Chinese restaurant Home Eat opens downtown with massive menu, late-night hours — and those wings

Add a wildly popular Chinese fusion restaurant to downtown San Jose’s buzz.

Home Eat has “soft opened” this week at a prominent city-owned property that’s been vacant since longtime tenant Flames shuttered during the pandemic. The space near the Martin Luther King Jr. Library is a big one — more than 11,000 square feet — but Home Eat brings large-operation experience from its restaurants in Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Fremont.

Founded in 2015, Home Eat (also known as Fashion Wok) evolved from a Taiwanese-style eatery with hot pots to what its owners describe as “a large-scale, integrated catering restaurant that combines Sichuan, Hunan, Taiwan and independently developed fusion dishes.”

The 10-page menu will be offered for lunch and dinner 365 days a year, and until 11:30 most nights. Nearly 170 numbered dishes and drinks line the pages, with a strong emphasis on woks and hot pots, sized for one to two diners or a group. Throw in the party trays, and the number of offerings expands to 374.

No.1 is Sichuan High Wok, with pork, shrimp, spam, vermicelli, tripe, corn, fish balls, fish cake, crabmeat, tempura, tofu and fish tofu, and No. 169 is Hot & Sour Pork Bone Rice Noodle Soup, with quail eggs and mushrooms. Customer favorites include the Spices Satay Beef Wok and the String Beans and Eggplant with Soy Sauce. Looking for heat? The Numbing Spicy BBQ Fish Filet is popular.

And then there are the wings. The Classic Dry Fried Chicken Wings with Sweet Soy Sauce are a top seller and by far the most commented-on dish on Home Eat’s Yelp pages. Fried to order, the piping hot wings deliver moist chicken encased in a crackling exterior that’s sweet and garlicky. Bits of chile pepper are sprinkled on top.

The Home Eat service model emphasizes speed and efficiency. Diners may order from the wait staff or use the QR code on the table. Meals here start with a large carafe of water and end with complimentary orange slices. Tables are stocked with share plates, cups, napkins, chopsticks and other utensils, so there’s no need to flag down a server until you need takeout boxes.