Order the pork dumplings, will not regret it.Order video Mobile qr code scanIf you haven't had szcheon style noodles and cuisine,keep in mind the food can be on the oiler side.Spice is more like a slow burn spice as a flavor with a tingling and numbing sensation.You're dishes are mixed with sour and pickled flavors with spice or sweetness.Great service, ambience is clean and modern look. I forgot about the spice flavor before ordering.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Gizzard Noodles
THEIN WIN
The soup and Noodle quality is still
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Spicy Beef Noodle Soup
Eric Valenzuela
A tale of two mian shops. One is highly revered; the other exists sotto voce. One is in the wondrous San Gabriel Valley; the other is in noxious San Francisco. One, soon after opening, grew to many locations; the other drudges quietly along in Frisco's Chinatown. What is Mian? "Mian" is Mandarin for noodle. A bowl of xiao mian is a staple breakfast for the denizens of Chongqing, China's most populated city. Although the mega metropolis has become its own provincial region, the cuisine belongs within the milieu of Sichuan cooking. What does a Chongqing bowl of mian look like? The noodles are thin and made from wheat. The broth is laden healthily (maybe unhealthily) with chili oil. From this basic axiom, variations are born. My favorite is dan dan mian. Mian (the restaurant), based in SoCal, has done well for itself. It received encomiums from on high: it featured in both the penultimate and final "101 Best List" that Jonathan Gold ever composed. A Sichuan noodle explosion ensued. Mians were opened in Houston and Honolulu, and places in between. I recently visited the Rowland Heights location. The entrance is at once alluring and unassuming. Located along Colima in such a high density restaurant area and its storefront being no greater than nine feet wide, it would get lost if its name, "Mian," wasn't posted in blood red lettering on a pagoda style awning. Once through the entrance, you're surprised to see the dining room gradually widen into quite a large space, as if it had been designed by Willy Wonka himself. All the accolades are hung up within the vestibule area. You're finding yourself surrounded with all sorts of non-figurative sculptures, from the walls to ceiling. They're made from papery wood or wooden paper. At your seat lies a placemat with illustrations instructing how to eat mian the Chongqing style. I ordered the Mian special. The bowl quickly arrived. A familiar sight rested within - blanched bok choy, a fried egg, thick hewn slices from a beef terrine lying over a mass of noodles and broth. But the beef and bok choy were left with the refrigerator's hoarfrost on them (not brought to room temperature and certainly not hot). However, the fried egg was at room temperature, likely because it had been sitting out for several hours. The instructional placemat told me that I would receive a serving of noodle water to sip along with the bowl. The noodle water never arrived. Of course, Mian is no mom n' pop shop. They are multi location. They've been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Along with sister restaurant Chengdu Taste, they are a mini empire. Not only have they peaked, but they've become lazy. A very similar - though very different - place is found in San Fran. It is Chongqing Xiao Mian (CXM) on Kearny St in Chinatown. Rather than the designed interior found at Mian, CXM features what you'd imagine finding at a noodle dive. Walls are painted orange, some may call it a pukey orange. A print on one wall is of a tropical resort. Chongqing is of course land locked. Admittedly most things I've ordered from CXM have been middling to bad. Their steamed pork belly with fermented vegetables was fit for the dog's bowl. A lamb ginger noodle soup was pedestrian, as was a bowl of chitterling stew. But none of those other dishes matter. What you will get is the dan dan mian. Noodles with pull swim in a broth that has it all. Umami from toasted sesame seeds and garlic. The aromatics and mala from chili oil. The ground pork mixture adds a stratospheric level of savoriness. I recommend, while you wait for your noodles, order the beef tendon salad. Cold tendon sliced to the thickness of a quarter and dressed with chili oil and cilantro. This place has two world class items and they are still scrappy enough to do them right every time If CXM were in Los Angeles, they would have hit it big already. Alas, they are in Frisco, a town whose food barometer does not value the one dish dive the way we do down here.
Raneem K.
Came here a few months ago with my friends and it was my first time trying out Sichuan Noodles. I have to disclaimer that I was not prepared for the spice. This is meal is not for the weak, but it is soooo delicious. The service was decent, our server helped us decide what to get from the menu since they have many options. There is good seating inside the restaurant and there were many to go orders being placed while we were there . The food came out quickly, it was delicious and I wish definitely go again!
Suz C.
Really good noodle place. They have THE most tender pork belly and sliced beef! Only place I've seen that had a pork belly noodle option. They also have the traditional pork belly rice plate, which I was tempted to get but decided to live on the edge and try the noodle option instead. The beef roll pancake was a bit of a pass, the hot and sour shaoshou was interesting, but the vinegar sort of overpowered it.The clear broth beef noodle and pork belly noodle was exceptional. Would love if they offered more noodle choices like egg noodle, vermicelli, flat noodle but sadly they do not have that option yet.The ground pork steam egg was so good. Filled with nostalgia of days when I was growing up. And best part of it all, they give a large carafe of mung bean soup to drink. Not sure if it's refillable though. The ordering is online with bar code, big, big plus. The food comes out quick! Huge, extensive menu with lots of food options. It might take a while to try them all, which I don't mind ;D
samantha s.
You can order and pay though the QR code on the table, The service was nice and quick, he also gave us some water after we finished or complementary mung bean water, which was surprisingly very good specially after eating mala type of spice. (Incase you have never had "mala " schzechuan type the spice is a different kind where it numbs your lip/tongue a bit," it's weird at first but it adds a nice spiced flavor.) Ig: thatfoodiegirlsam I got the vegan mapo tofu noodles, the noodles were cooked perfectly. And had nice presentation. It was my first time having mapo tofu schezuan style it worked well with the noodles. My friend had the tomato egg noodle soup I loved the broth it tasted like fresh sweet tomato strained. The noodles were the thin kind Also had the celery tofu appetizer which was simple but good The interior setting was surprisingly very classy and neat "never judge a book by its cover" if you go there you'll see why I said that. I really liked the mung bean water and my noodles will come back and try different kinds next time :)
Jianre Hsiung
Great food.Service is
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Jack L.
I've been to the San Gabriel location many a times and had good experiences. Stopped by this Rowland Heights location and was very disappointed. We each ordered the spicy beef noodle and a shared beef stomach appetizer. The appetizer was actually decent but the soup was lacking, no flavor, and I don't know why this location just isn't as good as the others.To top it off, there were only 3 or 4 tables and they brought us the wrong table's check.. Unfortunately we paid it as we were in a rush and didn't realize why it was $10 more than what we were expecting until after the charge was made. It took the employee another 15 minutes to figure out how to undo it and whatnot, but he instead came back with $2 in cash and said hey please take the $2 because it'd be the difference in price.. No, it was closer to $10 but we were in a rush so we took it and left.I don't see any reason to come back to this location.
Misa O.
The dishes here are a hit or a miss but the hits are HITS! The House Beef Noodles / Beef Noodle Soup lacked flavor but the Chengdu Zajiang Noodles were delicious and not at all numbing. The Chili Oil Dumplings also lacked flavor but the Pork Dumplings were incredibly juicy and flavorful.Usually, a place's dishes have to at least mostly taste good for five stars from me but I just loved the Chengdu Zajiang Noodles and Pork Dumplings so much that this place deserves the five. I definitely recommend it!
Maggie C.
Tried out this restaurant after hearing a lot of good things about it, but it just wasn't for me. The interior is really clean and well decorated, and the staff are nice. Slight language barrier but The current way to order is to scan a QR code provided on the table and input your order, but it was a bit confusing for our large group. We weren't sure whether the orders would sync up (since one person would pay the bill + 4 different QR table codes), and it was difficult to get the server's attention for clarification. The beef in chili oil was probably my favorite item that was ordered. The flavor and spice all packed a punch, super yummy. Cucumber salad was underwhelming, not a lot of taste and barely salty. For the noodles I ordered, I wasn't a big fan. There wasn't a great balance of spices, it mostly tasted like Chinese spices and no other flavor. My bowl did come out very warm, but the food itself was barely lukewarm. Maybe this type of Chinese cuisine isn't what I was used to, but I'd like to give this another shot since I saw a few other items on the menu that I was interested in.
Food is delicious, but the price is a bit expensive.. Small portions also.. If they're gonna be charging that much they should up the portions a bit.
Food: 4
Service: 4
Guido K.
I googled "best Chinese in LA" and then this popped up as the #1 place. So we drove - and had a very good meal. However, if you expect the classic Chinese dishes, you will be disappointed. This is Shezuan, "a different animal". So no rice, no sweet-and-sour-this-and-that.So be prepared for very spicy Szechuan food. Noodles. No rice. Try the dumplings, they were delicious. We ordered mild (1 out of 5 spice degrees) and we were burning inside (we had two separate orders of dumplings - but spice grade 1. There is no consistency, so be careful).So if spicy is what you are "in" for, you'll love it. The ambiance is sort of authentic ;-) - the sign on how to use the toilet (outside the restaurant in the alley) says more than words. But then, it was $100 all-in for the four of us only.My advice: I could barely understand the service language. Better check the menu before you go. As we were first-timers, I wanted to share three starters and three mains among the four of us and leave it up to the waitress to make us explore - she did not understand. I asked if they served beer. The answer was "noodles or dumplings". :-)
Mika L.
This place is always great every time I come! Great service, clean tables, and the noodles are reliably delicious.This time we ordered Tan Tan Noodles, Sour Soup Beef Noodles, Clear Broth Beef Noodles, and Tomato Beef Noodles. All came hot with large portions!The clear broth noodles are great for people who can't take any spice at all. The broth remains super flavorful and doesn't have even a hint of spiciness. The tan tan noodles were my favorite and there was a generous amount of meat under an even more generous amount of noodles.
Vee Dinh
Come with me to this Michelin recommended noodle spot. It’s soooo good!Highlights of the menu:1. Chengdu beef jerky2. Crispy skin chicken3. Ma po tofu & minced pork noodles
Vy D.
Come with me to this Michelin recommended noodle spot. It's soooo good!Highlights of the menu:1. Chengdu beef jerky 2. Crispy skin chicken 3. Ma po tofu & minced pork noodles
Order the pork dumplings, will not regret it.Order video Mobile qr code scanIf you haven't had szcheon style noodles and cuisine,keep in mind the food can be on the oiler side.Spice is more like a slow burn spice as a flavor with a tingling and numbing sensation.You're dishes are mixed with sour and pickled flavors with spice or sweetness.Great service, ambience is clean and modern look. I forgot about the spice flavor before ordering.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Gizzard Noodles
The soup and Noodle quality is still
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Spicy Beef Noodle Soup
A tale of two mian shops. One is highly revered; the other exists sotto voce. One is in the wondrous San Gabriel Valley; the other is in noxious San Francisco. One, soon after opening, grew to many locations; the other drudges quietly along in Frisco's Chinatown. What is Mian? "Mian" is Mandarin for noodle. A bowl of xiao mian is a staple breakfast for the denizens of Chongqing, China's most populated city. Although the mega metropolis has become its own provincial region, the cuisine belongs within the milieu of Sichuan cooking. What does a Chongqing bowl of mian look like? The noodles are thin and made from wheat. The broth is laden healthily (maybe unhealthily) with chili oil. From this basic axiom, variations are born. My favorite is dan dan mian. Mian (the restaurant), based in SoCal, has done well for itself. It received encomiums from on high: it featured in both the penultimate and final "101 Best List" that Jonathan Gold ever composed. A Sichuan noodle explosion ensued. Mians were opened in Houston and Honolulu, and places in between. I recently visited the Rowland Heights location. The entrance is at once alluring and unassuming. Located along Colima in such a high density restaurant area and its storefront being no greater than nine feet wide, it would get lost if its name, "Mian," wasn't posted in blood red lettering on a pagoda style awning. Once through the entrance, you're surprised to see the dining room gradually widen into quite a large space, as if it had been designed by Willy Wonka himself. All the accolades are hung up within the vestibule area. You're finding yourself surrounded with all sorts of non-figurative sculptures, from the walls to ceiling. They're made from papery wood or wooden paper. At your seat lies a placemat with illustrations instructing how to eat mian the Chongqing style. I ordered the Mian special. The bowl quickly arrived. A familiar sight rested within - blanched bok choy, a fried egg, thick hewn slices from a beef terrine lying over a mass of noodles and broth. But the beef and bok choy were left with the refrigerator's hoarfrost on them (not brought to room temperature and certainly not hot). However, the fried egg was at room temperature, likely because it had been sitting out for several hours. The instructional placemat told me that I would receive a serving of noodle water to sip along with the bowl. The noodle water never arrived. Of course, Mian is no mom n' pop shop. They are multi location. They've been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Along with sister restaurant Chengdu Taste, they are a mini empire. Not only have they peaked, but they've become lazy. A very similar - though very different - place is found in San Fran. It is Chongqing Xiao Mian (CXM) on Kearny St in Chinatown. Rather than the designed interior found at Mian, CXM features what you'd imagine finding at a noodle dive. Walls are painted orange, some may call it a pukey orange. A print on one wall is of a tropical resort. Chongqing is of course land locked. Admittedly most things I've ordered from CXM have been middling to bad. Their steamed pork belly with fermented vegetables was fit for the dog's bowl. A lamb ginger noodle soup was pedestrian, as was a bowl of chitterling stew. But none of those other dishes matter. What you will get is the dan dan mian. Noodles with pull swim in a broth that has it all. Umami from toasted sesame seeds and garlic. The aromatics and mala from chili oil. The ground pork mixture adds a stratospheric level of savoriness. I recommend, while you wait for your noodles, order the beef tendon salad. Cold tendon sliced to the thickness of a quarter and dressed with chili oil and cilantro. This place has two world class items and they are still scrappy enough to do them right every time If CXM were in Los Angeles, they would have hit it big already. Alas, they are in Frisco, a town whose food barometer does not value the one dish dive the way we do down here.
Came here a few months ago with my friends and it was my first time trying out Sichuan Noodles. I have to disclaimer that I was not prepared for the spice. This is meal is not for the weak, but it is soooo delicious. The service was decent, our server helped us decide what to get from the menu since they have many options. There is good seating inside the restaurant and there were many to go orders being placed while we were there . The food came out quickly, it was delicious and I wish definitely go again!
Really good noodle place. They have THE most tender pork belly and sliced beef! Only place I've seen that had a pork belly noodle option. They also have the traditional pork belly rice plate, which I was tempted to get but decided to live on the edge and try the noodle option instead. The beef roll pancake was a bit of a pass, the hot and sour shaoshou was interesting, but the vinegar sort of overpowered it.The clear broth beef noodle and pork belly noodle was exceptional. Would love if they offered more noodle choices like egg noodle, vermicelli, flat noodle but sadly they do not have that option yet.The ground pork steam egg was so good. Filled with nostalgia of days when I was growing up. And best part of it all, they give a large carafe of mung bean soup to drink. Not sure if it's refillable though. The ordering is online with bar code, big, big plus. The food comes out quick! Huge, extensive menu with lots of food options. It might take a while to try them all, which I don't mind ;D
You can order and pay though the QR code on the table, The service was nice and quick, he also gave us some water after we finished or complementary mung bean water, which was surprisingly very good specially after eating mala type of spice. (Incase you have never had "mala " schzechuan type the spice is a different kind where it numbs your lip/tongue a bit," it's weird at first but it adds a nice spiced flavor.) Ig: thatfoodiegirlsam I got the vegan mapo tofu noodles, the noodles were cooked perfectly. And had nice presentation. It was my first time having mapo tofu schezuan style it worked well with the noodles. My friend had the tomato egg noodle soup I loved the broth it tasted like fresh sweet tomato strained. The noodles were the thin kind Also had the celery tofu appetizer which was simple but good The interior setting was surprisingly very classy and neat "never judge a book by its cover" if you go there you'll see why I said that. I really liked the mung bean water and my noodles will come back and try different kinds next time :)
Great food.Service is
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
I've been to the San Gabriel location many a times and had good experiences. Stopped by this Rowland Heights location and was very disappointed. We each ordered the spicy beef noodle and a shared beef stomach appetizer. The appetizer was actually decent but the soup was lacking, no flavor, and I don't know why this location just isn't as good as the others.To top it off, there were only 3 or 4 tables and they brought us the wrong table's check.. Unfortunately we paid it as we were in a rush and didn't realize why it was $10 more than what we were expecting until after the charge was made. It took the employee another 15 minutes to figure out how to undo it and whatnot, but he instead came back with $2 in cash and said hey please take the $2 because it'd be the difference in price.. No, it was closer to $10 but we were in a rush so we took it and left.I don't see any reason to come back to this location.
The dishes here are a hit or a miss but the hits are HITS! The House Beef Noodles / Beef Noodle Soup lacked flavor but the Chengdu Zajiang Noodles were delicious and not at all numbing. The Chili Oil Dumplings also lacked flavor but the Pork Dumplings were incredibly juicy and flavorful.Usually, a place's dishes have to at least mostly taste good for five stars from me but I just loved the Chengdu Zajiang Noodles and Pork Dumplings so much that this place deserves the five. I definitely recommend it!
Tried out this restaurant after hearing a lot of good things about it, but it just wasn't for me. The interior is really clean and well decorated, and the staff are nice. Slight language barrier but The current way to order is to scan a QR code provided on the table and input your order, but it was a bit confusing for our large group. We weren't sure whether the orders would sync up (since one person would pay the bill + 4 different QR table codes), and it was difficult to get the server's attention for clarification. The beef in chili oil was probably my favorite item that was ordered. The flavor and spice all packed a punch, super yummy. Cucumber salad was underwhelming, not a lot of taste and barely salty. For the noodles I ordered, I wasn't a big fan. There wasn't a great balance of spices, it mostly tasted like Chinese spices and no other flavor. My bowl did come out very warm, but the food itself was barely lukewarm. Maybe this type of Chinese cuisine isn't what I was used to, but I'd like to give this another shot since I saw a few other items on the menu that I was interested in.
Restaurantji Recommends
Food is delicious, but the price is a bit expensive.. Small portions also.. If they're gonna be charging that much they should up the portions a bit.
Food: 4
Service: 4
I googled "best Chinese in LA" and then this popped up as the #1 place. So we drove - and had a very good meal. However, if you expect the classic Chinese dishes, you will be disappointed. This is Shezuan, "a different animal". So no rice, no sweet-and-sour-this-and-that.So be prepared for very spicy Szechuan food. Noodles. No rice. Try the dumplings, they were delicious. We ordered mild (1 out of 5 spice degrees) and we were burning inside (we had two separate orders of dumplings - but spice grade 1. There is no consistency, so be careful).So if spicy is what you are "in" for, you'll love it. The ambiance is sort of authentic ;-) - the sign on how to use the toilet (outside the restaurant in the alley) says more than words. But then, it was $100 all-in for the four of us only.My advice: I could barely understand the service language. Better check the menu before you go. As we were first-timers, I wanted to share three starters and three mains among the four of us and leave it up to the waitress to make us explore - she did not understand. I asked if they served beer. The answer was "noodles or dumplings". :-)
This place is always great every time I come! Great service, clean tables, and the noodles are reliably delicious.This time we ordered Tan Tan Noodles, Sour Soup Beef Noodles, Clear Broth Beef Noodles, and Tomato Beef Noodles. All came hot with large portions!The clear broth noodles are great for people who can't take any spice at all. The broth remains super flavorful and doesn't have even a hint of spiciness. The tan tan noodles were my favorite and there was a generous amount of meat under an even more generous amount of noodles.
Come with me to this Michelin recommended noodle spot. It’s soooo good!Highlights of the menu:1. Chengdu beef jerky2. Crispy skin chicken3. Ma po tofu & minced pork noodles
Come with me to this Michelin recommended noodle spot. It's soooo good!Highlights of the menu:1. Chengdu beef jerky 2. Crispy skin chicken 3. Ma po tofu & minced pork noodles