May Mei Cantonese Restaurant — Restaurant in Arcadia

May Mei is a Chinese-owned restaurant in Arcadia that serves traditional family-style Cantonese cuisine. It's best to come for dinner in a group and share plates. May Mei has been around for over 15 years, well before several Hong Kong cafes were established in the neighborhood. The same team of 5 or 6 servers have not changed ever since the restaurant opened, which speaks volumes about the business stability, given the high turnover of servers often seen at Chinese restaurants.

May Mei specializes in clay pot rice that is slow-cooked on a stove using a high quality pot that does not cause rice to be burned. The rice is brought out by a server who stirs it rigorously with only a pinch of soy sauce required for flavor. The top layer is hot and moist, and anyone who likes crispy and crunchy food can eat the bottom layer that can be scraped off. My favorite topping for the clay pot is black bean spare rib because May Mei uses high quality tender pieces unlike the ones at dim sum restaurants which contain significant amounts of fat and minimal meat surrounding the bone. The application of black bean sauce is light.

Consuming soup at the beginning of a family-style dinner is a very important Guangdong custom, so pay attention to the daily "old fire soup" listing on the wall. The savory ingredients are enumerated in Chinese. Today's selection included carrot, water chestnut, dates, burdock, and snow fungus, all boiled together for hours. May Mei's soup is healthy and contains minimal MSG, just like the ones your mother boils at home while you are at school or work.

Most of the May Mei's entrees are fairly standard homestyle stir fry dishes, and can be cooked with less oil or omit salt for anyone health-conscious. Many restaurants ignore "less oil" requests because it makes it more stir-frying more difficult and especially since it may increase the chance of leaving ingredients stuck to the wok. However, May Mei chefs are thoughtful, by consistently accommodate the special needs of customers.

May Mei is also very dependable for lunch and dinner, and extremely affordable during lunch. Their lunch special #57 "Chiu chow style spicy beef brisket in tomato" for under $7 is one of the best savory stews in the area. For under $10 per person, you can easily leave with leftovers.

If you're in Arcadia and in the mood for Cantonese comfort food with large portions, look no further than May Mei because it is consistent, cooked with excellent "wok hei", more homestyle than restaurant-cooking, and affordable...

Bad service when ordering food to go. If you can't speak or understand Chinese, you'll be waiting for a long time. I ordered food to go from this place a few times, and they make you wait forever. But it's not because the cooks are slow, the waiting staff just don't care to check with you even if they notice that you've been waiting for a long time. So in this case, my food was ready like 30 minutes ago, but it's just been sitting on their shelf. This is not a one time fluke either so I'm done given them a chance to improve their service (they're still clueless). So, I won't be coming back. There are other Chinese restaurants out there with better service and staff. Also, be aware about what they're charging you - check your bill if you insist in going. I was overcharged that last time I went there and they don't give you a receipt (IRS - investigate...

Our go to place for Cantonese comfort food. They have all my favorite dishes here including rice in clay pot, chow fan, congee, wanton, stewed beef brisket etc. you name the dishes, they have them.

When they closed due to COVID-19, I was so bummed out for missing my favorite foods. So once I heard the restaurant was opened, we immediately went and place orders for take out. But we were disappointed as we discovered that foods were not the same as before. One of their stable dish, fried string bean, was terrible. The dish has no taste and the beans were over fries became blacken. Another customer’s favorite dish, beef brisket with tomato, was also horrible. They may have changed their chefs or use temporary chefs for their cooking. The food was not the same as before. I hope they will get their dishes back to the standard before the...