Hui Tou Xiang Noodles House — Restaurant in San Gabriel

This review has been a long time coming, but I came here with a bunch of fellow foodies for dinner on a Saturday night. We arrived fairly early - before 7 - were all able to avoid the dinnertime crowd and find parking in the pretty small lot. Since this restaurant is located in the same plaza as the popular Luscious Dumplings and Phoenix, it can get incredibly crowded while waiting at restaurants or for a parking spot!

I believe what draws customers into Hui Tou Xiang is their special buy four items, get one free promotional deal. I mean, that's what drew me to look into the restaurant in the first place. They also have simple spicy appetizers they serve to the table while you wait for the food, which was pretty nice.

Hui Tou Xiang is popular for their special potstickers that are in a rectangular shape rather than the traditional pot sticker shape. I believe this is so that both sides of the pot stickers get an even cook making the skin of the dumpling to taste uniformly crispy on all sides.

Pork hui tou: Flavorful and tasty. The skin of the dumpling was slightly crispy but still chewy, which I liked. The flavor of the pork was good as well.

Beef hui tou: Not as flavorful and juicy as the pork. There wasn't as much of a taste. Skin was cooked evenly, but I'd skip the beef and just go for the pork.

Crab xiao long bao: It was pretty tasty, but I still prefer Mama Lu's to this one. Not too memorable, but flavors were good. I'm not a big fan of crab XLB in general, so paying a whole lot more money to get crab instead of pork isn't my thing.

Sesame noodles: No taste at all. We added all the additional sauces given to us and all we could taste from the noodles was the sesame oil. No flavor, no taste, no good.

I think we ordered one more dish/received one for free, but I have no clue what it was - which probably means it was just okay.

Overall, the food was decent for the price we paid. I wouldn't say that anything was extraordinary or outstanding. Honestly I don't think I'd come back to this restaurant when I can get Mama...

Came here after doing some research about other Chinese Food places in my area. I expected this place to be flooded with people during the lunch hours, but we decided to try it out. I haven't been to this plaza in ages, and when I did, i usually came here for the Vietnamese restaurant on the other end and all I could remember was the packed parking lots and long waits so that was what I was expecting. However, when I cam here, it wasn't too empty, but not too crowded either. I parked in the public parking lot on the street right next to the plaza anticipating a larger crowd, but I guess I came here during the right time because most of the restaurants here weren't too full, but I imagine this to not be the case during dinner hours or Sunday lunch hours.

Now lets get to the food. When I came here, I was seated immediately by the servers and on the table was a self-service menu with spots to put checkmarks on the items you want. My party got the Stewed Beef Noodle Soup, Pan Fried Dumplings, Scallion Pancakes, and the famous Xiao Long Bao. As a starter, the server gave us a small plate of kimchi which was good.

The food we ordered was all so delicious. The Scallion Pancake was flavorful and crispy. The Pan Fried Dumpling was unique and crunchy, and there was a little bit of soup in each one. The Stewd Beef Noodle Soup came with some vegetables, a bit of a kick, and the softest beef I have ever eaten. It practically fell apart when I grabbed it. The Xiao Long Bao, although not filled with the ideal amount of soup was possibly the best thing I tried here. The skin was so soft and the meat had a bit of a nutty flavor which i assumed could be sesame. It was extremely to my expectations.

Overall, this was an extremely great experience. The food was good, service was great, and the vibe...

Completely let down by this place and misled by the other reviews. Photos are misleading, they only serve in carry out containers making it hard to eat with the trash quality plastic spoons.

We ate right away in the restaurant, so all of these dishes were fresh out of the kitchen, not brought home.

Stewed Beef noodle soup: meat so tough I couldn’t break it apart with chopsticks and the plastic spoon, tough and dry. Broth had good spice level but not salty enough. Noodles were too soft though a good thickness.

Xiao long bao: okay, but wrapper was soggy and the packaging makes it so they stick together and fall apart when you pick them up.

Pork pan fried buns: these were decent, cooked well not too oily, and had a nice crisp bottom.

Atmosphere: you don’t come to SGV restaurants for decor but this was rough. Half painted, the trash can is a cardboard box by the door, and it was very hot in there and they don’t give you water.

This would be one star if it wasn’t for the pork buns. The beef noodle soup is among the worst I’ve ever had and as one of my favorite foods I was very unhappy...