I've been here with my coworkers so many times now that I've lost count. It's one of those…read morerestaurants where we've never had a bad experience and the food and service are consistent. It's one of the default lunch spots for us when we can't decide where else to go and everyone likes their food. The one negative I can point out is the parking situation. It does fill up and sometimes difficult to find a parking spot during busy times. We just have to plan to have our lunches a little earlier and carpool from our office. And yes, the glass the teas come in are humongous.

We called ahead to place a pickup order hoping to try their dumplings. Once we arrived, the service…read morewas extremely good for just coming to pick up food. They opened and closed the door for us which was a nice touch because it was busy inside. We ordered the pork ramen, pork buns, and pork soup dumplings. On to the food! Pork Ramen: 3/5 They give you a hefty amount of noodles and pork. They use a thin noodle here which pairs well with the broth. I truly do believe this was around average for ramen as the flavor in the broth was not as strong or savory. The highlight of the entire entree was definitely the pork, which was tender and flavorful. I probably would not order this again. Pork bun: 5/5 The pork buns were soft and fluffy, almost too good looking to eat. There was the right amount of soup and meat inside that made for a wonderful bite full of flavor. Not dry at all. Would recommend ordering this if you visit. Pork Dumplings: 5/5 The star of the show, the dumplings. They were soft and just like the buns, they had the right amount of soup + meat which made for a delicious bite every time. My toddler even ate some and she's usually super picky about meat. Overall, I'd definitely recommend coming here for the other noodles, the dumplings, and buns. You can skip on the ramen. I would 100% come back here to dine in. Quick note that parking gets full pretty quick here.

On the way back from Santa Ana, find LuYiXuan Restaurant in Alhambra, which serves Shanghainese and…read moreTaiwanese cuisine. This restaurant is difficult to get parking because it is located inside a small plaza on the corner of Valley and Garfield. Fortunately, I found a parking space there. The restaurant is not particularly large, But there are many customers dining there. We ordered Garlic Cucumber, Braised Pork Rice, Garlic Water Spinach, Braised Beef Noodles, Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs, Garlic Beef Cubes, and two Thai Milk Teas. I'm able to speak with the owner, who informs me that this restaurant does not use MSG or other ingredients. Everything is fresh and healthy. After tasting the food and the Braised Beef Noodles, I can tell it's really tasty and light, with no harsh components that make you thirsty and want to drink more water. So far, my family and I have really enjoyed the food here. Definitely will return and try other delicious foods next time.

Prices and portions are fair in this little shop in Alhambra, and the pig ear here is cut thin and…read moremarinated in a classic chili sauce! Service is outstanding and very friendly, and the restroom is clean. Lots of free parking is available in the small lot outside. The restaurant is in a corner of the lot within unassuming outside exterior but very nice interior. The garlic cucumber was crunchy and light in marinade. I enjoyed the pig ear but prefer thicker cuts typically. It would be wonderful to come back to try other entrees.

I love a good Taiwanese cafe. They always remind me of my childhood when my parents would take me…read moreafter Chinese school on Saturdays. Thankfully no more Chinese school, but I still love getting together with my family for a weekend meal. I was so impressed by All In Cafe. It's a small, unassuming spot tucked into a Stater Bros. plaza, but the flavors instantly brought me back. We always start with the fried combo. It comes with popcorn chicken, fish cakes, oyster mushrooms, squid balls, and sweet potato fries. Everything is seasoned with the perfect amount of five spice, and it's great for sharing. I usually come with my family, and we always order way too much because who doesn't love leftovers? Some of our other favorites are the stewed stinky tofu with intestines, rice cakes, the chicken plate, and the cold cut salads. Honestly, you can't really go wrong with anything here. The space is pretty small, but the staff is attentive and the food comes out fast. It's one of those places that feels comforting and familiar, and I always leave happy.

forgot @Jessica W. reviewed that this place changed owners. we liked their food from the past…read moreowner 牡丹/Chef. so hubby and I brought my mom and my MIL here for dinner on a Friday evening around 7pm. the place was small to begin with and it's packed with only 1 table of 4 left. the inside was upgraded/remodeled so it looked a lot cleaner than the previous restaurant. new menu design but basically the same dishes are available plus there're some Taiwanese street food. we found out the owner changed but they kept the same chef in the kitchen. when the dried tofu with pork 香乾肉絲 was served and my mom has the most picky tastebuds, without asking she said "this dish is very good". personally I was impressed with the cutting skill for the dish as both the pork and dried tofu are cut very thin so the flavor can easily get into the tofu and pork. and the dried tofu was soft like a noodle. the eggplants was also very tasty with lots of basil flavor. compared to the other 2 dishes, the braised tofu 紅燒豆腐 was ok as the sauce is a little too thick. and the fried chicken was bland. service was good and attentive. we would come back to have (don't need to try as it's the same chef) their famous "kidney with sesame oil 麻油腰花" again.

All of the food was solid!!! I recommend everything that we ordered. If your spice tolerance is not…read morethe best, I want to warn that the Mild Spicy Popcorn Chicken had more of kick than I expected. Also, their iced teas are HUMONGOUS. I'm not exaggerating. The pictures don't do them justice at all. FEATURED Popcorn Chicken ($10) Pan Fried Pork Bao ($13) Beef Noodle Soup ($15) Mango Green Tea ($4.99) Passion Green Tea ($4.99) Strawberry Green Tea ($4.99)

If you want fast casual Taiwanese food, this is a good fix. Nothing amazing but still all solid…read moredishes. Whoever made our potstickers this day though, really didn't care. Others had a nice crispy lace cook on them, all held together in a nice circular formation.. and I got haphazardly thrown potstickers on a plate. Service is typical for a small Chinese place, where if you need something you have to ask, no one comes to check on you. When they're busy, you don't get a menu, so don't expect to see pictures and you'll have to kinda of know what you're ordering when looking at just the listed ordering form. I would suggest looking at pics online first so you know going into this. Love the ginormous drinks though, my strawberry green tea was deliciously refreshing with the perfect level of sweetness. Parking - free lot is small. There are some street sidewalk options. We waited a few minutes and luckily people were leaving the market so we were able to park in the lot.

I have been wanting to try the purple sticky rice roll but there seem to be no places that have…read morethem in LA. Since I was in the area I thought it was a perfect time to try it. They are so good. Very filling, I asked for the Chinese donut to be extra crispy and the crunch with the other textures was soooo satisfying -. Also had green onion eggs, sausage, and pork floss in it. The combination of sticky rice, salty, a little sweet, and savory was so good. I was full after about four bites but then I kept taking a couple of bites throughout the rest of the afternoon and had finished it by evening. I'm sad there are no places out in LA with this because I was craving it again the very next day 10 out of 10 would do it again and again, highly recommend. I also ordered the fried daikon cakes. They were good, very flavorful and piping hot. Just not as crunchy as when I make them at home, but I they definitely were flavorful and comforting and satisfying. I ordered my food to go, but there was plenty of seating.

Fan tuan has got the internet salivating recently, and I am no exception. Fan tuan is a rice roll…read morestuffed with goodies such as crispy you tiao, sweet pork floss, and pickled mustard greens. Unfortunately for me, fan tuan is a breakfast item, meaning that most of the places that would have it close by 4pm. And so, I decided to go before work! My quest to procure one of these stuffed rice rolls led me to Yi Mei which specializes in traditional Taiwanese breakfast. Apparently Yi Mei has caught wind that fan tuan has experienced a surge of popularity, because taped on the front counter is a paper guide on how to order fan tuan. The fan tuan, by default, will come with youtiao, pork floss, and mustard greens. You choose the type of rice, salty or sweet, the crispiness of the youtiao, and additional fillings. I went with salty, purple rice, an extra crispy youtiao, and added Taiwanese sausage. I also got soy milk and turnip cake. Dine in is available. The vibe inside is casual. Although it was a weekday morning, there were quite a fair amount of people eating here. But, we opted for take out. The worker was very nice and patient with us, helping us through our order as it was our first time.We were given a buzzer and got our food after a short wait. There is a sauce station with garlic sauce, vinegar, chili oil, and other condiments. I grabbed some garlic sauce and a little bit of chili oil. We couldn't wait to try the fan tuan, so we started eating right in front of the restaurant hahaha... The fan tuan is rolled into a tight cylindrical shape, held together by a casing of saran wrap, making it easy to eat with your hands. Peeling back the plastic revealed the glistening grains of purple rice. The texture was amazing. I sunk my teeth into the densely compacted rice layer. Soft, then immediately crunchy! The extra crispy youtiao shatters apart in your mouth, bursting with the flavor of oily, deep-fried bread and complemented by the sweet and savory pork floss. Then, the richness is cut by the crunchy pickled mustard greens. Indulgence. Satiety. Harmony. Balance. The perfect food. And then, add a little garlic sauce. Add a little chili oil. Reality crumbles around you as you realize this perfect dish was nowhere near its peak! The intense garlic flavor seeps into your bloodstream and the answers to the universe flash before your eyes. Chili oil dances on your tongue. Fire. Umami. Your senses awaken. So this is the height of cooking! The 4 noble truths and 8 fold paths open themselves to you. Power surges through your veins! You have achieved enlightenment! FAN TUAN... BEAMMMMMMM!!!! And just like that, the fan tuan in your hands has disappeared. If I were to get this again, I would probably want to add more mustard greens as I did not think there is enough in the default order. It's also worth checking out their other items, as I thoroughly enjoyed the turnip cake. It tasted very fresh, was steaming hot, and so gooey! Needless to say, I will be paying Yi Mei another visit very soon.

Once upon a time, in the 90s, the Taiwanese population was small, close knit, like the Jewish…read morecommunity. Your ex's Taiwanese uncle was the angel investor that jump started Jerry Yang's Yahoo.com. Your other friend's uncle was the VP to Terry Gou founder of Hon Hai Precision's (the company that makes all the iPhones), your friend's dad was locked up in Taiwan because he was the head of the United Bamboo Triads. Every Taiwanese person in LA and the West Coast probably had a 2 degree of separation with everyone else. And so like the Italians, you needed family restaurants to congregate at, and Aghoo precisely is that type of restaurant where Taiwanese Boomers and their children go sit down and have comfort food. This is a school of cooking that many chefs from Mainland China simply cannot replicate today. And there were only a few restaurants in Los Angeles 30 years ago capable of doing it: Happy Family Garden Pacific Plaza 新園餐館, Dumpling King 老夫子 Hacienda Heights Vons Plaza, Sin Bala 新芭樂 Arcadia, and Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐 Arcadia Location One. That being said, I've always wanted to go back to Taiwan and apprentice under an old school chef and learn this school of stir-fry, you know, carry on the torch. In Taiwan, you used to be able to go to a street stall and order 100 different types of stir fry for dirt cheap, and so the chefs that had the grit to do it became masters at stir fry, authentic green onion beef not that fake Mongolian Beef created for the American Audience...although I equally like the American version. So yes, it was a sigh of relief when I discovered Aghoo. One of the remnants of a lost art form in the diverse world of cuisine. It was survival for the Boomer generation to stand next to a wok all day, to support the business and to support the family. Unlike Italian food, you can't premake Lasagna, Meatballs, marinara sauce and just assemble everything last minute with fresh cooked pasta. No, Taiwanese stir fry is bittersweet hard labor....very mechanical in nature, and the chef needs to understand all the inputs. So these days, Jurassic Restaurant has closed, Uncle Yu's 印第安啤酒屋 had shut down. Leaving.....Aghoos? And yes, Eat Joy in Rowland Heights. Come to think about it, if you take out Din Tai Fung from the picture, these are the last of the Mohicans..... I'll end here with my walk down memory lane. You want the Taiwanese version of that Italian style Family sit down restaurant, this is it. This is where you will find all the Taiwanese Aunties and Uncles that probably own 10,000 shares of TSMC, 30,000 shares of NVDA, and Jensen Huang eating quietly in the corner.

Came for lunch recently, and tried 3 dishes: Green onion…read moresesame pie: good portion, but the inside felt undercooked and it was a bit lacking in flavor. House Special Bean Curd: Normally love this dish, and while the flavor was good, the tofu is actually cut too thin so it lacked any chew (or QQ). Fried Red Yeast Pork Belly: Wanted to try something interesting and new, and this was a fun choice. Very interesting and also heats back up well in an oven. Service was friendly. I can't help but feel like they could optimize their table layout a lot better, and perhaps bring in an additional server - there ends up being a very long wait for 2-4 person groups. I watched as some groups ended up changing their order to go because they had waited so long. Street parking outside.

COVID-19: Social distancing is not enforced at this establishment. Some of the staff wears a mask…read more All customers are not expected to wear a mask. It's optional now. The staff also wears gloves when handling food. There are some hand sanitizers available for customers to use. This place is available for take outs and has no indoor & outdoor seating available with limited capacity. They are only doing To Go orders. They are not sanitizing in between customers. COVID-19 Vaccination Proof: This establishment currently does not require proof of vaccination. While I was grabbing my food from this establishment last month, I asked if they had any special offers and they weren't offering any at the moment. They currently don't have happy hour. They also do not allow pets in their establishment UNLESS it's a service animal. Parking: The parking lot for this establishment is pretty big. They do share the lot with several other establishments. The lot doesn't really get busy, so you shouldn't have any problems with finding parking. I did notice that some spots are smaller than others. Food: I ordered a mild spicy popcorn chicken and minced bowl/ plate. The popcorn chicken was very flavorful, crunchy, tender, and juicy. Big portion for like $10. The Taiwanese seasoning mix brought me right back to the night markets to Taiwan. It's truly the 5 spice powder that hits the spot. The batter wasn't thick, so the chicken didn't taste very battery/ cakey. That's what I hate about some places that make popcorn chicken. It also wasn't too spicy for me. It was just right. I ordered the minced bowl, which is actually a plate. For like $12, it was actually pretty good and the portions was huge. The boiled / blanched cabbage and broccoli were soft, sweet, and tasty. I could taste the sesame oil on it. It wasn't salty. The sweet corn and diced juicy tomatoes combo was good too. The boiled tea egg was pretty delicious. You can actually taste the tea and soy sauce. The egg was nice and soft. And now, for the braised minced pork. The pork was very delicious and it just melted in my mouth. I love that there were some fatty pieces of pork too in the dish. It balanced out some of the pieces of pork, which had too much meat in it. Definitely a very savory and rich dish. Omg and the sauce from the braised minced pork drizzled over the rice was just so perfect! It made the rice extremely delectable. This is hands down one of my favorite Taiwanese dishes, and it was made perfectly. Staff: The staff here are very friendly, welcoming, and kind. They are closing this restaurant down in February 2026 due to rising rent and the landlord's unwillingness to upgrade the place. So sad. I'm seriously upset to see this place go. They accept both cash and credit cards. There is a $20 credit card minimum.

I was craving pork chop rice the other day and couldn't think of where to go, but I remembered…read morehearing that Why Thirsty had a solid pork chop, so I decided to give it a try. I've only had their drinks and popcorn chicken in the past, which were decent. I called in a pickup order and the food was ready in about ten minutes. As of 12/06/25, they currently do not offer dine in and are only doing takeout. I ordered the Railroad Pork Chop, which is the traditional Taiwanese style where the chop is marinated and grilled or pan seared instead of fried. It came with rice and two veggie sides, and everything tasted fresh. The pork chop was flavorful and tender, and the marinade went perfectly with the rice. Overall, a pretty solid meal and I would definitely come back for it again. Not many places still make the railroad style pork chop like this, so it's worth trying if you're a fan.

SinBala - Arcadia…read more SinBala is one of the rare Taiwanese restaurants that has stood the test of time. I grew up eating here. There used to be several locations across Southern California, and I'm glad the Arcadia location is still here. Every visit brings back memories. I come for the Taiwanese classics that are becoming harder to find. The popcorn chicken is still one of my favorites--crispy, fragrant, and seasoned the way Taiwanese street vendors do it. The Taiwanese meatball soup is comforting, and the Taiwanese sausage always reminds me of night markets back home. What I appreciate most is that SinBala doesn't just serve street food. It brings those familiar flavors into a warm, home-style setting. It's nostalgic without trying too hard. Before you leave, save room for dessert. Their shaved ice is a must. I always recommend the brown sugar shaved ice topped with five mochi or boba. It's refreshing, not overly sweet, and the perfect ending to a meal. Taiwanese food is often overshadowed by other regional Chinese cuisines, but places like SinBala remind me how unique it really is. Simple, comforting, and full of character. I'm grateful this little piece of Taiwan is still here.

Came for Taiwanese shaved ice. Honestly the only one in the area it seems doing it traditional…read morestyle - shaved ice not show, lots of toppings. A bit sweeter than my preference but maybe cuz I put condensed milk on it as one of the toppings. The grass jelly shaped firm and nice cubes so possible it's from a can as opposed to in house. Sausage I had as well not the best I've had but traditional flavor and served with lots of garlic on the side (wahoo!)