I've been coming here since my college days, and it's still one of my favorite spots! Their dry pot…read morehas always been my go-to dish, and now they also serve grilled fish and stinky tofu. It's so nice to have all my favorite comfort foods in one place. The location is super convenient on Valley Blvd, making it an easy stop whenever I'm craving spicy food. The service is excellent. Staff frequently checked on us to make sure the dry pot stayed hot and that our water cup was always full. The restaurant is clean, bright, and comfortable, making it a great place to enjoy a meal with family or friends. I'll definitely be back again and again!

This might not be a popular opinion, but the flavors I've tried wasn't to my liking. I'm basing on…read morethe unique flavors of Simmer Huang in Temple City,but they since closed for many years now. That dry hot pot was a well rounded dish of sweet, savory, and full of aromatics. The flavors at Tasty Dining was lack luster. Yes, they do have a crowd eating there, but for the price and the flavors, I wouldn't come back. The concept is a one pit family style. You decide if you want a big pot that feeds supposedly 4-6 people or small pot 2-3 people. It's a $10 difference but when we got our pots, I think the smaller version seem like a better bargain. It was almost the same size from small to large. So what made me say I wasn't into the flavor? I got the shirt rib pit which came with garlic flavor non spicy. The ribs were extremely chewy on top of that it was grossly salty in flavor. Failed dish there. Then came my second dish which was a large pot mild with chicken wings and squid. Now this dish was worst. It was really spicy which I don't mind, but also extremely salty. We ordered rice to balance the flavor out, but it was too salty for my family's liking. On top of this, parking was limited, the garage is designed extremely short 6'6 so if you have any high vehicles try street parking. I'm still craving a good dry hot pot restaurant that can come close to Simmer Huang.

Amazing! My mom is from Hunan and I was born there and the food here is very very authentic and…read moreeven elevated. This is the best Hunan restaurant we've had in the US. We ordered the pumpkin leaves in chicken broth, the stinky tofu, and the signature spicy stir fried frog meat. The pumpkin leaves were so tender and they added century egg and spam to impart a unique flavor to the chicken broth. Thank goodness this dish was not spicy at all. The stinky tofu sauce felt authentic like the ones in Changsha but it was barely stinky, just tasted like a regular fried tofu in a sauce. The sauce was pretty good. Not spicy, probably would not get it again though since it's not stinky enough. We got "mild spicy" for our frog dish and it was still very very spicy!! It tastes so good but I couldn't eat more than 2 bites before I had to quit! They gave real generous pieces of frog too, no fillers. The frog seemed fresh, not frozen. It tasted like very tender chicken. The pepper flavor and how they chop up the pieces of meat is just like dishes you can get in Hunan and how my mom cooks her chicken (we don't cook frog at home). The ingredients are very high quality. This would be a more upscale restaurant in Hunan due to the quality of the ingredients. Honestly, I've been to many Michelin star restaurants as well, Asian cuisine included. The quality and taste of the dishes here to me is Bib Gourmand level. Hope the inspectors can check it out. There seems to be another Dong Ting Chun close by in SGV and the food doesn't look like it is on the same level. Dong Ting is a famous lake in Hunan so perhaps everyone rips the name off of each other. Don't be fooled, they do not seem to be related. You're not going to find basic run of the mill Chinese dishes like fried lo mein or garlic pea sprouts here like what you can find in a Fusion chain like Ding Tai Fung. The other restaurant on Valley Blvd has the basic Chinese dishes where this location has only recipes with authentic flavors and ingredients. Again be aware I don't think they are a chain/same owners. 我妈妈是湖南人，这家餐厅是我们在美国吃过最正宗的湖南菜馆。食材货真价实，新鲜又地道。虽然臭豆腐还不够臭，不过我们每一道菜都很喜欢。我妈妈平时嘴很挑，但她对这家餐厅很满意。我这个吃货觉得，它的水准达到了米其林必比登推荐的水平。

The good: -Service was nice when they did come by…read more -The free peanut appetizer was tasty and mildly spicy. -After a dish was remade without any spicy, it was incredibly delicious and I would come back just for this. I recommend erring on the side of doing NO spicy. The bad: -The AC was really mid while it was 100+ degrees outside. -No water refills until we almost finished eating the super spicy food. -Their "mild" spicy is VERY VERY SPICY! There was nothing mild about it! The staff confirmed that our dishes were "mild" but kindly offered to remake it as no spicy. I understand that spicy is a signature flavor for Hunan food, but I did ask for mild, which should have meant "please don't use chili peppers as the main ingredient in my seafood dish". -The dish called "Tea Oil Fried Local Chicken" was literally 80% spicy peppers and aromatics, and 20% chicken carcass BONES. This was extremely disappointing because the flavors were great, but there was only tiny niblets of meat that we could find throughout. I wouldn't have minded the bone-in chicken if there was any meat on the bones. Instead, it was all sharp shredded bones like eating razor blade without any satisfaction of meat. The whole $20+ dish was basically inedible and a waste of money.

Guilin noodles restaurant on Valley Blvd. This place serves specialty noodles from Guilin China…read more These noodles are on the thicker side also like the ones that are used in Vietnamese bun bo hue. Husband and I tried out the dry Guilin noodles and also the beef noodle soup, both were super good. The food is on the lighter side since there is a topping bar. You can mix and match the topping and seasoning to your taste. All the pickles at the topping bars were good. They even have some side dishes at the bar like cucumber salad and seaweed salad. Restaurant is super clean compared to other Guilin noodles places. Service is pretty much self serve. You ordered through a QR code at your table then they will call your number when your food is ready. There might be a language barrier, the waitress doesn't seem like they speak English.

This place seems to have replace the previous business. They still have Guilin noodles, which is a…read morerice noodle. Each table has a QR code that you scan to order. When the food is ready, they call you to the counter. You can add your own condiments, like pickled veggies, hot sauce, roasted peanuts, etc. I loved the cut up pickled beans. I tried the dry-tossed noodle $13.99, which lets you choose three types of meat. The crispy pork was most flavorful, but I really enjoyed the beef shank slices. It came with half a braised egg. I also tried some of the braised beef noodle soup. The soup was flavorful, and the beef was tender! It was light in color, not like the dark Taiwanese braised beef. Service was ok. The lady spoke in Mandarin that was really fast. You can self-serve water from their Coway filter. Indoor seating only Bathroom in the back Street parking (or in the back lot) Credit card/Apple Pay accepted

Best service I've experienced for a cafe for a while and good Hong Kong Cafe style food. Affordable…read moreprices and Tasty Choice is well named because the food is indeed tasty. I choose this restaurant because they are open late, we arrived 1am and servers still choose to seat us! I like that the servers speak Cantonese and take requests seriously. After seeing they have beef brisket noodles I requested extra tendon because that is my one of my favorites... not only did they deliver but they blew it out of the park. Portions are large for the price we got a congee as well and it could feed two people. Parking is plentiful, sharing lot with Embassy.

Come here on this tuesday! Service is still ok but the food…read more is not that well as i ate before. Chicken wing is still ok however rest of the food is too plain and it's like don't enough seasoning. The vegetables is not boiled enough still to hard. And it took very long time to come to our tables. It like some different chef cooking this days. By the way place is clean and they do have patios Singapura flat rice is the worse! I hope they would fix the dish and maybe i would comeback and try again!

Although it's hot outside, I still love going to that old Chengdu-style skewer hot pot place --the…read morehigh-quality sparkling water and homemade desserts there really cool me down, so I'm never afraid of the heat. Every time, I order the spicy sesame oil broth with duck blood and a mix of pork stomach and chicken. The pork stomach is real, and the soup base, rich with black pepper, makes the cabbage incredibly flavorful! That red blood-looking ingredient looks super fresh and slides down smoothly into my stomach in one go --it pairs perfectly with my sesame sauce. This time, I noticed even more unique ingredients at this hidden gem of a hot pot restaurant. I actually found "firecracker bamboo shoots"--aren't those the standard for testing spiciness? I also tried fresh eel slices, which I've never seen elsewhere. Besides freshly sliced beef, they offer cured offal, cilantro meatballs, and so many other options that I can barely keep up! One great thing about skewer hot pot is that even if you're just two people, you can enjoy a wide variety of dishes--super friendly for those with smaller appetites! I always grab the spicy sesame oil broth and small liver pieces, and lately I've been loving the crispy fish belly. Their fried rice is seriously delicious and comes in huge portions--I always have to take some home. After all, I usually finish a whole bowl of chicken feet and a big bowl of ice powder, leaving no room for more rice! Besides the free ice powder and silver ear soup, you can also order Yangzhi Ganlu (mango pudding) or icy tangyuan (tapioca pearls), both excellent for cooling down after the spice.

The prices are reason I keep coming back: Skewers are only…read more$0.49 each Plates are $5.99 each With so many choices, it's easy to mix and match your favorites. Must-order skewers: Beef rolls Chicken gizzards Chinese sausage Must-order plates: Kelp sprouts Pumpkin Morel mushroom shrimp paste Thin-sliced pork kidney

tasty and authentic with good portion, I would recommend! They provide a good amount of chicken per…read moresoup

I recently visited Juicy Hotpot at the old Jazz Cat location and happened to catch their 30% (25%…read moreoff starting 8/8) off the entire order promotion, which made the meal a great value. We ordered: * Herbal Chicken Hot Pot * Beef Shank Heel Meat * Beef Tongue * A5 Beef * Rice Noodles * Beef Omasum Tripe * Frozen Tofu * Vegetable Platter * Handmade Shrimp Balls * Abalone * Plum Juice The Herbal Chicken Hot Pot was good, with a nice herbal flavor. My favorite meat was actually the Beef Shank Heel Meat. Surprisingly, I preferred it over the A5 beef because I enjoyed the texture and flavor more. The A5 beef was good, but it wasn't my favorite of the meats we tried. The beef tongue was also good, although personally, I prefer beef tongue grilled rather than cooked in hot pot. For the other items, my favorites were the handmade shrimp balls and beef omasum tripe. The shrimp balls had a nice texture, and I really liked the chewiness of the tripe. The plum juice was another highlight. A large jar is $9.99, and with the discount, it's an even better deal. The jar is quite large and should be enough for about 5-6 people to share. They also currently offer a special for guests 60 years old or older: with a valid photo ID, they can enjoy one complimentary abalone. Service was attentive, the staff were quick in getting what we needed. Inside of the store is clean. Plenty of parking at the underground parking lot. Overall, I enjoyed the meal and especially liked the variety of meats and hot pot ingredients. With the promotion, I thought the value was quite good.

I passed this place a few times and didn't realize it was the same restaurant as the one in Rowland…read moreheights. We came for Sunday dinner with a large group of family, we ended up splitting into two tables (which also means splitting the checks into two). There wasn't a crowd or wait at 5:30pm, but courses to 6:30pm is when the crowd started coming in. We ordered using the paper menu and got the split hotpot with spicy broth (mild) and nonspicy broth. My family ordered everything and I'm good with anything they ordered so I just went to the sauce station to get snacks and sauce ready, I ate a lot of bean noodles, they weren't overly spicy but a nice subtle numbing spice and saltiness, very delicious and cooling sensation. We ordered lamb, beef, vegetables, mushroom, crab sticks, and tofu for the hotpot. The spicy broth was actually pretty spicy for me so I couldn't eat from there butt family said it was good. Since the broths are boiling right next to each other, it's just a matter of time before the nonspicy gets a bit of the spicy oil mixed in. The staff were very accommodating, they got it done right away and even refilled or drinks almost every time they passed by. My son ate some beef slices with sesame paste sauce I made, I'm glad he had some as he usually eats the sesame balls, snacks, and chips. Overall, this location seems pretty much the same as the other one in Rowland heights, I didn't feel like it was different or which was better. Parking may be a factor but we came early and there was plenty of parking with some spots still open when we left at 7pm.

If you're looking for a more elevated hot pot experience in the San Gabriel Valley, Shancheng…read moreLameizi in San Gabriel is definitely worth checking out. I've been here twice now, and it's quickly become one of my favorite Sichuan-style hot pot spots. The restaurant has a modern Chinese aesthetic that feels a bit more upscale than Hai Di Lao, making it a great place for a nice dinner with friends or family. One of my favorite parts is the sauce bar, which has plenty of options to customize your perfect dipping sauce. We always order the half-and-half soup base with the spicy beef broth and the pork bone broth--the perfect combination of bold heat and rich, comforting flavor. Our go-to order includes plenty of greens, shiitake mushrooms, noodles, shrimp balls, and generous plates of sliced Wagyu and ribeye. Everything has been fresh and delicious each time we've visited. The snack and dessert station is another highlight. They offer a surprisingly large variety of chips, sesame balls, candies, desserts, and other little bites. Honestly, I'm always too full from the hot pot itself to sample everything, but I love having the option! They also serve refreshing iced fruit teas and a good selection of beers to pair with your meal. The only downside is the service. It can be a bit slow, likely because there only seems to be one server covering the dining room. They're friendly, but the restaurant could definitely benefit from more staff. It's also on the pricier side compared to some other hot pot restaurants in the area, but between the quality of the food, the extensive snack and dessert station, and the beautiful ambiance, I think it's worth the splurge. I'll definitely be coming back.

I'm definitely not someone who can handle spicy foods. This place is the type of place where even…read morethe mildest level of spice can literally make me drip sweat. And yet, it's quite good. We got the Hunan spicy stir fried pork, braised pork belly, oil bandit chicken, stinky tofu, and crispy pork with cauliflower. You actually can't adjust the spiciness of the sticky tofu. Everything else was low spicy. I don't know how people can handle most spicy. All were really good though I only had a bite of the stinky tofu. It's not really my thing but the others said that was their favorite. We also got the brown sugar rice cake and that was really good. This is a popular place, which makes sense. The portions are really good, including the rice bowls. And the food comes out quite quickly. And they did a nice job with the decor. Except for the signage that's literally on cardboard. The only thing that was a negative is that they, like many restaurants now, give you a QR code to order on your own. Except we had terrible reception and they don't have public WiFi. I don't love this trend -- feels like it benefits the owners more than the customers. Based on what others ordered, the fish and eggplant dishes are popular.

Came in on a whim on a Friday evening with my partner and we're both super impressed with the…read moreflavors and portions! We ordered the Century egg and eggplant , glass noodles with sour cabbage, hunan stir fried beef, and stir fried celtuce (for the fiber). All were delicious, but my favorites were definitely the century egg and eggplant which was an incredible meld of umami, spicy, salty, rich and paired well with rice; and the stir fried glass noodles w pickled cabbage. Coming back next time with a group to try the chili fish! We way overdid it and gladly took about 1/2 of our food home for leftovers. Lively atmosphere, several large parties in the back. It is BYOB.