The New Diner blog reviewed restaurants in the LA area from 2005-2012. Due to space limitations, I have now continued restaurant reviews on The New Diner 2.
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Showing posts with label Hacienda Heights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hacienda Heights. Show all posts
Malan Han Noodle 2020 S Hacienda Blvd Hacienda Heights 626-369-5602
When I heard that Malan Han Noodle, made their noodles fresh, I knew I wanted to give them a try. The beef noodle soup is the main thing, but I'm not really a soup person. So I tried the chow mein. They ask you what type of noodles do you want; flat or round and what size, small to large.
They make the noodles right behind the counter and then cook it up, then either add soup or make the chow mein.
I got the shrimp chow mein, $7.95. It was filled celery, cabbage, green onions, ginger, and shrimp. The shrimp is well cooked, tender and flavorful. I noodles are cooked perfectly and you can tell it is fresh. But, the dish itself, is bland, they need to add more salt and seasoning.
Service is very good. The lady is nice and friendly. It's a cash only operation.
I liked Malan Han Noodle, but I didn't love it. I loved the fresh noodles, but the chow mein was too bland. I may go back and try the soup, but the chow mein needs more seasoning.
Dumpling Master
2124 S Hacienda Blvd
Hacienda Heights
626-369-3788
When searching for the best Battle Xiao Long Bao in LA, Dumpling Master came highly recommended. I did a little research and found one in Hacienda Heights. They have another location in Monterey Park.
As readers of The New Diner know, Mei Long Village is my standard bearer. But a recent trip back to Jin Jian improved their ranking. Din Tai Fung is the restaurant that is known for their XLB's but I'm not a big fan.
Scallion pie, $2.95. This was thin pieces of dough that had about two scallions per piece. A little greasy, though nicely fried. I wasn't impressed.
The xiao long bao are listed as mini steamed pork buns, $5.75. This was wonderful. Very good but not as good as Mei Long Village. A thin skin, hot flavorful juice and nicely seasoned pork. A very good example of XLB.
Pork pan fried dumplings, $5.75, pot stickers. This had no flavor at all. The skin was overcooked as you can see, very tough, chewy and so bland. I would not order this again.
Service was much like the taste of difference between the XLB and pot stickers. The lady was pretty rude and unfriendly. The man was nice and friendly. The lady never brought the water we asked for. The man was quick to please and got us anything we needed. The lady was too busy talking to a family she knew to bother helping us.
I would go back to Dumpling Master because the XLB were very good. But the other two items I got weren't good at all. I saw some regular Chinese dishes that looked pretty good and I may go back to try those. I guess you gotta take the lady with a grain of salt.
June 5, 2009. 20 years ago, the entire world saw one of the most bravest acts ever capured on TV or film, The Tank Man. One brave man stopped a column of tanks to protest the savage killing and beating of innocent people at Tiananmen Square. To this day nobody knows who Tank Man was. Nobody knows what happened to him. But on that June 5, 1989 day, the entire world knew about Tank Man. Time Magazine listed Tank Man, they actually listed him as the Unknown Rebel, as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. After he stopped the column of tanks, he climbed up onto the tank and told them that his city is in choas and to get out of his city!!!
One simple act can change the entire world. Many people from the former Soviet blocked nations said they drew inspiration from the picture you see above. I wish I could be as brave as Tank Man. 6 and 5, equals 11. Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets wears #11. His silent protest??
To this day the Chinese government does not acknowledge the fact they ordered the killing of so many innocent people. To this day the Chinese government bans any mention of Tiananmen Square. To this day companies like Google and Yahoo, whore themselves and follows the Chinese government ban about Tiananmen Square. Try searching Tiananmen Square in China. You will get nothing. The Chinese government even increased security around Tiananmen Square today to prevent anybody from remembering that day. So today to honor Tank Man, I went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.
Earthen 1639 S Azusa Ave Hacienda Heights 626-964-1570
Pork dumplings, $6.25. Pretty bland pork inside and the wonton wrapper was a bit tough and chewy, cooked just short of ah dente.
House Special chicken, $7.95. I wasn't expecting a cold dish but this was a very good dish. The chicken is served cold, on top of cucumbers in a spicy soy sauce. The chicken is very tender and full of flavor. The spiciness doesn't hit you right away but slowly comes one. A very good dish.
Black mushrooms with veggies, $8.25. I loved this dish, though the sauce used was a bit oily. The mushrooms had a wonderful flavor, a burst of flavor in your mouth. The veggies are baby bochoy and were crispy and fresh.
Fried shrimp with hot garlic sauce, $15.95. This dish is a combination of sweet and sour shrimp and kung pao shrimp. The shrimp is fried, then topped with a spicy garlic sauce. There were a ton of chili leaves in the dish that gave the shrimp flavor. The shrimp wasn't as fresh as it could be, but this was a good dish. At first I thought this was a bit pricey but the portion was huge and it is worth the price.
Shrimp chow mein, $7.25. A nice example of chow mein that is topped with shrimp, bean sprouts, and cabbage. The noodles were soft and well cooked. The dish was nicely seasoned. Nice sized portion too.
Service is good. But this is cash only and I'm not a fan of places like that.
I would go back to Earthen again. I like the food and even though some of the entree prices are a bit high, they food is very good.
Ostioneria Colima 1136 S Hacienda Blvd Hacienda Heights 626-333-8017
I have passed by Ostioneria Colima a million times but I have never stopped in until today. I heard they serve good fish and shrimp tacos and a huge portion of shrimp cocktails.
So I got the small shrimp cocktail, $5.99, shrimp taco, $2.49, and fish taco, $1.99. The shrimp cocktail was great. This is the first time I've had Mexican style shrimp cocktail and I was impressed. So fresh and tasty!!! It was filled with a ton of fresh shrimp, onions, avocado, and cilantro. I thought the juice was going to be sour, much like ceviche, but this juice was sweet. I love this dish. I'm glad I got the small because I wasn't able to finish this.
The shrimp taco was also good. Filled with large pieces of deep fried shrimp, cabbage, and that white sauce, this was among the best shrimp tacos I have had. Full of flavor, hot, fresh and tasty.
I didn't care for the fish taco, though. The fish was too dry and not flavorful. It would have been better if it was deep fried. I would not order this again.
Service was good. But I found it weird that one of the guys who took the food to your table, was just hovering around the dining around, like a stalker. He didn't say anything to me or look at me. But it was just weird.
Ostioneria Colima is a damn good place to get Mexican seafood. I think the prices are fair and the food is very good. Parking is in the back, though as the picture shows there are 4-5 spaces in front. I would go back to Ostioneria Colima anytime.
Akasaka-Hacienda Heights 14926 Clark Ave Hacienda Heights 626-336-0871
The night before Thanksgiving while people are getting drunk, I'm stuck at home doing nothing. The Hot Stove League is just starting and stupid owners are offering Constant Choke Sabathia, $140 million to choke in the playoffs. Scott Boros is making a fool out of owners who made millions in business by whoring his clients to the highest bidder. I can't wait for baseball season to start. It is suppose to rain but other than a sprinkle here and there no rain at all.
So I decide to try Akasaka in Hacienda Heights. I have been to Akasaka in Walnut, not good. But I heard good things about Akasaka in Hacienda Heights, so I had some high hopes.
Akasaka is set in a residential and industrial area off of 7th St and the 50 freeway. North side of Clark has wharehouses and industrial areas. Southside is houses and apartments. You can't really miss it.
I ordered the yellowtail sushi, $8.80, and the tempura shrimp hand roll, $7.70. The yellowtail sushi was aweful. Mushy, not fresh, no flavor, nothing. It takes a lot of gall to charge $8.80 for that. The portions were bigger than most sushi places but they weren't double the size, though they were double the price.
The tempura shrimp hand roll was also big. But again not fresh, the asparagas were mushy and just bad, the avocado was also bad. The only fresh thing was the rice. The shrimp had more tempura than shrimp but was OK. Not really worth the $7.70 price.
Service was OK. Though I did have to ask for water, three times and the table was very sticky when I sat down, like some kid spilled some soda.
I would not go back to Akasaka again. What a terrible sushi experience.
Hacienda Heights Pizza Company
15239 Gale Ave
City of Industry
626-855-2590
Hacienda Heights Pizza Company is part of a chain that takes the name of the city the restauarnt is located in. Nevermind that Hacienda Heights Pizza Company, is located in Industry but you get the point.
I ordered a jumbo half pepperoni and half sausage pizza, $19.21. This pizza was huge as you can see. The sauce was one of the sweetest sauces around. Not that it's bad but I prefer a sauce that isn't that sweet. But they put a ton of cheese and toppings. I was impressed with this pizza.
Service was average to good. The young girl taking my order was just going through the motions. She wasn't nice but wasn't rude. But while waiting for my order, either the manager or the owner, and another cashier was very nice. The manager or owner checked on my order. The other cashier asked if I wanted to order. I didn't even get a hello from the cashier who took my order.
I went on a Friday night and there were a ton of families and kids having dinner. So it was loud and pretty busy.
Is Hacienda Heights Pizza Company better than World's Best Pizza? Both are top notch pizza. Both have good prices. So I would say it's a tie. But Hacienda Heights Pizza Company is actually open for lunch during the week, where World's Best only opens at 4 during the week.
I would come back to Hacienda Heights Pizza Company. The pizza is fresh, full of toppings and well worth the price.
World's Best Pizza 3142 Colima Rd Hacienda Heights 626-968-4794
When you have a name like World's Best Pizza, the pizza better be damn good or the owner is one arrogant bastard. For the sake of World's Best Pizza the pizza is good.
I got a medium Canadian bacon for $14.06. The crust was cooked just right, a big crispy at the top and towards the middle soft and chewy. They put a ton of cheese and it melted nicely over the pizza. There were good amount of Canadian bacon on the pizza. What was interesting is that I saw huge cans of pizza sauce stored by the front counter. I thought the sauce was pretty good, nothing great but good enough. But I would have never guessed it was from a can. I saw the can, it wasn't tomato paste, it was pizza sauce.
I found out about World'S Pizza through Yelp.com and one reviewer said watch out for the Pizza Nazi. I never saw him. A younger kid helped me and he was OK. Not the friendliest but not rude or a punk. More a matter of fact.
This is a take out place. There are some table in front of the store but take it home and enjoy.
Even though the pizza sauce was from a can, I would go back to World's Best Pizza. I liked their pizza.
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.
E Mei Shan
15848 Halliburton Rd.
Hacienda Heights
626-937-6555
I had been to E Mei Shan once before and wasn't too impressed with the food. But I wanted to get some lunch and figured why not give them another chance. I ordered the shrimp with Chinese Broccoli, $5.95 and steak with black pepper, $6.95 from their lunch special menu. The menu goes weekdays from 11-3pm.
The shrimp with Chinese broccoli was pretty bland and flavorless. They needed to put something more in there. There were ginger and garlic but they didn't add any flavor to them.
But the great part of the meal was the steak with black pepper. What a treat. The meat was so tender and thicker than most beef at Chinese restaurants. There was so much flavor and taste to this dish, they must have taken out the flavor in the shrimp dish and brought it to the steak dish.
E Mei Shan is cash only, though they do not have a big sign. The service is good and the guy was nice when I said I need to go to the ATM to get cash. My order came up quickl.
I would go back to E Mei Shan for the steak in black pepper lunch special. Interesting it's not on the regular menu but I'm guessing they will make it for you, if you request it.
Yunnan Garden 1229 S Hacienda Blvd Hacienda Heights 626-330-8145
Yunnan Garden has been opened for four months. What's interesting is that before they did some renovations to the building, the same location used to house a restaurant, China Garden. But what's interesting is that Yunnan Garden has the same phone number as China Garen. Maybe the same owners using a different name?
Anyways I ordered the shrimp fried rice, $6.96, chicken and mushrooms, $7.95, and the shrimp with garlic sauce, $9.95. The shrimp fried rice came straight from the wok to our table, it was so hot. There were scrambled eggs, green onions, carrots and of course shrimp, which were a good size and there were plenty of them. This dish overall was good but I thought it was a bit too greasy. They could have used less oil.
The chicken and mushroom was a bit of a downer. They chicken was tender and thinly sliced but this was very bland. Not much flavor to this dish. I would not order this again.
I would order the shrimp with garlic sauce. This was a great dish. It's marked as hot but it wasn't that hot at all. They used some kind of red sauce and lots of garlic, bamboo shoots, green onions, red pepper and seaweed. It had so much flavor, just bursting with it. A steal at $9.95.
Service was pretty good. The place wasn't that crowded and there were three servers who came to our table. They were friendly and helpful.
I would go back to Yunnan Garden. The food and the prices are good. I think this place matches up to many of the Chinese restaurants in Rowland Heights.
West Coast Seafood Buffet
1655 Azusa Ave.
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
626-581-9893
I like buffets, especially if the food has a lot of turnover. One of the best Chinese buffets is West Coast Seafood Buffet. The buffet is $17.99 and well worth it.
King crab legs,served hot, is great. These are no snow crab legs but the bigger, better tasting King crab legs. Sweet and tender and just a treat. The best part you can go back for more and more and more. The only problem is that they don't always refill the tray when the crab legs are gone.
I usually don't get sushi at buffets but I decided why not. I got two pieces each of the ahi tuna, yellowtail, and salmon. All were pretty fresh and tasty. Not the best quality fish but it was pretty good.
Shrimp cocktail. Nice and fresh and about medium sized. Good stuff.
I got the fried rice, green beans and corn. The fried rice was pretty basic, rice, some peas, eggs, and carrots. Interesting that they didn't use soy sauce. Most of the fried rice you see are brown from the soy sauce. Still it was pretty good. The green beans and corn were cooked pretty well. I found the corn to be very greasy. Why can't they just steamed the damn thing. The green beans also had some oil on them but not as greasy as the corn. Pretty good stuff.
The last picture has grilled steak, chicken teriyaki, and satueed shrimp. The grilled steak is done right there at the buffet line. Pretty tender for a buffet and good flavor. The steak is more than likely top sirloin and USDA Choice but it was good. The chicken teriyaki was mostly white meat and tender. The shrimp was also tasty.
Service is OK. It took awhile for the server to take away the empty plates and refill the drinks.
But West Coast Seafood buffet is about the seafood and they give you good quality seafood at a good price. It can get very busy, a 45 minute wait on Fridays and Saturdays, but it's well worth it. One of the best buffets around and at $17.99 a steal of a price.
Casa Jimenez 15844 Gale Ave Hacienda Heights 626-336-5668
Casa Jimenez has many locations throughout LA. I was told the Hacienda Heights location has some good specials and good food, so I decided to try it.
They have an all you can eat special for $7.50. You order three items to start and then you can order whatever else you want. They have a wide variety of items, from tacos to burritos to chimichanga to chile colorado. The best thing is that they aren't sitting on steam trays but cooked to order.
I only ordered two items, beef chimichanga and the carnitas to start. I really like the chimichanga. Unlike another Mexican restaurant I went to, this chimichanga was acutally deep fried. It was filled with tons of shredded beef and beans. The fried tortilla was flaky and crunchy. The outside of the carnitas were very crispy, almost like bacon. But the carnitas tended to be dry, though tender.
My next order was a chicken taco and beef taquitos. The chicken taco was filled with chicken, lettuce, and topped with cheese. The chicken was kind of bland. The lettuce and cheese was fresh but overall the taco was dry. The taquitos was just beef rolled into a tortilla and deep fried. Pretty good.
Then I had a small portion of the Chile Colorado, which is a red chile sauce over beef. It was very mild, not spicy at all. The beef was tender. Reminded me of beef stew.
Service was below average, even though the place was pretty empty. I had to track down the waitress for my next order and to refill my drink. She also did not take the dirty dishes away. But the most galling part was the bill. The price is $7.50 for the meal. I only ordered water to drink so that of course is free. I didn't order anything else. There is nothing on the menu about an extra charge for salsa or gucamole or sour cream. I also wasn't asked if I wanted either one. So my bill came out to $8.42. $7.50 x .0875 is about 66 cents, so the bill should have been $8.16. Why the extra 26 cents? I know that may sound petty but restaurants should calculate your bill correctly. There is reason to screw somebody like that.
I did like the food and thought it was a good value but why try to rip people off? I don't want to create a scene, because I feel somebody who is reviewing food should try and be anonymous, so I didn't ask why it cost more
Hacienda Village Meats 2021 S. Hacienda Blvd. Hacienda Heights, CA 91745 626-330-5555
I had plan to try the sandwiches from this Italian Deli but with the rain I decided to try a pasta dish. Big mistake. I ordered the chicken parmigana with spaghetti instead of the penne pasta for $6.45. The chicken were like very thin chicken fingers. They were kind of tough and not tender. The sauce was so thin I could almost drink it with a straw. The garlic bread seemed more like buttered toast, garlic flavor was lacking. The only good thing I can say about this the chicken parmigana is that they do give you good portions.
I will try some of their sandwiches next time. The meats and breads look very fresh. But I will not have a chicken parmigana sandwich.
Malan Han Noodle
