Henry's Cuisine — Restaurant in Alhambra

My friend recommended this place several years ago. I'm glad it survived the pandemic and that I was finally able to try the food and service.

While waiting in the seating area, one of the guests, a frequent diner, recommended the fried shrimp. It was a very good recommendation.

The 2 of us oredered 5 dishes so we could a little of each and take home the rest. The first dish was the fried shrimp. It had a unique Cajun flavor. It was more like a prawns. Very hot and tasty with a little spice and bite. Itd be perfect with a beer. But the shells were tough and not completely edible. It was excellent, but Bistro Na still has the best fried shrimp in the land. Better than famous Thai Garlic Shrimp dishes of Portland or Vegas (see my other reviews.)

Our 2nd dish was the fried and salty pork chop. Hmm, it's exactly the same Cajun spice as the fried shrimp. We should've ordered the honey garlic pork chop instead. Our mistake.

Next came the clams. I really enjoyed the nice black bean sauce. Not too much black beans iverpowering the sweet clams. Perfect with steamed rice. My other favorite clam dish is from Boston Lobster. Their basil clams dish is also excellent. It's a tie.

Beef chowfun was the next dish. Also excellent. They use the same noodles used for most pad Thai noodle dishes. The noodles were infused with a nice smokey, charred, grilled wok flavor. The beef was nice and tender. Our other favorite for beef chow fun, with the same smokey flavor is Arcadia Garden Cafe'. My wife judges Chinese restaurants and their chef's by how good their beef chowfuns are prepared and taste. This easily passed.

Lastly was the beef with Chinese greens. Wow, this simple dish came out super tasty. It exceeded my expectations. Again, it's the rich tasty sauce that pairs well with good ol' streamed rice. The beef was tender and the greens were fresh and tasty.

Next time,.with more family/friends, we'll try the House Special Vietnamese Lobster. The MP was $29per pound and all they had were 3 lbs lobsters. That was too much for the 2 of us. We'll update our review next time we come back. It'll be dungeness crab season in a couple weeks. We'll review the other seafood dishes...

Everything we ordered was delicious and flavorful! This is one of the better Chinese restaurants I've been to. Several members of our party had dietary restrictions but everyone was able to find something to eat that they enjoyed. (Aside - they have the thickest menu book I've ever seen, but the first half of the menu is just pictures include some full spread pictures for their most special dishes. The menu has English and Chinese text.)

The service was mixed. On the positive side - we brought our own cake to celebrate a special occasion and they were able to store it in a refrigerator for us. They brought out the cake after our meal and provided extra clean plates and silverware, which was nice. We ended up overstaying our visit a little, and they started cleaning up the restaurant around us as we were wrapping up our celebration. However, they didn't rush us out even though they were officially closed for the night. I thought this was very generous of them and really appreciated it! On the slightly negative side, one of our waitresses was very friendly but also very clumsy (frequently dropping silverware or food or bumping into things). All things considered, this was a super minor issue though.

Due to their extreme popularity, it was very difficult to find parking. We managed to get lucky and snag an empty spot, but we were considering parking on a neighborhood street and walking over because of how crowded the parking lot was. Carpool if you can!

Also due to their popularity, it was very crowded and very loud inside. It's essentially one giant room; some tables have dividers but the sound kinda just goes up and spreads across the room. This made it hard for me to talk to anyone at our large round table that wasn't sitting directly next to me. So, the audio ambiance wasn't great.

The entrees were a bit pricey, but the quality was...

Came here while on a trip. One of the best cantonese restaurants I have had. Had a few minor gripes but nothing to knock stars off for.

We ordered the winter melon soup (pre-order at least one day prior). The soup was 90$ and was huge enough to serve 10 people with one bowl each. The presentation was great (couldnt upload a photo, but the melon came in a pale gold container with a decorative top). The soup was flavorful. There were alot of meats in the soup. My only minor gripe was that the soup could use more Kam Wah ham (could use a bit more umami).

The other highlights of our meal were the vietnamese style lobster (which many other reviews mention) and the Wasabi filet mignon. The vegetable dishes (bean sprouts and string beans) that we ordered were flavorful and not overly salty (we usually get super thirsty after eating at other Canto restaurants but not here. 👏 to the chef). The drunken chicken dish was just okay.

The staff was very attentive, polite, and caring. We spoke Canto with them and they had casual convos with us. One of the staff made good suggestions (changing the dishes we ordered), which we accepted. The service was reasonably quick.

The decor was quite unusual (modern) for a Canto restaurant. The wall scone lights were in the shape of crab shells painted gold. There were also other "art paintings" with odd color lobsters (such as blue color lobster on a pink background). I thoroughly enjoyed the audacity to decorate the dining room in such fashion. It's a breath of fresh air in the Chinese dining setting.

Price was not cheap, but the quality of the staff, food, setting made it worthwhile. We were notified upfront that there would be a minimum 12% gratitude tacked onto our order (which was very reasonable).

This is one restaurant I would definitely be returning to. Recommended if you...