I only got to go here so I'm just here to rate the one item I got which is the string beans. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but it was crunchy. I've started to give up on mama Lu's because it's 50/50 there whether or not it's good. Here there's a good amount of meat in the dish. It did not come with rice nor any utensils but whatever. I don't need that. Parking is a small lot. Credit card accepted.
David C.
Man, the food is good here. Located on one of the main strips on Valley Boulevard in Monterey Park lies this gem of a Chinese restaurant. There is a lot and plenty of street parking. I will say that they are swamped on weekend evenings, so expect a lengthy wait. I do not know if you can call and make a reservation. Almost all the tables are for huge parties, too, so the people eating here are going in with a large party to have a long, fun meal, meaning tables don't flip all that quickly. Staff was perfectly fine, though with so many people to feed, the numerous servers do seem pushed to the limit no matter how many of them are working. But, let's discuss the food. The kung pao chicken is white meat, in case you are wondering, which I love. The taste is excellent. The dry sautéed string beans with pickled olives and pork are also truly fantastic. The house special crab was a deal at $22/lb. and starting at 2 1/2 pounds, which was enough for the missus and I. They seemed to only have red wine by the glass when I went, even though I would've preferred white, but the pour was large, which is a bonus. The only dish I was underwhelmed by was the yang chow fried rice. It was good, but I prefer my fried rice made with dark soy sauce and this is made with light soy sauce, which leads to a much more delicate but in my opinion blander flavor. Also wish they had potstickers and/or scallion pancakes. I'd like to try the squab lettuce cups next time. All in all, I was very impressed with the flavors and quality of the food. I will not hesitate to come back, but probably will do so on a weeknight instead of the weekend, or at least come early on a weekend. Definitely give them a try!
TheFlying M.
Taste of MP (Monterey Park) has a bright, clean and pleasant atmosphere - typically Cantonese style Chinese restaurant. The servings are quite generous and the wait staff are attentive. Today I enjoyed #92, Diced Filet Mignon - French Style. The beef was tender and tasty with a pleasant pepper sauce accompanied by button mushrooms, slivered onions, and fried garlic. I also enjoyed #72 Filet of Rock Cod with Spicy Salt. The dish did not disappoint with mild flavor and perfect salty + spicy complement. Complimentary dessert of hot Mung Bean & Sago was served following the main course. Taste of MP has multiple adjustable size private rooms and is great for groups and large parties. Beware! AMEX and Discover Cards are not welcome here. Oh, and if you come too near closing time you'll be inundated by the strong odor of cleaning soap. Not unpleasant, but definitely overpowering.
Dem B
One of the best Kung Pao I’ve had.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Seafood Chow Mein
Abisai Santiago
This place has great authentic tasting Chinese food. Not many places can match up to this place. I'd have to say it's my favorite place for Chinese food in all of Los Angeles. Must trys are Hong Kong style lobster, fried cod fish filet, French style beef, string beans with black bean sauce. You won't go wrong with any dish here. Definitely give it a try.
Fantastic lunch spot. First time here today. They have a gigantic lunch menu, served until 4 pm.Whole steamed tilapia for $16.99!This place will officially enter my rotation for lunch. Big parking lot. Nice dining area, with banquet rooms to the side. Service was efficient and quick. Definitely coming back.
Rose B.
It was my family's go to spot until I spotted a cockroach by one of the tables by the aquarium in June. Its unfortunate be because their food is 4 out of 5.
Dar O.
Came here to celebrate Chinese Mid- Autumn celebration with the family. Nice Chinese restaurant with their own parking lot - which is a plus in MPK. Not a big restaurant, but not small either. Typical Chinese restaurant interior with pictures of special dishes on the wall. Service was very good. Servers brought dishes out and organized on our crowded table nicely - mother in law (MIL) tends to order a lot because of Chinese traditions. Dishes were very good. Good size portions and great flavor. Not sure about pricing since MiL ordered and paid. But my MIL is very particular about which Chinese restaurants she goes to for quality and cost - so I trust that this place is fair or better than fair on price. There are a lot of good Cantonese food restaurants in the area - this is another one.
Shirley C.
Just like real home cooking that great grandma would make. Delicious, wholesome and authentic. The menu is amazing. Wide and authentic dishes that are not oily and NO MSG They have traditional Cantonese dishes, Chiuchow dishes, hot pots, variety of seafoods, frog , Szechwan and vegetarian You can get a good Peking duck, incredible orange chicken (so lightly breaded) and the best fried intestines with pickled vegetables. Prices are very reasonable and they have lunch specials until 5pm. The place is extremely clean and a bonus of many private rooms for larger parties A great find... even my mother agrees
Alexander C.
Back in the SGV, this time in MPK (Monterey Park) and looking for a Chinese restaurant for lunch specials. This place was recommended by a friend who said they had nice food and prices. Came here on a Sunday for lunch with my in laws (Party of 7), and were seated promptly. They gave us one of the semi private rooms which was nice, except then room temp got a bit warm despite the floor fan blowing. The main dining area was much cooler with the AC on. We ordered a variety of items:1. Deep fried whole fish: excellent! The flavor was good, and the fish kept the crunchy texture was a good while despite being sauced 2. Clam in black bean sauce: clams were on the smaller side, but they gave a decent sized portion to compensate. Flavor was good and typical for this type of dish. They used more onions instead of green bell peppers. 3. Fried shrimp in spicy salt: probably my favorite dish. Generous portion size. These are full size head and shell on shrimp. Nice salty flavor. Not sure it really "spicy", but there were jalapeños tossed in there. 4. Stir fry green beans: very tasty vegetable dish. Good amount of wok hay when you taste the individual bean stalks5. Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce: not much to say. Hard to screw this up. 6. Seafood Chow Fun (dry version): considered "dry" because we chose to skip the gravy sauce. Flavor was good. Wish it had more seafood in it. There were maybe only 3 shrimps and a couple of fish filets, and a some squid. The meal starts with a bowl of soup which had great flavor! Nice start to our meal. The only thing we didn't like was that because the room we were in seemed somewhat secluded, the wait staff didn't stop or peek in too often to check on us. This was a small challenge when we wanted things like refills on our teapots, or more rice. So that was unfortunate. Overall, I would recommend this place. Definitely will come back. It's the closest thing to the old LYL Restaurant that closed down since the pandemic. That was my family's "go to" place.
We decided to take the parents to check out this spot. It was our first time and first impressions were good. We ordered French style beef cubes, pea sprouts, sweet and sour pork chops, seafood tofu clay pot, and live steamed tiger cod.Beef cubes was the best and a must order. Get it for sure. Everything else was decent except the steamed fish. The fish was just 1 min short on the steamer and caused the meat near the bone hard and raw. When we told the server. He repeatedly saying this fish should not be overcooked without offering to take the fish back to cook a little more. We understand the not over cooking part, but we also don't enjoy tanked raw fish on our table.At the end of the day, if you can't cook your food to customer's liking, we don't know why you are in the restaurant business. Our last time there for sure.Fish was $145 before tax and died for nothing.
Clifton L.
We were a group of 16 and split to two tables. The staff was friendly, courteous and helpful with suggestions on what to order. Most of the food ordered was delicious, except for the crab which was a bit dry and the complimentary dessert was bland and tasted as if it was diluted. The remaining items were very much enjoyed with the poached chicken, squid, pea tips with crab, sweet & sour pork ribs, salty egg yolk frog, and fried intestine standing out and making the evening very enjoyable and memorable! Definitely worth revisiting again to try out their other menu offerings.
Victor M.
I had seen an increase in activity after the former New Lucky became Taste of MP for Cantonese style food so I decided to try it with my out-of-town guests. Because I had elderly in my group that didn't want to eat out, I placed a to-go order in person at the restaurant. While I waited for my order, I noticed the restaurant had been recently remodeled and not extremely large. They had installed private side dining rooms that narrowed and decreased the main dining area. My large order didn't take too long, maybe 15-20 minutes, but is was still early in the evening before any primetime rush. The food is authentic Cantonese and very good. Every dish was absolutely delicious. The diced filet mignon was so tender and flavorful. The seafood and tofu hot pot was well prepared. The salt and pepper pork chop was tasty. Even the eggplant and salted fish was so yummy. I don't think there was any one dish that was any better than another which was a sign of a great head chef and team.I highly recommend Taste of MP as an excellent alternative to the remaining few and more popular true Cantonese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley. I look forward to the opportunity to dine in at Taste of MP to add their service component as part of the dinner experience.
Diana W.
Lunch Special 11am-5pm with $11.99-$14.99. Served with soup and rice. Soup can't be taken to go, and rice to go ($2 small, $3 large). Credit card taken. Weekday lunch is busy. Non-lunch special: If you order to-go, you must speak solid Mandarin, or Canto. Or know what # your dish is off the dinner menu, or tell them it's number off the lunch menu. Lunch special with soup and rice:#1. Pan fried string bean with minced pork and pickle olive $11.99. -- oily as usual and done pretty well. #28. House Special Pork Ribs $13.99. --- sweet sour taste is not for us. #31. House Special Dish (lotus veggies sausage) $13.99. --- my fav#34. Sweet and Sour Fillet $13.99. --- wayyy too sweet. Candy fish fillets. $59.09 with tax, no tip yet. Lunar NY Weekend Order To-Go:Dinner prices below. No lunch special during Lunar NY. #40, Seafood Chow Mein $17.99 -- will order again.+$3 for more fish #31 House Special Dish (Stir fry lotus root) $19.99#55 Fried Intestine $16.99 -- will other again.Cold Jelly Fish $14.99 -- will order again.Steam Rice for 3ppl $4.80$85.15 with tax.All decent. Visited this place because I needed jelly fish and a fish dish to go. Fried intestine was pretty good here. Fresh pawn cost is $50 per lb right now...we did not get it. Looking forward to trying this place again. Theres some tasty looking dishes around the top walls.
Francine L.
The lunch special is until 5:00 PM here at Taste of MP!! So we decided to come here and enjoy a meal after an event. Located in the city of Monterey Park this place had people there. We arrived at 4:30 PM to order the lunch menu and decided to get a few meaty dishes. Some chicken, duck, pork, crispy noodles, shrimp & egg, and even a seafood soup. We ordered a lot but there were plenty of dishes left that we wanted to also order. But for sure it was not going to happen. Until next time I would say we are for sure coming back here. The food was amazingly authentic. Everything tasted perfectly cooked and the price is reasonable! The staff is also super friendly and nice. So glad we tried this spot and I will be back!!
I only got to go here so I'm just here to rate the one item I got which is the string beans. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but it was crunchy. I've started to give up on mama Lu's because it's 50/50 there whether or not it's good. Here there's a good amount of meat in the dish. It did not come with rice nor any utensils but whatever. I don't need that. Parking is a small lot. Credit card accepted.
Man, the food is good here. Located on one of the main strips on Valley Boulevard in Monterey Park lies this gem of a Chinese restaurant. There is a lot and plenty of street parking. I will say that they are swamped on weekend evenings, so expect a lengthy wait. I do not know if you can call and make a reservation. Almost all the tables are for huge parties, too, so the people eating here are going in with a large party to have a long, fun meal, meaning tables don't flip all that quickly. Staff was perfectly fine, though with so many people to feed, the numerous servers do seem pushed to the limit no matter how many of them are working. But, let's discuss the food. The kung pao chicken is white meat, in case you are wondering, which I love. The taste is excellent. The dry sautéed string beans with pickled olives and pork are also truly fantastic. The house special crab was a deal at $22/lb. and starting at 2 1/2 pounds, which was enough for the missus and I. They seemed to only have red wine by the glass when I went, even though I would've preferred white, but the pour was large, which is a bonus. The only dish I was underwhelmed by was the yang chow fried rice. It was good, but I prefer my fried rice made with dark soy sauce and this is made with light soy sauce, which leads to a much more delicate but in my opinion blander flavor. Also wish they had potstickers and/or scallion pancakes. I'd like to try the squab lettuce cups next time. All in all, I was very impressed with the flavors and quality of the food. I will not hesitate to come back, but probably will do so on a weeknight instead of the weekend, or at least come early on a weekend. Definitely give them a try!
Taste of MP (Monterey Park) has a bright, clean and pleasant atmosphere - typically Cantonese style Chinese restaurant. The servings are quite generous and the wait staff are attentive. Today I enjoyed #92, Diced Filet Mignon - French Style. The beef was tender and tasty with a pleasant pepper sauce accompanied by button mushrooms, slivered onions, and fried garlic. I also enjoyed #72 Filet of Rock Cod with Spicy Salt. The dish did not disappoint with mild flavor and perfect salty + spicy complement. Complimentary dessert of hot Mung Bean & Sago was served following the main course. Taste of MP has multiple adjustable size private rooms and is great for groups and large parties. Beware! AMEX and Discover Cards are not welcome here. Oh, and if you come too near closing time you'll be inundated by the strong odor of cleaning soap. Not unpleasant, but definitely overpowering.
One of the best Kung Pao I’ve had.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Seafood Chow Mein
This place has great authentic tasting Chinese food. Not many places can match up to this place. I'd have to say it's my favorite place for Chinese food in all of Los Angeles. Must trys are Hong Kong style lobster, fried cod fish filet, French style beef, string beans with black bean sauce. You won't go wrong with any dish here. Definitely give it a try.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Walnut Shrimp, Seafood Chow Mein, Peking Duck
Fantastic lunch spot. First time here today. They have a gigantic lunch menu, served until 4 pm.Whole steamed tilapia for $16.99!This place will officially enter my rotation for lunch. Big parking lot. Nice dining area, with banquet rooms to the side. Service was efficient and quick. Definitely coming back.
It was my family's go to spot until I spotted a cockroach by one of the tables by the aquarium in June. Its unfortunate be because their food is 4 out of 5.
Came here to celebrate Chinese Mid- Autumn celebration with the family. Nice Chinese restaurant with their own parking lot - which is a plus in MPK. Not a big restaurant, but not small either. Typical Chinese restaurant interior with pictures of special dishes on the wall. Service was very good. Servers brought dishes out and organized on our crowded table nicely - mother in law (MIL) tends to order a lot because of Chinese traditions. Dishes were very good. Good size portions and great flavor. Not sure about pricing since MiL ordered and paid. But my MIL is very particular about which Chinese restaurants she goes to for quality and cost - so I trust that this place is fair or better than fair on price. There are a lot of good Cantonese food restaurants in the area - this is another one.
Just like real home cooking that great grandma would make. Delicious, wholesome and authentic. The menu is amazing. Wide and authentic dishes that are not oily and NO MSG They have traditional Cantonese dishes, Chiuchow dishes, hot pots, variety of seafoods, frog , Szechwan and vegetarian You can get a good Peking duck, incredible orange chicken (so lightly breaded) and the best fried intestines with pickled vegetables. Prices are very reasonable and they have lunch specials until 5pm. The place is extremely clean and a bonus of many private rooms for larger parties A great find... even my mother agrees
Back in the SGV, this time in MPK (Monterey Park) and looking for a Chinese restaurant for lunch specials. This place was recommended by a friend who said they had nice food and prices. Came here on a Sunday for lunch with my in laws (Party of 7), and were seated promptly. They gave us one of the semi private rooms which was nice, except then room temp got a bit warm despite the floor fan blowing. The main dining area was much cooler with the AC on. We ordered a variety of items:1. Deep fried whole fish: excellent! The flavor was good, and the fish kept the crunchy texture was a good while despite being sauced 2. Clam in black bean sauce: clams were on the smaller side, but they gave a decent sized portion to compensate. Flavor was good and typical for this type of dish. They used more onions instead of green bell peppers. 3. Fried shrimp in spicy salt: probably my favorite dish. Generous portion size. These are full size head and shell on shrimp. Nice salty flavor. Not sure it really "spicy", but there were jalapeños tossed in there. 4. Stir fry green beans: very tasty vegetable dish. Good amount of wok hay when you taste the individual bean stalks5. Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce: not much to say. Hard to screw this up. 6. Seafood Chow Fun (dry version): considered "dry" because we chose to skip the gravy sauce. Flavor was good. Wish it had more seafood in it. There were maybe only 3 shrimps and a couple of fish filets, and a some squid. The meal starts with a bowl of soup which had great flavor! Nice start to our meal. The only thing we didn't like was that because the room we were in seemed somewhat secluded, the wait staff didn't stop or peek in too often to check on us. This was a small challenge when we wanted things like refills on our teapots, or more rice. So that was unfortunate. Overall, I would recommend this place. Definitely will come back. It's the closest thing to the old LYL Restaurant that closed down since the pandemic. That was my family's "go to" place.
Restaurantji Recommends
We decided to take the parents to check out this spot. It was our first time and first impressions were good. We ordered French style beef cubes, pea sprouts, sweet and sour pork chops, seafood tofu clay pot, and live steamed tiger cod.Beef cubes was the best and a must order. Get it for sure. Everything else was decent except the steamed fish. The fish was just 1 min short on the steamer and caused the meat near the bone hard and raw. When we told the server. He repeatedly saying this fish should not be overcooked without offering to take the fish back to cook a little more. We understand the not over cooking part, but we also don't enjoy tanked raw fish on our table.At the end of the day, if you can't cook your food to customer's liking, we don't know why you are in the restaurant business. Our last time there for sure.Fish was $145 before tax and died for nothing.
We were a group of 16 and split to two tables. The staff was friendly, courteous and helpful with suggestions on what to order. Most of the food ordered was delicious, except for the crab which was a bit dry and the complimentary dessert was bland and tasted as if it was diluted. The remaining items were very much enjoyed with the poached chicken, squid, pea tips with crab, sweet & sour pork ribs, salty egg yolk frog, and fried intestine standing out and making the evening very enjoyable and memorable! Definitely worth revisiting again to try out their other menu offerings.
I had seen an increase in activity after the former New Lucky became Taste of MP for Cantonese style food so I decided to try it with my out-of-town guests. Because I had elderly in my group that didn't want to eat out, I placed a to-go order in person at the restaurant. While I waited for my order, I noticed the restaurant had been recently remodeled and not extremely large. They had installed private side dining rooms that narrowed and decreased the main dining area. My large order didn't take too long, maybe 15-20 minutes, but is was still early in the evening before any primetime rush. The food is authentic Cantonese and very good. Every dish was absolutely delicious. The diced filet mignon was so tender and flavorful. The seafood and tofu hot pot was well prepared. The salt and pepper pork chop was tasty. Even the eggplant and salted fish was so yummy. I don't think there was any one dish that was any better than another which was a sign of a great head chef and team.I highly recommend Taste of MP as an excellent alternative to the remaining few and more popular true Cantonese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley. I look forward to the opportunity to dine in at Taste of MP to add their service component as part of the dinner experience.
Lunch Special 11am-5pm with $11.99-$14.99. Served with soup and rice. Soup can't be taken to go, and rice to go ($2 small, $3 large). Credit card taken. Weekday lunch is busy. Non-lunch special: If you order to-go, you must speak solid Mandarin, or Canto. Or know what # your dish is off the dinner menu, or tell them it's number off the lunch menu. Lunch special with soup and rice:#1. Pan fried string bean with minced pork and pickle olive $11.99. -- oily as usual and done pretty well. #28. House Special Pork Ribs $13.99. --- sweet sour taste is not for us. #31. House Special Dish (lotus veggies sausage) $13.99. --- my fav#34. Sweet and Sour Fillet $13.99. --- wayyy too sweet. Candy fish fillets. $59.09 with tax, no tip yet. Lunar NY Weekend Order To-Go:Dinner prices below. No lunch special during Lunar NY. #40, Seafood Chow Mein $17.99 -- will order again.+$3 for more fish #31 House Special Dish (Stir fry lotus root) $19.99#55 Fried Intestine $16.99 -- will other again.Cold Jelly Fish $14.99 -- will order again.Steam Rice for 3ppl $4.80$85.15 with tax.All decent. Visited this place because I needed jelly fish and a fish dish to go. Fried intestine was pretty good here. Fresh pawn cost is $50 per lb right now...we did not get it. Looking forward to trying this place again. Theres some tasty looking dishes around the top walls.
The lunch special is until 5:00 PM here at Taste of MP!! So we decided to come here and enjoy a meal after an event. Located in the city of Monterey Park this place had people there. We arrived at 4:30 PM to order the lunch menu and decided to get a few meaty dishes. Some chicken, duck, pork, crispy noodles, shrimp & egg, and even a seafood soup. We ordered a lot but there were plenty of dishes left that we wanted to also order. But for sure it was not going to happen. Until next time I would say we are for sure coming back here. The food was amazingly authentic. Everything tasted perfectly cooked and the price is reasonable! The staff is also super friendly and nice. So glad we tried this spot and I will be back!!