Jay Jiang Photography

Kyushu Ramen / 九州拉麵

Koraku Japanese Ramen Tried Out - It Is Just So So / 2009.04.17

Phil went with us that night and here’s a little summry from him plus my editing, which most of the guys agree on:

1st time to this place called Koraku. I’ll probably never try this place on my own without my friends’ recommendation. The interior decoration was mediocre, as well as the service.

At first, when the food came we were a bit disappointed at the size. I then tried my Kyushu Ramen (九州拉麵), which was a major disappointment. The soup was overly salty and the noodle was no better than average. There was not much other ingredient in the ramen bowl other than the noodle: two small pieces of pork was floating on top of the noodle (I don’t remember what else was there). I also tried other peoples’ dishes: they were all average at best. I would not recommend this place for anyone who wants a taste of authentic Japanese Food.

Ika Butter Yaki / Squid Sauteed in Butter

The Congee Tried Out / 2009.04.07

The Simple Neon Sign

We went to tried out this place last week because one of our friends mentioned it is pretty good. But at the end all of us just think this store has nothing special and I think it will just close down soon like the previous Wonton Time (云吞生).

We thought the store might have something new since the name changed. To our surprise, nothing has changed. Everything stays the same or too bad that I have to say it got worse actually.

The thing we complained the most is the size of the dishes does not match the price. All the dishes are just way too small compare to the price we paid. The food quality is decent but nothing suprised us. And the food we can order there (like noodles and congee) are just so common that you can order in any other Hong Kong style cafes around. Why would we pay for this price for such common food here again? I believe I will not come back to this place again.

My Ratings:
Average Price: $7~15
Food Rating: 6.0/10
Decoration and Presentation: 5.0/10
Service: 6.0/10
Environment: 5.0/10

Address: 19 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801
Phone: (626) 284-2722

牛肉腸粉 / Steamed Rice Noodles with Beef Wrapped Inside

Dinner at Face Cafe / 03.30.2009

Face Cafe used to be OK Cafe, DJ Cafe and Sika Cafe. It is actually located in a good spot but somehow the management always change, but the people who work there are basically the same, but along with the time, most of the waiters and waitresses I remember left.

Well, many of my friends do not have good impression of this cafe but we decided to give it a try after the new name is adopted.

To be honest, I have neutral views towards this cafe, it is just the same as other Hong Kong style cafes around. With the new decoration, I think the environment is pretty good. I like its newly interior. The food quality is just the same. So far I never found any Hong Kong style cafe is exceptionally better than another. But some cafes do have some unique dishes that are exceptional which I can recall anytime from my memory.

That night we ordered some common dishes like steamed rice noodles with beef / cha siu (bbq pork) wrapped inside. The rice noodle tasted good with very thin rice noodle skin. The congee with order tasted very good as well. The dish I didn’t like is the fried noodles with eggs. It was too oily.

Address: 301 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801
Phone: (626) 282-8899

My Ratings:
Average Price: $8~15
Food Rating: 6.0/10
Decoration and Presentation: 6.5/10
Service: 6.5/10
Environment: 7.0/10

Shrimp Tempura Udon Noodles

Dinner at Kuru Kuru Sushi / 2009-03-08

Rest in the heart of Los Angeles, Kuru Kuru Sushi is probably the cheapest place for revolving sushi in Korean Town. The price ranges from one dollar to three dollars per dish.

When it comes to sushi, freshness is the most essential part of the meal. Imaging putting a smelly fish in your mouth, how yuck it is! Kuru Kuru Sushi gives the freshness beyond its price, even it is not the best. It totally exceeded our expectation.

Salmon belly sushi was the highlight of my meal. It is so tender that you don’t have to chew it. The tempera udon is another dish we enjoyed: the deep fried shrimp soaked in the hot udon soup. It warms you up in a chilly Californian night. The soup tasted wonderfully with its flavor. It stimulated our taste bud. The Uni Sushi is kinda tiny but you cannot complain with only two dollars per dish. For all you oyster lovers, the oyster plate cost only a dollar. Shrimp sushi is on the top of my recommendation list for tonight: fresh and sweet, just what shrimp are supposed to taste like. This place serves beers as well. I do not drink and I always like to taste real sushi without adding too much other sauce, but my friend thinks that sushi taste better with a cold beer. He said that an ice-cold Asahi Beer wouldn’t go wrong with the sushi.

Salmon Sushi

The decent decoration and the clean environment of Kuru Kuru Sushi also gave us a good impression. The boss lady also treated us very nicely. I didn’t expect as Chinese we can receive such courteous reception in a Korean run restaurant. We would definitely come back to this place.

My Ratings:
Average Price: $15~25
Food Rating: 7.5/10
Decoration and Presentation: 8.0/10
Service: 7.5/10
Environment: 7.0/10

Address: 3377 Wilshire Blvd., #115, Los Angeles, CA 90010 (Neighborhood: Korean Town)
Phone: (213) 365-9060

Please visit the full albums of this restaurant at my flickr via the following address:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/itmix/sets/72157615830754022/

Dinner at Shanghai Southern Mini Town Chinese Restaurant / 小南国 / 2009-03-01

Shanghai Southern Mini Town Chinese Restaurant is small restaurant located on Las Tunas Dr. and Mission Dr. in San Gabriel. It is one of the two Shanghainese food restaurants that I often visit. Another one is  Wok & Noodle Restaurant in Alhambra.

As usual, you can find common Shanghainese food here such as: Fried Bean Curd / 烤麩; Vegetable Duck / 素鴨; Combination Casserole / 砂鍋系列; Shanghai Steamed Dumplings (Bun) / 上海小籠包; Shanghai Pork Spare Ribs / 上海小排骨; Finless Eel / 鱔糊

Tonight we have ordered:
1: Appetizer – Assorted Vegetables / 雜錦前菜: not bad, very chewy with very mild spicy
2: Fried Bean Curd with Black Mushroom (Agaric) / 四鮮烤麩: it was served as hot dish, I prefer fried bean curd in cold dish like the one in Wok and Noodle Restaurant, tastes much better
3: Cabbage with Small Shrimp / 開陽白菜: nothing much special
4: Shanghai Salted Pork with Bamboo Shoot & Bean Curd Sheet Casserole / 上海醃篤鮮砂鍋: same as usual, but we found so little bean curd sheet in the soup
5: Chicken with Parsley / 三杯鷄: tastes pretty good but I found it is more like Taiwanese style
6: Braised Yellow Fish / 紅燒黃魚: my favorite dish of the night, but my friends thought it is so so

My Ratings:
Average Price: $8~15
Food Rating: 6.5/10
Decoration and Presentation: 5.0/10
Service: 5.0/10
Environment: 3.8/10

Address: 833 W Las Tunas Dr., San Gabriel, CA 91776
Phone: (626) 289-6578

February 27, 2009 – Dinner at  Bamboodles / 蓮香竹昇面 in San Gabriel
– a really bad impression on our first visit

Bamboodles is a new Chinese restaurant opened not long ago. From reading its name you would know this is a Chinese restaurant featuring noodles for main dishes.

Chicken Lomein Special / 蔥油鷄絲撈麵

Currently it has a promotion that it serves one dish of Chicken Lomain Special (蔥油鷄絲撈麵) for $1. But do not be fooled, its other dishes are not cheap, lol! Our bill ended up like $30 for 3 people with 3 dishes of noodles and 2 dishes of dumplings. This is the first time we came to try out this restaurant. We did not have much good impression. The food is really so so, even the Chicken Lomain Special is cheap, we would still expect certain quality. We three friends all think the noodle is overly salty. Also that I really hate the strong alkaline processing taste that left on the noodle. Alkaline taste is normal on Chinese noodles but the Bamboodles’ ones are too strong for me. The chicken meat tasted ok but we felt it is a bit raw. The decoration looks pretty good with the green onion on it.

We also ordered the pan fried dumplings (香煎餃子), but the dumplings were totally off from our least expectation. As I have mentioned earlier, its price is not cheap. A dish of fried dumplings (8 dumpings count) cost $6.5, which is really expensive. And it is absolutely over priced for its quality. Yuck!

Pan Fried Dumplings / 香煎餃子

So far it seems my review towards this restaurant are all quite negative but that was how we felt. Besides everything stated above, we also encountered very rude customer service. There is a waitress who is a bit chubby that acted very unprofessional. While she was taking order from our table, she left in the middle of the ordering while our friends are looking at each other surprisingly. We were all like “WTF” (I really do not wanna use this phrase but that was just how bad it could be). My friend who arrived the restaurant earlier to book the table, also mentioned that a previous table he booked (we moved to another table while everyone showed up) was dirty, and nobody came to wipe it even he was asking for that. When our dishes came, the chubby lady was just like throwing the dish onto our table, we were speechless. The only good experience that I had in this restaurant was that there was a manager look like type of guy that filled up our Lemonade for few times without being asked by us.

After this tried out, we think we are not going to come back to this restaurant anymore.

My Ratings:
Average Price: $5~10
Food Rating: 4.0/10
Decoration and Presentation: 6.0/10
Service: 2.0/10
Environment: 5.0/10

Address: 535 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776
Phone: (626) 281-1226