Best Kept Secret Place in South Bay @ Otafuku (Gardena)

The decoy front door (the entrance is in the back door)

One of the my pal Frederick told me a story about one day he needed to entertain an out of town guest for a taste of food that would reminds the guest back home from Japan. Frederick at first was going to suggest and take his guest to a few spot popular in Gardena and Torrance, but the guest would rather come to this non-descript place because a popular Japanese tour guide recommended this little hole in the wall as the place to visit. Needless to say, my pal was hooked and I have since was introduced to this place based on a recommendation from a tour book.

The real entrance to the restaurant (next to the back parking lot)

In order to enter this noodle shop/Izakaya place, you have to enter from the back parking lot as front door is serve as a decoy entrance with the door being pad-locked down. I don't know why as maybe it deters people from the street to open the door for a lookie-loo.

One of the few things I learned about this place was that they served a mean soba noodles. My previous review of Ichimian can be a fair side by side comparison on who takes the nod as the top place that serve the best soba. In that review, I did proclaimed Ichimian over Otafuku as the place to go for this chewy flavorable noodle.

However, I do have to point out that this small enchanted place that looked like a cozy Izakaya in a small village does served other items beside the noodle dish that attract a full crowd at any given night. I think the small skewer items on the menu and other tapa like dishes of Izakaya are some of the big reason for the establishment's popularity.

My two favorites were the Japanese Black Berkshire pork cutlet and their handmade cold tofu. Single-handedly, I can eat the pork cutlet dish by itself. Nicely breaded and with the right amount of sauce, the cutlet was one of the better piece I have had. Nice too tough and definitely the breading was handle it correctly without falling apart. The handmade tofu was one of my favorite at this location. It is on par with another my favorite Agdeshi tofu at Izakaya Bincho as being the most refreshing tofu in town.

Handmade Cold Tofu - Radish sprouts, Japanese Basil with Bonito Flakes - $4.50

Japanese Berkshire Black Hog Cutlet - $10

Japanese Style Egg Omlette - $8

Mini Tomato Skewer Rolled with Germ Free Thin Sliced Pork - $3 per Skewer

One of my dining companion's favorite dish of the night was the tomato skewer wrapped by a thin sliced of pork. I can see why he raved about it as it is not a fresh piece of fruit being wrapped about everyone's favorite savory dish....a piece of bacon. In fact, what doesn't go with bacon these days?

Zaru Soba - $8

It's too bad Otafuku didn't have too big of a dessert section other than the traditional ice cream. I think majority of the dishes we had that night was something I would repeatedly order or suggest to others including the soba and the Japanese egg omlette. If the soba was the main attraction as it was often publicized for the place, I would give them kudos for that. If it invloves the Izakaya section, then it's a must go. You shouldn't missed both if you get that chance.

Too bad for me, it took a Japanese tour book from a friend of a friend to get me to come here.

Otafuku
16525 S Western Ave
Gardena, CA 90247
(310) 532-9348

Bid Adieu to Wonton Forest (City of Industry)

Am I the bearer of bad news or what? I think I enjoyed playing the Angel of Death this week because this is the 2nd news of something that are not going to be with us. Sadly, I cared about this place more than the Michelin Guide.

Wonton Forest was a place that my boy Go Ramen! had championed since its earliest days of opening. Since the mythical Won Ton Time closed in Alhambra more than a year ago, many people had being trying to find a replacement for a cheap won ton noodle soup. Why mythical?

To this day, no one knows how they make any profit margin by charging a bowl of soup with big won tons for less than $4. If you have to ask, yes...Won Ton Time closed under mysterious circumstances which we'll never know the behind the scenes.

For this case however, sadly Keizo of Go Ramen! actually whispered to some of us that the end will come for Wonton Forest. About more than a month ago, Daily Gluttony of Rants and Craves and I wanted to join Keizo for the last hurrah before the official announcement were to be made about the future of this restaurant.

The popular slang of "FML" comes to me when I realized this place is only 3 minutes from my work place. That close, but yet I never knew about the place until Keizo pointed this place out. Damn me...

Just looking at the photos of the Won Ton Noodle soup and the spring rolls made me wonder why I took such a long time to write a review and not championed this place earlier. Now, this restaurant will be part of a group that didn't deserved to suffer an early demise.

It's one of those regrets I wish I would have come to this place more often because the soup broth were excellent and the won tons were scrumptious. The spring rolls were a delightful crunchy sucker that was waiting to be dipped in the sauce so that you can fully enjoyed the wonderful flavor and aroma.

Too bad, now it's just all for naught as Keizo posted the sad news. With that in my mind, I do want to wish the owner Paul all the good lucks and may he prosper down the road as he worked hard to make this place that never was fully appreciated in a tough restaurants area.

With this, I bid adieu to Wonton Forest and wish the new place (whatever it may be) the best of luck.

Wonton Forest
18230 Gale Ave
City of Industry, CA 91748

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ps. I would have given this place a rating of A minus. *sigh* FML??

If Only These Walls Can Talk @ Dean Sin World (Monterey Park)

They just took off the bakery sign and hastily put up a banner

Before you take a bite of that dumpling you just ordered in a tea house or a local Shanghai eatery, ask yourself this one question: Are these dumplings made by Dean Sin World? Chances are, it might be.

Dean Sin World comes to us at a time when dumpling houses are exploding everywhere in SGV as it seems. Dumplings were the rage in 2006 as the must get comfort food and was one of the most popular take out items that can rival a Taco Bell chalupa. Little did we know, Dean Sin World actually was here in the old days (as in a few years ago), but we just didn't know it.

Before starting up this restaurant, two sisters decided to go into wholesale business selling dumplings and other small snacks to supermarkets, bakeries, and other snack eateries places. Chances are, you might see some small items like their sesame cake being repackaged with labels of the proprietor's own brand. These two sisters also make their signature dumplings in huge packs for restaurants across SGV.

Think about it for a moment, it's not the boiling of these dumplings that are hard, it's the wrapping of each and every single one of these dumplings that will take so much time. Not too many places would take that much effort and energy into make dumplings from scratch.

The hard work effort finally paid off for them to open up a small place on Garvey Avenue on the same plaza as Giang Nan. The place is still going through *cough* renovations *cough*, but it's a work in progress to get the places more ready for a mini cafe experience.

Chinese menu on the wall

Barebone with almost non-existent decor and no ambiance of any kind to speak of, at least we were thrilled that most of the dumplings and four choices of noodle cost less than $5. We knew that we can eat a lot for cheap and that's how exactly what me and my pal Danny did that night.

To start off, we ordered a lotus sesame cake that only dinged us for a dollar each. Lao Bang Nian (English translation: old boss lady) gave us each a cup of complimentary soy bean milk to go along with this delicious starter.

Sesame Lotus cake ($1 each) with Hot Soy Bean Milk

The signature items were the juicy pork dumplings and their home made boiled dumplings are the specialty, we decided to divide and conquered to ordered one boiled pork dumpling with leaks to start off, then getting a bowl of noodle for a main course with the juicy soup dumplings to cap our night.

The boiled pork dumplings with leaks are very delicious when you dipped it in a chili sauce. I don't think dumplings have any kind of stink like some of these pork with leaks at other places would exhibit. They pretty much keep ingredients simple and fresh so that your taste buds won't get ruined by that weird after taste.

Boiled Pork Dumplings with Leaks ($4.25)

The Xiao Long Bao (Juicy Soup pork dumpling) were wrapped very well without breaking apart or having the soup leaked through before you picked it up with the chopsticks. I also enjoyed the fact there were plenty of soup inside the bao when it was piping hot. Give them credit for making it hot and fresh without being over cook which would lead to dryness on both the skin and lack of soup.

Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Juicy Pork Soup Dumplings) - $4.85

Before the noodle came out, we also ordered a pan fried baos. Regretfully they ran out of this item as it was sold out right before we came in. They gave us an option of replacing it with goyza (pan fried dumplings aka potstickers), but we politely declined. To make it up to us for the oversight, Lao Bang Nian gave me and friend Danny a bowl of Wine Blew. It's a bowl of sesame and rice bowl in a wine soup. You have to get a taste of this because it has a small hint of wine aroma, but when you take a sip of the soup, I thought for a moment I was getting a rice ball in a sake. It has a sour flavor mixed in with a bit of sugar in the soup.

The rice was fermented for a brief time and it extract the smell of wine. Think of stinky tofu from soy and you get the same idea for wine brew. You are not going to get a sake because ti's still need to be distilled, but this obviously will get still get a texture taste of wine in this fermented rice in this soup. Very offbeat and very cleansing right before our noodle soup.

Wine Brew ($2.75)

To end the night, our shredded pork egg noodle with mustard green was not bad at all. I think our original thought of sticking with the dumplings at this place should have been follow through. Since the dumplings were the specialty of this place, it would been wiser to order a different type of dumplings, but I guess we just wanted to see if the noodle was any good here. Next time, we can figure that out.

Shredded Pork Egg Noodle with Mustard Green ($4.50)

Overall, we did have a very good meal where everything came out to be less than $17 (before tips). It was probably the bargain of the century for two people that were ready to pig out. The service was very good and we even get to share some stories of our foodie adventure with a couple that was sitting next to us.

We were talking about places that we have visited in SGV and compared notes on where else to go for certain cuisines. Good ol' Lao Bang Nian shared us some of her stories as well and told us about the deeds regarding the businesses in all parts of SGV. Right before we left, we all complimented on how we love her dumplings and have made comparisons to others. She then let us know on a little bombshell: some of those places served her dumplings.

The sisters are still in the wholesale business of selling dumplings to restaurants. When some of the names of popular tea house chains and a few of the well known Shanghai restaurants have all served her dumplings, that's when my jaw had dropped. It's one thing to have your innocence shattered, it's another to have been told there was no Santa Claus. One of those place she mentioned of serving her dumplings was a well known place I have frequented before.

So before you take that bite of the dumpling you have just ordered, ask yourself that one question: did you just ordered a Dean Sin World dumpling? If so, why not come here and ordered here?

Dean Sin World
306 N Garfield Ave #2
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 571-0636

Grade:

Found A Better Dumpling Alternative @ Kingburg Kitchen (San Gabriel)

eff'd the Noodle House!!

Some people want to remember the famous rally cries of "Remember the Alamo" or if you grew up in the 80's with N.W.A., you'll distinctly remembered "Fu*k da Police!".

For me, it was the bland, dull taste of some steamed buns and dumplings that made me cried out "eff'd the Noodle House!!".

For some time, I had been looking out for another made-to-order buns & dumpling places, but with a lot better results. This place along with Quiang Diao Bread Food were my next stops to wash away the dreaded taste of buns from the Noodle House.

The Kingburg Kitchen to my surprise had been opened for business at almost one year, yet I didn't heard about them until recently. I guess they flew under the radar because of being over shadowed by Luscious Dumplings and Golden Deli from nearby plazas. This place does have the look of a seafood shack or maybe an Italian restaurant due to a fantastic looking ceiling above that reminded me of a poorer version of Sistine Chapel.

The greatest joy I can ever take at any restaurants was that prices are cheap, yet the value of the item exceed the price. Yes sir, this place was cheap. Uber cheap!

Someone posted the menu on the profile where you can read that for $7, you can get the choice of noodles plus 5 juicy dumplings for your combo meal. Most of the time, people are intimidated from ordering a plate of dumplings because ten units would be too much. By only getting a sampling order of dumplings with a bowl of noodle is quite awesome. It's practically getting a bowl of noodle and pay 50 cents extra to getting dumplings. This is an awesome bargain you must partake.

Boiled Pork Celery Dumplings

There are four different types of noodles for you can order from for your combo. One which was the knife cut noodle (skinny thin noodle), dan dan mein (spicy pole noodle), chicken mushroom noodle soup , and the ever popular spicy beef noodle soup .

Spicy Beef Noodle Soup

For once, I was happy that a place that serve noodles is good at something they were suppose to do. The noodle and the broth was in much better form and smoother texture. Not too salty for me on this front and not too spicy because of chili. This was done just right.

Chicken Noodle Soup

The biggest praise I will give them where the Noodle House failed miserably was for their buns. Check these beauties out. One great thing was that the dough wasn't too thick and it still retained the juice when you took a bite of it. The pan fried ones are much quicker to made than the steamed ones. I highly suggest getting the pork, cucumber, and shrimp buns as those suckers disappeared within minutes.

Fried Pork Buns

The fried onion cake is not as big compared to the other restaurants, but the crispy cake is still a good starter before your meal.

Fried Green Onion Cake

All of the dishes are priced reasonably well as you will get a satisfactory full meal that will cost less than $10 before tips. I would strongly consider getting their noodle & dumplings combo with a side order of their steam or pan fried buns.

Make sure you placed the buns early if you wish to make an additional purchase as they can take a good 15-20 minutes to make these buns. Considering it's only a two worker operating the kitchen at this restaurant.

This is one of the better hidden restaurant in Las Tunas Dr. Skip over the over-hyped Luscious Dumplings and come here instead for a full satisfy meal. Think of this catchphrase when you are craving for some baoz (buns).... eff'd The Noodle House!!

Kingburg Kitchen
715 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 282-2386

Grade:

Ooodles of Noodles @ Malan Han Noodles (Hacienda Heights)

I needed to talk myself into coming here after a short layoff from Chinese noodle joints. I had been busy trying different ethnic cuisines recently to bring variety into this blog for my reviews. Along the way I felt like a druggie badly trying to kick his addiction in cold turkey without any rehab help. Hence, my yearning for some Chinese noodles.

The big attraction in coming to Malan Han was their 7 varieties of noodle are made in the restaurant. Right behind the cashier counter is where the magicians get to show off their tricks by pulling the dough like a xylophone and then cut these dough into smaller pieces before cutting it even more to the noodle variety as the finished product it will become.

The 7 types of noodles you can order here are: small round, medium round, and large round noodles. While they also have three types of flat noodles ranging from small to large and a triangle noodle. The round noodles are looks like a string of yarn in a spaghetti style while the flat acts like a pasta noodle. Please check out the photos below to get the idea on the variety of noodles. Thanks to Eileen for the photo.

Different types of Noodles (Photo courtesy of Eileen Likes to Eat)

What comes next takes some imagination to complete the meal. All they did was to pour a made ready broth on to the bowl of the cut noodle. It's not really that unique nor was it any special ingredient on it. They did cut some small pieces of green onions and generously mixed all over the soup. You can choose type of noodle bowl you wanted, but my guess would be that the broth will remain the same with the proteins being the only different thing on the bowl besides the noodle.

Bowl of Beef Noodle Soup (Medium Flat Noodles)

The noodle texture was very smooth and very easy to chew. The flavor wise on these noodles was OK. On this particular occasion I have chosen a medium flat noodle to be on my beef noodle soup. For many years, this was my favorite type of noodle at this location because it was simple and easy to pick this noodle up with the chopsticks. Plus it wasn't too long to slurp and fished noodle string.

The large flat or large round noodles tend to be too long or thick for me to finish off. Biting off the noodle at mid stream while chewing the noodles will tend to make a foreseen big splash. I had that mishap happened once as it did with the soup splashed all over my white t-shirt by leaving leaving a stain and the spillage was touching the cold dish appetizers.

The slices of beef was solid, but not remarkable to separate from other places. You can add your own seasoning or spices with a tray of different pepper and chili on the table for your own mixology on your noodle soup.

Medium Flat Noodle

Overall, this place was solid for a quick bite. The service is very quick with only one waitress handling the entire place. Then again, if you have watched the cartoon movie "Kung Fu Panda", you would know that this place was probably have only thing going for it....noodles, nothing but noodles. It should not be that hard. Self serve on the hot tea or cold water after the waitress bring the first cup to you on the table.

Very low maintenance and very low key in every regards about the entire place and noodle. It's a shame that the price couldn't be any lower ($7 for the bowl).

Malan Han Noodles
2020 S Hacienda Blvd
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
(626) 369-5602

Grades:

Feel Like a Home Cook Meal @ Qing Dao Bread Food (Monterey Park)

A few months ago, I had encountered a dumpling disaster at the much hyped place on Garvey Avenue that was wrongfully named "Noodle House". I decided a few places around the neighborhood in hoping to rectify that boiling dumpling mishap adventure. Tried out Mama's Lu that was a few street down, Dumpling House up in Arcadia, even the new location of Din Tai Fung across the street from Dumpling House.

I always skipped Qing Dao Bread Food that was across the street from Dim Sum Express on Garfield Ave because I always thought it was a bakery. I stopped in by chance because of the closing of Dean Sin World (another dumpling place that might be closed for good if they do not open this month after closing already for two months due to an unannounced "vacation".) on that particular day.

The first time I had tried here was to order a standard neou rou mein (beef noodle soup) and a boiled pork with leek dumplings. To be quite honest, I didn't really have an appreciation for this place the first time around. Their menu was very limited and I had probably counted about 20 various dishes ranging from small cold dishes to a couple of noodle and two dumplings dishes each. Heck, I conquered half of the noodle menu by ordering the beef noodle soup on just one trip.

Beef Noodle Soup

The noodle was a thicker hand pulled version which I usually liked. I didn't have any qualms about coming here the first time around. It was okay at best with not really anything to stand out. The pork with leeks dumplings were good and I did put in an order of cold dish of bean curd with pepper. That was not bad at all without too much of seasoning or oil. I approved of that dish wholeheartedly.

bean curd with pepper

A few months later, I read somewhere on Chowhound that some users suggested going here for sole fish dumplings. It intrigued me a little bit because I had it at Dumpling 10053 and totally hated it. I swore off from Din Tai Fung also as it was nasty the other night when I ordered it. So with that in mind, I was hoping this place might cured my distaste for the sole fish dumplings.

So on a slow weeknight, I revisited this place for that fish dumplings on their menu. With some decent snooping by peeking over the tall portable wall that was surrounding the kitchen, I do think that they made their own dumplings every day. It's not made when it is ordered, but it was fresh enough when they boiled it in their hot pot. Too bad they don't served pan fried items or steamed their dumplings.

This time around I decided to complete noodle menu by ordering their pork chop noodle soup. Here is an interesting catch, they decided to use a thinner koteri noodle for their pork chop soup. As I pointed out, they used a thicker hand pulled noodle for their beef soup version which I found it to be average.

My perception change drastically when I had their thin string like noodle on their pork chop soup which was fantastic. I didn't care for their pork chop or that particular broth. That led me to think if I could request them to give me the beef soup with the thinner koteri noodle on the same bowl, I would have a much more enjoyable meal.

pork chop noodle soup

For their boiled fish dumplings, I did enjoyed it immensely at this location. I was thinking that the satisfaction probably was contributed to the homemade sauce they provided for the dumplings. Their special sauce added a nice sweeter taste to it than the soy sauce or chili that is on the table. I can't really put my finger on that, but the fish dumpling didn't have a bad salty taste like I had at Dumplings 10053.

Boiled Dumplings with special homemade sauce

Again, their cold dish was a winner at for the night. This time around, I have ordered a cold slices of beef tongue. It was not too dry and was very satisfying as a cheap appetizer. I just wished their main courses can match the starters.

Beef Tongue

Overall, my impression was to give a huge thumbs up for their cold dish items. A so so grade for the noodle soup dish and the grade will improve if I can mix n' match next time with the appropriate noodle to go along with the preferred soup choice. The dumplings are good enough to get a passing grade which in a side by side comparison of the boiled dumplings are much better than the Noodle House three blocks away (please order only steamed dumplings at the Noodle House).

If you are looking for a cheap place that reminds you of home cooked meals, then this place would fit the bill for the cheap eats. For a similar comparison, Kam Hong Garden would be my choice for the same exact items order. However, I would give this underrated hole in the wall a try if the other popular Garvey Ave places are busy.

Qing Dao Bread Food
301 N Garfield Ave Ste G
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 312-6978

Grade: