Happy Family 欣園 — Restaurant in Monterey Park

From the moment I stepped foot in Happy Family Restaurant (III, now Golden Sunrise Restaurant) I knew my life had changed. A bland and uninviting life had all of a sudden become one of vivid color and imagery: my eyes had been opened to the world of Happy Family.

Despite a personal fiasco, the ladies at the front were overly courteous and brought out our “haute cuisine” meal in no time. But I won’t bore you about the politics of restaurant ordering. Let me get on to the food.

Is a little bit of grease gonna kill you? No!

But is not going to happy family gonna kill you? I think you know the answer to that question in your heart.

We began our foodie journey with deep fried dumplings. The crispy edges danced with the delicate sweet and sour sauce. Small pockets of filling enhanced the flavor of the dough. Fried food had never appealed to me until I had experienced these wonton crisps.

Next, we explored a “hair like seaweed” soup. Indeed, I was skeptical about eating something hair like? Would it taste good, like my hair? The answer to that question was a resounding yes! Deep layers of umami added flavoring to a variety of finely julienned vegetables. Tofu was the recipient of the labor of these vegetables bathing in a combination of all these flavors. What this means is that it was one of the finest liquids I had ever ingested in my lifetime.

Further along the line, I had the Tofu, Pumpkin, and Eggplant black pepper pot. In a pool of flavorful oil sat chunks of well greased vegetable and fried tofu. I know what you’re thinking: this is so unhealthy! And while you might be right, the simple presence of being at happy family nullifies the concept of “fat” or “dieting”. I will admit, in an otherwise holy crusade of food heaven, this dish was my least favorite. But that means I would still rate it a 99/100.

The fine dining and excellent service at Happy Family required a second visit. The fried dumplings required an immediate revival. A miso soup did well to stack up to the high standards set by hair like seaweed. Fried noodles kept the trend of delicious fatty food going. If I find myself in California, or frankly the whole West Coast, a pilgrimage to Happy Family is first on my list.

All of this is to say, the food was, you...

We waited and skipped out on this place last year because the wait was ridiculously long on Lunar New Year. We managed to only wait 30 mins this year because LNY landed on a Weekday.

You write your name on the waiting list. Make sure you stay inside to hear your name because these people have no shame. I have witnessed, those that know the language, tried to smooch their way to the top and you need to pay attention and be ready to interfere. There is no order of first come first serve, if a table clears up for a party of 6, they could skip over the list and call that group. It’s terrible.

While we were waiting, I studied what to order to save time. The physical menu, take out menu, and on line do not match. It’s so unorganized and not categorized. It needs to be redone with photos. Why put “vege” in front of a word when the entire restaurant is vegetarian!

The portions are huge, meant for family banquet style and the price reflects that averaging $17.99 each.

We are a party of 2 but ordered:

-Corn cream and pumpkin soup ($13.59): Sweet like corn from a can.

-Deep fried tofu: Not sure when they fried this because it wasn’t piping hot and the edges were not crispy. It was tofu with barely any batter. It was so bad that we had to tell the server to let the chef know so it doesn’t affect anyone else.

-Eggplant w brown sauce ($17.99): This was the only egg plant combo option that wasn’t spicy.

-Sweet and sour fish ($19.59): This was the only fish option that wasn’t spicy.

-Walnut shrimp: I asked for walnut shrimp but something else came out instead. It was shrimp with mushrooms and nuts. My mom liked it so I didn’t complain.

The quality of food was just meh. The crowd impacted the service and queue. I’ve tasted better vegetarian restaurants near by. I can now cross this one off my list. Sadly, we...

Hi. I've been here a million times so my review will truly be an accurate portrayal of this restaurant. It is very TRUE that they got cheap and stopped offering their generous portions, and simultaneously raised the prices. That was the day this restaurant tanked. They remodeled but thats not important. I prefer lower prices and generous portions. Secondly, many of the dishes don't taste the same, they're more bland, less tasty now. If you want the standard of excellence years ago, you should have gone to TIN IN, a similar veggie restaurant in Alhambra that was 100 times better than happy family. Happy family is like Tin In's ugly cousin. Shorter, not as kind, more bland & withholding and an uninteresting personality. Food should always be made to order and when it is not you know it's been laying around as it does many times like at My Vegan restaurant. I used to like Doris the waitress here at Happy Family but she's gone..she used to work at Tin in! You would swoon at the food at Tin in. As far as this restaurant, much variety but it's definitely hit or miss. I usually get the beef and broccoli..the veggie meats do not taste as authentic as they do anywhere else. The breaded meats are too breaded and dough-y. I keep ordering the same things because when I try to experiment, I don't like the food and am disappointed. There is 1 waitress still there tho that I like very much. She's understanding and I wish I had her every time I went there. Usually you're safer with a dish that has broccoli 🥦 or green beans because you cannot mess that up. I didn't care for the soups. The pork and cabbage is good but as I said I've tried other dishes and was very disappointed. It really sucks to see LESS FOOD on...