China Mandarin-Closed

China Mandarin
2111 S Hacienda Blvd
Hacienda Heights
626-968-1642


China Mandarin is an interesting Chinese food restaurant. I'm expecting my order to be "family style" but it's served Panda Express style.

I get the broccoli chicken, $5.95 and the cashew nut shrimp, $7.25, with fried rice. So I'm expecting a box full of broccoli chicken and a box full of cashew nut shrimp, and another box of rice. What I get is two boxes, broccoli chicken and cashew nut shrimp with fried rice on the side.

The fried was terrible. It wasn't fresh or hot at all. It was very hard and tough to chew. This rice must have been leftover from Saturday. They put some soy sauce, peas and carrots and fried it up. Not a good thing.

The broccoli chicken is very mushy and lacking any flavor. There also isn't much chicken, just large pieces of broccoli and carrots.

The cashew shrimp is also mostly fillers, celery, onions, and carrots. I counted about five shrimp. The shrimp were pretty big and tender. This was much more flavorful than the chicken but this is nothing special.

Service, for take out was pretty good.

For the amount and quality of food, China Mandarin is an overpriced glorfied Panda Express. At least at Panda Express you can get a two item combo for much less. I would not go back to China Mandarin again. Bad food and high prices, this time, two strikes and you're out.

China King-Anaheim

China King
3456 W Lincoln Ave
Anaheim
714-761-5985

What attracted me to China King? Ok I was hungry. But also the sign, which you see in the first picture. For long time residents of the area you remember Pioneer Chicken? Well this sign used to be a Pioneer Chicken sign. I reviewed a couple Pioneer Chicken that are still open and still have that sign, Pioneer Chicken-Bell Gardens and Pioneer Chicken-Soto St.

So I decided to give this a try. China King is your "Panda Express" type Chinese fast food place. A large steam table filled with Chinese food. You pick how many items you want, add rice or chow mein and your ready to eat.

The chow mein just got to the steam table so it was fresh and hot. The chow mein had celery, carrots, and cabbage with some soy sauce. It was pretty standard fare.

I get the two item combo, $5.92 with BBQ pork and black pepper beef and all chow mein. While the picture may show the BBQ pork overflowing, but it had so much fat it wasn't even funny. The little amount of pork that was left, was pretty tasty and tender.

The black pepper beef had a very strong pepper flavor, which is good. But the beef was very tough and not tender at all. If the beef was more tender this would have been a great dish. The strong pepper flavor was great.

Service was good. But this place is sooo busy, I couldn't believe it. They moved the lines quickly, though we waited about five minutes for the chow mein to be ready.

When I got there, at least six people were ahead of me. I would say of those six, five of them ordered two or three meals each. While waiting to place my order, at least another six people got in line behind me. I would say that within the 25 minutes I was there, at least 12-15 were there ordering food. This was about 4:45 pm. Amazing.

I wouldn't go back to China King again. The prices are fair. The portions are big. But the food isn't that good. Lots of fat on the pork, tough as leather, beef. There are many other places, including Panda Express, that serve better quality food for the same price.

NBC Seafood

NBC Seafood Restaurant
404 S. Atlantic Blvd
Monterey Park
626-282-2323

Dim Sum at NBC Seafood is served by ladies who have food carts and you pick and choose what you want to order. When it comes to Dim Sum, I usually just stay wit the basics, shu mei, dumplings, and steamed pork buns.

NBC has some of the best Dim Sum around. As you can see from the picture, NBC is going through some renovation but is still open for business. We saw bare dry wall inside the restaurant.

The shu mei is full of fresh pork and shrimp, then steamed to perfection. Each plate of shu mei is $1.90.

The steamed pork buns are also $1.90 per plate. They are fairly small compared to other places I've gone to. But the pork was nice and tender. The bun was soft, with a good texture and had a nice sweet taste to it.

The last picture is pan fried dumplings with pork and shrimp. This was very tasty, though the outside was a bit tough and chewy.

Service is good. The ladies with the carts come at your in waves. They may not speak English that well but point and choose works. Be warned though, this is a very popular place for dim sum and on weekends you may wait over an hour to get a table. It can also get very noisy in the restaurant.

I would go back to NBC again and again. Next time I go, I want to try their regular menu.

Clancy's

Clancy's
803 E. Broadway
Long Beach
562-437-1836

Clancy's is just a dive bar but they serve some damn good food. Too bad service is terrible.

I got the small order of chicken wings, $6.95, and the turkey club sandwich, $6.25. The chicken wings were among the largest wings I've ever had. Tons of meat on those bones. They were also among the hottest wings around too. This is among the best wings I've ever had. Anchor Bar in Buffalo could learn a few things from Clancy's.

The turkey club sandwich was overflowing with turkey, ham, and bacon. Everything was so fresh, almost like they just sliced the ham and turkey. The bacon was chewy and huge. I really enjoyed the food here. So good, so fresh.

What I didn't enjoy was the service. The server, who is really a cocktail waitress, was terrible. She was rude, not helpful and a bitch. She had such an attitude, as if I was bothering her. To cut her some slack the place was pretty busy and there was only one waitress and one bartender. But that shouldn't be an excuse for her to have such an attitude. She came and asked if I needed something, but I was in the middle of chewing and I don't talk with my mouth full, but the bitch she was, copped an attitude because I didn't answer her. Is she blind too? I mean can't she see I'm eating? She also seemed to be in a rush. I finished the club sandwich but not the potato chips, which were, Ruffles, and cole slaw, which she didn't give me a fork to use. But I'm not a big cole slaw fan and I wouldn't have eaten more than a couple bites. Maybe they were running out of plates?

I would go back to Clancy's but I would hope there was a better server. That shouldn't be too hard because the server I had was among the worst I've ever had!!

Continental Burgers-Closed

Continental Burgers
233 Gentle Springs Ln
Diamond Bar
909-860-2226

Continental Burger is a local burger place. Housed in what used to be a Pizza Hut, Continental Burger shares the same parking lot as Diamond Palace. Please note, I have the burger on April 2, 2007. I was going through my notes and found that I had not put a review of Continental Burger yet.

Pictured is the double bacon cheeseburger, $5.30. The burger comes with thousand island dressing and lettuce. I asked for no onions and pickles. The burger is just your average burger. There was nothing great about it. It was OK. The bacon had been sitting around too long. It was cooked at least two hours before. Not good.

Service is pretty good. You order at the counter and the burger is charbroiled after your order. So it take a little time to get the order up. I wish the bacon would have been more fresh.

I would not go back to Continental Burger. Again it's ok. But for the quality of the burger, I think the price is a bit high.

Arry's

Arry's Burgers
1015 W Whittier Blvd.
Montebello
323-726-1550

Arry's is your regular burger place that almost every city has. Some people may describe it as a greasy spoon but most places like Arry's serve good food at good prices. Just remember you're getting a burger that is a step above a fast food burger. This isn't meant to be fine dining. I went to Arry's on April 3, 2007. I realized I did not put this review on my blog.

Pictured is the burger that I got with a burger, fries and soda combo, $4.49. The burger had lettuce, tomato, and dressing. This was a good solid burger. Nothing special about it, but then again I wasn't expecting a great burger. It's a good solid burger and served nice and hot.

The fries was a cold and had been sitting under a heat lamp too long. I went back and asked for a new order of fries. The second batch was a little better but again, solid but nothing special.

Service is pretty good. Arry's is packed from the minute they open until they close, or so it seems. There were about four people ahead of me when I got there but I got to the front of the line pretty quickly. My order came up quickly. They didn't give me any problems when I asked for a new batch of fries.

I would go back to Arry's for any of their items. I can overlook some fries being served cold, when they take care of it without any hassle.

Twohey's-

Twohey's Restaurant
1224 N Atlantic Blvd
Alhambra
626-284-7387

Updated Review Jan 19, 2018

An long time Alhambra resturant, I pass by Twohey's all the time but never stopped in. But when I saw the sign for all you can eat ribs, I made it a point to stop in ASAP. The all you can eat ribs special, with two sides, fries and cole slaw, was $17.99.

The baby back ribs were cooked in the oven. But they were good ribs, meaty and the BBQ sauce added some nice flavor. They kept asking if I wanted more ribs almost every five minutes. Overall they were solid. Nothing great about them but nothing bad either.

Service was good. The server was nice and attentive. She even told me, she was going on a break and a new server was going to help us. The new server was also very good.

I would go back to Twohey's to try their Stinko Burger and onion rings.

Golden Triangle

Golden Triangle
7011 Greenleaf Ave
Whittier
562-945-6778

Golden Triangle is suppose to be a Burmese restaurant. But really a combination of Burmese, Thai, and Chinese food.

The first picture is the Golden Fried Combination, $8.95. They had fried shrimp, egg rolls, samusa, and falafil. All the fried foods were cripsy. The shrimp was a bit thin but I kinda of expected that considering the low price of this appetizer. The egg rolls were just filled with cabbage and carrots, there was no meat in them. Samusa is triangle shaped and filled with potato, peas, onions and spices. This is a very spicy appetizer. Be care as the potato filling will be very hot. Falafil is pretty tough and hard. I didn't like this item. But I enjoyed all the other items.

The chicken chow mein noodles, $7.35, with onions, celery, and carrots. This is very good as all the flavors mixed well together. I liked this dish. Very tasty.

Burmese Shrimp, $12.95 was a bit spicy. They had tomatoes and a chef special sauce which I would describe as almost a kung pao sauce. This was very good, the shrimp were about medium sized and fresh. They didn't overcook the shrimp, which they could do. I do think at $12.95, it's a little overpriced.

Service was OK. The language barrier can be a little tough. They workers there are Thai, so they don't speak English that well. But they are nice enough and they want to make sure you enjoy your meal.

Even though the food is pretty good at Golden Triangle, I wouldn't go out of my way to go back. There is nothing overwhelming great about this restaurant. But if I was in the area, I wouldn't mind going back there.

Border Grill-Santa Monica-Closed

Border Grill
1445 4th St
Santa Monica
310-451-1655

Border Grill is an overpriced, upscale Mexican place in Santa Monica.

I looked over their menu and most are over $20 but nothing seemed that good. There wasn't anything on the menu that told me to order this now. So I just got a chicken adobo quesadilla, $14.50. The quesadilla was nothing special, even with a sweet adobo sauce. I'm thinking I can get a better and much cheaper quesadilla at El Torito.

Service was below average. We had to wait long periods of time for refills. The server wasn't around that often and either other servers or busboys helped with refills and any other requests.

I would not go back to Border Grill. High prices, very average food and below average food makes the worst combination.

Hot Wings Cafe- Pasadena

Hot Wings Cafe 89 E Colorado Blvd Pasadena 626-449-9055 When a chicken wings place opens across the street from Hooter's either the owners have a lot of balls and think their wings are damn good or they are using their restaurant as a tax write off. Hot Wings Cafe has been in Old Town Pasadena for about seven years. They also have two other locations, LA and Glendale. I ordered the large portion of chicken wings, $10.15. These wings are among the best I've had. Big and cripsy, full of meat and a wonderful hot, spicy sauce covering the wings. They give you a choice of ranch or blue cheese dressing. But they give you a small cup of dressing for 16 wings. The need to give you more, much more dressing with the wings. Service was pretty good. Ok the waitress wasn't dressed in orange short and white tank top but the wings are a hell of a lot better than Hooter's. I would go back to Hot Wings Cafe anytime.

Tep Thai-Closed

Tep Thai 

209 W Wilson Ave 

Glendale 

818-246-0380 

 As with every type of ethnic food, some places will Americanize it, so Tep Thai is no different. Pictured are the chicken satay, $9, and dried chili and cashew nuts with shrimp, $14. The satay were all white meat chicken but a bit on the dry and flavorless side. Dipping the satay into the peanut sauce to add some flavor. The dried chili and cashew nuts is basically kung pao shrimp. It has red and green peppers, onions and about six large shrimp. This wasn't spicy at all. It was tasty though and had much more flavor than the chicken satay. Service was very good. I was never left wanting for anything. I felt Tep Thai was just OK. There was nothing outstanding about it. It wasn't the greatest Thai, I've ever had. It wasn't bad either. But I felt the prices were a bit high for the amount of food you got. I was hungry after leaving the restaurant and that's after eating all the chicken satay, shrimp and rice. I would not go back to Tep Thai. The food is good but it's too Americanized and not a good value.

Kings Fish House- Long Beach

King's Fish House
100 W Broadway
Long Beach
562-432-7463

I've had two good experiences at the King's Fish House in Anaheim. Since King's is a chain, I figured the Long Beach location would be the same. I was very wrong.

I ordered the yellowfin tuna (ahi), $23.95 charbroiled medium rare with mac and cheese and veggies. The diner arrived quickly, which should have told me something was wrong. It was clear the tuna was precooked and just heated up. The quality of the tuna was below average. It was served lukewarm. Why is it so hard to get fish HOT off the charbroiled? I thought the tuna at The Reel Inn was so much better and bigger for $8 less. The mac and cheese was dry, there wasn't a hint of cheese. One of the WORST mac and cheese I've ever had. The veggies were cripsy and tasty but they weren't hot. Notice a common theme here?

Service was TERRIBLE. We waited for about ten minutes before anybody came to our table. When the server came she was nice at first but besides taking our order, asking if we wanted dessert and dropping off the check, she wasn't anywhere around. I was dying for refills on ice tea and had to ask the busboys. I wanted more tartar sauce but she wasn't around. Luckily my girlfriend gave me her tartar sauce. Now why King's would give tartar sauce for shrimp, I have not idea. I don't know what the hell this server was doing but she ignored us.

I would not go back to King's Fish House in Long Beach again. My girlfriend had the prefect discription for King's Fish House, Apple Bee's quality food at Lawry's prices. I thought the quality of food was not even close to being worth the high prices. I thought the service was one of the worst service I've ever experienced. If they have those mystery shoppers this server would have been fired. Just a waste of time and money.

Black Cow Cafe

Black Cow Cafe
2219 Honolulu Ave.
Montrose
818-957-5282

Montrose is a nice, quiet town just above Glendale. Honolulu Ave is the main street filled with shops and restaurants. I've reviewed two other restuarants in Montrose, Sushi Plus and Zeke's Smokehouse. Saturday night we decided to go Montrose for dinner. After some searching around we decide on the Black Cow Cafe.

I ordered the country fried steak, $17.95 with double veggies. The big difference between this country fried steak is the quality of beef used. Most places will use flank or skirt steak for their country fried steak. But Black Cow Cafe uses the tenderloin filet cutlet. The steak arrives and I am impressed with the size of the steak, though it's on the thin side. I take my knife and the steak cuts very easily. There was a good crunch on the outside and the steak was very tender. I was impressed with the quality of beef they used.

But the country gravy was pretty bland and they could have put a little more of it on the steak.

Srevice was good. Our server was nice and friendly. We didn't lack for anything. We got refills quickly and were treatly very well.

Pacific Dining Car-LA

Pacific Dining Car
1310 West 6th St
Los Angeles
213-483-6000

The good and bad. Have you ever been to a restaurant and your appetizers were great but then your entree turned out bad? Well this happened at the Pacifici Dining Car. This is a very expensive, upscale restaurant that has been a part of LA for over 87 years.

We ordered the sauteed scallops with lobster sauce, $18.95, as our appetizer. This was amazing. The scallops were huge and very fresh. They were tender, not chewy, a sign of scallops that are not fresh. The sauce was a light, creamy sauce. I'm not sure how they made it but they did it right. Kinda of pricey but worth it.

For my entree I ordered the rib eye with crab cakes, $46.95. I will continue with the good part, the crab cakes were GREAT. They actually had crab in them and lots of crab. For somebody who grew up in Baltimore, I know what good crab cakes are. These crab cakes had lot of crabs, green onions, and bread cumbs. Again a great dish.

Now comes the bad part. The rib eye was terrible. The meat described as prime, doesn't come close to prime. The steak reminded me of the steak you get in Vegas with those $6.95 steak specials. There was a lot of fat and it wasn't tender at all. The cooked it medium rare, just like I ordered. But I could have gone to Sizzler and gotten the same quality steak for must less.

I rarely order dessert but we got the Apple Tart Tartin, $9.94, which is apples topped with a crust and ice cream. I know it was tart but the apples were too tart for me. Even the ice cream didn't take away from the tartness.

Service was OoooooK but there were some strange moments that I've never experienced at any restaurant. In terms of the service, he was good though at times we were waiting a long time for refills. But a couple times the server came to our table, while we were eating and just started a conversation. Some BS like How's the weather? How was your day? I mean WTF? We are trying to eat. I am not interested in talking to anybody while I'm eating. I got rid of him by asking for more water and after the second time, I think he got the hint.

I would NOT go back to Pacific Dining Car again. Their claim to fame is the steak, hell they have two cows as part of the signage. But damn the meat is TERRIBLE. I do like their seafood but I can go to better seafood places.

MJ Ranch-Closed

MJ Ranch
3101 E. Garvey Ave
West Covina
626-331-7371

Everybody knows my love for BBQ ribs. So whenever I see a BBQ place I just have to. Sometimes a place will surprise me. But most of the time, it was a waste of money and time.

The second sentence describes MJ Ranch. Housed in what used to be a Love's Restaurant, MJ Ranch is your standard suburban BBQ restaurant, which means oven cooked meats, drowned in BBQ sauce.

I ordered the pork spare ribs, $14.89 with corn on the cob. The ribs came out very hot to the touch. That means they must have microwaved the ribs before serving them. Why do I say this? Because ribs take a while to cook in an oven. So what some restaurants do is cook them throughout the day and to serve them hot, they will microwave or grill them. There were no grill marks on the ribs, so it must mean they nuked them.

Anyways, the ribs lacked any smoked flavor. They were fairly tender and it was a huge portion. But they just didn't taste good. They were dry, further proof it was nuked. And just plain bad. I didn't even finish them at the restaurant.

Service was good. The lady was very nice and friendly and we didn't lack for anything.

I would not go back to MJ Ranch again. The BBQ ribs are among the worst I ever had. Among the other dishonorable mention. Ribs USA, Beach Pitt BBQ,Bam Bam. and Country Chicken & Ribs.

TJ Subs

TJ's Subs
1054 N Hacienda Blvd
La Puente
626-718-7007

Sandwich, deli.

Fridays during Lent means no meat. So for lunch I'll get a tunafish or egg salad sandwich. So I found TJ's Sub and decided to give it a try. I most placces I'm weary of tunafish. If it's not kept cold, it could mean lots of time sitting on the throne. So I decide to go with the egg salad with provolone sandwich, $3.99. I'm standing at the counter and I see the sandwich being prepared right before me. I liked that. I assume it will be fresh. They used an egg slicer to cut two eggs into small pieces. Then add mustard, mayo, salt and pepper. I asked for the lettuce, mayo and tomatoes on a roll.

As you can see it's a good sized sandwich. But when I take a bite I find it's one of the saltiest egg salad sandwiches I've ever had. I needed water so badly. She must have put in a ton of salt. The egg salad was fresh or so I thought. The roll was nice and soft and chewy. But nothing could overcome the saltiness of the egg salad.

But about two hours later, my stomach didn't feel well. I only had the egg salad and a can of Arizona raspberry ice tea. So it wouldn't take a genius to figure out the egg salad must have been the reason. I didn't see where she got the eggs from. I could have been the frig or just at room tempurature. The sandwich wasn't especially cold or chilled.

Service was good. The lady was nice and friendly. Though she did seem to want to rush through taking my order.

I would not go back to TJ's Subs. The sandwich was too salty and I didn't think it was all that fresh, so I paid for it later.