Noodle House aka Mian Hsiang Yuan

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 [...]

Chinese Breakfast Showdown 3: Mei Lin

Tipped off by an LA Times writeup about the best Asian breakfast restaurants, the BF and I tried Mei Lin Tou Chiang this weekend.

The article claims that it has the best soy milk around, so the first thing we ordered was a savory dou jiang. I don’t know what other places the LA Times [...]

Hummus Bar and Grill

I’ve been meaning to try Hummus Bar and Grill for a few weeks after reading about it in a Chowhound post. The main attraction at Hummus Bar and Grill are the small sampler plates (usually you get 8-10 varieties). You can get them with your main meal at the cost of $6 extra, [...]

Birthday @ Upstairs 2

I took the BF out for a surprise birthday dinner last night to a nearby restaurant called Upstairs 2. It’s actually part of the Wine House which is downstairs. The place features tapas-sized plates of food as (obviously) a variety of wines.
They were offering a prix fixe menu that night and the items on [...]

Quickie Lunch @ Misasa

When I get the craving to eat some no-frills Japanese food, I head to Mitsuwa Marketplace on Centinela and Venice. Usually, I order something from the highly regarded Santouka, but I wanted something different from ramen this time. Enter the katsu-don from Misasa:

Misasa is on the far corner from the entrance when you [...]

Bar Hayama

Despite living within walking distance of Bar Hayama, I finally went for the first time last night for dinner. The outside is unassuming and easy to miss, but inside is a nice spacious shelter from the traffic on Sawtelle. The seats around the large fire pit were already taken, but we nabbed a table [...]

Malan Noodles

On our never-ending quest to try hand-made noodles, the BF and I drove to Hacienda Heights to try out Malan Noodles. When we walked in, the woman who worked there grabbed an order sheet, some water in styrofoam cups and pointed us to an empty table.

At the front of the restaurant is a refrigerated case [...]

Pho Show

Pho Show just had their grand opening this week, so I went to visit for dinner tonight since it’s so close to my office. Since it’s on the west side and it is called Pho Show, I didn’t go in with my expectations too high.

While waiting for the rest of my party to arrive, [...]