la.foodblogging

Always up to try new places, the BF took my parents and I out to Mian Hsiang Yuan, a small dumpling restaurant in Monterey Park. For a place that specializes in made-to-order dumplings, they certainly picked an inaccurate American name. They do serve noodles, but their noodles were not made in-house.

We started off with three cold appetizer plates. The beef tripe plate was my favorite: tender, seasoned perfectly, and a bit spicy. Their tofu-skin plate was also very good and flavorful with a hint of peppercorn without being spicy at all. The cucumbers were disappointing and under-seasoned.

Next came the scallion pan-cakes. They were cooked with lard, so vegetarians and vegans stay away. For being cooked in lard, they were underwhelmingl. There were plenty of scallions, but there just wasn’t that much flavor.

The BF ordered their ma jiang mian, which is a vegan cold noodle dish with peanut sauce. My dad really liked this dish and I thought the sauce was fine, but apparently it dried out too quickly.

Next, we had the hong sao niu rou mian, which is the beef noodle soup. The soup was good and flavorful, but a bit on the thin side. The noodles were the same as the noodles that came with the BF’s noodle dish: pretty generic super-market type noodles.

Since dumplings are this place’s specialty, we ordered their combo dumpling (boiled water-style). When it came, I was a bit surprised by how massive the dumplings were. They take at least two bites to finish. The skin was good and chewy, which I liked, but the filling was bland and disappointing. The combo dumpling has seafood in it, but you wouldn’t be able to taste it in the filling. There was no savory taste at all.

We also ordered the steamed pork and mushroom dumplings. The skin was again chewy and great, but the filling had the same blandness.

The BF ordered the leek bun (vegan) and liked them. The filling (thankfully) was flavorful and salty and the bun’s exterior was soft and chewy.

Lastly came the beef rolls (niu rou juen bing). I think they had been sitting around the counter for the while because the crepe on the outside was cold and rubbery. The beef inside was bland and not even the sauce could save it.

Overall, Noodle House was pretty disappointing. Their food wasn’t bad at all, but I just expected a lot more flavor for a place that specializes in dumplings. It’s strange that there are no vegetarian dumplings on the menu and they refused to make any when I asked them about it. Considering they’re a “made to order” restaurant, I would have thought it’d be easy for them to just stick the filling they use for the veggie buns into some dumpling wrappers.

I’m also considering not patronizing this place anymore because we asked if they could make one of our orders of dumplings pan-fried (as in pot-stickers) and they lady said no. That would have been fine, but after all our food came and the restaurant filled up, I saw that the table next to us had pot-stickers! I don’t think it’s a timing issue because when we asked, the restaurant was only half full. I think it’s pretty rude to give some customers the “right” to potstickers while denying it to others.

If the food had been better, I could have excused that rudeness, but since it was so disappointing, I don’t think I’ll be returning.

Noodle House (Mian Hsiang Yuan)
958 E. Garvey Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91755
Tel: (626) 280-0831

Louise absolutely LOVES filthy, cheap places! (See more of her posts). You can also find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.