Tasty Garden

I was surfing the web one day, looking for this particular restaurant that one of my friend (Jen) had taken me to a while back called Savoy. They serve one of the best Hainan Chicken Rice dish. As I was surfing, I happen to stumble upon Tasty Garden, a down to earth Chinese restaurant with a friendly and casual vibe. The main motive that drove me here in the first place was the Hong Kong Style waffle. It’s been over a year now that I last visited Hong Kong, and the thing I missed most about Hong Kong was the food. It seem that every corner you turn to, there was food, and I don’t mean just ordinary food, but rather good tasty junk food. Being a junky (a term I used to describe myself as a junk food lover) myself, it’s like paradise. I would have to say that out of all the places I’ve traveled to, I know I’m still young and still have much more places to see, but for now, by far Hong Kong would be number one on my list. Ok, let’s go back to Tasty Garden. As we park the car and stroll into the little restaurant, it seem like a normal Chinese restaurant, with I would say a bit more modern décor than normal Chinese restaurant. It took Johanna and myself a while to decide on what we wanted, but at least we agree upon one thing, we must have at least three dishes today. As we scroll through the menu, the hot pot rice dishes was calling out to me, so I decided to order the Yellow Eel Hot Pot ($6.50). Johanna wanted the Baked Seafood Rice w/Portuguese Sauce ($7.25). We both decided on a third dish to be the House Special Pork Chop ($6.75). For our fun food, we decided to go with the main motive that got me here in the first place, the Hong Kong Style Waffle ($3.95). The waffle did not disappoint me at all, it was nice and crunchy in the outside and soft and moist in the inside, it was perfect, just like the waffle from Hong Kong. The first dish that came out was the House Special Pork Chop. Just from looking at it, it didn’t look that moist and tender, but right when we start taking the chunk of meat apart and chopping it down, we realize that it’s really tender and juicy. I would conclude that they did a great job on the pork chop. The second dish was the Yellow Eel Hot Pot. I expected more from this dish, since it was calling out to me but the eel meat that they used tasted like it came from a can, it lack the juicy flavor that I expected it to have. The Baked Seafood Rice w/Portuguese Sauce came out last. It’s one of those dishes that taste good on the first few bites but the creamy taste of it would drive you away from wanting more. Over all I would say the experience was interesting, the two dishes that stands out was the waffle and the pork chop. I would go back to this place just for the waffle, come to think of it, I noticed it’s the simpler things in life that we tend to always missed most.

288 W. Valley Blvd #110-112
Alhambra, CA 91801
626.300.8262

Graceful Teriyaki Grill & Roll

We have hundreds of teriyaki restaurants scattered through southern California. However, which one is the best, which one will give you the most for your money; which one will your taste buds develop a preference for. In a few words, there are so many teriyaki places that it will be nearly impossible to try them all, and name one victorious.

In my quest to find good food, I recently visited a new teriyaki place near my job. I have seen this little place go through some changes over the years since I’ve been at my job, and I’m glad to say that this new place seems like it will be successful.

Graceful Teriyaki Grill & Roll is conveniently located in the city of Long Beach. 4331 E. Carson St, and it is open from Monday through Saturday from 11:00 am – 8:00 pm, they are closed on Sundays. The place offers over thirty different dishes, several salads, and various types of rolls and sashimi as well. After viewing the menu for a few minutes, I decided to order the spicy chicken and beef teriyaki plate.

This particular dish comes with steam rice, fresh salad and four pieces of their California roll. It is a big portion, so come hungry and ready to eat. The meat is soft and not chewy as in some other places (I don’t know if you ever had that experience), as well as the chicken which is really moist. The meat is prepared with the typical teriyaki sauce and spicy chilies, onions, peppers, and carrots; although I feel that the carrots are added more for presentation of the dish than anything else, they do add a mild taste to offset the spiciness of the chilies.

I’ve never encountered a bad experience with tempura, but I dislike it when they serve green bean tempura. This dish comes with three pieces of tempura veggies which are very crispy and don’t have that oily taste nor look. In other words, they are just good. As for the California roll, I would rate it as fair. I’m not a big fan of the California roll, but rather of sashimi, which they do offer in their menu.

The place is not that big, and could sit at least 20 people in a nice comfortable manner. The owner is very friendly and service is good. I would strongly recommend this place for a quick lunch, or if you prefer to go, for those of you on the run.

I will definitely go back to this place and try their sashimi and or other dishes. Prices are very reasonable, so don’t worry about putting a big dent in your wallet when going out for some good food at this place.

4331 E. Carson Street

Long Beach, CA 90808

562.425.7041

Lucky City Restaurant

It was Sunday, my only day off from work so I decided to go try a new restaurant that I haven’t yet tried before. My two friends (Mark and Cecilia) and I decided to head out to Monterey Park to try something new. The Restaurant was called Lucky City Restaurant; they mostly serve Chaozhou (Chiu Chow) food. We got there at the peek of lunchtime, as we entered, it was a typical Chinese restaurant with plates and chopsticks rattling as we walk through the restaurant to be seated at our table. Mark and I left it up to Cecilia to do the ordering since she seems to know what’s good in that part of China. We ended up ordering; Steamed Tilapia ($6.95), Duck Fillet w/Soy Sauce ($5.99), Deep Fried Whole Fish ($5.25) and Pan Fried String Bean w/Dry Meat & Pickle Olive ($4.55). Let us start with the Steamed Tilapia. I am never a fish guy but the Tilapia was done perfect. The meat was nice and moist while the shredded onion compliments the taste of the fish. The Duck Fillet w/soy sauce was very flavorful, to my surprise I was drawn to the tofu on the side of the duck more so then the duck meat. The tofu tasted fresh and soft, I thought it was perfect, and keep in mind I’m not a big fan of tofu. The Deep fried whole fish was just average for me; nothing about it really stands out. Lastly, the Pan Fried String Bean w/dry Meat & Pickle Olive, which was a bit odd for me because there’s not many Chinese dishes that utilize olive in their cooking. It was simple and yet very tasty, the bean was cooked with high heat therefore it retain the greens and crunchy taste when you bit into it. Overall, it was a great meal. I would be curious to go back and try other dishes to see how they stack up, but not anytime soon for I have so much more restaurants to try out.

Happy Family Vegetarian Cuisine

I was a man with one mission this week; try out at least two different restaurants before the (hopefully) most painful part of my braces treatment. I would love to go into details about what will happen to me this week but that may gross you out, so let’s talk about food. Well we entered this quiet second floor corner restaurant at around 7pm on a Friday night. It was quite empty for dinnertime but this restaurant was highly recommended by a co-worker so we went for it anyway. It took us a while to order for I know nothing of vegan food, but we finally come to an agreement. I wanted something a bit meaty, so we order the Sizzling Beef ($10.95), while Johanna ordered the Home Style Tofu with Hot Sauce ($7.50) along with brown rice. We were both pleased with both dishes, even though the sizzling beef didn’t quite sizzles when it arrived at our table but it was sure pretty beefy. Over all, I would say the experience was pleasant. The food was pretty decent, nothing that would leave a lasting impression but what do I know I am mostly a meat eater, I am a virgin when it comes to vegetarian foods, therefore this is my first real restaurant experience at a vegan's restaurant. I promised, as time progresses I will try more vegetarian food and return to this restaurant and do a follow-up when I have more experience eating vegan’s food. Until then, this restaurant is just average for me.