la.foodblogging

Over the weekend, I went back to my home town, Arcadia to have lunch with my mother. She really wanted to take me to Café Deco, a restaurant that opened recently on Baldwin Avenue. Their eclectic menu included lasagna, pad thai, Chinese chow mein, Hong Kong style chow mein, fried rice, beef stragganoff, Cobb salad, and salmon in hollandaise sauce. Doubtful about the quality of food from a restaurant that seemed to be in the middle of an identity crisis, I decided to order the set menu (salad, fish chowder, lamb chops, and ice cream for $17.95) recommended by one of the owners. My experience at Café Deco was very negative as customer service was beyond reproach and the food left quite a lot to be desired. We had to make repeated request from servers for something as simple as hot water, the staff forgot to bring me my soup, the lukewarm lamb chops had little lean meat and were much rarer than I preferred, the staff forgot to bring me my ice cream, and the cashier forgot to bill for my set meal and then later decided to charge two entrees instead because it turned out they didn’t have any other way of charging for the set meal. As we pulled the car back onto Baldwin Avenue, I realized that a number of really good restaurants are located right on that street. We just picked a bad one to go to on Saturday. Below are a few places located on Baldwin that I do recommend, but you have to love Chinese food.

Din Tai Fung Dumpling House
1108 S Baldwin Ave
Arcadia, CA 91007-7508
Hours of operation: Mon-Fri 11am-2:30pm, 5pm-9:30pm, Sat 10:30am-2:30pm, 5pm-9:30pm, Sun 10:30am-2:30pm, 5pm-9pm

Menu Recommendations: juicy pork dumplings, vegetable & pork wonton soup, sautéed vegetable (choose snow pea shoots - a.k.a. dau miao)

Extra Advice: Weekends are really busy so get there right at 10:20am to start lining up for lunch and 4:50pm (first rush) or about 7:45pm (second rush) for dinner. Also on weekends, park on the street to avoid high blood pressure of getting in and out of the parking lot. Also stop by J.J.’s Bakery on the other side of the plaza for to be tempted by cakes, pies, tarts, puddings, cookies, sweet buns, etc. I dare you to walk out of there empty handed.

Nice Time Deli
1025 S. Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia, CA 91007-7508
(626) 462-9975
Hours of operation: Mon-Sun 11am-10pm (I think)

Menu Recommendations: Chinese leek & pork rice cake, spareribs with spinach

Although the next two restaurants are technically speaking in the plaza on Duarte, but their cross street is Baldwin. I confess I have also parked in the Din Tai Fung parking lot but got fed up with the wait and walked across to this other adjacent plaza:

May Mei
639 W Duarte Road
Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 574-1318

Menu Recommendations: Soup of the Day (usually something pork and herbs, though not everyone else likes it), House Special Beef (very tender), Assorted Meats with Rice in Clay Pot

Chang’s Garden
627 W. Duarte Road (same plaza, about 3 stores down from May Mei)
Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 445-0606

Menu Recommendations: ribs cooked in (what I believe is) bamboo leaves, spicy eggplant

Extra Advice: Parking here can be a bit tight so if you don’t see any spots available, there are extra spaces behind the Chinese supermarket and on the street behind the market, too.

By Pauline (see more of her posts).