The Green Zone

While looking for bento supplies in the area, I came across a sustainability-oriented website that had listings of various restaurants that matched their mission. One of the restaurants on that list is the Green Zone, which advertised itself as having "entrees using locally-raised, farm fresh ingredients." I was intrigued because this restaurant in located smack-dab in the middle of the eating landscape that is the SGV, a place not well-known for that kind of organic, pro-local attitude.

I double checked with a browse through other SGV blogs and a quick perusal of yelp and chowhound. It seemed to be very favorable and generally the sentiment was "I can't believe it's located on Valley!" I convinced my sister to tag along yesterday and soon we were there. It's located in Valley Plaza next to many other restaurants.

The inside is modern but not cold, with wood accents and a green theme. Almost everyone else inside spoke Mandarin. Our waiter was nice, and I'm pretty sure he is the co-owner of the restaurant. The menu is sort of a pan-Asian, not-quite-fusion affair.

We decided to each order a dish and share the wild-caught sea bass over spinach salad. She got the seafood pasta with linguine. There's a choice of sea bass, salmon, or shrimp scampi, but our waiter offered to do a mix of the three. I decided to get that SGV standby: Hainan chicken over rice. I also ordered an organic ginger ale and my sister ordered a pomegranate-apple juice.


The salad came out after about a 10-minute wait. I liked the balsamic vinaigrette on the spinach, but the sea bass was a little bit too cooked for my liking. My Hainan chicken came out soon after. The presentation was beautiful, and everything tasted really, really good. I liked that they poached the dark meat so that it was not dry at all, and I didn't have to deal with picking the meat off the bones. The rice was very flavorful, and all the sauce accompaniments worked well with the chicken and rice.


After a bit of a wait the pasta came out and we both thought the portion was huge. There was quite a bit of seafood and the sauce was very liquidy. The pasta itself had a nice bite to it, and all of the seafood was cooked perfectly and tasted fresh. However, my sister felt it wasn't their strong point and said she would come back but not order the pasta again.


With everything we ordered the price came out to more than we would normally spend for lunch (this is the SGV after all), but I am sure it would have cost way more had it been in west LA or Pasadena. I look forward to returning. In fact, I think I will go back next week and try some of the other things on the menu, like the salmon triangles with tri-colored salt, or the organic wonton soup. I recommend the Hainan chicken and may even like it better than what they serve at Hainan chicken standard Savoy down the street.

The Green Zone
534 E Valley Blvd.
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626)288-9300
menu

Brief return to the SGV: old and new favorites

I'm back in the SGV for a brief vacation and I thought I'd do a sampling of what I've eaten so far. Upon perusing my blog pictures folder, I also came across some restaurants from previous trips that I had yet to add to this blog. So, I'm going to lump them into two long "here I am again" posts to save room in my brain and because I'm too lazy to think of more post titles.

Up first, an oldie but goodie: Garden Cafe

This is my standby for cafe food when I'm at home. We usually stop by for late night drinks of the non-alcoholic variety and some greasy late-night food. About a month ago I stopped by with my boyfriend to take advantage of the late night eating option that doesn't seem to exist where we live. This particular night it was totally dead in there, which makes me thing Garden has fallen out of favor with the local late night crowd in favor of newer establishments like the Sunday Bistro.


I ordered the Hainan Chicken with rice, and he ordered pork chops with mushroom sauce. My dish came out with better presentation than I expected, and it was delicious, too. The soup was flavorful and the sauces were a perfect foil to the moist chicken., right on par with Savoy's famous Hainan chicken. The pork chops were greasy but big portioned, and somehow Garden's mashed potatoes were better than I remembered.


I hope that they don't close down due to the new, flashier cafes because it's still one of my favorites after all these years.

Another restaurant memory: Chabuya Ramen

In the same visit we went to the Sawtelle neighborhood for a visit with the BF's sister. After perusing blogs per usual I settled on Chabuya ramen. I was looking forward to their "Asian Bun Sandwich" and some ramen. I ended up getting a mini pork sandwich and a mini shrimp rice bowl. The sandwich came on a peking duck-type sandwich roll alongside a small salad. The rice bowl was not so mini with its huge mound of rice. I thought the flavor was good, but that with the amount of rice the rice bowl became bland.



My boyfriend got the special dipping ramen (tsuke-men) that came with two dipping sauces. He liked, but thought it was a lot of work since the noodles kept sticking together. His sister got the classic ramen with miso and said the portion was just enough that she felt satisfied without being too stuffed to ice skate, which we were doing later on.


We all agreed it was good, but not the best ramen we'd ever had.


Garden Cafe
228 W. Valley Boulevard
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 289-1833

Chabuya

2002 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

(310)473-1013

Blogger adventures: Cozy Cafe

This winter break while back in the SGV Lyndsay and I decided to have lunch, and little did we know what an adventure it would be! After much discussion and perusal of SGV food blogs for over an hour, we decided to hit up Luscious Dumplings, helped by the fact that it is conveniently located near a Phoenix food boutique where I wanted to get pecan tarts.

Unfortunately for us, Luscious is one of the few asian eateries that is actually closed on Christmas eve. I mean, come on! That's one of the good things about living in the SGV...almost everything is open on any given holiday. Our faces were sad, but I was cheered by scoring some pecan tartlets for $3.50 (6 to be exact) at Phoenix. The smell wafting from nearby Vietnam House was very enticing, but since I had professed an urge for Taiwanese food, we reluctantly passed. Lyndsay remembered going to a Taiwanese place in Arcadia with Lillian named Sin Bala, so we decided to find it and eat there.

Driving east on Duarte, we congratulated ourselves on finding it in an asian strip mall...until we saw that it too was closed! Just our luck. By now so hungry we were almost desperate, we looked around that strip mall for something to eat. May mei restaurant almost made it, until we saw Cozy Cafe and its Taiwanese bento boxes! This was the perfect amalgam of my two cravings: Taiwanese food and bento.

Huge menu on the wall

We sat beside this couple in the extremely small restaurant (seating 25 max) and waited for service. Looking at the menu on the wall, I ordered the short ribs bento and Lyndsay ordered the unagi bento. Each bento came with rice, a vegetable, some pickled vegetables, and some meat sauce with a hardboiled egg, all for $6.50! We waited, waited, and waited for our food. The couple next to us waited, ate, and paid their bill before Lyndsay got her unagi! The woman's dan dan noodles smelled and looked extremely good, and I contemplated wishing I had ordered that instead.

Short ribs bento

Although the service was lacking and semi-difficult because of language barriers and the extreme wait time, the food was excellent. Each part of the bento worked well together, and each was delicious on its own. My only dislike was the chewiness of the short ribs, but I blame that more on my own folly for choosing it than their cooking of it. Lyndsay's unagi was very good, but the portion size was small.



Since the bento do not have to be piping hot, I think it would be good for a take out lunch for an exciting day trip where the access to food is questionable. They also had three refridgerators full of available side dishes and Taiwanese specialties. Also, ordering ahead would probably alleviate some of the wait, which was the our main problem with our experience at Cozy cafe. Now if I could figure out how to order in Taiwanese...I'd be eating there every time I visit the SGV.

A huge variety of take out

Cozy Cafe
651 W Duarte Rd. Ste. B
Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 294-2981
menu

Emperor Taste Seafood Restaurant

I pretty much grew up with dim sum. Even before preschool my heart favored certain dim sum dishes and I consumed unhealthy amounts of tea.

For the sake of this review, I will try my best to phonetically translate the dishes--I know only how to speak it in Cantonese.



When Emperor Taste Seafood Restaurant had its grand opening, it disappointed and subsequently warded off many people. Fast forward to now: The dim sum is great. The service? So attentive that my plates were changed several times in one hour. In addition, its prices are competitively low: barely under two dollars per dim sum dish.

One factor I use to judge the skill of a dim sum maker is the wrapper of the har gow. The har gow presented to me had all great qualities. It was not made the day before--you can tell this by the smell of the shrimp and the way the wrapper breaks when you bite into the dumpling. The wrapper was translucent and thin--in addition, when I bit into it, the wrapper did not fall apart in my mouth in chunks. The shrimp was definitely fresh and had no strange smell.

Another factor I use to judge a restaurant serving dim sum is the quality of their gee hung (basically congealed pork blood cut into squares). This is used to judge the overall quality of the restaurant as it is one of the hardest dishes to make well. Again, like the shrimp in the har gow, smell is key. This gee hung tasted well and its consistency was rightly firm. The only smell coming from it was the smell of cooked gee hung and nothing else. Had it smelled like anything else--be it putrid, or flowery, or especially if there is an overwhelming, powerful smell--I would have raised my eyebrow.

The rest of the dim sum was just as good as the har gow and gee hung. Nothing was lacking--a good example was the cheung fun. The noodle itself was smooth and its filling was fresh.

Despite all these attractive qualities of this restaurant, there is a low number of customers. I attribute the bad grand opening as the culprit. Because of the amount of customers there is no waiting in line--but! the dishes are not steaming hot.

I recommend this place for high quality dim sum. Not only do you bypass long lines found at other dim sum restaurants, but you also get the superb dim sum at a great price.


Emperor Taste Seafood Restaurant
1039 E. Valley Blvd., #B201
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 280-6668

Mon - Sun 9:00AM to 3:00PM, 5:00PM to 10:00PM

Rainbow Noodle

I never thought I would like a noodle place with a cheesy name like Rainbow Noodle, especially when my favorite, Mien Nghia, is just down the street. However, this recently opened restaurant in the crowded market center on Valley is definitely worth a visit. A huge picture menu in the window is what first drew my mom's attention, and it depicts many delectable noodle dishes waiting for your enjoyment.

This place has many, many food options, ranging from noodles with soup, chow mein and chow fun, to rice dishes, porridge, and vegetarian options. There are over 120 options! Luckily, there's also a picture menu to help you with your choice.


The interior is small and clean, and is much more visually appealing than the usual noodle place. It wasn't very busy on a Sunday for lunch, which I attribute to its newness. The dish that caught my mom's eye was their seafood deep fried egg-noodle. It features a mound of crispy noodles that is covered with seafood, bok choy, and sauce. The temperature of the sauce softens the noodles. I like to eat a mix of soft noodles and crunchy, deep fried noodles with the seafood. Deep fried here does NOT mean greasy. It's a great texture in my mouth. I mean, who doesn't love yummy sauce goodness with crispy carbohydrate noodles?

I decided to order the needle rice noodle. I don't know why it's called the needle rice noodle, because it's misleading. This thicker noodle came swimming in a very flavorful broth, accompanied by fish cake, shrimp, chicken, and a duck wing! The chewiness of the noodle was great with the saltiness of the broth. It was very much like the Vietnamese dish banh canh, which I love, but without the thick soup. This bowl of noodles alone persuaded me to come back to try more on my next trip home.

One the next visit, I was accompanied by my mom and my boyfriend. The place was packed, with almost every table occupied. My mom decided to order the Special rice noodle, which came with the default flavorful broth and was chock full of delicious things, like shrimp, chicken, fish balls, and duck.


My boyfriend decided to order his favorite noodle dish, which is a soup noodle with duck. Here it's called "Soy sauce Duck egg-noodle" and he asked for the big egg noodle, which had the right amount of bite to it. The duck leg makes the broth deliciously salty and fatty, which he loves, but is also notoriously hard to eat. My only complaint was that there wasn't any bok choy in the soup for a change of texture.


Although I was tempted to order the needle rice noodle soup again, I decided against it for the sake of this blog. It's not exciting if I order it twice. I ended up ordering the "Fish ball soup with seaweed" before I realized it didn't come with noodles. The waiter was obliging, however, and told me he would ask them to include noodles. Now, would I rather have egg noodles or wide rice noodles? This was such a nice gesture and wholly unexpected. When my bowl came out, it was steaming and full of noodles. The broth had a hint of seaweed flavor which I liked, and they had included two types of fish cake. See those brown, oval bits? That was deep-fried garlic, one of the best things about this dish. However, I think I still prefer the needle rice noodle soup.


With my second visit out of the way, I can now officially endorse Rainbow Noodle as a place to get some noodles that hit the spot, whether you want soup noodles or fried noodles. The service is fast, the restaurant is clean, and the location is close. A win-win situation for all...especially this blog, as noodles are its namesake.

Rainbow Noodle
1281 E. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 282-8878

Open 7 days: 8:30am-8:00pm

U2 Cafe

This tiny restaurant, called U2 Cafe, confused me when it first opened. I mean, what does the band U2 have to do with food? And isn't that copyright infringement? The answers are nothing, and yes. However, asian food places have never shied away from naming themselves or having similar logos to pop culture entities, so you or I shouldn't be surprised.

The name comes from the fact that it's a hybrid of two popular Chinese eating establishments: the BBQ place, and the cafe. The former is known for its roast duck, cha siu pork, and other favorites, like wonton soup and beef chow fun. Flagship: Sam Woo. The latter is known for its coffee drinks, baked dishes, pseudo-American dishes, and penchant for being open into the early morning hours. Flagship: Garden Cafe.

U2 has both in its small building, appealing to many of its customers, I'm sure. I have to confess I have yet to try anything from the BBQ side, so I haven't yet taken advantage of this duality. However, the cafe I've been to many times. The main draws here are breakfast and lunch. The breakfast menu is unique, offering a "Chinese breakfast" and an "American breakfast." The Chinese breakfast consists of your choice of congee, fried chow fun or macaroni soup, and a breakfast drink like coffee or tea. The American breakfast consists of your choice of pancakes or eggs and bacon or sausage, oatmeal or macaroni soup, and the breakfast drink. All this for the bargain price range of $4.50-5.50!!

I had eggs and bacon, the macaroni soup, and milk tea. It was way too much food for breakfast, but since it was so cheap I couldn't help but try to eat it all so that I would feel I got my money's worth and more. My boyfriend ordered the pancakes and eggs, and chose the oatmeal. He was satisfied, but thought the oatmeal was a weird soupy consistency. Plus, they only provided white sugar, not the brown sugar he was used to. My reply was that it was his fault for ordering oatmeal at a Chinese place! My aunt says when she doesn't have anything to bring for lunch, she'll order the congee and the fried chow fun. She eats the congee for breakfast and has the fried chow fun for lunch...two meals for under $6!

The lunch here is like most other cafes, including a cup of soup and a drink that's coffee or tea (there's an extra charge for cold drinks). The soup I had there for lunch was a cream soup with corn and chicken. It was flavorful and creamy, and fell right in line with other cream soups I've had (though I usually get the "vegetable" soup at Garden). I ordered my usual, which is the pork chop with whatever sauce I feel like that day (mushroom, garlic, or black pepper) and that day I felt like garlic. I order this dish at the cafe regardless of what meal it is (lunch or dinner) and whether I'm hungry enough.

The pork chop came smothered in sauce, with some rice and buttered vegetable medley that I suspect is from the freezer aisle (all cafes include this). It was fatty and delicious, but I couldn't finish it all. It wasn't the best that I'd had, but it wasn't the worst either. The cafe serves a wide range of items, like curry, sandwiches, pasta, and Chinese favorites. No cafe would be without its baked dishes. These usually come baked with lots of cream sauce and cheese...definitely not for the ones watching their weight!

I wouldn't say this is my favorite cafe, but they are my old standby when I don't want to wait at Garden, or want a cheaper breakfast that's not vomit-inducing like the neighborhood Denny's. It's a novel idea to combine the two kinds of establishments, and I wholeheartedly support it.

U2 Cafe
1200 E Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626)282-1800

Lunch special 11am-3pm

Wonton Time!

I went to a little place called Wonton Time with my mom for lunch last October, but have only found the time to publish now. This place is so memorable that I can taste the wonton soup in my mouth right now. True to their name there are only three options on the menu: noodle soup, lo mein, and plain wonton with soup. With each option there are three topping options: shrimp wonton, sliced beef, and fish balls. You can also get any two combos of the three toppings, or, if you're feeling really hungry, all three at once.

I walked in and we were ushered to a small table next to the wall. On the walls the menus are reprinted (only in Chinese) and also pictures of Wonton Time in Hong Kong. My mom informed me this was "Hong Kong Style" which I took to mean simple menus specializing in one thing. We each got a bowl of noodle soup with wontons, and I also ordered a side of vegetables with oyster sauce.

The soup was fragrant and clear, and the noodles were also good. The wontons were pretty big. My mom told me my granduncle refused to eat there because they only used shrimp in their wontons, with no meat at all. This was pretty extravagant, I thought. The shrimp filling made the texture of the wontons different than what I was used to. It was good, but eventually became monotonous without the variation of the meat filling.

I'd definitely eat there again when I have the craving for wonton soup, and I recommend getting the vegetables with oyster sauce, which only cost $2 and taste so good with my wonton soup. I prefer this place over industry standard Sam Woo, which can be noisy, and not as flavorful.

I liked the way the restaurant decided to specialize in wonton soup. That way you knew what to get there, and there was no fuss about it. It's also a cheap option for lunch in the SG valley, running about $4 for a nice-sized bowl of noodles.


Wonton Time
19 E. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 293-3366

Mon - Sun 11:00AM to 9:00PM

Orean the Health Express

The thing that's confusing me most about this place is whether to call it Orean's Health Express, Orean's the Health Express, or Orean the Health Express. The restaurant's name, not its serving of healthy fast food, is the most confusing thing about the restaurant. But since I cannot quite clarify which is the correct name, I will talk about something I can vouch for: the healthy fast food.

Concepts of health and fast food are usually akin to oil and water, never mixing. However, Orean's has mastered speed, healthy-goodness, and taste. This vegetarian restaurant even proudly touts an "American Heart Association Approved" sticker on the front. It utilizes a wide variety of ingredients to make each dish flavorful, exciting to eat, and healthy. For instance, the Orean Salad Burger has garden vegetables, sunflower seeds, black beans, tomatoes, onions, pickles, and organic clover sprouts.

I made two trips to Orean's; on my first trip there, I decided to order the African quesadilla at the window and sit down to enjoy the meal. I'm accustomed to quesadillas with cheese and grease seeping out of the tortillas and soaking onto the plates, so I was genuinely surprised to find that the quesadilla wasn't at all greasy. In fact, the tortillas looked kind of dry. I felt disappointed and thought perhaps I should've ordered something to drink to help eat it, but my first bite told me that it was flavorful and definitely not dry. The variety of ingredients including sunflower and pumpkin seeds, beans, and cornmeal gave it an amazing blend of colors and an amazing tangy taste. The only bad thing about this dish is that I found it smaller than expected.

Because the prices were moderately cheap (it was $2.79 for the quesadilla!), I made a second trip there the same day. This time, I used their drive thru to buy the African burrito and Strawberry Super Shake ($4.69 for the burrito and $2.85 for the shake). I found the African burrito to be large and well worth the money; in addition, this boldly flavorful dish boasted more ingredients and was tastier than the quesadilla. The freshness of the vegetables was hard to escape notice and it was so juicy that I had to use a paper bag to prevent the juices from falling onto my lap. The strawberry shake was quite thick and creamy, but I detected a taste of soy powder that was perhaps too strong. Other than that complaint, the shake was overall pretty good.

I would greatly recommend this restaurant to anyone, even to non-vegetarians. The fresh food is so good that people who love meat will not complain. The time it takes the food to be prepared is not long and I found that using the drive thru actually decreases waiting time. Just as I thought the restaurant couldn't get any better, I found out that it sells a healthy whole wheat vegan pancake and waffle mix at the restaurant--it has no cholesterol, dairy, or eggs! Excellent!

Orean... the Health Express
817 N. Lake Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91104
(626) 794-0861
website

Mon - Sun 9:30AM to 9:00PM

Yazmin Malaysian Restaurant

After having a taste of Malaysian food in Northern California at the restaurant Banana Island, I came home craving pan-fried noodles and roti canai with spicy curry sauce to dip in. The only Malaysian restaurant I could think of in Alhambra is Yazmin, a place I have never been in but was familiar with since its location is in the busy heart of Main Street, next to the Edwards Renaissance. With its courteous staff, affordable prices, and relaxing, spacious ambiance, Yazmin is worth a look.

Upon entering, I noticed the walls were adorned with colorful paper artwork and fans. There are booths parallel to opposite sides of the wall; this creates an illusion of a large environment that made me keep scoping out the diners on the far other side.

The expansive menu includes noodle soup, fried noodles, seafood, and vegetarian; they have lunch special prices (~$4.75) on Monday-Thursday (excluding holidays). Although I went on a Sunday, the prices were still within a reasonable range (~$6.75).

For the appetizer, the roti canai, which is a flaky, thin fried pancake, came in a pair with a bowl of curry dipping sauce. My grubby hands rushed to tear off a piece, but retreated as the roti canai was piping hot and burned! Once it cooled down, I was able to savor the chewy, fried bread. Instead of crispy and light, Yazmin's version of the pancake was more soggy and greasy. However, the curry sauce was good enough, being spicy opposed to creamy.

The main dish I ordered was Char Kuei Teow, which was fried flat rice noodles with bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, egg and leeks. When asked if I wanted to order it spicy or non-spicy, I opted for spicy but once it was delivered, my taste buds did not detect anything so their chili sauce must not be very hot. I ordered mine sans chicken, and overall, this oily stir-fry dish went down the palate easy enough. At many Chinese restaurants such as Sam Woo, this fried flat noodle dish is quite popular but with beef instead of chicken and shrimp.

As for dessert, we ordered a ice blended taro drink with bananas and tapioca and many other things I could not identified called Mo Mo Cha Cha. It was possible the best dish of the meal, and the waiter informed us that it could be served both hot and cold. Try the latter and it makes for a satisfying summer cooler. Here a tip: instead of sharing it like I did, order one for each individual because it will disappear fast!

Throughout the meal, the waitresses and waiters were attentive and brought an extra bowl and napkins for the dessert without us having to ask. This made the meal even better as I felt the staff prided themselves in what Yazmin served.

Despite my limited knowledge of Malaysian food, Yazmin delivers a passing grade in my book, which means it is miles better than say the bland and tasteless Noodle Planet/World. But Yazmin adds to that with their wonderful service, bright and clean atmosphere, and great prices, which makes this lone Malaysian Restaurant stand out on Main Street.

Yazmin Malaysian Restaurant
27 East Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 308-2036

Sun - Thu 11:00AM to 9:30PM
Fri - Sat 11:00AM to 10:00PM

Rubio's at UCLA

I must congratulate Rubio's for fulfilling my hunger, but I frown upon its ingredients in its fish and shrimp burritos. Though Rubio's provides wonderfully large burritos for their price (remember, this is in Westwood, where prices are rather high), their burritos will quickly bore you.

Today I had the fish burrito--I fell in love with it the first time I had it--but this was about the fifth time I've eaten it. The second time around the ingredients' tastes already made me want to give up Rubio's altogether. Rubio's foods generally have a trend towards exploding tons of flavor in your mouth, but that explosion dies quickly because it just gets tiring.

The fish burrito has an abundance of white sauce that sticks to everything inside the burrito like mad. There's also this strange disparity of temperatures in the burrito. The fried fish is warm to eat but everything else, especially the lettuce and onions, are cold. And that is what that entire burrito is usually composed of: cold lettuce and warm fish.

If you want something healthier, they have Healthmex burritos and a cup of rice to accompany that instead of the usual chips (though you could sub chips with rice anytime you want). The Healthmex burritos are made of wheat tortillas and have fresh ingredients. Unlike the fish burrito, everything is nice and warm in your mouth.

They also have a shrimp burrito which is extremely disappointing. The shrimp were scarcely scattered in the burrito and they were pretty small in size. They did not complement the rest of the ingredients inside the burrito--especially since the shrimp seemed to have no taste at all. It was the most expensive burrito on the list, and also the worst tasting.

If you want to save money on Mexican food though, go to Juquila (which has real mexican food, in addition to the mainstream stuff that Rubio's serves), which is a review that I will save for a later time.

Rubio's
308 Westwood Plz.
Ackerman Un., 1st Flr., Treehouse Food Ct.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 794-4009
website

The busiest noodle place on Valley

Luckily, I unknowingly did research for my first post yesterday: I ate at one of my favorite restaurants on Valley Blvd, called Mien Nghia Noodle Express. The place is always packed on the weekends because the noodles there are awesome. I personally like what's called "Cha Siu dry noodles" in Cantonese, because it's a one of a kind dish that I can't (and haven't) found at any other restaurant. It's not on the menu, but you can ask for "BBQ Pork Egg Noodles" with the soup on the side.

The cuisine is labeled " hu tieu" in Vietnamese because it's not your typical pho or bun. There's seafood noodles, beef stew, and the "dry" noodles I like to eat, that come with soup on the side. The noodles aren't plain, however, because they pour flavored oil in along with your Cha siu or seafood. Most items can be eaten with rice noodles or egg noodles.

The service is informal, the host speaks several languages (Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and English), and usually the same woman will take orders at every table. If you eat there often enough, she'll remember what you like. Try the iced coffee with condensed milk (Ca Phe Sua Da) or the lemonade with soda (Soda Chanh) if you want, and iced tea comes without question.

It's a great place to eat noodles, and one of the places I miss when I'm away at college. It's open from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week except on holidays when they close at 6 p.m.

Mien Nghia Noodle Express
406-408 Valley Blvd.
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 570-1668