Message: | Here are my choices.
I agree with Empress pavilion for Dim Sum.
I also agree with 888 for Dinner and a variety of Southern dishes.
For Huaiyang/Shanghai food: noodles and dumplings at Meilong Village, and full meal at Lake Spring Garden (I posted a review on this board under the word Huaiyang restaurant).
In Chinatown, although it's not great, the Foochow restaurant on Hill St. does over a few authentic dishes from Fujian province. I like the chicken in rice wine lees (tsao liu chicken) and the meat balls in soup where the ball is forcemeat covered with a thin slice of meat, or is a pork meat ball inside a larger fish cake ball.
For Instant boiled mutton and other beijing dishes (shuan yang-rou, like hot pots only I like it better), try Deerfield Garden in Monterey Park. The Shuan Yang Rou is great and you'll have some of the best potstickers, guo-tier around.
For Peking Duck, go to Quanjude in Rosemead. stick with Northern dishes although they've recently undergone huge staff changes and serve many Taiwanese and Hong Kong banquet dishes. Cold duck appetizers, the full duck are recommended and be sure to order the hollow cakes to go with the duck (Kong-hsin bing).
For Vegetarian, I also like Happy Family on Atlantic. They have a nice all you can eat option which doesn't include the more expensive dishes, but you can get the odd mushroom and seaweed dishes if you go a la carte (Fa-tsai, hair vegetable is a kind of seaweed).
I also like China Islamic restaurant on Garvey near New. I prefer it to Tung Lai Shun. Great lamb dishes, and be sure and order the bread with scallions. They also make noodles from a combination of flour and green beans. Very nice.
A bit more unusual is J.Y.Z. in the mall across from 888 on Valley Blvd. They have snacks and specialties that they claim are from the Fangshan imperial cuisine. They're quite good in any case.
There is supposedly a Szechwan hot pot restaurant in Rowland Heights but I don't know it - hot sesame spicy - ma la huo guo. Maybe someone can help.
As well, take a look out at the Hsi Lai temple in Hacienda Heights, where Al Gore went to the fundraiser. They have a small restaurant as well as a museum of Buddhist art and a cool location that looks very much like a Buddhist Temple in China.
http://www.hsilai.org/
Have a good visit. |