Corner Beef Noodle House — Restaurant in El Monte

After having a not so great beef noodle soup at a restaurant, one friend messaged me about Corner Beef Noodle House's beef noodle soup. The reviews looked pretty good, so my friends and I gave it a try one weekend night when we were in search of a quick dinner location.

Corner Beef Noodle House is located in a pretty big plaza on Peck Road. They're located in the same plaza as Mana Tea House - plenty of parking in the private lot, especially as there are always customers coming and going.

Their menu isn't too extensive. They have a decent number of items that they specialize in - cold dishes, noodle soups, and rice dishes. While we wanted to share at first, we all ended up ordering a dish for ourselves, along with some cold appetizers to start.

Cold appetizers: we tried the pickled cucumber and seaweed. Both were decent although the seaweed could have been a bit tangier. The pickled cucumber had the right amount of acidity and bite to it. For $3.75 each, I thought it was an okay price to pay for the amount and quality that we got.

Taiwanese sausage: my friend ended up tacking on an order of Taiwanese sausage at the last minute, which we all thought was a mistake. The $6 pricetag was a hefty price to pay for the pretty sad looking dish. Normally the sausage dishes you see at Sinbala or even at night markets have bright red sausage slices with garlic bites. The sausage here looked unappetizing with its dull red color and lack of shine. It didn't taste too great either - would not recommend.

Popcorn chicken rice: $7.75 for a good amount of popcorn chicken, a scoop of rice, vegetables, and some bamboo shoots whereas $5.75 only gives you the popcorn chicken. They didn't have any spicy powder/plum powder to give the chicken additional flavor, but we all thought the chicken was fried nicely. There was a good amount of meat and batter, and we could still taste the flavor of the chicken - not too oily or fat. The rice had some sauce drizzled over it, and the veggies and bamboo were tasty, too.

Beef noodle soup $8.95 / half stew, half tendon noodle soup $9.95: I'd definitely recommend the half stew, half tendon if you're unsure of what to order. While the beef itself was tender and flavorful, I really liked the contrasting tendon pieces. And the thick-cut noodles - with all the different textures and flavors, I was a pretty big fan of this overall beef noodle dish. The soup flavor was bold and tasty and there was a good amount of beef and noodle.

Workers were really friendly and quick to help us when we had questions. This place is cash-only, and they are also closed from 3-5 PM every day. Restaurant closes at 8:30, which is fairly early.

tl;dr - Overall, a nice place to grab a quick bite to eat and get your money's worth. I really liked the beef noodle soup, although my friend really liked her popcorn chicken dish. Definitely will come back and order...

I wish I tried this spot earlier. For many years, I've seen my friend grub out here on IG and FB. He's a dude that knows his food spots and I think he's Taiwanese, so he would prolly know his Taiwanese food well.

I've come here once and just looked inside the restaurant. I was eating at the Burmese spot in the center, and dim sum in the center two times.

When I came here before I noticed the fridges with beef noodle soups to go, and figured the place must have a very good beef noodle soup.

I read a review with saying the fried monascus pork with rice was a 10/10, so I ordered it, not knowing what it was too much. Also, got the beef and tendon noodle soup. I shared both and a pork chop with my brother. The noodle soup was delicious, flavorful, not too salty, and very big. The noodles were al dente and filling. The pickled cabbage that came with it was awesome.

My bro bought some frozen chicken soup to go for a friend getting through some cancer.

Service was good. Especially a worker who is a friend of the owner’s friend. This server wasn’t Taiwanese, he was from Hong Kong, but he did mention that some Taiwanese customers say that the food at Corner Beef Noodle House tastes like it does back in Taiwan. I haven’t been yet, but I love...

Great little place for some Taiwanese style food; especially Beef Noodle Soup. Have other "staple" favorites as well for those in the know. If you're not familiar with the cuisine - play it safe and order either the Beef Noodle Soup or one of the rice plates with Fried Pork / Fried Chicken / Sausage. Mochi for dessert is also a highlight if you like that stuff.

Parking can be a bit cramped during busy times, but there is a lot of street parking along the side if you're willing to walk a bit.

Only downside to this location (and the 4 star) is that it's cash only - so be prepared. Prices are reasonable but not super cheap as they use to be and seem to be increasing by $0.75 per dish every 6 months. If someone in your party is not digging noodles or rice - there's Dim Sum in the same plaza (Ocean Bo) during lunch time. (Anytime before 2PM for all days of the week). If Asian food isn't your thing that day, there's a ton of fast food places within 2-3 minutes drive as well so it's a good area to go to if you're...