Hong Kong VIP Kitchen — Restaurant in San Gabriel

This is one of the original Sam Woo BBQ restaurants and delis in the San Gabriel Valley. The name has changed a few times in the past decades, but the remnant still remains within the community.

The most recent change of the guard in Cantonese-style BBQ seems to be less paletteable. The menu has changed very little at the deli counter, and the dining room has had some good upgrades.

The most recent management has raised the prices even more significantly. Entrees in the dining room and takeaway are not any bigger and charging rice by the bowl is a bit insulting, but I guess it is common practice now. Ordering BBQ in the dining room does seem significantly better than ordering it from the deli counter to take home.

The biggest and most concerning change is the quality of the BBQ. There are significant inconsistencies in quality. Especially with the BBQ Pork and Roast Pork. They are obviously using much cheaper cuts of Pork Shoulder exhibited by the lack of tenderness and large chunks of fat unrendered. The BBQ Pork was also overly sweet and had no depth of flavor. The standard Roast Pork can also be overly seasoned and tough. The lack of crispy skin is also of great concern and lack of attention to detail. The Crispy Pork Belly is a bit better, but the lack of tenderness is a sign of cheaper cuts.

The ever-so-popular Roast Duck isn't the best example here. The few recent visits delivered a duck that had mealy breast meat and there is a lack of aromatics such as the star anise that makes this duck so special.

The Soy and Steamed Chicken was also overcooked from the deli counter. I suppose they are using standard fryer chickens as opposed to the more expensive brown feathered hens.

Parking is readily available in The San Gabriel Square, as long as you are not fighting the weekend Dim Sum crowds. There are other Cantonese Style BBQ delis in the vicinity and certainly, this is...

Sam Woo has been our go to restaurant for HK food. There are several of them in the San Gabriel Valley. This location used to house one of them. This Sam Woo became the victim of the pandemic and closed its doored a few months ago.

When I saw fellow Yelpers talking about a newly opened HK cafe restaurant at this location, I decided to give it try. I was not disappointed with the food and service.

Unlike the previous occupant, the newly remodeled restaurant is bright and clean. The staff are definitely friendlier and helpful.

The foods were delicious and better than Sam Woo. We had two dishes for lunch. Since the first thing you see when come in to this restaurant is the BBQ section, we had to order two BBQ meats. The meats were tender and flavorful. I would say the taste is above average. But the Chinese broccoli with dried fish was fantastic and full of wok hei. The authentic HK cooking style showed up on this dish, definitely recommend getting this one for HK food lover.

With the new owner, the prices had gone up too. For the two meat BBQ dish, the price had gone up to $15 compared to Sam Woo at $12. But I think it's still worth coming here to indulge in HK food in order to satisfy...

This location used to be Sam Woo restaurant our family came here very often for couple decades until the pandemic the Sam Woo can’t sustained then close for about 2 years when HK VIP Kitchen took over We came to try out the foods which was not that bad (3.5-4). Last weekend we came but the food tasted horrible and the waiter brought out the wrong dish. We ordered combo seafood noodles but he brought chicken noodles. I won’t come back here anymore to spend $100 for dinner. The original Sam Woo was gone & the beginning HK VIP Kitchen chef is acceptable until last weekend we found out was the new owner but the name is the same HK VIP Kitchen. I am not recommended. If you like authentic Chinese foods go somewhere else.

Oh, one other thing I like to point out is that the restaurant was very noisy because they served alcohol.

I came back after the last reviewer was 2* but this time I want to give it another try. I had the fish with vegetables but the fish was very salty! and the noodle soup was just like warm water & We asked why the soup tasted like water. They said you just add soy sauce and vinegar for your taste (?) & The meat was dried and tasted wasn’t fresh. I won’t come...