For my birthday, I wanted to do something local and low key. With just great food. I also wanted dumplings. Ok first and foremost, the service was exceptional. Stellar. They were patient and took time to explain the dishes in great detail. The restaurant has a warm friendly feeling, while still being modern and trendy. Their noodles are authentic, you can taste the quality. We ordered a few dishes to share for a party of 5. My kids, husband and mother loved it. The atmosphere is relaxed and serene. We'll be back for more ;) read more

I think they should taste their own wonton soup during covid. The filling is sooo salty and so is the soup. I have tried it twice during covid. The first time, it was like they accidentally salted the food twice to the point that it was inedible. Second time which is this time. which promoted me to bring the awareness to the store. Come on stop salting the food so much. I've had your wonton soup before it was inedible like this. Thanks read more

I've been there multiple times, their noodles are authentic and amazzzinnnnggg! I also love their open kitchen, it's pretty cool to see the noodle making process. I would say this is my fav Chinese food spot in Torrance. read more

My weekly lunch partner chose this place. He had been here once before with some co-workers. I was excited to try this place since they make fresh hand pulled noodles which you can see from the small dining area. We ordered the green onion pancakes, pork dumplings and the special noodles. Word of caution, the order slip left on the table does not correlate to the numbering schema on the menu. We had ordered the green onion pancake and ordered by the numbering on the menu. When our server brought over the dish, it was some twisted fried noodle dish that we didn't order. She insisted that's what we ordered. When we pointed out on the menu the apparent misprint on the ordering sheet, she still felt it was our fault. Really?! Then another worker or manager came to our table, and when we specifically pointed out the error, they took back the wrong dish and brought us what we intended to order. Geez man! The customer is always right! And we were right, their mistake in misprint! Turned out the green onion pancake was our least favorite dish anyway. We both loved the fried pork dumplings the best. Then the special noodles. This time I have to rate this 2 stars on account of our server's insistent rude attitude on the green onion pancake fiasco. I'd like to come back and try the beef noodle soup, only to make sure that the menu and ordering sheet for this dish is correct. read more

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Their food is considered authentic if you order the noodles, pancakes, beef rolls, dumplings. Their best is the noodles that you can decide what size for your own preference. The dumplings are good and decent, though Xiao Long Bao isn't their best food. I always come when I am craving for dumplings in the South Bay Area. I would say this is the best with more reasonable price than Dingtaifeng. read more

Great food! You really can't go wrong with anything on the menu. They also hand make the noodles here. Would definitely recommend you try this place. read more

Solid hand made noodles. Portions are large so if you can't handle bigger portions, consider doing family style. Dan dan noodles are legit. The other beef noodle soup is good but not necessarily the best. read more

I picked up the beef roll, cucumber salad, fried rice, and chinese pancake with pork. Beef roll and cucumber salad were good, chinese pancake with pork okay, and fried rice a little oiler than I would like. Overall I would say okay but the food is a little bland by itself. If you don't like chili oil I would recommend getting the cucumber salad and using that to add some flavor. I dipped everything I ordered in it. read more

We came here for lunch on Friday. This location was another dumpling restaurant but I guess it closed down. We ordered the beef roll, braised beef noodle soup, pan fried dumplings and a 2 item cold dish. The guy in the window making hand pulled noodles really sold us on the noodle dish. Definitely have to try that when you're here. The soup was great and the noodles are so good. It makes a huge difference that it's made right there. The dumplings and the cold dish was also good. Reminded me of being in Beijing eating plates of dumplings everywhere. I would say the beef roll was a bit too salty for me. I'm used to it made another way with brisket and cilantro. This was a different style of meat and so to me it was less to my liking. Overall, very good and plan to return. The staff was very nice and attentive. read more

Underrated Chinese food! To me it's authentic it's true northern Chinese food. Different location's has slightly different food and specialty like the one in Gardena is known for bian bian mian and the one in sawtelle is known for hotpot. The Elsegubdo is more dumplings i would say. Check them all out! read more

Can never go wrong with beef noodle soup! They have one of the best ones, and I've been to many places just to try beef noodle soups. FYI - Although it shows on Yelp that it closes at 10pm, they've been closing at 8:30pm. So if you want to get your noodle fix, come early! :) read more

Had dinner at Northern Cafe and it was delicious. We ordered Shao Long Bao and also a pork and scallion dumpling, and sliced noodles. I've never had sliced noodles but they are apparently very popular in China. The beef rolls were quite good and the food has a distinctive flavoring of five spice. The restaurant is clean and the service was friendly and attentive. Can't wait to go back and try some noodles and soup. They make the noodles and you can watch them make it because of windows into the kitchen. read more

Wheres the beef? Not here that's for sure. I ordered beef noodles, lamb skewers, beef sandwich and the beef roll. The food is tasty but there isn't much meat in any of the dishes. The beef noodles didn't have beef, they had little fragments of beef gristle. I went off the pictures on yelp and I think the pictures were probably posted by the owners. Unfortunately, I won't be going back. read more

Northern Cafe - Beef sandwich - Chinese Near Me - Gardena, California

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Hand Made Noodle alone makes Northern Cafe worth the visits. I became the regular customer since their soft opening. I have tried as much variety of noodles as possible. I took photos every visits so I will upload more and more later for sure. The best fried noodles! First customer should just try House Special Fried Noodles Hand Pulled/ Knife Cut Slice whichever greatest. Dumplings are sweet and juicy. Three items always go well with beer or wine, order to go. Staffs know me already that three items to go right? question asked forehand. read more

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The food here is delicious and well portioned. One order is big enough for two. I had the dan dan noddles are the best. Hand pulled noodles are hard to handle if not good with chopsticks (I'm not) so use a fork. Can't really say enough good things about this place. Service is fast and friendly. read more

Ordered cold noodle and beef roll Service : 4 star Environment: 4 star Cold noodle: 3.5 star, bit of sour, though Beef roll: 2.5 star, not much taste, don't choose that Overall, 3.5 star read more

Northern Cafe - Chinese Near Me - Gardena, California

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Been to other Northern Cafes in LA and have to say this spot is the best so far. Stopped by for dinner one night and was able to grab a seat right away. Service was slow but that's a given, as there was only one waitress bussing the tables, ordering, and bringing out the food. There were so many diff types of noodle styles to order from (hand sliced, triangle??, wide, hand pulled.. etc). The noodles itself had just the right chew and consistency! We came for a party of two but ordered like a family of 5. It was all worth it. Only complaint I had were how dry the beef rolls are, but nothing a little Hoisin sauce can't fix. The soup dumplings didn't have much soup but the pork itself was juicy enough to make up for it. Bf and I left with a happy tummy and tons leftover for lunch and dinner the following day. read more

Northern Cafe - Braised noodle soup, spicy wontons, pork soup dumplings, pork chow mein, and beef rolls - Chinese Near Me - Gardena, California

This place looked interesting so we decided to give it a try. We were there on Saturday morning right when they opened. We were seated right away. The staff were very nice and friendly. There is a man behind the window inside the kitchen making fresh noodles which was something nice to look at. We ordered pork dumplings, dan dan noodle, their specialty some beef noodle and few side dishes. Pork dumplings were ok.... the dough was too thick with not enough fillings.... we are used to that super thin dumpling skin from Din Tai Fung so it was pretty thicker than that.... I wouldn't order this again... Dan dan noodle was pretty good but way too salty... Ok so their house specialty beef noodle was not my style... when I bit into one of the beef i had a strong beef smell that just came up and had to spit it out.... couldn't finish the noodle... Side dishes... some tofu skin dish we ordered which was really good! I would have ordered this again. For dessert we ordered some twisty doughnut which was super dry.... I am not sure if this is the style of their food and i am just not the kind of person who is into these style of Chinese food... but maybe i will try their other dishes next time to decide for sure. read more

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This place used to be good. Now it is more or less deserted. The service is good but sadly the food is terrible.

Made a dinner time visit with the wife, had Beef Noodle Soup, Chicken Chow Mein, Green onion pancakes and Pork Xiao Long Bao dumplings, everything was very good and the portion sizes were generous, they make the noodles in house so they were especially tasty, the only complaint we had was that the noodles in the soup were too long, difficult to share the bowl of soup because of this and the difficulty of getting a small portion of noodles into the small soup bowls. Chow Mein was very flavorful and again more than enough for two people, nice size portion of green onion pancakes as well. The Pork Xiao Long Bao were slightly larger than others that we have had but again very tasty and more than enough for two people to share. Staff was very friendly and attentive. Located at the former location of the dumpling house, the space has been remodeled and is much nicer and has a better layout. great place that we will need to visit again to try some other dishes. read more

Consistency is the mother of skill. It's been so hit or miss with the quality of food here. The first few times here have been great; but the last two visits have not been good. The food is way too salty. The amount of salt is something that can easily be controlled by the chefs. The fact that food comes out with that amount of salt means no one is tasting the food for quality. If you do go, here's what has been consistently good: 1. Cold platter (where you get to choose three items from the front). May I suggest the tripe, beef and pig ear. This is really the only reason I come here. Today that is really all I ate. 2. Onion pancake. Thin, crispy and chewy. Solid. If it werent for my damn low-carb diet I'd eat two orders. Way too salty the past two visits: 1. Spicy Chicken. 2. Dan-dan noodles. Service always good here. Ask your server for some scissors to help cut the noodles. They are handmade so that's a plus. read more

I love this little place. You can see the guys making the hand-pulled noodles. I love their stir fried noodles and of course the steamed pork dumplings are always a favorite. Our go-to for Chinese noodles and pork dumplings. Don't forget to get a "cold plate" of garlicky seaweed and if you're adventurous, the pigs ear is good too. Additionally, the wait staff was very nice when we went on Christmas Eve. read more

While the food was tasty I found that the service was lacking, there was one person serving 10 tables

Always love the food at Northern Cafe. The squid appetizer is a big portion and same with Chicken Sliced Noodle. This is my covid to go restaurant for take-out. read more

Amazing braised beef stew. Can't get enough of it. Also the soup dumplings were delicious.

Friendly service Food comes out fast Very fresh! Sliced noodle/ hand ripped noodle with beef is excellent: Huge, thick, chewy noodles in a spicy, oily sauce with tender strips of beef, sprouted beans, and green onion. Pan fried pork dumplings (dim sum portion 6) were amazing. So chewy and crispy and juicy, and big. House special Fried rice was ok, don't need to get it again Juicy pork dumplings were good, but didn't compare to the pan friend pork dumpling. Orange chicken was good, very standard. We will be back for the sliced noodles and pan friend pork dumplings. Its enough to share for 2 people. read more

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I love it here!!! I plan on going back sometimes this week. We went late last night for a quick bite and decided to order extra to pack the leftover as lunch. The waiter was super knowledgeable and helpful when we had questions about the kinds of noodles they were describing on the ordering sheet. He was able to just point into the kitchen's big glass wall and let us know, "if you order this knife noodle, you will be eating what he is making right now." We could see the noodle master working the dough, tossing it, stretching it... it was a lot of fun. So of course, we ordered the knife noodles. One in beef soup (menu item A1). One "dry" with mixing spicy oil and herbs along with pork (menu item C1). The texture of the noodles reminds me of quality Japanese udon. But of course, in much different broth and oil, also in different shape too. We also ordered their xiao long bao. Instead of using egg wash to seal the bun top, it seems like they are using peanut butter. So, this is different from the other two xiao long bao places that I know in the South Bay. If you are a fan of peanut butter and xiao long bao, you have to order this to try for yourself. (Don't touch it if you are allergic!) We also decided to try something new and had our helpful waiter made a recommendation for an unique small plate. He suggested one of the cold clear noodle dishes under the menu's G category. I couldn't tell what that was because I just explained to him what kind of flavor I liked and he had the chef make something similar to what I told him I liked. (I told them I like it a little sour, with some spicy oil but not a lot. I like herbs. I like Shanghai style "粉皮" with pickled sour veggies) He said they were happy to make it for us because it was end of the night, they were not too busy. It was very nice of them. This definitely motivated me to leave this review here. Thanks, Guys! read more

Northern Cafe - Chinese Near Me - Gardena, California

This place has disappointed me again and again when I order take out. I call them right at 11 and they don't answer, so they don't actually open until 11:15. Then they tell me it'll take 15-20 minutes. So I come 20 minutes later and they tell me it's not ready yet and will take another 5-10 minutes. I can see them in the kitchen and literally when I paid for my food was when they started making it. Now I've waited 40 minutes here and they are still not done...this same thing has happened to me the last 2 times I came here. Food is good here though (hence the 2 stars), but service could use a lot of work. At least be transparent about how long this will actually take. Usually I can wait but I only come here to get food for my parents because they enjoy it and live in the valley, so when I come to this place they have to wait for me to come to have lunch....at 1:30. read more

Located in the Tozai Plaza, so if you're going during peak hours, parking will suck, very crowded & tiny parking spots. Went there on a Sat at Noon, and it was packed, luckily I got the last open table. Know what you want before you go, at your table you'll get a menu, and order form to fill out, where you specify the type of noodle you want. I like the wide/flat ones. The make their own noodles there, so it's fresh. Got the beef noodle soup house special. The broth is good, but adding some hot oil Chile takes it to another level. Thin slices of beef had good flavor & was tender. Don't expect top notch American friendly service. Food was good, so I'll be back. read more

Northern Cafe - Beef Noodle Soup House Special - Chinese Near Me - Gardena, California

YUM!!!! Loved the fresh hand made noodles here. The one I tried was C1: Sliced noodles with Special Sauce. It was tangy, saucy, the noodles were chewy, with a little bit of heat. It was excellent! If you enjoy lamb, their lamb soup (with or without noodles) is delicious. The meat is just so soft! Best part is the TV. It's this on-going stream of Chinese food being made in different parts of China in high def. It's the ultimate foodie paradise to be eating food and watching food at the same time, lol. read more

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I usually come here when I feel like eating dumplings, juicy pork dumplings and the lamb noodle soup are my favorite. Good service and tasty comfort food! read more

NOODLES ARE HEAVENLY First impression wasn't so good because they didn't acknowledge or seat me properly, but I later realized that service was poor because wait staff was very limited. They are hiring! Even so, I will definitely come back. Their handmade noodles are a blessing!! They are so soft and light, unlike anything I've had before. I want to try every noodle dish! I had the Pork and Vegetable Noodle in Garlic Sauce which was not spicy, but sweet instead. I do wish the dish was served hot instead of warm. I want to try the dumplings too, but it is definitely a dish meant for two people. The place is pretty cute too, so I'd like to bring a friend. read more

Northern Cafe - Pork and Vegetable Noodle in Garlic Sauce $8.99 - Chinese Near Me - Gardena, California

The way they hand pull noodles is amazing, just like a magic! Not only the great performance but also the food from here is soooo good. I've tried so many items but my favorite is Noodle with sesame sauce. It's very nice for the hot season like right now and the sesame paste sauce is really tasty with the good noodle. I also recommend Hand-Ripped Noodle with Special Sauce. The noodle is flat and wide so you can see how the noodle itself tastes and enjoy the texture. read more

Northern Cafe - Cold Noodle with sesame sauce. So Good. - Chinese Near Me - Gardena, California

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I love Northern Cafe's because of the price is value and cheep, they serve food quickly, and the variety of choices of noodles that the customer can choose. I always order a lamb noodle soup with a knife cut shape noodle. This noodle is like thick Udon noodle and I love it so much. read more

Northern Cafe - Lamb noodle at the right. My favorite noodle! - Chinese Near Me - Gardena, California

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Headed over to the amazingly crowded parking lot last Saturday. GO EARLY and PARK BY 5:45 PM.... the parking is a mad house ! Great food and great variety. We had an assortment of things: Orange chicken, a couple of pork dumpling styles, lamb skewers, and a dumpling soup. My friend ordered , so I don't know the exact names of the dishes. read more

This was disappointing. I ordered Dan day noodly and it was terrible. The noodles we're dry and it did t have enough meat. It was mostly chilli oil and one or two stalk of bak-choi. The dish need salt. read more

Terrific dumplings! Very fresh and delicious noodles ! Golden prime beef is a must ! Excellent lil restaurant '

Soup dumplings Pork chow mein with chili (sliced noodles) Not as good as din tai fung but a really solid alternative in the south bay. ordered orange chicken for the kids. they liked it. also ordered but don't recommend chicken chow mein, and house chow mein. read more

I'm not in love with this place, nor do I hate it. It is good place to avoid long lines if you just want some Juicy Dumplings and Chongging Style Spicy Fried Chicken. Tons to choose from, just need to find your favorites :) - Short wait to be seated - Short wait for food - Decent prices - Cleaner than its former Dumpling House read more

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A work colleague recommended this place when we were having a discussion about amazing hand-pulled noodle soups. We agreed that Xi'an Foods in NY is the pinnacle for such a dish (it's also Bourdain endorsed), so I figured he had great taste and knew what he was talking about. WRONG! We were excited to order the signature Spicy Beef Noodle Soup. The soup was incredibly bland. Just flavorless. The large hand-cut noodles had a great texture, and were obviously fresh. The beef flavor was okay, but the cut of meat was exceptionally fatty with a ton of gristle. There was no depth of flavor to the broth. We also ordered the scallion pancake. The preparation was excellent and had a nice light, but crispy texture...but there was very little green onion flavor. How is this even possible? All in all, I cannot recommend this place, and will not return. Such a disappointment. I wish we had just gone to the Pho place around the corner. read more