Ma’s House — Restaurant in Poway

Little Kitchen took over Crazy Duck and has been opened for about a month. We came for lunch and got two lunch items that included rice, soup of the day and egg roll. The soup of the day was chicken cream corn. A bit salty but after adding red vinegar, it balanced out.

-Eggplant w brown sauce w meat (you can also get without meat). This item was slightly salty from the brown sauce w minced meat. I loved that it had so much eggplant.

-Honey walnut shrimp: Shrimp stayed crispy the entire time. I thought it was perfect size and crispy edges coated in the mayo sauce. My favorite dish.

-Chicken xiao long bao (8): You can tell it’s made in house bc it’s all different shapes. The wrapper was thick for my liking and it barely squirt out broth but it was so damn juicy. The meat filling was a lot too. I got full after eating 5.

-Beef stew noodle soup: Choice of regular or house made noodles. I chose house noodles. The shape was like udon but texture was dense and doughy. The broth had a lot of herbal spice and the beef was so tender.

Overall, the portions for the lunch items were huge. I don’t think dumplings is their strong point. The beef stew was a huge bowl and best to feed 2-4 people.

We will be coming back to try other dishes. This place has potential. Great food, lots of parking,...

I really enjoyed visiting Ma’s House recently in Poway! The restaurant is clean and inviting with a nice laid back vibe. All of the servers were friendly and genuine. I really felt welcomed and valued. I tried something called “Orange Beef” for the first time and it was excellent. Had a very nice, crispy wok sear that I adore. I ordered it as a lunch special and the amount of food you get is quite generous. It’s pretty rare that I take home leftovers from a Chinese restaurant “lunch special”. It did start with a small bowl of hot & sour soup, unfortunately they didn’t leave any spoon. I was able to rectify that however and enjoyed the warmth and rich flavor of that tasty soup. Highly recommended if you haven’t been.

Update: The highs and lows of Ma’s House! While I spoke highly of their Orange Beef, which was exquisite, their Kung Pao Chicken was another matter entirely. It looked and tasted like it was cooked in a Crock Pot, rather than a wok. A soupy brown gravy, soft chicken and very little discernible spice heat. Completely devoid of any wok hei. Quite possibly the worst Kung Pao I’ve ever been served. The Chicken Corn Creamy soup this visit...

We got 2 lunch specials. One non spicy orange chicken and the other chicken cashew. The soup was a creamy corn soup which was actually like egg drop soup with corn and chicken bits. We got a veggie roll one each. They were both yummy. Our host, Myung, was very kind, friendly, and engaging. He made my experience great.

The food came out and we got excited. We took some bites and were slightly disappointed. For me- the orange chicken was a little cold on the inside for some and others was scalding hot… the sauce was bland- like it was missing salt or something. For my friend- the chicken cashew also tasted bland- I didn’t enjoy it so I didn’t continue to share with her. I heard great things about this place from social media but I don’t think it lived up to the hype. Mediocre at best but I guess there’s a lot of other foods to try still.

Overall- great location, very friendly staff, just not the most...