Go Go Cafe

We finally ventured away from our usual Arcadia spots to try something new. Got tired of the usual beef rolls, baos, noodles, and 4-​item boxes since we had been eating out a lot, and the Arcadia mall closed down the chinese food court dining experience! :/​So sad.
The owners are here very friendly, patient, sweet, and very fondly proud of their steamed fish (ching zin fish). «Beautiful and very good,» repeated again to each table preparing to order. Makes you feel venturous yet confident in ordering his pride and joy. We went with it, and it was $ 20 for the fish. Indeed, it was a pretty dish, with scallions and ginger scattered all over the pink fish, with fresh eyeballs and all. Indeed very fresh. First bite seems a bit mildly flavored, but in the end we determined it was flavored *just right*, not *too much* flavor or saltiness, but just the right amount of flavor and salt if you eat up ALL the garnish and sauce along with the fish. (We thus determined, that this dish is best enjoyed in a party of two ONLY, without good table manners, where you can go all out with all paws in the dish, and spooning sauce and bits over your rice til it’s all gone, down to the bone.) There’s no room in this dish for being polite and dainty or you’ll just end up with chunks of barely flavored fish in your mouth. To note, the fish was SO TENDER with PERFECT texture. I would’ve wanted to know what kind of fish it was, but we figured he’d have no idea because he had no idea what we meant when we asked to confirm whether the fish was «steamed»…it helps to speak chinese here, or else you’ll simply probably have to point to the menu or number of the item you want to order. No worries, the menu IS in english. We were slightly afraid to step inside, because of uncertainty of that. I can speak, but I can’t read!
We also ordered pan fried fish dumplings, but they came out with the steamed version instead. Oops, got our order wrong. Even though I really wanted pan-​fried, we let it slide because it was the first dish finally out, and we were ready to eat, but also because it’s such a small mom and pop shop with the owners doing everything themselves it seems, and entrees made fresh to order. They were alright; the fish used for the filling was fresh, real, and substantial, you could tell. The dish was unique. The flavor was on the mild, light side, which I didn’t mind too much; like home-​cooking, not overdone. It was a nice relief from overly salted and flavored foods. My husband didn’t think anything was very flavored, but still enjoyed the meal. Not sure if this place though is very high on his return list because of that. :/​
We also got the leek leaf pancakes. (Jiu tsai hu zi) They were refreshingly crisp and hot to the touch, even after sitting out for quite a while! I was pretty stoked. Loved how it stayed hot. I loved how the skin was slightly browned and stiffened/​fried on the sides. Again, not overly salty or flavored. What makes this dish is the freshness and temperature hotness as it comes out to the table. Yum yum. Leftovers aren’t as great because of being mildly flavored.
As other reviewers posted, faster service with the bill at the end (very slow) would be helpful– it’s a mom and pop where the owners are literally doing everything themselves it seems– you can’t be too polite you might have to walk up to them to ask for the check or it feels like you’ll literally never get outta there. You just have to know that going in and it’s fine; you’ll know what to do and do it early.
I would get the steamed fish and leek leaf pancakes again any day! =) Totally hits the spot for good, fresh, home-​y, real, chinese food. You have to order rice separately for the fish, one bowl is enough to share for two, and charge $ 1 or something.
For my own memories, this is the place where I ate my first fish eyeballs. They taste chalky. It’s a weird feeling eating the eyeballs. But we googled it, and it’s supposed to have some hard to come by omegas. So I said, «Gimme my omegas!» Being a health guru and chinese, special omegas no go to waste. I guess there’s something in the middle that you spit back out according to my husband.(?!) :P
Since we were on a roll scraping out every last bit of the fish dish, the thought even crossed my mind to take it all the way, and also bring home the valuable fish head to freeze and make fish bone stock/​broth with but no way was I going to ask. Haha– this is how bad I am. (Next time I might though… ;D Sorry I am into the traditional diet where nothing goes to waste, especially not heads, feet, and bones. I try to drink bone broth daily, so there you go.

This place is a hidden gem!
They have one of the tastiest green onion pancakes I’ve ever had. The pieces of green onion are seasoned enough so you get a little bit of awesome in every bite.
Their leek leaf cakes are bomb too. Also well seasoned and doesn’t become soggy even after a 30 minute drive in the take-​out box.
The employees are really nice as well. There is a bit of a language barrier while ordering over the phone. I had my mandarin speaking friend call in my order for me :)

Don’t even bother coming here. They literally just sent out menu flyers to work last week and I come for their lunch special, and guess what their lunch special is discontinued. Why would you distribute them in the first place?

horrible. i couldve made a better meal with cup noodle. Nothing we ordered was even remotely tasty. Would not ever come back. I almost wanted to return everything. Haha if only restaurants had return policies.

An update: their pan fried dumplings suck! The skin fell and the filling do not stick together. Each dumpling had it skin fell off.

Nice people. Small restaurant. Food was lack of flavor. Portion was small. Maybe we ordered the wrong dishes? :/

Maybe I ordered the wrong food?
The food portion is small = the price is too expensive, me and my husband, we ordered steamed dumplings, beef stew and one pan fried vegetables, our bill was around $ 35. The dumplings tasted okay, but the beef stew was way overcooked, the beef was so chewy and the sauce has too much flavor that we had to keep drinking water afterwards, the vegetables… so so, lack of flavor, I won’t say it’s bad, but just tasteless.

Very homey type of mom n pop shop. Seems the mom and pop take turns cooking and working front of the house, so don’t come in a hurry! We ordered the mountain yam soup per mom’s recommendation. It’s a clear broth soup with lots of cilantro, green onion, yam strips, pork. A light and tangy soup, nice to wash down the other heavy dishes.
We also had the vegetarian house special which is like buddha’s feast– mushrooms, bamboo, wheat gluten, and peanuts. This was a favorite! Very savory and flavorful, I loved the textures of chewy and crunchy. The shengjian bao were good, a big size compared to other places, not super juicy, but not dry.
For three people we were pretty stuffed! The menu is pretty large, so read over the reviews for dish ideas or ask the mom and pop for suggestions!

4.5 stars. The food is 5 stars! They have the absolute best fish steamed dumplings in Los Angeles. ! All hand made. From the dumpling skin to the fish inside. Light fluffy. And tasty. Super fresh and cooked to perfection. Their scallion pancakes also are the best in town. Most I’ve had is overly fried and dry. Theirs still have freshly green scallions inside. Also cooked to perfection. Moist inside yet cooked through.
Stir fried loofah is excellent. Super tender and fresh. And cooked to perfection again. Shrimp fried rice is simple and fresh and tasty.
Everything here is seasoned just right. I don’t like restaurants that overly flavor their food. This place you taste the natural flavor and «umami».
Hole in the wall. Tiny place that looks uninviting. But what a find! Definitely coming back. It’s a gem. Better food than May Mei’s or tasty garden. Better fish dumplings than din tai fung.

Excellent food. The steamed fish dumplings were the best that I have ever had, light and fluffy. The scallion cake, sauté loofah and shrimp fried rice were outstanding. This place is a hidden gem and we will be coming here more often!

This hole in the wall deserves a star for serving MSG-​free Chinese food.
Besides that, the food was underwhelming. Maybe we didn’t order the right food.
Garlic sauce with eggplant: Tasty! But kind of hard to mess up with sauce and eggplant.
Pan fried pork and seafood Shen Jian Bao: Presentation was nice as the bao was seared and covered with crunchy sesame at the bottom, nice touch but it was way too doughy for my liking, and the fillings were meh, just meh.
Beef roll: Also meh, large portions but needs more crunch and tendons!
This place seems to be frequented by regulars that owner greeted warmly, I don’t think I will return given all the options around town.

I would totally recommend this place. The time it took to wait was long, but I understand because there aren’t many people in the back making the food. Everything we ordered was really good. The freshness of the food is on point. I will come back for sure. The pot beef was sizzling hot when it came out and the xiao long bao tasted homemade.

I had high hopes going in based upon the hole-​in-​the-​wall appearance. Normally that = tasty and inexpensive.
The food took For-​Ever to be made and it was at the opening and they had no other orders.
The food itself is pretty greasy, lots of oil and not a ton of flavor. The dumpling skins were falling off the pan friend items incl buns and dumplings. Not sure if that is due to cooking method or cheap products.
The language barrier also makes it very hard to order over the phone. Even the order by number game resulted in a missed item.
I just don’t see how this husband and wife can survive in this hole in the wall location and with just the two of them. Head over to some other options for a more sure fire good experience.
Sorry.

Recommendations from a friend for their House Special steamed dumplings. Had to try and see if their in house flour dishes were as good as she says. And they sure were made fresh to order!
FOOD
#2 Seafood and Pork steamed buns (8) (6.99), #12 House Special Vegetable Steamed Dumpling (10) (6.49), #27 Leek Leaf Cake (3) (5.99).
SERVICE
Friendly management! Mom&Pop type of shop.
PARKING
Street parking & small lot in the back. 2 spots on the curb right outside the restaurant.

Came here on Friday with some friends before 626 night market and had high hopes given the reviews.
The restaurant is tiny, and there are probably a total of three people working (including kitchen staff). When we got there around 7:30, it was packed, and we had to wait for a table.
We ordered the fuqifeipian (sliced offal with Sichuanese spices), vegetarian dumplings — steamed, beef roll, and the crockpot beef. The sliced offal was standard, although it took an excruciatingly long time to come out, even when we were assured it’d only take five minutes since everything was basically already one. It took about ten or fifteen instead. My friend thought it could have used more flavor. The vegetarian dumplings were also standard, nothing to write home about.
As for the beef roll, I felt like it was a bit lacking. The sweet plum hoisin sauce was not evenly spread throughout the pancake but instead I had some bites with a ton of sauce and others without any. The pancake was kind of thin and not very crispy, and the meat was a bit cold. Definitely was not a Flavor Garden or Garage Restaurant beef roll. It’s too bad, too, because this was the dish I was most looking forward to.
The crockpot beef was probably my favorite dish. The beef came out in an interesting cylindrical-​like container, and it was piping hot. The beef was tender, and it included other assorted root vegetables and carrots, which had cooked with the beef so it’d soaked up all the flavors.
Service: Slow. Understaffed. You help yourself essentially.
Bottom line: Food wasn’t memorable. Service was lacking.

This place is tiny, cash-​only, and doesn’t really speak English however the food is pretty good. I imagine a few of these dishes (not the Kung Pao Chicken though) would be what they would serve in Tianjin (where the couple who run this place is from).
We had several dishes that really were good. I recommend the dumplings (the sauce is excellent) as well as the spicy fish. I didn’t expect this place to have Kung Pao Chicken nor did I expect it to be that tasty.
I’ll be sure to come back but I’ll have to remember to hit the ATM beforehand and bring someone who speaks mandarin.

After hearing great reviews of this restaurant from family friends, my family decided to give this place a try on a Friday night. Considering how slow service with only two full tables, the place was a bit understaffed. Some of the dishes we tried were the following:
Red Chili Oil Wonton: These were decent but nothing amazing. We were a little disappointed that they were not spicy.
Jiu cai he zi: This dish was definitely overhyped for me. There was a good amount of chives wrapped inside but the outside skin was a bit too thin. Flavor-​wise, it was okay but definitely not the best I’ve had.
Fish with peas&carrots: This dish was recommended by the waitress/​owner so I don’t remember the exact name of it. The fish was drenched in sauce, making it a bit too salty. It was also overpriced at $ 22.99 considering it was a small-​medium sized fish with just peas and carrots on top.
We also ordered a vegetable dish that was okay but overall, we thought the food was nothing special. Everything was reasonably priced except for the fish. Service was pretty slow as well because I don’t believe they have a specific person serving/​taking orders. It was just based on whoever was free at the time so we saw various people come out from the kitchen throughout the meal.

This place is great if you want a nice traditional home style cooked meal. The couple is so nice and they cook everything fresh. Come here if you have some time because it’s only the couple working together. They’ve been in the restaurant business for over 25 years. Their food is delicious! I highly recommend the crab meat dumplings and the kung pao beef!
P. S. There’s no MSG in any of he dishes!

Small restaurant, no parking in rear, so good luck finding a parking!
the food here is pretty good. It’s a family own restaurant so service is rather slow because it looks like there are only two people working. Husband in the front, wife in the kitchen. The owner said they make all the dumplings themselves.
i tried the fish dumpling (pan fried) and i thought it was pretty good. The skin was not thick, the fish was not fishy at all.
we also order the red chili oil wonton, this one is not spicy at all and i thought it was okay. you get 12 wontons in a bowl of chili oil, however it had more vinegar than chili. They could make it spicier. The wontons were alright — nothing special. just a small little meat wrapped in a wonton skin.
we ordered the seafood and pork dumpling (steamed). it looked good but the taste was meh. i can easily pass on this dish. I will not need to order it again. Menu says «seafood & pork» but in all reality it was just shrimp and pork. Seafood is misleading, i imagine to be a mixture shrimp/​fish/​crabmeat & pork. They should really just call it shrimp and pork. I really like the skin of the dumplings. Even though it’s not super thin, but i like the texture of it –chewy. The Seafood and pork dumpling lacks of flavor, but i like that it has a little bit of soup in each dumpling.
lastly the beef roll, it was not bad but it wasn’t super good either. I still prefer 101 noodle express’ beef roll.
The next time i visit Go Go Café, i’ll try their noodles and also the fish dumpling (steamed). this place has probably the best fish dumplings i’ve tried. I also like that it’s a family owned restaurant; they’ll put more care into their food — so keep up the love and care for the food or else it’ll just go downhill!

This place is totally hard to find! I drove past it about three times! It has a brown awning and is next to a psychic place, FYI. The restaurant is really small (5 tables total) and the service was sub-​par even when we were the only people there! We ordered steamed fish dumplings, pan-​fried vegetable dumplings, and san jian bao — all were really good. These 3 dishes were enough for 4 people. The total came out to about $ 7/​person! Score! They just need to fix their service and I will gladly bump this place up another star.