for a weekend lunch. For the soft opening, if you spend $35, you can choose a small gift to take with you: there's some cute staplers, decorative utensils, etc. If you're only interested in drinks and snacks, there's a kiosk you can use right inside the entrance for quick and easy ordering. If you want real food for a meal, you have to order at the counter. They actually have a very authentic pick-your-own-hot-pot-ingredient and/or malatang area inside, where there's a large fridge with displays of vegetables, meat, starches, and other goodies that you can pick up with tongs and place in your bowl. You then bring it up to the weigh station where they weigh and cook it all for you. The current price is $11.99/lb, with a one pound minimum. This setup is pretty common in Asia, but it's the first time I've seen it in the US. Curry Chicken Chops with Rice ($14.99) - Starting with the good - the chicken is breaded and fried well, with an excellent crisp on the exterior. The potatoes and carrots are cooked until tender and are soaked into the curry, giving a fragrant taste. The long grain rice is cooked until tender and fluffy. Unfortunately, the chicken is a bit too fatty, with an entire strip of fried fat, and it seems to be white meat chicken that isn't pounded flat, resulting in an interior that's dry. There isn't nearly enough curry for the amount of ingredients. It soaks into the rice, imparting a golden yellow color, but isn't very flavorful, having been diluted by everything else in the dish. I'm not a huge fan of Chinese curry in the first place but I was expecting a little more. (3/5)Braised Rice with Pork and Soy Sauce ($12.99) - This dish feels like a dish that you'd get at home, very reminiscent of what my mother used to cook. Tender cubed chunks of pork marinated and braised in a thick sauce that's sweet and savory. Bok choy is served on the side, which seems to have been blanched previously and dumped in the bowl cold. There's a braised egg on top, perfectly hard boiled, with a yolk that's completely set, but with no green ring surrounding it. This is all on top of a mound of fluffy long grain rice. The sauce soaks into the rice, adding richness. It's the taste of home cooking rather than normal restaurant food. (4/5)Stir-fried Spicy Pot (Custom), 1 lb, medium spicy ($11.99) - As mentioned above, for this item, you pick your own ingredients and then they take your bowl to the back to add sauce and cook. The sauce they use is decently spicy, with a chili kick but also a mala tongue numbing sensation from Sichaun peppercorns. It's fragrant with spices and easy to eat. We added a bunch of lamb, beef, potatoes, spinach, fish balls, and noodles. I thought it tasted a little soapy for some reason (I am not one of those people who think cilantro tastes like soap), and I found the gamey lamb taste really permeated the dish. (4/5)Milk Tea with Boba, 50% Sweet, Less Ice ($5.99) - This drink has the perfect not-too-sweet sweetness at 50%, which allows all the flavors of the milk powder, tea, and sugar to meld together into a tasty drink. The boba is cooked evenly, resulting in pearls that are evenly and pleasantly chewy throughout. The pearls are of a smaller variety than most other places and for some reason, they don't soak them in any sort of sugar mixture, resulting them in being bland when compared to the drink. Drink Rating: 4/5Boba Rating: 4/5Fresh Milk Black Tea, 50% Sweet, Less Ice w/ Mini Taro Balls ($7.25) - We got this the same sweetness as the Milk Tea, but this one felt way less sweet. Again, the tea fragrance does come out and mixes with the dairy-forward milk well. We got this with the mini taro/yam/ube balls, which are essentially mashed taro/yam/ube mixed with rice flour and cooked into mini spheres. You can easily find the larger taro balls around (very popular in Chinese desserts), but drinkable mini taro balls are much rarer. They give a very nice flavorful earthy taste. The interior is a bit floury with a firmer texture than boba, yet very chewy. The exterior is a bit grainy from the taro mash. And they actually do soak the mini taro balls in a sugar syrup, so it helps make it not so abrupt when you transition from the drink to the toppings.Drink Rating: 4/5We are looking forward to the grand opening to try more food/drinks from Light Cantine! Bathrooms - Two unisex rooms, one in each dining area.Overall rating of the food this visit: 3.8/5

I like the food offerings here because they offer some warm food along with the typical desserts like boba tea or shaved ice bowls. The day I went I only tried a brown sugar shaved ice bowl and a boba tea. Next time I will try other the personal hot pot bowl or a pork belly bowl.

Excellent place! Got their Ma La Tang. Basically like hotpot where you choose your own ingredients and spice level. Portion is huge. Price is very reasonable. Ingredients are very fresh and clean. Soup broth was slightly saltier for my liking but overall good tasting! Service and ambiance also excellent. Lots of cool decorations around the place. Would definitely return to try their desserts and other food entrees.

I had their bubble teas and shaved ices as well as their food- maratang, peking duck, and curry rice. Everything was delicious. One thing was they seemed a short of staff. Sometime they are slow. But they were very kind.

This is my first time ordering food from this place since MeetFresh closed. I ordered one item: the hotpot, and I wanted it as takeout. The wait was surprisingly fast; I had a gut feeling that the items wouldn't be fully cooked unless the kitchen's hotpot water was boiling hot.And guess what? I was right! When I got home, I was excited to try it. But when I opened the lid and took a bite of the noodles, they weren't fully cooked.If the noodles--the easiest and quickest item to cook in a hotpot--aren't even cooked, I knew the rest of the items wouldn't be either. I took a bite of everything else, and sure enough, none was cooked.Ugh! I could have gotten a better hotpot from the 168 Asian Markets right next door, but unfortunately, they weren't open today. Plus, the 168 Asian Markets are cheaper, too. The meal I purchased from Light Cantine cost me $24 for just one bowl, and it's not even cooked! The soup wasn't hot when I picked it up, but I thought maybe it was due to the heat-insulated container. Clearly, The temperature was the issue now, too. It's sad, but it makes sense why this location isn't popular anymore. :( I pray that I won't have food poisoning afterward. When I picked the food items for my hotspot, the choices were also pretty old. The meats were turning brown, too, so I didn't get any. I could have bought those little frozen meatballs from the market and cooked them at home with boiling water. Lol, was being lazy cooking and no more order food here.

Absolutely love love love this place! One of my favorite food spots period! The selection is very large, really good bang for your buck and the flavor is incredibly good!

Love the ambiance, customer service, and flavors. We ordered a boba milk tea and strawberry milk shaved ice and both were delicious! Will definitely be back!

We had the Mala Tang and unfortunately were not impressed. I was really excited to try it. The selections were OK. Would recommend more variety. The most disappointing was the broth. It did not have much flavor at all. Sigh.