My family's favorite restaurant for when we crave comfort Shanghainese food at its best! The chef there always greet us with such happiness, and our orders are always taken so quickly because the lovely aunties who work there remember our favorite dishes there, and how we like them prepared! They've always been so accommodating, and we appreciate that so much! Favorite dishes include their braised whole black cod, pork kidney, meatballs, clam stewed egg, meat stuffed gluten puffs, and this one stir fried vegetable dish that I always forget the name of but the server lady always knows; to name a few. The restaurant is small, quaint and can fill up quickly during peak hours. Parking can be difficult as it's located in the same plaza as Golden Deli and Bopomofo, but street parking tends to be plentiful during those peak hours. Regardless, the food here is absolutely worth braving that plaza! read more

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Excellent work chef!! The Chinese cuisine here is Absolutely Amazing. Service is impeccable and nice clean restaurant and restroom is available for paying customers in the back. The clam stew egg dish is my favorite next to their salty yet flavorful pork belly which pairs well together as a combination platter. Finally the world famous Shanghai dumplings made just right with all fresh ingredients daily and well balanced to make it taste heavenly indeed. Thanks Anna and all staff today for making my experience here at your delicious restaurant such a wonderful day. read more

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It's really a small restaurant that the tables are very limited but the food is good. Also there are many vegetarian dishes you can order and very tasty! I can't say their service is bad or good but petty much it depends on the waitress. read more

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It feels just like home. Nice and clean. The food tastes just like it does back in my childhood memories, and the service is incredibly warm and friendly. A comforting, authentic flavor that I'll never get tired of! read more

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My mom and I first tried out this place about a week ago. It's located at the same plaza as Golden Deli on Las Tunas in San Gabriel. We were supposed to go to the Golden Leaf for Taiwanese cuisine, but that parking lot was full, so we decided to try out a new place across the street. We ordered the preserved-vegetable fish noodle soup and Shanghai Steamed Dumplings. However, my mom and I did not like either dish. The preserved-vegetable fish noodle soup was spicy, and it wasn't mentioned on the menu. The fish was in very tiny pieces. The Shanghai Steamed Dumplings had only 8 pieces, and they did not have any soup inside. The skin was thick, and the flavor was lacking. We were disappointed with this meal and will not visit it again. read more

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I came here for dinner as a party of 4. My family has been coming here for decades. There was a period where the food wasn't great, but it seems to have made a comeback! We shared beancurd; the flavors were on point! We also had rice cakes...also flavorful and delicious! We had shredded pork with bamboo, pan fried buns, and soup...everything was delicious! The portions are smaller than at other Chinese restaurants, but the prices are reasonable. I would definitely come back. read more

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We came here for lunch and ordered special pork sliced kidney (特色腰花), braised pork (紅燒肉), eggplant in brown sauce (醬爆茄子), pan fried buns (生煎包, and rice cakes with Chinese muster greens (薺菜炒年糕). Everything was delicious and tasted very authentic in a way that's very different from the typical Americanized Chinese dishes. There are many other authentic Shanghainese dishes in the menus that we'd like to try. Service was efficient The setting is small, quiet and clean. We will definitely be coming back! read more

Consistently Amazing food every time! My favorite dish is the clams with tofu. It comes out piping hot and has a lot of flavor. This is the kind of dish that my grandma would make- comfort food. We also ordered the braised pork hock-tender and gigantic. Their white rice is especially soft and sticky- unlike other Restaurants. Service is always attentive. I think while we were there, the owner stopped by. She stopped by and chatted to us a little bit. read more

Southern Mini Town - Clams with silky tofu - Chinese Near Me - San Gabriel, California

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Return Again. Order Special Pork Kidney Slices , Braised Pork Belly , Preserved Vegetable Fish Fillet , Duck w Green Onion In Brown Sauce. Delicious. Always Enjoy Dining Here. read more

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Authentic Shanghainese food with a family style setting. The owner/Chef is a very nice person.

Great, fine, exquisite food that are all lovingly made in-house. The owner specifically selects on the quality of seafood and meat they serve, which is a great blessing for customers. Authentic Shanghainese flavor you would find here. Service is average but the hospitality and friendliness is impeccable once you become a regular customer or a friend with the staff, chefs, and owner. It feels like going back to a frequently-go restaurant in my hometown - the best cooking comes from love not just money, techniques, and ingredients. Must order - Steamed or braised whole fish, pork kidney with scallions, stir fried eel, and the osmanthus, sesame flavored sticky rice balls (dessert) Cleanness is 3.5 out of 5 stars. The restroom is behind the kitchen, which is in a compact area with limited space for 2+ people to stand in the narrow hallway. Price - $$ read more

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I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley. This place has been around for a while, and I noticed it had lunch specials. I decided to visit this establishment with my parents for brunch. It's a very small restaurant, located next to Bopomofo. There aren't a lot of tables, but it wasn't too busy when I went, so it was ok. The staff are very nice and welcomed us quickly. We saw a lot of pictures of the pan fried dumplings, so we decided to order those. We also saw they had a small lunch special menu. We ended up getting the kung pao chicken and also the shredded pork with bean curd. The kung pao chicken was different from what I was used to at American Chinese restaurants. It was less sweet and more salty, but the chicken was quite tender. The shredded pork with bean curd had way more bean curd than pork, but the bean curd was solid. I am used to pan friend soup dumplings having an ample amount of soup, however the dumplings here did not have much soup. Still, it wasn't too bad. Overall, solid restaurant, and not a bad place to stop at for lunch if you're local to the area. read more

Food is tasty! Came here for the pan-fried dumplings but they said that will take a minimum of 25 minutes so opted for some quick stir fry's instead. Although the taste is there, the quantity was significantly less than expected. If you come here with a family consider ordering double portions? We got the 2 dishes, the Yuxiang Shredded Pork and the Shanghai style shrimp (Xia Ren) plus a hot a sour soup. It came with an order of rice, took it home to go but wasn't enough for 3 adults. read more

Came to this area wanting to try Golden Deli with my parents but the wait was a bit too long and we had a flight to catch. We opted to go in here and was pleasantly surprised with the variety of food there was in here giving the restaurant size. Their pan fried buns were really good! Super crispy outside and juicy inside. We even ate it last and it still retained most of its heat. We also had a pork liver/pork kidney dish. Not much to brag about. Also kung pan chicken was very flavorful, a bit too salty for my taste. The star of the restaurant was their freshwater eel. So surprising they had something like this on a normal day of the week My parents also gave the ultimate comment: this shanghai food is better than most places in Hong Kong. read more

Southern Mini Town - a table full of asian food - Chinese Near Me - San Gabriel, California

This spot may be small and hidden but the food is mighty in taste. The people are very kind and friendly they don't have you waiting for so long to get your order. My family and I have come here for quite some time and the best dishes that we get is the Shanghai chow mein, sea cucumbers and pan fried dumplings. They have a variety of dishes that so far all are always amazing. read more

Bad quality. We ordered guan poa beef shrimp, shrimp was tiny, small appetizer plate with peanuts and half pound red peppers we can't eat. Costs $18.99. We haven't gone back since covid and the portion and quality has gone so bad. We ordered 4 dishes paid $90 incl tax and tips. And we aren't full. We will never come back again. read more

I brought a Shanghai native here for lunch and she proceeded to order dishes common to her native city . Every dish tasted good to me, and I had not eaten this type of Shanghai food before. We enjoyed eating here and hours later, I was still stuffed. My friend lives in Kansas as the only Chinese person living in her small city, so she quite enjoyed this restaurant's style of Shanghai home cooking immensely. We will definitely try to come again to try out some other dishes, the photos on the wall showed some of the restaurant's specialty dishes. read more

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Underwhelming... Ordered some food while waiting for my boba next door at Bopomofo. My order took about 25 minutes, which is reasonable considering people ordered before me. We ordered the Chow Mein, Steamed Pork Dumplings, and the Mapo Tofu. The Mapo Tofu was flavorful and not too spicy. The Chow Mein was okay, but there was hardly any meat... just scraps of pork. I regret ordering the Steamed Pork Dumplings instead of the Pan Fried Dumplings! It was a missed opportunity. The dumplings were really doughy and the pork had little flavor. If I return, I would NOT order it again. read more

Southern Mini Town - Steamed Pork Dumplings - Chinese Near Me - San Gabriel, California

Southern Mini Town is a Shanghainese restaurant located in Alhambra in the same strip shopping center as the Golden Deli. We met a group of old friends for lunch. Since our friends were familiar with the chef / owner they ordered the following: Sen Jian Baos pan fried dumplings 4 stars pretty good not doughy. Filings were just ok. Salty duck egg and Chinese okra 5 stars lots of duck egg flavor Bock Choy 4 stars Sautéed shrimp 4 stars good sized shrimp Pork Kidneys 4 stars nice large cuts Chicken soup 3 stars nothing special meat was dry Pork with bamboo shoots 3 stars very basic Dried tofu with pork 2.5 even more basic Blue crab with rice cakes 3 stars good taste rice cakes were good, 2 tiny blue crabs Sautéed frog legs 3.5 star not my favorite protein but the legs were fresh. Service was excellent. No corkage fee for our 4 bottles of wine we had. Parking is hard because of the popular strip center. read more

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Very good authentic Shanghainese food! I would definitely bring my grandma back here again. read more

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Every time I come here I wonder how is this place not packed. If this were up in the sf Bay Area, this would easily be a top three Chinese restaurant. I'm glad they are here but hope they eventually get the recognition they deserve. J Gold was right about this place back in the day and RIP, he's still right about it today. read more

Disappointing, The food lack flavor, and the portions are tiny, This place used to be much . I will not visit again.

Wonderful accidental discovery - we were aiming for the Golden Deli but they were closed Wednesdays. We had the stirfried eggplant with string beans, the tomato short rib and mountain yam soup, and stirfried pork kidneys. Really delicious. Price is a little on the high side but we had leftovers, so it's ok. read more

One of my mom's favorite places for authentic Chinese food. They specialize in making different entree dishes, and lunch special prices are decent. We normally like to order the kidney slices and bamboo shoots. Heads up the servers mainly speak Chinese, but they have translations on the menu! read more

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My friend introduced me to eat sea cucumber, my friend said I don't need to order before. Today, I came here, they said no sea cucumber. Then, I ordered drunk chicken $16.99, spicy pork stomach $9.99 and stir fried jellyfish $16.99. Before I ordered it, I asked them do they take credit card. They said they take credit card after I ordered more than $25. All the dishes I waited almost 40 minutes, taste no good. Drunk chicken didn't use yellow wine and jellyfish tasteless. I checked. They said they didn't take Discover Card. So bad. I will not come back. read more

Little hole-in-the-wall in the same mini-mall with the ever so popular Golden Deli. The food it tasty; the prices are fair; but compared to other similar restaurants, the portion sizes for some of the dishes were on the paltry side. One of their popular dishes is this huge pork hock, served over a bed of greens and a dark sauce made with soy sauce and honey. The hock is cooked down well, the meat just falls off the bone at the slightest touch. Though their Pan Fried Shanghai Rice Cakes were tasty, the soup dumpling (xiao long bao) and the pan fried pork buns were decent, but you can easily get them better elsewhere... read more

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I rarely ever write reviews, but this had to be done: TERRIBLE TERRIBLE service when we were looking at the menu, the server came over and kept rushing us to order. I didn't even get a good chance to look at the menu (had maybe 2 mins) before she came over and rudely forced upon us a bunch of menu items I wasn't even familiar with. i wanted to take a longer look, but my friend felt pressured, so we ended up letting the server "order" for us. the food came and was mediocre. it wasn't the worst, but I felt the portions were subpar and also not hot enough (including the soup). Here comes the RIDICULOUS punchline... As we were about to leave, the server came and flipped over the receipt to check the tip, and insisted I under-tipped by about 1-2% / one whole whoppin dollar (amazing right?). She called over the boss and them 2 of them stood in our way, NOT LETTING US LEAVE UNTIL WE TIPPED $1 MORE. I really did not want to give them a single penny more, especially after they were so rude and had the audacity to beg for more tip. However, they were super aggressive and determined to not let us leave... we were in a rush to get back to work, so had no choice but to add to the tip. This is prime example of POOR POOR SERVICE AND PLAIN RUDE MANAGEMENT. I mean is it worth it? you get an extra dollar at the expense of losing customers forever read more

Good flavor but portions are so small for the price. Probably won't go back there again.

Yelp, your hours for Tasty Noodle House are incorrect! But it's okay, I never would have discovered this place if it wasn't for that mistake! -Special Pork Kidney Slices: A-MA-ZING! The sauce is sooooo good and the kidney slices are not over cooked. In fact, it might be slightly undercooked. I like them a bit snappier but I'll take tender and soft over dry and rubbery any day. The sauce is a seasoned soy sauce with some sesame oil...? Possibly, but very good mixed with rice. -Braised Fresh Tilapia with Green Onion in Brown Sauce: This is pretty good but maybe not something I'd order again. My friend wanted a braised fish and she liked it but I'd rather do a fish filet with sauce and bypass the bones. The fish is fried and covered in green onions and a savory sauce. The flesh of the fish was also nice and soft and juicy, so not overcooked. Kudos. I'm also surprised my other friend ate it, since she doesn't like bottom feeders. -Shanghai Pan Fried Dumpling: SKIP!!! They did so well not overcooking the other dishes, I'm not sure what happened here =( There was no soup inside the dumplings and the bottom wasn't even crispy. Most of the dumplings were popped on the plate. -Clam Stew Egg: Delicate egg custard with clam pieces. It's exactly as it sounds. I liked it but my friend thought it was boring. -House Special Stewed Pork (?): I'm not too sure about the name of this one but it consisted of pork belly cubes that have been stewed so long that the fat melted in our mouths and was super flavorful from the caramelized sauce. I just pointed at the photo on the last page of the menu. This was probably the favorite of my friends. This dish is definitely fatty and is very good with rice. I thought the service was very good for being a Chinese place. My tea was filled pretty quickly after I set the lid ajar. I'd come back just for the kidney slices...and to try a soup, not sure what people were ordering but it seemed like every other table in the restaurant ordered a soup. read more

Ignore the three stars. Everyone knows the best Chinese restaurants are subject to poor ratings. I have been eating Southern Mini Town since I was a kid. My dad is obsessed with this place, and there came a time where we were eating this week after week. But I hardly ever got tired of it. So authentic with the best flavors that scream comfort food. Literally everything is good. Get their shrimp, fish fillets, kidney, shredded bean curd, and lion's head meatball NOW!! PRONTO!! read more

Very good! Nice aunty takes my order and the Shanghai style food never disappoints. The potstickers are excellent as is the Chinese Squash (loofah...). Will come back! read more

The Service: Very small restaurant but they really pack as many tables as they can in that tiny space. One server but she can really multi-tasking and didn't feel like lacking customer service. The Food: Authentic Shanghai cuisine, majority customers are from China. We ordered 7 dishes, my favorites are... Pork Kidney Slices - Super tender, great texture!! Light sauce with ginger. You will never imagine that is what "pork kidney" taste like! Pan Fried Pork Bun - Freshly made~ handmade dough. The bottom of the buns are crispy, the meat are juicy and the buns are so soft. Highly recommended! Few dishes are just so-so... 2 flavor shrimps - same type of shrimp, one without sauce and the other one with sweet & sour sauce XLB - oversteamed, super dry inside the dumplings, no soup juice at all. The dough is getting hard. The Parking: Plaza parking (free) read more

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A home styled few tabled shanghainese restaurant. The food here can be typically found in places in Shanghai and are that can mean sugary (red cooked) foods and winter melon soups. You'll also find common meat dishes cooked with vegetables which make for a good dinner or lunch. They start you with peanuts and tea as you drink and typically 1.5 dishes per person. I recommend ordering a main dish with a soup to go with your main course. read more

Southern Mini Town - Red Cooked Fish - Chinese Near Me - San Gabriel, California

I'd have to say this is my new favorite place to eat authentic Chinese food for lunch. My friends who live in the area know all the places and they said I'd like this restaurant, and they were certainly right...with one exception, I didn't like it, I loved it. It's a very nondescript restaurant in a mini mall. You probably won't see it from the street. Parking can be a challenge, but there's plenty of two-hour free street parking available close by. The prices are very reasonable. Almost all the lunch items are between $5.45 and $7.45. The food is fantastic. It's fresh, plentiful and delectable. If you want to get that "undiscovered hideaway" food experience, Southern Mini Town is it. Go there for lunch, or dinner, just go there. You'll really enjoy it. See my pics of the fantastic food: read more

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Dear LA, you have annoying traffic, dirty air, humid summers, but I don't care. I am still immensely jealous of the people who live in the valley and within 5 min drive to great Chinese food. We came to Southern Mini Town at a fellow Shanghainese girl's recommendation. Five adults plus 2 kids ate well on 6 entrees and 2 orders of xlb all for under $50 before tip. How is that even possible. For one thing, the eggplant special was only 2 bucks, and secondly, one of the entree was comp because we spent X amount of dollars. I wasn't aware of how much we had to spent since the entrees on their own was already a bargain. All the entrees were great and invoked a sense of nostalgia in me. The xlb was the only miss since they weren't very juicy. I kind of gambled on that one by ordering in a place that doesn't specialize in xlb. Rice cake stir fried with julienne pork and mustard greens illustrates the beauty of Chinese food. One dish contains the perfect balance of protein, vegetable, and starch. Stir fried shrimp was simple and straight forward. The authentic version uses small fresh water prawns that you can't get here and the simple treatment is used to showcase both the unadulterated flavor of the shrimp and its luxuriously tender texture. Here, medium sized shrimp was used instead so the taste was somewhat lacking, but you can only make do with what is available. The eggplant was done in a classic Shanghainese style with generous amounts of oil, soy sauce, and sugar. The eggplant was soft yet still retained its shape. It wasn't exactly health, but so comforting when the oily salty sweet eggplant pulp is eaten with white rice. Fried fish with seaweed powder is another classic Shanghainese dish. Its a classic because its so good. Crunchy puffy fried fish with a hint of refreshing seaweed flavor. We also got two none Shanghainese dishes and both proved to be tasty. Fried ribs topped with fragrant bits of garlic, cilantro, and scallions was particularly satisfying to a garlic fiend like me. The spicy wings was unique in that it tasted like it was marinated in shrimp paste and fried with peanuts, chilis, onions, and garlic. It wasn't easy to eat since it was quite bony, but the work made the morsels of meat all the more tastier. read more

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Most decent local Shanghai type of food according to my dad. Lunch specials. Regular small mom pop 626 chinese restaurants. Lunch Special 11am-2:30pm. Thursday Closed. FYI for those light eaters, Shanghai food is a bit more greasy vs Taiwanese food. Regular items like string beans, sticky rice cake dish, hot glass noodle sheets (transparent, mung bean starch sheets), Xiao long bao (its okay). Parking in small busy plaza. Its possible to find. If not, then check for street parking. It gets crazy here during lunch, dinner or weekends. read more

Overall not bad. The fried fish with seaweed was not the best I have had but it was delicious non the less. The stewed pork leg was on point and was as good as any Shanghainese restaurant. The fried pork buns and xlb were ok and I would not necessarily order them again. Did not try the Shanghai noodles which is quintessentially Shanghainese. I would return to try some of the other dishes. read more

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i want to say this place is good, it's been around for a long time and the food is fine the issues are: #1 price and that is because #2 portion size the food is family style shanghainese food, and it's good but not standout in flavor or anything like other places the issue is that when you get the bill and you're still hungry... at a chinese restaurant.. there's something wrong every plate we ordered was $15+, and every plate we got was appetizer portioned ordering 4 plates, still being full, then getting a $70+ tip bill at the end when we were still hungry......... that did not feel good i'm sure they will still do well, there were a lot of return customers all speaking shanghainese. but for others, i don't think it's worth it. you get more bang for your buck at virtually any chinese place nearby with similar or better quality.. similar pricing but larger portions read more

I believe that this spot is an amazing place if you are looking to eat or take out for Shanghai-style food. This place is located on Alhambra a couple of blocks away from the San Gabriel Playhouse. It's one of the best Shanghai restaurants in Los Angles. The owner himself is from Shanghai and so he makes one of the most authentic cuisines I have eaten in all my years in LA. The customer service is amazing and the aunties serving you are super amazing. They are really nice. Even though the place is small you are still able to feel like you are in a nice ShangHai restaurant. There are mirrors on the wall so you can check yourself ahaha. (i know im very funny), there were menu items that were around the walls too. All of those photos on the wall are more of their popular dishes. I went with a couple of family members. Everyone loved it and wanted to come back for more. Sadly the pandemic struck and we were not able to dine in. The good thing was that they closed for a couple of months to some deep cleaning, thats what the owner told me. Later they decided to open again and now you can order takeout. They are usually closed on Thursdays but they are open 6 days a week. My favorite dish from there is the shanghai pork spareribs and the special pork kidney slices. The shanghai pork spareribs have a sweet and sour taste that tastes like kung pao chicken. Kids definitely love that, I know my cousins did. The special pork kidney slices are so good with rice. They have very little oil which makes it taste so good with the veggies on the bottom and some green onion on the top. The soy sauce from the pork kidneys you have to try, it is not too salty nor is it oily, unlike other restaurants. I would definitely come back with family and friends. read more

A mixed review for this restaurant. Ambiance 2-star: tiny restaurant and crowded seats, almost no walking space between tables. The waiting line was long, only two large tables inside, make sure you call in to reserve table first. Parking was hard to find during dinner time, and you have to seek around residential area for street parking. Service 1-star: slow, impatient and sort of rude. When we asked if we could take another table inside, we were told "Don't you see it's reserved already?" with very impolite tone. Be quite honest, no matter how good their food was, the service was really bad. Let alone their food wasn't that great either. Food 3-star: Some were good some were bad, too much MSG in the soup, made you dizzy and thirsty afterwards. Garlic Baby Back Ribs - ** below average taste, the meat was not fresh Crab fried rice cake - **** tasted good though overpriced, recommend Flaming Shrimp - *** average taste, under-cooked, the shrimps were supposed to be crispy Bamboo Shoot Top and Duck - *** soup was okay, too much MSG Shredded Beef with Hot Pepper - **** good taste, would recommend Shredded Dried Bean Curd with Bamboo - *** tasted fresh Pan Fried Dumpling - *** about average Chicken in Wine Sauce - **** very flavorful, recommend Fried Seaweed Yellow Fish - *** average taste Eggplant and String Bean in Brown Sauce - *** average Price 2-star: For one dish, they raised the bill price without telling us first. Felt to be cheated on the pricing for some dishes. Considering the quality and potion, it's just okay, about $20 per person. read more

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