H W Taste — Restaurant in Walnut

After you order at the machine you get a number. But the server doesn’t know where you sit so you have to listen to them call out your number. At first we didn’t hear and our item got delivered to another table. I think there can be a more efficient method?

The soy milk came barely lukewarm. I didn’t like that… I was expecting hot soy milk. Also, having been to Tianjin multiple times, their local soy milk has that slightly toasty burnt flavor that the soy milk that HW taste lacks.

The tofu brain was lacking. It had good flavor. However, there was severely way too much corn starch. It was so thick it was almost pudding like. And it was very lacking in some wood ear and shiitake mushrooms.

The deep fried doughnut had too much baking soda? It was freshly made but it wasn’t a thin light crisp. It deflated very fast. I prefer the kind sold at Yi Mei and JJ cafe.

The egg pancake (jianbin guozi) was decent. No complaints but not close to the best I’ve had in the SoCal area.

We got a beef roll pancake. The beef was very tender. It was delicious. But there was a bit too much sauce (mian jiang?) so it made it a bit too salty and overwhelming. I think a bit of pickled mustard greens in there would be delicious as an option. Not sure if this is traditional Tianjin style though.

I wished the items came out at the same time or closer to the same time. I understand things are deep fried and they would like to bring on the items freshly made. But I like to dip my fried dough in the tofu brain and soy milk. And it would be nice to enjoy these items together.

I did go on a Saturday at around 11am and all the tables were full. Maybe they were a bit overwhelmed?

I feel like there is room for...

Super happy I can be the 1st review!

We ordered 3 things and I will rank from best to worst

Beef, shrimp, egg pie Taste Grade B This dish is almost B+.  However,  the chef made 1 of the pie TOO wet and the skin was not crispy so.... Overall taste is on the light side and it is better than too salty.  Nevertheless,  the beef is just ok.  The egg is egg yolk and nothing too special.   The shrimp is just a little bit and you can NOT experience the SEAFOOD taste so I can NOT give a higher grade.

Beef, shrimp, egg shaomai Taste Grade B It has the SAME mixing meat as the pie so...the grade is the same.  However,  the skin is TOO dry and easily stuck on the bottom of the steam paper so the grade is lower.

Beef roll Taste Grade D+ The SMALLEST portion I ever seen in a Chinese restaurant ! The pancake is ok The meat is too plain But the sauce is TOO SALTY. Please do NOT order this one.

The service is ok and the ambiance is just ok.

We were the ONLY dining party at 2pm and when we leave at 3pm, there was another party coming in.

I will ONLY come back here IF there is a promotion to give this place...

My wife is from TJ, so she was quite excited to try this place out. Unfortunately everything was at best, mediocre. Normally, we are not a fan of overly salty foods, but everything here was made bland, severely lacking any flavor. The one highlight was the chicken sandwich, which actually tasted like it was cooked with seasoning. The service staff was okay. It seemed like they were busy taking care of their kids at...