Read about this in such raving reviews inevitably I swung by and see it for myself. We got there at lunch time near 1p but the place closes at 2p. The first impression was that this is an absolute minimalists' dream. No menu, no decor, no utensils, no price on the wall, no sticker, no label on pre packed food. What you see is what you’d get. Plain plain furniture that Ikea should be impressed. The only menu was above the cashier, and they have the item but literally priceless. I scanned the immediate crowd of a few and thought I probably should be able to afford this place if they could… With that little bit of courage, we pointed and ordered from the board above. The house stew noodle. Looking at the display case, we spotted something weird and we ordered it because it's been a while. We got some marinated baby squids in a plastic tub. Again, priceless. Sat at the barron table equipped with disposable chopsticks we ate. The squid was good. No complaints about that but it’s an entirely acquired taste so you should think before getting it. Then the noodles arrived after a long few minutes. It has the expected fragrance of many spices combined. Presentation was good. Then do learn from my mistake, DO NOT SLURP. The spicy oil will intrude into places least suspected and cause embarrassment if not disaster toward whoever is sitting across. The hot spicy soup tasted as if I had sniffed it. It had depth, not just looking dark and floating a few bits of what would say spice. With that said, getting past not slurping took a few tries as typically noodles go down with a big slurp a la japanese ramen. Avoid such practice here. The meat was surprisingly not dry as I would say having prep the soup with depth typically killed the meat. Probably the soup and the meat met after preparation and not from the start. The noodle was with the right amount of dough density and springlyness. I don't think they made it from scratch but they know how long to cook it and keep from soaking it too long in soup or water. Everything was good. The bill showed up and it was cash only. Surprise! I don’t know why this place could have rated $10 up, the noodle was $20. The squid was $10. The tea was free but hope you like styrofoam cup. The tire company paper- Firestone or something, was on the wall. Strictly for the food. Service was ok. We needed minimal attention in such a setting because it was set up to show it won’t be any.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup
mx alix
Gold standard for spicy beef noodle soup. They're also selling homemade ube cookies now. Delicious roasted peanuts with dried shrimp.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Shawn Sheng
You know a place is good when they only have a handful of items on the menu and the food comes out fast. This place specializes in noodles and they are delicious. The hours are very limited but that doesn’t stop the crowd. Right when they open people start coming in to dine in or takeout. Portions are a bit small considering the size of the bowl and price, but overall really great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Frank Huang
High expectations but….low satisfaction, Way way overpriced! Restaurant standard profit are 40%, but I think this restaurant is making 95%, I feel like an idiot, buying food from there!
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 2
Ting-Yuan Chang
The food was ok but definitely not deserved the price. The place is a rip-off. One box of bamboo shoot costs $14, which you could get same thing from other restaurants for half price.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
Karthik D
Friendly service; the food was also really good. I got the spicy sesame noodles, which had a good amount of chili oil and sesame sauce. It could have been a little spicier for me, and I might ask for "extra spicy" next time. They only take cash.
Vegetarian options: They have a few vegetarian main and side dishes.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sesame Noodles
Alice Zhou
I recently learned that this place used to be run by a husband and wife team, but their children have since taken over. Seems to have gone steeply downhill since then. Noodles and sides were extremely mid and it took over 50 minutes for the hot dishes to come out.
Taiwanese Noodle House is way better
X Shawn Z
So freaking expensive, will never ever go to there again.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Chan-Nhu Le
Food was great but not the for the price. I get it, Michelin star restaurant but still, $18 for a bowl of beef stew soup. Mr.Dragon was around $13 and their food is really good too. I can accept their beef noodle at $18 ( try to compare to ramen price nowadays), but their beef strips with beancurd and onions are insane. A few beef strips, mostly onions and beancurd, small portion, I just can’t. I probably will come back for the beef noodle since it’s nearby where I work ?
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
陳醬
There are seven of us, including one child. There were three empty tables on site, but they were crammed into a table for four, and the restaurant did not provide high chairs. The seats were very crowded, and there was no aisle when both tables were occupied. The side dishes tasted okay, but I think they were not up to par with the price, generally over price. Among them, the Sichuan Dandan noodles I ordered were not good at all. They were just Taiwanese sesame sauce noodles, without peas and minced meat. The price per serving was $14, which was very disappointing.
In the end, the checkout for four people was 130, "cash only". I think the taste of the meal is not bad, but other than that there is no highlight, or even all shortcomings. There are many Chinese restaurants in San Gabriel, which are more attentive and cheaper. There are many restaurants that are more comfortable and delicious. I won’t come here again just to feel Taiwanese.
food quality of restaurant is on top of my list. This one used to be a must eat restaurant for that spicy beef noodle It did not taste the same last time I ate there as in the first 10 years.
one tip for you: Don’t go when they open, do not go 30 minutes prior to their closing time.
They didn’t keep promise that they’ll stay open till 2:30pm as their window displayed.
When I arrived, the owner’s daughter said they’re closed.
I refreshed her memory that she said yes while I called her driving from other county.
She ignored me.
I had to beg for her to honor what she said but she didn’t. I left.
A couple of months later, I happened to be in area so I gave them another chance.
Guess what, the owner’s wife suddenly came out of that tiny kitchen, sat at my table asked me to remove my yelp review.
I said, sure, if your daughter promised not to practice as she did to me. She said, I came from same place as she did, so she asked me to do that favor, I did.
Owner’s wife gave me a bowl of broth to show courtesy. Did I drink that soup, clear broth without anything inside?
Of course not, who knows what’s in that bowl! She might have used a dirt bowl.
Bradley Pham
Broth was just salt, msg and spices, no depth or richness to it. Beef was likely select quality, no marbling or collagen. 18 bucks per bowl, mediocre at best.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 2
Grady Cai
the food was good, noodles were good too, but way way way overpriced. i couldn’t believe the braised sides plate was $30…. what….. the customer service is also quite disorganized, took us a long time to get seated and put our order in. good food, not so great of an experience
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 2
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup
Ziyan Gong
Came here following a list of Taiwanese spots in LA and had high hopes. We ordered a bowl of the spicy beef noodle soup and pork bean noodles. We also got 3 side dishes, which were quite small. While eating, we felt the noodles were decent albeit the pork bean noodles were a bit overcooked. The beef noodle soup flavor was good but I wouldn’t say extremely special. When we received the bill, that’s when it all went downhill. We were charged $12 for a small half pint of mustard greens and $16 for a small container of peanuts with fish. I’m all for charging more for Asian food in general but the service, tableware, etc should then be up to par. It looked like a hole in the wall canteen (which I love) with styrofoam cups, disposable utensils, and self serve side dishes. Our bill came out to over $80!! I’m sorry but the pricing is really off at this establishment.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 2
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup
Rachel Yung
Get a pork ear to go! They cost a shocking $15 each at checkout! I thought I heard it wrong, so I asked again! The portions are so small you won’t believe it, and the taste is so bland! Overall rating: Won’t go there again！I forgot to take the picture! The box is the same size as the photo I circled!
Read about this in such raving reviews inevitably I swung by and see it for myself. We got there at lunch time near 1p but the place closes at 2p. The first impression was that this is an absolute minimalists' dream. No menu, no decor, no utensils, no price on the wall, no sticker, no label on pre packed food. What you see is what you’d get. Plain plain furniture that Ikea should be impressed. The only menu was above the cashier, and they have the item but literally priceless. I scanned the immediate crowd of a few and thought I probably should be able to afford this place if they could… With that little bit of courage, we pointed and ordered from the board above. The house stew noodle. Looking at the display case, we spotted something weird and we ordered it because it's been a while. We got some marinated baby squids in a plastic tub. Again, priceless. Sat at the barron table equipped with disposable chopsticks we ate. The squid was good. No complaints about that but it’s an entirely acquired taste so you should think before getting it. Then the noodles arrived after a long few minutes. It has the expected fragrance of many spices combined. Presentation was good. Then do learn from my mistake, DO NOT SLURP. The spicy oil will intrude into places least suspected and cause embarrassment if not disaster toward whoever is sitting across. The hot spicy soup tasted as if I had sniffed it. It had depth, not just looking dark and floating a few bits of what would say spice. With that said, getting past not slurping took a few tries as typically noodles go down with a big slurp a la japanese ramen. Avoid such practice here. The meat was surprisingly not dry as I would say having prep the soup with depth typically killed the meat. Probably the soup and the meat met after preparation and not from the start. The noodle was with the right amount of dough density and springlyness. I don't think they made it from scratch but they know how long to cook it and keep from soaking it too long in soup or water. Everything was good. The bill showed up and it was cash only. Surprise! I don’t know why this place could have rated $10 up, the noodle was $20. The squid was $10. The tea was free but hope you like styrofoam cup. The tire company paper- Firestone or something, was on the wall. Strictly for the food. Service was ok. We needed minimal attention in such a setting because it was set up to show it won’t be any.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup
Gold standard for spicy beef noodle soup. They're also selling homemade ube cookies now. Delicious roasted peanuts with dried shrimp.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
You know a place is good when they only have a handful of items on the menu and the food comes out fast. This place specializes in noodles and they are delicious. The hours are very limited but that doesn’t stop the crowd. Right when they open people start coming in to dine in or takeout. Portions are a bit small considering the size of the bowl and price, but overall really great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
High expectations but….low satisfaction,
Way way overpriced! Restaurant standard profit are 40%, but I think this restaurant is making 95%, I feel like an idiot, buying food from there!
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 2
The food was ok but definitely not deserved the price. The place is a rip-off. One box of bamboo shoot costs $14, which you could get same thing from other restaurants for half price.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
Friendly service; the food was also really good. I got the spicy sesame noodles, which had a good amount of chili oil and sesame sauce. It could have been a little spicier for me, and I might ask for "extra spicy" next time. They only take cash.
Vegetarian options: They have a few vegetarian main and side dishes.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sesame Noodles
I recently learned that this place used to be run by a husband and wife team, but their children have since taken over. Seems to have gone steeply downhill since then. Noodles and sides were extremely mid and it took over 50 minutes for the hot dishes to come out.
Taiwanese Noodle House is way better
So freaking expensive, will never ever go to there again.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Food was great but not the for the price. I get it, Michelin star restaurant but still, $18 for a bowl of beef stew soup. Mr.Dragon was around $13 and their food is really good too.
I can accept their beef noodle at $18 ( try to compare to ramen price nowadays), but their beef strips with beancurd and onions are insane. A few beef strips, mostly onions and beancurd, small portion, I just can’t.
I probably will come back for the beef noodle since it’s nearby where I work ?
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
There are seven of us, including one child.
There were three empty tables on site, but they were crammed into a table for four, and the restaurant did not provide high chairs. The seats were very crowded, and there was no aisle when both tables were occupied.
The side dishes tasted okay, but I think they were not up to par with the price, generally over price. Among them, the Sichuan Dandan noodles I ordered were not good at all. They were just Taiwanese sesame sauce noodles, without peas and minced meat. The price per serving was $14, which was very disappointing.
In the end, the checkout for four people was 130, "cash only". I think the taste of the meal is not bad, but other than that there is no highlight, or even all shortcomings. There are many Chinese restaurants in San Gabriel, which are more attentive and cheaper. There are many restaurants that are more comfortable and delicious. I won’t come here again just to feel Taiwanese.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 2
Restaurantji Recommends
food quality of restaurant is on top of my list.
This one used to be a must eat restaurant for that spicy beef noodle
It did not taste the same last time I ate there as in the first 10 years.
one tip for you:
Don’t go when they open, do not go 30 minutes prior to their closing time.
They didn’t keep promise that they’ll stay open till 2:30pm as their window displayed.
When I arrived, the owner’s daughter said they’re closed.
I refreshed her memory that she said yes while I called her driving from other county.
She ignored me.
I had to beg for her to honor what she said but she didn’t.
I left.
A couple of months later, I happened to be in area so I gave them another chance.
Guess what, the owner’s wife suddenly came out of that tiny kitchen, sat at my table asked me to remove my yelp review.
I said, sure, if your daughter promised not to practice as she did to me.
She said, I came from same place as she did, so she asked me to do that favor, I did.
Owner’s wife gave me a bowl of broth to show courtesy. Did I drink that soup, clear broth without anything inside?
Of course not, who knows what’s in that bowl! She might have used a dirt bowl.
Broth was just salt, msg and spices, no depth or richness to it. Beef was likely select quality, no marbling or collagen. 18 bucks per bowl, mediocre at best.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 2
the food was good, noodles were good too, but way way way overpriced. i couldn’t believe the braised sides plate was $30…. what….. the customer service is also quite disorganized, took us a long time to get seated and put our order in. good food, not so great of an experience
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 2
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup
Came here following a list of Taiwanese spots in LA and had high hopes. We ordered a bowl of the spicy beef noodle soup and pork bean noodles. We also got 3 side dishes, which were quite small. While eating, we felt the noodles were decent albeit the pork bean noodles were a bit overcooked. The beef noodle soup flavor was good but I wouldn’t say extremely special. When we received the bill, that’s when it all went downhill. We were charged $12 for a small half pint of mustard greens and $16 for a small container of peanuts with fish. I’m all for charging more for Asian food in general but the service, tableware, etc should then be up to par. It looked like a hole in the wall canteen (which I love) with styrofoam cups, disposable utensils, and self serve side dishes. Our bill came out to over $80!! I’m sorry but the pricing is really off at this establishment.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 2
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup
Get a pork ear to go! They cost a shocking $15 each at checkout! I thought I heard it wrong, so I asked again! The portions are so small you won’t believe it, and the taste is so bland! Overall rating: Won’t go there again！I forgot to take the picture! The box is the same size as the photo I circled!
Food: 1
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