Looking for some Chinese food in the Cerritos area, I've always tried places that were closer to the main streets as they were more lively. But by spending so much time in the busy plazas, I completely forgot that there was potential for places in the surrounding areas as well. With this in mind, I came to Yelp to search for some of these restaurants and came across M's Kitchen. Being somewhat tucked away in Artesia, I thought I would give them a try. I came in on a Saturday night around 7:30 PM with my party of five to which we were seated immediately in the back. Looking around, the dining room was pretty small. With olive green walls and pictures, it seemed like a "hole in the wall" atmosphere. The seating was somewhat cramped, but it was fine overall. We began to read the menus and decide on what we would order for the night when the waitress told us that she had a party of eight and wanted us to move tables. We complied, but it was a little sudden since we were already settled in. After moving to the new table, we proceeded to look at the menus again when out of nowhere the waitress took two of the five menus we had left on the table and gave them to the table we just moved from without asking prior. Service was somewhat shifty in the first 10 minutes and my party debated if we should have gotten up and walked out. We decided to stay, but these two experiences were not ideal. If you seat a customer at a table, then you've seated them. Having them move to another place because the restaurant does not have enough adequate tables shouldn't be the burden of the customer. Furthermore, taking menus before patrons have finished ordering shouldn't occur as it is possible that they might want to review the menu again. These incidents being over, I decided to order a Twice Cooked Pork which cost around 12.50 as part of the economic meal special ($12 per dish and $0.50 extra because the dish contains pork). The waitress took our menus and came back with food 10 minutes later.
When the Twice Cooked Pork came to the table at first, I was mildly confused as the dish seemed to be dominantly cabbage. But after fishing around the dish, I found the pork to be buried inside. In the dish were the pork, cabbage, wooden ear mushrooms, carrots, and bean curd. Ratio-wise, it was pretty heavily vegetable with pork seeming to be the side item in the dish, which left me wanting more. The size of the plate was also somewhat small, which made me feel like I had to eat slower and consume more rice to fill myself up. The dish with rice lasted 1.5 meals, but that's more than likely because I consumed a good portion rice with it. With these being said, the price to portion ratio was leaning towards the "not worth it" side.
Though the portion size was more on the lacking side, the food quality was great! The cabbage was moist enough that the liquid it gave off was lightly savory in a fresh way, which balanced the flavor of the intense pork. The wooden ear mushrooms were also cooked perfectly as they were just chewy enough. The texture was somewhat slimy, which helped differentiate the different items in the items on the side. The carrots weren't much to talk about, just your regular old stir-fried carrots; they were chewy and sweet. The one or two pieces of bean curd that were in the dish had just the right amount of soy sauce to give it flavor, but not so much to the point where it felt like it was drowning in sauce. Since bean curd like this is usually braised in soy sauce for a long time, it's commendable how great it tasted. Last and certainly not the least for the dish, the pork was very tasty. The meat itself was cut into thin slices which made the dish very palatable. Each piece had defined spice that combined with a savory flavor that really filled your mouth with a good taste. The top which had some pieces of the pork belly skin tasted very flavorful and had the most seasoning, while the bottom had little strips of fat that created neutral balance. In all, the food quality was very good.
For this particular experience at M's Kitchen, I would give them a 4 out of 5. The service at the beginning was mildly irritating, but the service got better as the experience went on. I understand that the waitress was simply trying to do what was best for the restaurant, so I don't hold that against the server. The quantity was somewhat small, but they made up for in in flavor. If not for the mix up in the beginning, I would have gave 5. If I were on the less hungry side but still looking for a good quality meal, I'd recommend M's Kitchen to Artesia and the surrounding areas. Nice work guys. read more