Mandarin Noodle House — Restaurant in Monterey Park

A friend and I came here on a Saturday around 5pm, and it wasn’t too crowded. Both of the outdoor tables were open, so we sat down and the other one wasn’t taken the entire time we were eating. (The outdoor seating is FCFS)

We were helped by Denny and Kelly, who were both so incredibly nice & welcoming!!🤗💛 This is a family-owned restaurant and for the price you get huuge portion sizes (see pics). I ordered the Zha Jiang Mian & my friend had the Beef stew, I think each bowl was like $9, but a bowl that size in west LA / Santa Monica would easily cost like $12-16😭

We also had the scallion pancakes, steamed dumplings, & a side of pickled Cucumber Salad and Seaweed Salad. So yummy! (Just remember, this is a Chinese restaurant, so if you’re used to Japanese-style seaweed salad, like what you get with sushi, that’s more stringy/thin and lighter green, that’s not what you’ll get— this seaweed is darker in color, and cut thicker)🙂

The food came out extremely fast, and I also loved that the menu had every item in both languages (1 column in Chinese, 1 column in English) which made it super easy to navigate. Not that it’s a big deal, but I hate menus that try to cram both languages into 1 line, it makes the whole thing hard to skim quickly.

A con about the experience was that because the restaurant is right next to a busy street, there’s a lot of noisy traffic / honking horns, and this is just my germaphobic side coming out, but I would assume there’s dirt or dust from the busy street that gets blown into your food (esp at the speeds that cars are...

One of, if not the best, bowl of Taiwanese beef noodle soup I've had in America.

First off, a word of warning, while you may reasonably think that all of the beef noodle soup bowls on the menu use the same handmade noodles, this is not the case. They did not simply run out of space in some item descriptions, running out of space was a coincidence, and items that don't note they use their own noodles don't necessarily.

That said, you can ask to have their handmade noodles added to an item that didn't originally have them, I think it was an extra dollar or so.

I got the beef and tendon mix with the handmade noodle addition. There's a lot to break down, so point by point: *Noodles: The handmade noodles were very good, with a delightful texture *Soup: Flavorful with multiple notes. Maybe my biggest criticism to the overall bowl, though, is that the soup is a bit on the thin side, but the soup was still very good. *Beef: Some pieces were superb, with just enough fat to melt tenderly in my mouth. Others were a bit on the tough side. *Tendon: Truly outstanding flavor, and excellent texture.

A particularly nice part of the service here is that they offered to and added some spinach to my bowl, which I really enjoyed.

In addition, I also got the scallion pancake, which also was one of, if not the best, that I've ever had in America. Nice and thin, with...

I am not Asian, so I do not know how much this review will weigh. That being said, I love all kinds of Asian food. I love Japanese food, I love Thai food, I love Filipino food, but I haven't found many good Chinese restaurants. This place changed that.

There are plenty of Americanized Chinese restaurants, but not that many TRADITIONAL Chinese restaurants. Again, with not too much reference with traditional Chinese cuisine, this place takes the cake.

The beef noodle soup is absolutely delicious. Easily one of their best items. My only criticism is that I don't get more because I CAN'T STOP EATING IT! It is that good. The noodles taste like they are homemade, the broth is very rich and bursting with flavor, and the meat is seasoned very well. I think the serving size is 4. Yeah, all 4 me!

Their beef pancake is delicious. The sauce is amazing. The tortilla like bread they wrap it in is sweet and crispy, but flexible. Perfection.

The service is always fast, and the male worker (I think he is the son or grandson) is such a character! Very funny and great conversationalist. And the prices are great!

Great food, great prices, great staff, and overall AMAZING place. Will always come back. Thank you for being here and sharing your...