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.