5612 Rosemead Blvd., Temple City 626-309-9918
Type: Northern Chinese/Korean
Quality: !!!! Price: $-$$$ Ambience: **
This is one of my favorite restaurants--highly recommended. They specialize in hand-drawn noodles (aka shou la mian). Unlike mass-manufactured noodles, hand-drawn noodles are slightly chewy with a bit of give. I like them better than mass-manufactured noodles. I personally like the Za Jiang Mian (aka "Noodle with Brown Sauce"). The Beef Stewed Noodles are good, too. Dumplings are also hand-made. The pork dumplings are large. I like the steamed pork dumplings the best. However, be aware that it usually takes at least 10-15 minutes to cook them; don't count on them as appetizers. The thin onion pancakes are crisp and hearty. I also recommend the "pork and glass noodle wrap." This is like a Chinese burrito. They'll give you 4 wrappers and a whole plate of noodles and meat that you should stuff inside the wrappers. They'll also give you some hoisin/plum sauce and raw green onion slivers to put in your "burrito" as well. You should ask for 4 additional wrappers, because there's no way on earth to stuff your noodles and meat into just 4 wrappers. Remember, this is not a Cantonese restaurant, so avoid the chow mein and rice dishes. The staff is Chinese-Korean, so you can order in Korean, too. If you have kids, they can ask the owner for some fish pellets to fed the Koi inside the entrance. The restaurant is tucked away in a mini-mall across the street from Denny's. You cannot enter the parking lot going southbound on Rosemead Blvd. You must enter on northbound Rosemead Blvd.
9537 Las Tunas Dr., Temple City 626-309-4318
Type: 80's Retro
Quality: !!! Price: $-$$ Ambience: **
U2. Madonna. The Thompson Twins. Now playing at your local Mandarin Deli. I'm not kidding. As we sat down, a wave of nostalgia hit me: it was 80's music blasting through the loudspeakers in Mandarin Deli. I'm guessing that whoever ran the place found a CD with some English on it and put it in the CD player without any idea of what the music was about (see the reference to Kenny G.'s Christmas music in the Noodle House entry above).
Anyhow, we enjoyed our meal. We started with the Sliced Beef with Pancake. It's a thin onion/scallion pancake wrapped around some beef slices, parsley, and some other stuff--it's an SGV version of what is known as a "wrap" in more trendy circles. Obviously, I'm not a member of the aforementioned trendy circles. The potstickers (aka Pan Fried Meat Dumplings) were quite tasty. I think I ordered either the Mandarin Stye Noodle with Chili or the Noodle with Spicy Chili Sauce (I can't remember exactly which one). It was actually a moderately spicy with different types of seafood in it, including octopus, squid, shrimp, etc. It was a bit tough getting the tentacles down, though. I wasn't too fond of their Beef Stew with Home Made Noodle Soup--too much connective tissue for my personal tastes. Service was a bit slow because they had too few waitresses for that many tables, but they were very nice people. OK, I'll admit it: I actually enjoyed the music. I'm a child of the 80's; what can I say? Overall, I'd say that it was, like, a totally decent restaurant, dude.
921 S. Baldwin Ave., #A, Arcadia 626-445-2755
Type: Northern Chinese
Quality: !!! Price: $-$$ Ambience: ***
Chinese restaurants sometimes have a problem with finding good English names. Many moons ago, NBC first opened in Monterey Park. Of course, there's the ABC restaurant. NBC clobbered it in the ratings. But I digress. This Dumpling House is not related to the Dumpling House in Temple City. It's quite small. In fact, to get to the bathroom, you need to either walk through the kitchen or enter the restaurant from the back entrance. Other than that, the decor is really nice and subdued--no garish banks of office flourescent lights here.
The food here is typical Northern-style fare: dumplings and plenty of wheat-based foods. The pan fried dumplings look like steamed baozi but are pan fried on the bottom: very tasty. We also tried the chive Pan Cakes--this is definitely recommended for garlic chive lovers. The celery and pork dumplings were pretty good, though you need to wait for the dish to cool down a bit for the full flavor to come through. The Flavors Stewed Beef was rather forgettable--too much anise for me, and it was almost all tendons and connective tissue. The Ham Fried Rice was good, but entirely too expensive: $5.25 for a small plate. You can get twice as much for less at any Hong Kong or Cantonese restaurant.
At this point, the astute reader will ask, "Why in the world did you order a rice dish in a Northern-style restaurant?" Well, Grasshopper, I'm glad you asked. I was actually taking my kids to the aforementioned restroom when my wife and sister-in-law decided to order to the dish. When I returned, I decided that marital harmony was far more important than gastronomic satisfaction. I'm sure I made the wise decision.
1408 E. Valley Blvd, Alhambra 626-300-8654
Type: Northern Chinese
Quality: !!!! Price: $-$$ Ambience: **
The English name of this restaurant does not reveal the true specialties of this restaurant. As its Chinese name implies, this is a Shandong restaurant, so the astute reader should not expect to find fried rice or dim sum here. Normally, I don't like to write a review unless I've been to the place a few times. But I'm making an exception in this case. I've heard many people rave about the Beef Roll, and I must say that they were all right on the money. The Beef Rolls are easily the best ones I've ever eaten. Basically, it's a scallion pancake (for lack of a better term) wrapped around chopped beef and either cilantro or parsley. I should've taken better notes, but we ate them so quickly. You get three per order, and each roll is the size of a large burrito.
We also ordered the Dumpling Combo, which allows you to select two types of dumplings (5 each). The Pumpkin Shrimp Pork Dumpling (boiled) was delicious, and I generally dislike shrimp. The Sole fish dumpling was good, but not spectacular. [For the record, the Sole Fish Dumpling has Dover Sole, and the Fish Dumpling has a type of Rock Cod. ]
Mostly, they sell dumplings and noodles here. They also sell Beijing-style yogurt drinks here for a true, Northern-style meal.. I'm sure you can get also them at a local Chinese supermarket.