Spicy Home 那家川菜 — Restaurant in La Puente

5 stars—for now—out of good faith. To-go might be your best bet until the dine-in service improves.

I came in with high hopes, ordering more than usual to see if the quality held up at this new location. Thankfully, the dishes were still solid. The plates were hot when served--and remain hot when I finished eating.

That said, the service was a letdown.

All the servers seemed new and inexperienced. The woman covering the front area clearly didn’t know what she was doing. She forgot to serve rice with my first dish, didn’t give me a second spoon for the spicy dish (and questioned why I wanted one), and after promising to bring it, never followed through. I had to ask someone else. No one checked on the food. No one refilled water. Meanwhile, dirty plates sat on two tables for over 30 minutes.

The atmosphere? Not great. The new decor might appeal to eco-conscious diners, but I couldn’t get past the heat, the flies coming in through the open doors, or the strong smell of cigarettes that lingered for about 10 minutes. I asked to change seats because of the heat and was sitting in the middle of the restaurant, and I could smell the smoke! Very uncomfortable.

As for the yogurt dessert—a new item with house-made toppings—it was just okay. Not bad, but not memorable. I would order the yogurt by itself.

Other diners seemed frustrated for the same problems too. I overheard complaints about the rice and the temperature inside.

I asked about the tipping system and was told tips might be split between servers and chefs. I strongly oppose tipping chefs unless it's an open kitchen or they’re directly serving customers. I ended up tipping extra to the one server actually doing the heavy lifting, hoping it lands in the right hands.

Suggestions for the owner:

Close the doors. It's hot, it invites flies, and it’s not helping your energy bills. Keep tipping separately. Let customers tip the people serving them—not behind-the-scenes staff they never interact with. Rethink staffing. An extra trained server would go a lot further than a busser at this point. Reconsider the “homemade” toppings. There are quality brands out there. That energy might be better spent improving service.

In short, the kitchen still delivers, but until the service catches up, ordering to-go remains the...

This place seemed like it was promising upon entering on a Thursday night as there was a small crowd waiting already. We threw our names down and the total wait for four people was about 30-40 minutes.

After sitting down, we didn’t spend much time to put in our order since we all checked out the menu while waiting as did most other folks. After our orders were in, it took 35 minutes for our first dish to arrive at our table. In this time, not a single server came over to provide an update or ask if we needed anything. Several servers were moving around the restaurant and no one thought the need to check in with our table or the tables next to us. Both our table and the tables next to ours were all looking around trying to find out what the heck was going on here.

So it was 30-40 minutes to get a table secured, then 35 minutes after ordering to get the first dish. We ordered four total dishes and it was 5-10 minutes wait time in between receiving each dish. It was absolutely insane how much time it took to get the food out. You could tell, the tables around us were all unhappy with the experience. The fact that the service staff weren’t able to provide any updates or provide basic service, was just unprofessional.

The food was decent. The bullfrog tasted pretty fresh and was probably the highlight of the four dishes, as the other three had nothing to write home to mom about. There are many restaurants that serve this type of menu in the greater area.

Sadly, we will not return to this...

Honestly would come back to try other dishes. When they say choose a Chinese or Asian restaurant with lower stats and you won't be disappointed is true. This is that spot. I was in the area and was planning on going to Mountain House, but of course to no avail. I saw Earthen and we planned to go there but was like let's check out each of the restaurants in that area. Decided on Spicy Home because it looked legit. Like the people inside were having a good time, plates were clean, bellies looked full.

Got the mapo tofu and pork belly dry pot stir fry dish and the portion was large. Price was fantastic too! I think all in all, this place has great variety (like if you're not familiar with szechuan food you'd still enjoy a spot like this). Right prices, perfect portions. A spot you'll need to share because why would you go to a spot like this without sharing?!

It's a little packed and service was just fine. next time I got to try other...