I was so excited to try this place and we found a time with their BOGO anniversary special. We got 2 panda milk teas at 50% sweet. My review is based off just this drink and I do not recommend it at all. Unfortunately, the drink is very watered down and taste like milk. It reminds me of the OG boba days when "boba milk tea" was the only option to get. However nowadays with so many other tea shops, this one did not meet my expectations. The boba was also not chewy ... wasn't old old but wasn't fresh either. Plus side is that service was nice.
s1m CS
The panda drinks tasted watered down.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 1
S. L.
Got the panda milk tea as a bogo special. The boba wasn't the worst texture but could be softer and sweeter. The milk tea tasted more like milk than tea. I try to judge drinks based on how they compare to sunmerry/85 quality as the minimum and unfortunately this one fell below that. For a tea room I'd expect the tea to taste more prominent. The staff were not the most friendly either, so there wasn't anything that made me wanna go back.
Herman A.
Located in the heated boba battlefield of Arcadia. Hanlin is one of the newer spots in the area. We ordered two boba drinks - both turned out to be sugar water. It takes a lot for me to not finish a boba, but I tossed it away after drinking 1/5 of it cause I couldn't taste anything outside of the over saturation of sweetness. The popcorn chicken was passable. And by the way their menu displayed on the TV I'd literally a 6pt font. Please spend a little money on a printed sign menu.
Margaret M.
My vegetable soup was plentiful and healthy, if bland. My husband's hot pot was the same. We needed more explanation regarding the menu - we were not familiar with the cuisine, and the menu was confusing on my iPhone. The images were blank except for the vegetable soup and the hotpot. So we ordered those, as no one was going to volunteer to help us - and we were hungry. The servers seemed shy. When our server gave us water we said "Thank you" - and she just walked away. She wasn't trying to be rude; she was just not properly trained. Saying "You're welcome" and acting as if you're glad we came is as important as properly seasoning the food. Since this place offered neither, we'll try another place next time.
Cindy K.
Although my family is taiwanese, I had not heard of Hanlin before. The taiwanese "hotdog" is what drew my interest, as I have not seen that sold outside of Taiwan before. I feel as though this place has potential to be good, but misses the mark on several things. 1. Flavor: the food lacked flavor all around. Not enough white pepper in the fried pork chop, no depth of flavor in the beef noodle soup, and not much flavor in the popcorn chicken. Sausage "hotdog" was decent in flavor, but not garlicky enough compared to the real deal (also did not come in the same shape/form). 2. Portion sizes: taiwanese food usually comes in big portions. This establishment serves small quantities with each order, which makes it feel less worth the price. Where the place does well in is food quality. It seems like some foods are prepared in a thoughtful manner. For example, the fried food is only lightly battered and not overly greasy. The sauces also look and taste like they are made in-house. Overall, I would go back only if changes were made to the flavor of the food. Otherwise, it leaves me disappointed and unsatisfied. Other notes: - has a gender neutral bathroom inside. - menu is a QR code on the tables - service is fine, I like that they leave you alone while you eat until you're ready for the check. - interior is nice and new, has a hipster vibe to it.
Hayeong K.
Staff was friendly and recommended that I get either 70% or 100% sweetness for drinks (I tend to go for 50%) Interior is pretty and though I didnt get the hot pot it smelled and looked good
Tee W.
Their pork chop fried rice is delicious! Service is fine. There was a large party when I went so the staff was quite busy taking care of them. They didn't forget about me, but you could tell their priority was to take care of them. The business is clean and does have a welcoming feel.
Mason L.
The hot pot serving was plentiful and the popcorn chicken was good. Excellent service
Yunqiu X.
Nice food, great drinks, highly recommend, order their popcorn chicken, very delicious . My friend order their panda milk tea, 50% sweetness
I was excited about Hanlin opening in Arcadia because the Hanlin in Taiwan is well known. We finally tried the food and drinks here on a weekday at 4:30pm. They were not busy but the wait staff is so inexperienced. No one greeted us and our waitress didn't know how to take our order so it took a long time for her to input everything into the system. We try to order "basic" Taiwanese food but was very disappointed with our selections. Here's what we ordered for a party of 4. 1) Three Treasure Beef Noodle Soup - This is suppose to be their signature dish. It had NO flavor. I like less salty foods but this soup tasted like water. Three treasure? More like no treasure. Noodle was over cooked too. We really didn't like this dish. 2) Popcorn chicken rice: You can't really go wrong with this dish but....the chicken was not crispy and lacked flavor, again. This dish came with a stewed egg, stewed tofu and veggies. 3) Blood cakes: Over fried and very tough to chew 4) Rice sausage with taiwan sausage: The waitress brought us only rice sausage so we corrected her and told her what we ordered. She stared at us then walked away without saying anything. Came back a few minutes later and said this is what we ordered. We told her we ordered the plate with sausages. She finally took the plate back to the kitchen, again, without saying a word. 10 minutes later brought us the correct dish without an apology. The sticky rice was over fried and tasted like it was 1 day old and refried. ugh. 5) Panda Boba Black Tea: Nothing wow about this drink. Boba tasted old too. We normally ask for our drinks to be 70-80% less sweet but asked the waitress if it's needed and she said no so we got it at normal sweetness. The thing is, their 100% sweet level tasted like 50% sweet level from other places. Keep in mind not to adjust the sweetness at this place. Unless Hanlin hires better staff and improve the quality of their food, we will not recommend or return to this restaurant.
Rose L.
Not sure how I'm barely writing my first review for this business when I've been coming here since their grand opening. I'm a regular at this tea house, as in I dine here 2 to 3 times a month with my family. We love their iced teas, their hot pot and even their steak over garlic noodle or fried rice. We're hot pot (and Shabu Shabu lovers) but we're selective in that, not all hot pot restaurants are that great or worth returning to but this one is. The servers are attentive and friendly. Parking hasn't been a problem, there's always spots in the structure. It's pretty quiet, not too busy. A good place to chill and enjoy a nice quality dinner esp when we need a little pick me up mid-week -- alone or with company.
Perry H.
Went in at 7:35pm with wife and kids on Sunday and was refused sit down service as they close at 8pm. Since when did restaurants not seat patrons 25 min before closing?
Cindy L.
Pretty decent taste Taiwanese beef noodle soup.. broth is more on the original beef side instead of strong additive flavors.. the Taiwanese popcorn chicken is one of the best I had in SoCal since I moved from Taiwan. Boba s brown sugar taste and texture is also well done. Additionally, service is quick and delightful.
Lisa Y.
Ordered the oyster omelette and braised beef stew with rice. Oysters in omelette could be fresher. But the rest was fine.
I was so excited to try this place and we found a time with their BOGO anniversary special. We got 2 panda milk teas at 50% sweet. My review is based off just this drink and I do not recommend it at all. Unfortunately, the drink is very watered down and taste like milk. It reminds me of the OG boba days when "boba milk tea" was the only option to get. However nowadays with so many other tea shops, this one did not meet my expectations. The boba was also not chewy ... wasn't old old but wasn't fresh either. Plus side is that service was nice.
The panda drinks tasted watered down.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 1
Got the panda milk tea as a bogo special. The boba wasn't the worst texture but could be softer and sweeter. The milk tea tasted more like milk than tea. I try to judge drinks based on how they compare to sunmerry/85 quality as the minimum and unfortunately this one fell below that. For a tea room I'd expect the tea to taste more prominent. The staff were not the most friendly either, so there wasn't anything that made me wanna go back.
Located in the heated boba battlefield of Arcadia. Hanlin is one of the newer spots in the area. We ordered two boba drinks - both turned out to be sugar water. It takes a lot for me to not finish a boba, but I tossed it away after drinking 1/5 of it cause I couldn't taste anything outside of the over saturation of sweetness. The popcorn chicken was passable. And by the way their menu displayed on the TV I'd literally a 6pt font. Please spend a little money on a printed sign menu.
My vegetable soup was plentiful and healthy, if bland. My husband's hot pot was the same. We needed more explanation regarding the menu - we were not familiar with the cuisine, and the menu was confusing on my iPhone. The images were blank except for the vegetable soup and the hotpot. So we ordered those, as no one was going to volunteer to help us - and we were hungry. The servers seemed shy. When our server gave us water we said "Thank you" - and she just walked away. She wasn't trying to be rude; she was just not properly trained. Saying "You're welcome" and acting as if you're glad we came is as important as properly seasoning the food. Since this place offered neither, we'll try another place next time.
Although my family is taiwanese, I had not heard of Hanlin before. The taiwanese "hotdog" is what drew my interest, as I have not seen that sold outside of Taiwan before. I feel as though this place has potential to be good, but misses the mark on several things. 1. Flavor: the food lacked flavor all around. Not enough white pepper in the fried pork chop, no depth of flavor in the beef noodle soup, and not much flavor in the popcorn chicken. Sausage "hotdog" was decent in flavor, but not garlicky enough compared to the real deal (also did not come in the same shape/form). 2. Portion sizes: taiwanese food usually comes in big portions. This establishment serves small quantities with each order, which makes it feel less worth the price. Where the place does well in is food quality. It seems like some foods are prepared in a thoughtful manner. For example, the fried food is only lightly battered and not overly greasy. The sauces also look and taste like they are made in-house. Overall, I would go back only if changes were made to the flavor of the food. Otherwise, it leaves me disappointed and unsatisfied. Other notes: - has a gender neutral bathroom inside. - menu is a QR code on the tables - service is fine, I like that they leave you alone while you eat until you're ready for the check. - interior is nice and new, has a hipster vibe to it.
Staff was friendly and recommended that I get either 70% or 100% sweetness for drinks (I tend to go for 50%) Interior is pretty and though I didnt get the hot pot it smelled and looked good
Their pork chop fried rice is delicious! Service is fine. There was a large party when I went so the staff was quite busy taking care of them. They didn't forget about me, but you could tell their priority was to take care of them. The business is clean and does have a welcoming feel.
The hot pot serving was plentiful and the popcorn chicken was good. Excellent service
Nice food, great drinks, highly recommend, order their popcorn chicken, very delicious . My friend order their panda milk tea, 50% sweetness
Restaurantji Recommends
I was excited about Hanlin opening in Arcadia because the Hanlin in Taiwan is well known. We finally tried the food and drinks here on a weekday at 4:30pm. They were not busy but the wait staff is so inexperienced. No one greeted us and our waitress didn't know how to take our order so it took a long time for her to input everything into the system. We try to order "basic" Taiwanese food but was very disappointed with our selections. Here's what we ordered for a party of 4. 1) Three Treasure Beef Noodle Soup - This is suppose to be their signature dish. It had NO flavor. I like less salty foods but this soup tasted like water. Three treasure? More like no treasure. Noodle was over cooked too. We really didn't like this dish. 2) Popcorn chicken rice: You can't really go wrong with this dish but....the chicken was not crispy and lacked flavor, again. This dish came with a stewed egg, stewed tofu and veggies. 3) Blood cakes: Over fried and very tough to chew 4) Rice sausage with taiwan sausage: The waitress brought us only rice sausage so we corrected her and told her what we ordered. She stared at us then walked away without saying anything. Came back a few minutes later and said this is what we ordered. We told her we ordered the plate with sausages. She finally took the plate back to the kitchen, again, without saying a word. 10 minutes later brought us the correct dish without an apology. The sticky rice was over fried and tasted like it was 1 day old and refried. ugh. 5) Panda Boba Black Tea: Nothing wow about this drink. Boba tasted old too. We normally ask for our drinks to be 70-80% less sweet but asked the waitress if it's needed and she said no so we got it at normal sweetness. The thing is, their 100% sweet level tasted like 50% sweet level from other places. Keep in mind not to adjust the sweetness at this place. Unless Hanlin hires better staff and improve the quality of their food, we will not recommend or return to this restaurant.
Not sure how I'm barely writing my first review for this business when I've been coming here since their grand opening. I'm a regular at this tea house, as in I dine here 2 to 3 times a month with my family. We love their iced teas, their hot pot and even their steak over garlic noodle or fried rice. We're hot pot (and Shabu Shabu lovers) but we're selective in that, not all hot pot restaurants are that great or worth returning to but this one is. The servers are attentive and friendly. Parking hasn't been a problem, there's always spots in the structure. It's pretty quiet, not too busy. A good place to chill and enjoy a nice quality dinner esp when we need a little pick me up mid-week -- alone or with company.
Went in at 7:35pm with wife and kids on Sunday and was refused sit down service as they close at 8pm. Since when did restaurants not seat patrons 25 min before closing?
Pretty decent taste Taiwanese beef noodle soup.. broth is more on the original beef side instead of strong additive flavors.. the Taiwanese popcorn chicken is one of the best I had in SoCal since I moved from Taiwan. Boba s brown sugar taste and texture is also well done. Additionally, service is quick and delightful.
Ordered the oyster omelette and braised beef stew with rice. Oysters in omelette could be fresher. But the rest was fine.