Paris Baguette Rating ★★★★

Fruit Pastry only like $1.25, one of best value.

Middle is the giant taro bread.

Taro bread texture is perfect but lack taro inside !

Not you typical Asian bakery cake, this one is more pricey and look fancier !

Paris Baguette is a South Korean bakery franchise, known for serving European pastries that appeal to Asian customers since it uses less sugar and offers Chinese flavors like taro.   Some compare this chain to 85c bakery from Taiwan as they share some similarities, but in general, the pastries are very different. If you like baguettes, croissants, and fruit tarts, you should check this place out since these items are specialties you won't find in 85c or most other Asian bakery shops. They have also added new items lately like "Clam Chowder in Bread Bowl" for $4.75, and they serve coffee as well. My only complaint is that it's too bad there's no art work!  

If you want the best value for your pastry, this is not the place you're looking for. They don't add much filling to their pastries at all. The Taro bread is huge, with a texture like a croissant that is so darned good, however there was so little taro inside, yet it still cost almost $2. Their fruit tart, on the other hand, is a must! Not too pricey either. Their baguette cost a little bit over $2, which is on par with typical supermarket prices, but much fresher and better tasting; this is their best-selling item. The cakes are probably the most expensive from any Asian bakery and you can expect to pay over $30 for the 8" or over $4 for one piece, but Paris Baguette's cake style is very different and does look more artistic.  The green tea bread wasn't great but I did like the cream and bit of red bean inside.

This place doesn't get as packed as 85c does. The décor is nice with several tables and a relaxed atmosphere. It is located inside a mall, though, so coming here could be a blessing or nightmare depending on the time of day. Since this place opened, I prefer to eat here instead of the food court. The staff is friendly and they wear cool looking uniforms. In general, the selection is not huge, but it's more about quality than quantity. Many of their pastries are put out for only 4 hours in order to keep their quality fresh. I was surprised to learn that they don't offer quiche! How can you call yourself a French bakery and not offer this fabulous pie? Aside from that, this place is definitely worthy of a 4 star rating.

East Gourmet Seafood Restaurant Rating ★★★ 1/2

$7.99 Lobster noodle in dim sum hour only.

 Mediocre Dim Sum but with a Killer Deal!

East Gourmet Seafood Restaurant located in the Square Shopping Center that serves traditional Cantonese cuisine such as BBQ, Dim Sum, and some live seafood.

Parking is a nightmare here, especially during the weekend or holiday.  There's simply isn’t enough parking around in those hours you are better off parking in the street. 

The quality of food is not the same league of Sea Harbour or King Hua. Fort the price especially in the dinner is much lower,. The Dim Sum has currently two promotions item that worth people coming over like the $7.99 lobster noodle or the 99 cents half order of steam chicken when you spend $15 or more.  The dim sum isn't the cheapest in town that goes to New Capital.  Dim sum here is noticeable better and offer more choice as well. 

Service here is pretty average but so far haven't encounter major problem.  If you crave for dim sum and dinner, and like those promotion deal, this place is recommend especially if you had friend from China which they know how pricey lobster is over-there compare to here. They would be shock to see that you could get this type of deal here!

[DECOR]     ★★★1/2

[SERVICE]  ★★★

[FOOD]       ★★★1/2
[VALUE]     ★★★★★

Little Tokyo Daikokuya Rating ★★★★ 1/2

"A bowl of ramen is a self-contained universe with life from the sea, the mountains, and the earth. All existing in perfect harmony. Harmony is essential. What holds it all together is the broth. The broth gives life to the ramen."

This would be my fifth visit to this place, it was 2:30pm in Friday, and there were still a line!  Waiting was like 20 minutes isn't too bad but is surprising. I'll bring my out of country relatives here, which they never try ramen in a restaurant before. There were none in their country.  This was pretty good place for first timer eating ramen, décor is old school and definite felt like a typical ramen shop in Japan. Too bad is bit too small, so if you have a big group it will require very long wait almost all the time.   The service was a bit chaotic, it seem they are understaff.  

After been eating those egg flavor ramen noodle from other shop is hard to go back to this style. After trying their koterri broth is hard to go back to the regular one, with added back-fats and slight more flavor, the broth tasted a bit like soy sauce and very salty which I couldn't finish it. The Chashu was still one of the best in the business, so is their marinated egg.  

Despite some short coming, this still is the best ramen shop in little Tokyo with sligth edge of other location, not the best in L.A. but still damn good!

China Great Buffet Rating ★★★ 3/4

China Great Buffet is probably the cheapest Chinese buffet in San Gabriel Valley.   Located in a plaza near payless foods, there's good amount of parking spot here.  They added few TV's showing local channel, the carpet floor is sometime dirty here and is crowded here in the weekend.  Service here is average but they do pick up your plate often but you has to ask to refill beverage.

Price: $7.77 weekday lunch, dinner $10.99 and weekends are $12.99.

Salad Section - Good amount of selections, bigger than typical Chinese buffet. They got good quality seaweed salad, don't like their Ceviche. 

Mongolia BBQ  - New added section, not fan of this section since they use low quality meat.

Japanese Section - Unlike some other buffet place, they always serve salmon Sashimi in dinner, surprise the quality is better than Vegas seafood buffet which cost almost twice the price.  Sushi here however is mediocre at best.

Seafood - Worth the price of the buffet easily, seaweed salad, giant oyster, butter cream shrimp, and snow crabs. 

Hot Food Section - Their Chinese food is actually not bad, the roast beef is alright.  

Dessert and Fruit - Most of the pastry dessert are bad to mediocre, fruit section is what you should go. 

If you are not picky and want to eat a lot different food in low price, this place worth to check it out. The food definite isn't that great, but for the price is hard to complain.

[DECOR]      3//5
[SERVICE]   3.75/5
[FOOD]         4/5
[VALUE]        5/5

Yum Cha Cafe Rating ★★ 3/4

"Quantity not Quality Hainan Chicken Here"

  Yum Cha Cafe is where you can find the cheapest dim sum, Cantonese bbq and Hainan chicken in San Gabriel Valley.

Hainan Chicken $5 

  Do not expect the quality beat Savory Chicken, but they do gave you portions of chicken, vegetables, and rice.  The Chicken serve with all the bones and skins, meat is marinated but is very oily, that gave the rice the flavor.

You get what you paid for here as I mention, but always check the portion they gave you, cause sometime they try to cheat and gave you few less pieces.

Tacos Los Betos Rating ★★★ 3/4

Tacos Los Betos is a local hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that serves many traditional Mexican dishes as well as burgers and fries for low prices. Their Taco is no longer $1, it costs about $1.25 after the tax. Their salsa bar is quite good which includes the avocado sauce, similar to, but better than El Pollo Loco.

They've got a TV showing a Mexican channel. Parking is convenient, with a lot and plenty of street parking. It's close to the I-10 Freeway, on Baldwin Ave in El Monte.  Don't come here if you want healthy food, as some of the meat, like Chorizo, is actually fried to a crisp. Torta and Hocharta are also available here.  For under $5, you are better fed here than you would be in a McDonald's nearby.

Newport Tan Cang Seafood Restaurant Rating ★★★★ 1/2

"The Gold Standard for a Chinese Restaurant "

Newport Tan Cang Seafood Restaurant is rank one of the highest rated Chinese or Seafood Restaurant from Yelper in the San Gabriel Valley.  I have been here several times, both lunch and dinner.  This is my first visit in this place in 2013.  Try their Lunch Special.  

ENVIRONMENT]  4.25/5    

I like the interior of this place a lot, a lot more transitional and int he same time look classy.  Their restroom need some remodel, look too plain.  There's no TV or other gimmick. 

[FOOD]                    4.25/5     

Hot & Sour Soup comes with the Lunch Entree.

Shrimp with Scramble Egg - The best dish we order, large portion and real good !

Seafood Fried Rice - Lots of eggs and large portion.

Shrimp with Garlic Sauce - Good but the sauce don't fit it well.

Fried Rice Noodle with Beef - Good portion and Yum !

Free Sweet Slices of Orange

[SERVICE]             4.25/5         

This place expect a better than your average Chinese Restaurant in term of service, they actually gave good feedback, however they forgot to bring the rice when the entree came out/  

[VALUE]                  4.5/5       

The entree it self is not gonna beat some of the Chinese Restaurant in the Valley or Garvey in term of taste or portion size, but this one do better in presentation and excellent free soup and orange, not to mention this got better service as well.  Their lunch price did not go up for I think 2 years which are remarkable. 

TIPS: 

* Located across Mitsuwa Marketplace. 
* Parking lot almost always get full, so park in the street if you can find spot. 
* They offer milk boba drink and thai tea.

MY 2 CENTS 

This is great place for family or bring your co-worker. They would be pleased. offer dish that western would familiar and also more upscale seafood dish.  I wish more Chinese restaurant learns a thing or 2 from this place. Lowest price is not everything when sacrifice atmosphere and service.

Wahib's Middle East Restaurant Rating ★★★★

  Wahilb’s Middle East Restaurant is a Middle Eastern restaurant service typical Middle Eastern food plus buffet in lunch and dinner daily.  The only other restaurant that service Middle Eastern buffet style is Burger Continental in Pasadena, which is nowhere as good.  They gave you Pita Bread to accomplice your meat.

Soup - Lentil soup.  

Salad Bar – They got hummus, Greek salad, Tzatziki Yogurt Salad, Tabbouleh, Tomato, Cucumber, and Garlic Paste.  

Hot Dish - 2 types of Rice, Beans, Stuff Grape Leaves, Butter Fried Fish, Kefta Kebab, Chicken Breast Kebab, Grilled Tomato, Grilled Chicken Thigh, French Fries.

Dessert - Baklava, 

Fruit - Watermelon, Oranges, Grapes.

The Salad Bar was impressive; the garlic paste is extreme tasty, make a perfect combo for the chicken dish, like the kebab, didn’t like the Stuff Grapes Leaves.  The Hot dish is about half good. Why Fries is during here is just zero sense.  The Pita Bread wasn’t hot at all, is like eating directly from the package.  The rice were mediocre using low quality rice, The Lentil Soup was pretty good and quality same as always, as for the dessert.  The Baklava were too sweet this time, but the fruit were sweet. Unlike last time, there were no Lamb in the lunch buffet.  If you like Indian Buffet, this is very closed in comparison, Indian buffet are more superior in curry, rice, and the Naan Bread, but this one are much better in the Salad Bar and offer more meats than just Tandoori Chicken Drumsticks. For lunch buffet is highly recommend try this place.  But for dinner is $15 only lamb leg is added might not worth the price in my opinion. 

[DECOR]     ★★★★

[SERVICE]  ★★★★

[FOOD]       ★★★★1/2
[VALUE]     ★★★★1/2

Catalina Casino

  Catalina Casino is the icon landmark in City of Avalon of Catalina Island.  Remarkable still in almost like a new shape for over 80 years! The structure is the first most noticeable building when you arrive to Avalon via the boat. The construction was fund by Wrigley, the father of chewing gums.  The casino is famous for its huge ballroom. There’s also nice theater inside, which was consider high-tech back in the days.  So if you heading to Avalon, definite worth to check this historic landmark! 

Lloyd’s of Avalon Confectionery Rating ★★★★

Mint Chips Dreyer's Ice Cream

House Made Candy Machine

  Lloyd's of Avalon Confectionery is well known for its candy, housemade from the machine.  Also sells ice cream which is more popular on a hot day.  But the ice cream used is supermarket brand "Dreyer's". It's a lot more affordable than Big Olaf's without the homemade waffle cone.  Wish there were better places to get ice cream on the island. But the candy alone is worth a visit here.

Catalina Coffee & Cookie Co. Rating ★★

  This coffee place is located in the Metropole Marketplace, and one of the few coffee places on the Island. Funny that there's no Starbucks here? This place has only got like 1 staff, and the coffee is self-serve.  The coffee is from the Gavina brand, which is the same one used by McDonald's, which isn't exactly good, not to mention it costs a lot more here. If you expect to pay almost $3 for a coffee, it deserved better quality and at least some service.

Chipotle Mexican Grill - Rating ★★★★

Chicken Bowl 

  This Chipotle Mexican Grill located in south lake avenue next to Panda Express.  The meat portion was cut down; however the positive side is now they offer Cilantro Brown Rice!  The price has not been raise since last time I been here that's over 2 years ago.  Around little over 7 bucks with tax will get you filled up.   I've would probably prefer the breakfast burrito from Lucky Boy, but that isn't option for those who work and live nearby that don't want to drive.  This is pretty good option and a lot better than Del Taco. Parking is also good news consider is pretty manageable to find parking spot unless during peak lunch time

[DECOR]     ★★★★

[SERVICE]  ★★★★

[FOOD]       ★★★★
[VALUE]     ★★★★

New Bay Seafood - Rating ★★★1/2

New Bay Seafood is a Cantonese Seafood Restaurant located between Second Street and the Valley, across the street from Garden Café. There’s some curse or bad luck in this location. They change ownership four times in just span of five years; it used to be Sham Tseng BBQ shop.  My friend were craving Cantonese family style food, and this place just recently open, hopefully fifth time is the charm. There were only minor remodel been done, they keep mostly same as before. Main difference now is that they got water tank for live seafood and no longer operated BBQ.  

Service is pretty good for this type of restaurant, probably due to fact the restaurant wasn’t pack in a Saturday dinner.  Our food came out pretty quick.  The waiter could be friendlier and was only interest selling us the seafood. 
 

They gave free salt peanuts as appetizer, prefer steam version from seafood village.

#46 Squid with Salt & Pepper $10.99 – This was the best dish we order. The fried Squid was cook perfectly with right amount of seasoning.

#86 Seven Flavor Lamb Chop $15.99 – Five piece of tender lamb chop meat but a bit too heavy with the spice and oil.

#68 New Bay Basil Chicken $10.99 – Tender White Chicken Meats but too heavy seasons just like the Lamb Chop.

#101 Eggplants with Garlic Sauce $9.99 – Way too grease and oily, bad fit with the eggplant.

  They clearly need to improve their food quality, clearly is not on par with most Seafood Restaurant, there’s nothing here realty stand out, the only special was the live crab which was $23 each and there were no free dessert soups unlike most restaurant of this type.  If they wanted to stay alive, they need change the formula

before is too late.

[DECOR]     ★★★1/2

[SERVICE]  ★★★★

[FOOD]       ★★★★
[VALUE]     ★★★1/2

Oba Sushi Izakaya Rating ★★★1/2

  Oba Sushi Izakaya is a Japanese Restaurant located in the E Glenarm Street right before the Arrow Parkway which leads to the 110 State Highway

Hot Green Tea $1

Lunch Combo Salad

Lunch Miso Soup

Chirashi $11

Takoyaki  $4

Oba Sushi Izakaya is a Japanese Restaurant located in the E Glenarm Street right before the Arrow Parkway which leads to the 110 State Highway.  

[DÉCOR] 4/5

Bigger than average Japanese Restaurant, good amount of tablets. There’s even a bar area too with Television showing ESPN.  Wood tablets and chair. They got huge selection of Sake.

[SERVICE] 3.5/5

Food came out too slow, taking almost 20 minutes and takes a while to take our order, for some dish.  Waitress refills our teas and water without asking for it.  

[FOOD] 3.5/5

Lunch menu comes with Miso Soup and Salad, the soup was very good quality. As for the salad is mediocre and smaller portion.

Chirashi – Cost $11 which is $1 more than last visit for the lunch Chirashi. Portion of the Sashimi is disappoint, the quality isn’t good.  Yama in Alhambra is much better quality and more portions. 

Takoyaki – Japanese Deep Fried Squid Ball is a good value which cost only $4 gets you 6 pieces. Not the best I had, but was definite good, just lack a sauce to make it more flavorful.

If you got a large group or crave for Japanese food and especially sake, this place worth to check it out, but I wish the quality of the fish is better, I don’t mind smaller portion as long quality is better, but it wasn't the case.  

[DECOR]     ★★★★

[SERVICE]  ★★★★

[FOOD]       ★★★ 1/2
[VALUE]     ★★★  1/2

El Monte Denny's Rating ★★1/2

  Denny is one of the few chain out there offer you something for your birthday. Grand Slam is what they would offer Birthday Boys and Girl in all ages. Basically are 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 pancakes, and bacon

They sell this for $5.99.  It cost less than a bucks if you do at home that won’t take much of skill, the food quality is not good, the sausage were tiny, pancake is package taste, bacon wasn't crispy enough, as the egg is alright.  There’s parking space even in a busy day.  The Décor is 50’s style similar to Johnny Rocket.  You can spend that in a very good breakfast burritos or a Pho in this area.  Service wasn't great, no greeting at all. Pretty clean at most part even the restroom, until some homeless person using it.

Rating ★★

[DECOR]     ★★★1/2

[SERVICE]  ★★★1/2

[FOOD]       ★★1/2
[VALUE]      ★★