Ma's House — Restaurant in Laguna Hills

School cafeterias provide better food and better service then this place. Sparse decor, sticky tables and menus, cold, unappetizing food and shady workers. We were a party of five, ordered chicken corn soup which arrived cold, bland and with absolutely no chicken or chicken flavor. We let the server know to at least give us hot soup. He looked at us and shrugged his shoulders....take it or leave it was my interpretation. This was a good precursor to how the rest of our order tasted. Cold, slapped on to the table and unappealing. Also do not use their condimemts. They are filthy and old. Halal food is why they get customers, they know it and they exploit it. When our check came, I gave it a cursory glance and was about to add a tip (I am a ridiculously generous tipper much to my family's chagrin. I get it, I waited tables in college) when I realized we were overcharged by about $20. I called the server ( btw good luck getting their attention) He said and I quote, "I added tip because you didn't like the food." I'm rarely left speechless. I said you can't do that, we're not a party of 6. He said, "5 or 6 we add tip, our choice" I looked at the bill again and he had literally made the check out as 6 guests up on top of the check, and suggested how much to tip on the total of bill plus his tip. I would have given way more anyhow. Look your bills over carefully. Halal food does not equate...

One word, disgusting 太难吃了。When there's no Chinese people eating at a Chinese restaurant, that's usually a very, very bad sign. And sure enough the food does not taste good. Sesame bread was burned on the bottom and lacking aroma. Filet mignon was fried, hard and salty. Hand made noodles 刀削面 was super soft and not chewy at all like it's supposed to be. Another noodle dish 咋酱面was bland. Lamb paomo 羊肉泡馍 (bread) soup came with glass noddles? When I asked them why is there noodles instead of bread in my soup, the waistress pointed out to me there are two quarter sized chunks of bread in the soup. The two pieces were hard and raw in the middle. When I pointed this out to the waiter he told me it's been baked but just undercooked and is not raw. I asked to return the dish and was told I can only exchange for another. I did the exchange and was given guilt trip that the dish now must be tossed and they asked me if I knew what I was ordering. Yes I had this dish plenty of time in China, it's supposed t be chopped bread soup as it's name suggest 泡馍 not noodles. Waiter stated the reason he asked was because this dish at their place is a bad dish and the restaurant is really not catered to Chinese people because the way they make everything is...

This place took over the location of an old school Chinese restaurant that was here since the 80s. They are Chinese halal but the menu is not just Uyghur food. The menu is massive. Warning, not everything is good. The more American/Chinese dishes are not that good at all. Think Panda Express. Some dishes are excellent and some are average. I think the bread tastes OK, the thin one has a consistency similar to a Persian bread called taftoon but has green onions. Note, it is outrageously overpriced. At most Persian bakeries in the area you can get a large taftoon for 3.50. Here the bread is 12 something. Many people like the lamb dishes. I would agree, the lamb stew was excellent. I didn't like the cumin lamb though, dry and too many onions. I heard some of the stews and warm pots are popular. I think it will take many tries to find out the actual good items to order on the menu. The flavors are different than traditional Chinese regional flavors most people...