Red 99 Grill Bistro — Restaurant in Temple City

I was invited to this restaurant by Danny, who is a Suzhouese/Shanghaiese who left his hometown almost 70 years. He invited me to this one several times, even after I cooked more than twenty to thirty dishes by myself for him. I always wonder how did he even dare to invite me to a Chinese restaurant which sells Braised Pork in Los Angeles, my Braised Pork was noted as the best Braised Pork in Shanghai, and my recipe was noted as the textbook teaches the generations for cooking Braised Pork.

Danny mentioned that the restaurant opens at 11:30 am but we need to go there in advance. I arrived around 11:15 at a rare chili Los Angeles morning, there were already seven, or eight groups waiting outside the restaurant.

The restaurant provides 22 specials, every dish costs $10.99 with a free bowl of rice, $10.99 no matter lunch or dinner. I can guarantee more than 95% of customers are coming here only for those specials. The restaurant also has other almost 50 dishes in the average $20 to $25 range, I bet the customers seldomly order them. I had a look at the yelp photos of the restaurant, and most of them are the $10.99 specials.

The restaurant is clean, neat, and elegant. Compare with the same price level, you can only go to the dark and less cleaned Kang Kang Food Court or other food courts attached to the Chinese supermarket instead.

Here were what we had, in order: Stir Fried Dry Bean Curd and Pork The slices of the dry bean curd were very thick, the pork slices were just a little. But the whole portion was not small, you still can have the whole bowl of rice only with this dish.

Stir Fried A-Choy A-Choy was stir-fried with garlic and lightly salted. Very standard stir-fry, good.

Hunan Style Fried Pork It was spicy but still acceptable spicy not as spicy as the original one. The pork pieces were thin-cut, the only pity was the pork wasn't that fresh. I could a very light bad smell hint at the pork, but most people won't.

Fried Squid in Thee Flavor Sauce This was the best that day. Very good flavored, the squid was tender and tasty with a big amount of ginger, garlic, and Taiwan Basil, which was very authentic. By the way, every squid had full of eggs, that's good. The only drawback was that the bone of the squid was not removed, but I accept it. Even in Taiwan, some small restaurants will keep the bone inside the such small squid.

Steam Tilapia with Black Bean Sauce I was told that the tilapia was alive/fresh, but I could taste it was not. Most Chinese come to the restaurant, especially for the alive killed fish, they think the live animal kill-to-serve is more delicious than kill-in-advance. I can only give this dish 5 over 10, or less, the scales were not removed at all, and the meat of fish was a muddy taste and muddy smell.

But with the price, I had to say the dishes had been definitely worth it. I can't open a restaurant with the such renovation and serve such a low price at the same level, I...

So, we finally checked out this spot in Temple City called Red 99 Grille Bistro. It's one of those places that's been hiding in plain sight. I've been to the area plenty of times—there's even a buffet right next door that I’ve hit up before—and somehow I never noticed this restaurant. Somebody in our group recommended it, said it was really good, so we figured, why not? We rolled in on a Sunday morning, six of us deep, around 11:10 AM, and the line was already no joke. We were lucky because someone in our party made reservations (pro tip: they only take reservations for big groups, eight or more). We didn’t have to wait—we got waved in like we were somebody. The doors opened at 11:30, and by 11:45, the place was packed. Clearly, the secret’s out. The seating was comfortable, but fair warning: bring a light jacket just in case. It felt a little chilly to me inside, but that’s totally a personal thing. Some people like it crisp, some like it cozy—I’m just saying, be ready either way. We let the veterans in our group do the ordering. We told them we weren’t picky, so whatever they picked, we were down. Here's what showed up on the table: the braised pork in brown sauce (which was the absolute star of the show), stir-fried bean curd with pork, salt and pepper spare ribs, fried squid in three-flavor sauce, stir-fried cauliflower in spicy sauce, and two steamed tilapias. I tossed in the stir-fried shrimp and egg because it’s one of my go-to comfort dishes. Oh, and we had the house soup too. That braised pork? Unreal. Melt-in-your-mouth tender, perfectly seasoned—honestly, if I could’ve boxed up a gallon of that sauce, I would have. The shrimp and egg? Simple but flawless. I’ve had that dish in plenty of spots, but this one had the best balance of seasoning and flavor I’ve tasted in a while. Everything else held its own. The cauliflower? It was alright—not my favorite, but definitely good enough to eat without complaint. You need a veggie somewhere on the table, right? The best part: the price. Every dish was $11.99. We ordered six entrees, soup, and tea, and the total came out to under $100 before tip. In this day and age, that’s basically a miracle. And the wild part? That price is the same for dinner too. No upcharge, no gimmicks. Service was on point. The tea kept flowing, the food came out fast even though they were slammed, and everything was fresh and hot. You can tell this place runs like a well-oiled machine. Honestly, if Red 99 was closer to where I live, I’d be a regular. It checks all the boxes: tasty food, big portions, solid service, and prices that don’t make you clutch your wallet. Would I go back? Absolutely. Just maybe I’ll bring a jacket—or maybe not. Either way, the...

A Chinese lady friend suggested we try this place, so we did. It apparently has a reputation for spicy food, which was fine with me, cuz I like spicy. The place is not very big, but we got there early enough to get a table right away. We ordered three dishes, Talapia, sauteed string beans and a dish labled "spicy chicken wings." The string beans came first, and they were very good, if just a bit too salty. After that came the chicken wings and the big problem I had with this place. It was a big bowl/plate of little bite size chunks of chicken. I asked the waiter where the wings were and he said they cut them up into bite size pieces. Okay, I guess I can deal with that. So he left and we started digging in. Well, it was prepared to such a dark golden brown that at first I couldn't see that it was about 70% fried peppers. Literally! You had to hunt out the chicken bits. And I gotta tell ya, I've never found Chinese food very spicy, but this was a real kick in the face. I luv spicy, but when it's so much that it overwhelms the flavor and all you taste is the spiciness, what's the freakin' point??!! On top of that, every single piece of chicken I chose was 90% skin, bone and gristle. I've gotten dishes like that before at Chinese restaurants, and it's always annoyed the #$&*! out of me. I mean, I'm paying for CHICKEN!!! Not bone!! Not gristle! So after the third or fourth piece,I gave up on that dish. And the kicker is, IT WAS THE MOST EXPENSIVE DISH WE ORDERED!! The fish was good, if nothing special. But here's one restaurant I sure as hell am not going back to. But if ya really luv spicy,...