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

Top Island Seafood

I recently had the opportunity to eat two meals at Top Island: dinner and dim sum. For those familiar to the area, Top Island inhabits the space that used to be the Wherehouse music store for many years (where I cultivated my own particular collection of rap, pop, and rock). In between, it was a buffet and another seafood restaurant whose name I can't recall. I had been looking forward to eating there, after hearing tales of $50 fish alongside $2.99/pound of peel and eat shrimp from my family, and seeing pictures of the food on Biggest Menu.

We went early for dinner, and it was pleasantly uncrowded. Most Chinese seafood restaurants are so noisy you can't hear yourself think. I think that the only downside of this place is that you pretty much have to speak Cantonese to really get good service here. However, they aren't totally exclusionary of non-Chinese speakers... you just don't get to read the good specials they have advertised in Chinese.

We ended up ordering the watercress with dried duck kidneys soup, deep fried crispy chicken, clams with black bean sauce, BBQ squab, three pounds of the peel and eat shrimp, and the sliced beef with vegetable. The soup started out with a pleasant taste, but ended with a slightly bitter aftertaste because of the watercress. My mom says that watercress is bitter when it's harvested while the weather is hot, and I suppose this is what must have happened with the watercress in the soup. The chicken was good, but since I didn't dip it in the salt and pepper lemon juice sauce, it didn't have enough flavor for me. I didn't try the clams or the squab, but my family thought that they were both delicious. The shrimp were huge, and came with the heads on (how it should be, in my opinion). They were good with the soy dipping sauce, but most didn't have the right, fresh texture I was looking for.

The best part of the meal was the sliced beef with vegetables. The beef was flavorful and tender and coated with this delicious sauce. The beef was sitting on a plateful of perfectly cooked broccoli. The thing that struck me as weird was that it was literally broccoli, and not the Chinese broccoli (gai lan) that it usually is. It's pretty clear that this was one of the best dishes there if my family didn't really care that it wasn't the right broccoli. Dessert was the hot red bean soup, and that wasn't bad, but it wasn't a standout.

The next morning, we went back for dim sum at around 11, and man, was this place packed. We waited for about 30 minutes to be seated. I was surprised, but it was definitely worth the wait. Almost immediately after we sat down, we had our tea and about 5 dishes in front of us. This included: BBQ pork buns (Cha siu bao), shrimp har gow, pork shiu mai, beef tripe, and steamed rice with chicken wrapped in banana leaves (lo mai gai). Everything was delicious, especially my favorite, the beef tripe. I usually judge my dim sum by the cha siu bao, and here the meat was flavorful and the steamed bun was great, with no soggy bottoms. This is what our table looked like:



The weird thing was that the women pushing the carts did not call out what they were plying. You basically had to keep an eye out and recognize which carts were offering what you wanted, or ask the women what they had in their carts. A part of me liked not being bothered, but the other part didn't like having to put so much effort to find what I liked. We ended up ordering more food which included: Turnip cake (lo bak go), ham siu gok (little football-shaped rice sheets wrapping a meaty filling and then deep fried), and steamed chicken feet (fung jeo). More deliciousness, except for the chicken feet which I did not touch, but which my mom insists were delicious.

Also, when you go for dim sum, you'll be looking around for napkins. Where are they? They are in this cute little pouch that looks like a travel size tissue with the restaurant's logo, address, and telephone number. I kept it for myself at the end of the meal.



I think that I would definitely go there again for dim sum, and I think the flavor was on par with some of the bigger dim sum places like 888 and Ocean Star, minus the 2 hour wait. For dinner, I'd stick with tried and true favorites, and the fresh fish. I was pleasantly surprised by this place, and am thankful for its proximity to my house!



Top Island Seafood Restaurant
740 E. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 300-9898

Bean Sprouts

With a cute-as-a-button name as Bean Sprouts, this new vegetarian restaurant on Huntington Drive is hard to miss. It sure caught my eye when I was on my way to the Olive Garden last week, so I made a mental note to return. Bean Sprouts' menu may not be large, but their Chinese vegetarian food are flavorful and filling.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in during lunch hour was how clean and serene the small restaurant looked; the hardwood floors, matching tables and chairs, waterfall wall, brightly sun lit room, and new age background music gave a zen feel. In addition, diners can glance out the window at the peaceful cars and pedestrians go by.

Once the kind owner handed me the colorful menu with pictures on it, she explained what dishes were and what she recommended. There certainly wasn't any help needed, since the menu was divided into three simple sections: Appetizers & Soup, Noodle & Rice, and Drinks. Also, the menu was easy to read with icons explaining if the dish included egg and if it was oily or spicy.

Before any dishes came out, the owner presented my table with a small complimentary dish of fresh cut celery, carrots, and shredded tofu with a mild, refreshing dressing. It made for healthy snacking before the main course arrived.

For the appetizer, I was divided between the Rainbow Roll, Crispy Spring Roll, or Wonton with Hot Spicy Sauce. Though the Rainbow Roll looked and sounded interesting, a sushi-type roll with vegetables, veggie ham, and mayonnaise, it was too exotic for my taste buds. I stuck with a safe variation of the Crispy Spring Rolls, and they turned out to be crunchy, tasty, and stuffed full of vegetables. The hot Rolls came in four with a dipping sauce I suspected was sweet and sour but turned out to be salty; I suggest skipping the sauce because the rolls are already oily enough and bursting of flavor.

Under the main course, Noodle & Rice, there are only 17 selections to choose from and many of the pictures looked unappealing and dull. Many of the dishes, Sesame Cold Noodle with peanut sauce, Dan-Dan Mein, and Spaghetti w/ Tomato Sauce sounded boring and typical; my experience with vegetarian food has been inventive, colorful, and unique. I eyeballed Hawaiian Fried Rice and went with that even though there wasn't an accompanying picture of it on the menu. With carrots, peas, mushroom, crispy sweet ginger, and chunks of pineapple, the Rice was a yummy winner! I could barely finish the large dish, which was surprising because I don't get full fast.

Bean Sprouts dispels the myths that vegetarian food is bland, rabbit food; instead, this relaxing and clean restaurant serves Chinese vegetarian food in large portions and full of zest. Healthy and creative, vegetarian food never looked so good.

If you're looking to try Asian vegetarian food for the first time, I would recommend going to New Happy Family Restaurant (8632 E. Valley Blvd. #E Rosemead CA. 91770) or One World Vegetarian Cuisine (178 S. Glendora Ave., West Covina, CA 91790) first. These two offer a much larger and diverse selection with many familiar dishes given a vegetarian twist!

Bean Sprouts
103 E. Huntington Drive
Arcadia, CA 91006-8708
(626) 254-8708

Mon - Fri 11:00AM to 3:00PM, 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Sat - Sun 11:00AM to 9:00PM
Closed Tues

Seafood Village

Seafood Village is a restaurant that I go to for special occasions such as birthdays and graduations because of one thing: the awesome crab. Almost every table orders the "House Special Crab" because it's so good. The pieces of crab come roasted among an insane amount of chopped garlic, with chilies and scallions. If you go, you must order some, it's to-die-for.

The crab is the central part of the meal, but Seafood Village also produces great dishes featuring other seafood and meat items. My family always orders the steamed tilapia (which is not on the menu), and the "Crab Meat and Fish Maw Soup." Another good soup choice is the "Pork Stomach and Black Pepper Soup."

For meat, you can't go wrong with the "House Special Chicken" which is also known as "Princess Chicken" in Cantonese, because it was only eaten by princesses. Now us mere mortals can partake of this salty, juicy dish. I would also suggest the "Crispy Deep Fried Beancurd w/ Bamboo Fungus" which is way better tasting than the name suggests. To round off with some vegetables, my family usually orders the "Pan-fried String beans w/ Minced Meat." It's a great celebratory meal!

As with most Chinese seafood restaurants, the environment is loud, but the food is worth it. There are two locations of Seafood Village. Both are excellent in cuisine, but the Monterey Park branch has substantially less parking., and the decor of the Temple City branch is nicer to look at.

Seafood Village
684 Garvey Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 289-0088

9669 Las Tunas Drive
Temple City, CA 91780
(626) 286-2299

Mon - Sun 11:00AM to 1:00AM