Jue Wei Kitchen

Food is not good at all. The service was good but the good omg. The price omg. Too expensive… For the amount and the taste. No recommended.

Drop in for lunch b/​c Sinbala has a long long long waiting line. The food is actually very good and kind of special. If you don’t eat spicy or salty, tell them to not add them. I enjoyed my lunch, will come back.

I have no idea what the name means, nor can I translate the Chinese characters on the signage. But it’s a Hunan restaurant, meaning they serve spicy foods… so that’s good enough for me.
This is a small place, next door to another newish eatery called Cozy Café. Upon entering, the first thing I noticed is the wasted space. By the door, there’s a display shelf with different color glass vases for decoration, which does not match the rest of the restaurant and is pointless. There’s an area by the door that could have held a few more tables, but remains empty. Against the right wall are 2 glass freezers, holding frozen items for sale. In between those, a flat screen TV and a bench. These are the worst places to place a TV and a bench.
The menu appears extensive, but many items are stewed parts that are unique to the Chinese palette: ie. duck neck. The prices vary from fair to overpriced. Example: green onion pancakes that go for $ 4. here are for $ 2. elsewhere in the SGV. Same goes for many of their noodle dishes.
We came here on a Saturday afternoon, around 2ish. There was only one other table occupied when we ordered, and the food was very slow to come out, even though one of the dishes is served cold. All they had to do was plate it, walk over to our table, place it down and say «enjoy», but that took close to 15 min.
We ordered the 1) sliced beef in special sauce (the cold dish) flavorful, spicy slices of beef and cartilage with very generous amounts of cilantro. Tasty and the cartilage melts in your mouth. Very good: 4
2) shredded potato (hot dish) slightly sour, a little spicy. Not bad but not near the best. 3
3) fish filet is spicy sauce: this dish took nearly 30 minutes to come out. We nearly finished the other 2 dishes already so the timing was very bad. The flavor was decent, the broken fish pieces (not filet) were small and fell apart when we tried to pick them up with the provided fork. Perhaps a large spoon would have worked better.
Overall, the food we ordered weren’t bad, but the length of time it took them to prepare it was too long considering it was a slow afternoon. We may or may not be back. For spicy foods, I still prefer Chong King a few minutes away on Baldwin. Much better & friendlier service and their dishes are full of flavor.

Cockroaches. 1 tiny one and 1 medium one. 2 pm in the afternoon. Other than that the food was good.

Foods here are ok，but service is poor，and when you take food to go，you have to be careful，they always forget pack all your orders，otherwise you have to come back for it！

Tasty food w fair price. Good to dine in too~ my parents love it. Easy and friendly environment.

As I walked in to the restaurant I was a bit intimidated by the fact that EVERyTHING is in Chinese — had no idea what to order.
The great thing, I told the waitress I was looking for a chicken dish and she recommended the Chicken Country Pot — spicy. They took a bit long to serve my food, but that’s because they cooked everything from scratch. When I got my dish the aromatics were amazing. The food was extremely tasty, with serious depth of flavor. The best part were the chicken feet and succulent mushroom.
Overall, I liked this place a lot! I feel like a dummy not coming here earlier knowing it’s only 2 blocks from my house. Anyways… I totally recommend this place!

Bad price and so so food, will not come again…

We were sad to see Bun Bun Teahouse close. It’s now Jue Wei Kitchen.
The service is a little aggressive — they want to take order & clear dishes when you are finished — right away!
I wouldn’t recommend their stinky tofu because it’s too deep fried. Aside from that, their food is ok.
Tofu Skin — ⁴⁄₅
This appetizer is served cold, marinated with oil and spicy chili. If you are used to this type of cuisine, the tofu skin is cooked (rehydrated) very well and the flavor is not bad at all.
Cold Noodle — 3.5÷5
They serve this dish on a tiny plate. You can’t mix the noodles and cucumber without making a mess. The noodles themselves are a little overdressed with oil.
Pumpkin Cookies — ⁴⁄₅
This is a good dessert/​appetizer to share because it’s a fried goodie. The texture is crispy and not terribly sweet.
Juicy Pork Dumplings — ³⁄₅
Their dumplings definitely are not as fresh or good as Din Tai Fung, but they were ok and not terrible or soggy.
Unilocal 100 Challenge — 10 of 100

I ate here once, taking food to go. It was tasty. But the most impressive things were the dishes I did not get and must go back for. Yummy looking soups both hot and mild. Lots of braised meats, especially chicken. And the feel of the place is very Authentic New-​Chinese… like a lunch place you might find in Wuhan or Nanking.
I will go back.

Pros: this is the only place I found that serves good «soy sauce braised food» or Chinese called“卤味”. The taste is no where comparable to the good ones in China (Wuhan to be exact). But we are in LA, so I guess this is the best we can get!
Cons: other dishes aren’t good at all. Overprice for a restaurant like this, small portion, under-​average taste.
Anyway, I only recommend this place for their soy sauce braised spicy food.

Totally not worth it! The price is a bit high, and the food is BAD! Salty! Dried! Yukie!

Service not helpful on suggestion.(really…everything taste good)
夫妻肺片 (tenden) cut too big and too hard to chew. Taste ok but a bit salty for me and my sister.
紅燒肉 (Beef with rice) too hard to chew and dry my friend had to return. We think they microwaved.
麻油混沌 (sesame wonton) edible still salty for me so I only ate the wonton and didn’t touch the soup.
It’s always good trying new places but we sorry we won’t be coming back.

We ordered beef stew noodle soup and xiao long bao (steam dumpling) for late night supper…
the noodle was a bit overcooked and too soft, the beef was cut in small pieces but tender enough… the soup was quite good although it was serve not in pipping hot condition…
I was extremely dissatisfied with the xiao long bao… although they were served to well but its meat filling was a bit too much and the skin was too thick… the taste of its meat juicy was good but it was steam in such a way that look like being soaked in water or being boiled…
I think we should try their braised duck parts… it was quite expensive as the price ranging from $ 9.9/lb to $ 61/​lb but seems to us many people order it…
total cost: 17.45

MSG MSG MSG
$ 42 dollars for some bean curd, lotus root, an order of onion pancake, and duck tongues. SERIOUSLY???
What makes it worse is that the taste was not good at all.
I felt thirsty all day long… so imagine what was the basis of their seasoning? MSG!!!
Not Worth It AT ALL

Sunday lunch. Everywhere is pack so we decided to try this new place. Menu is large but not a lot of choices.
Green Onion pancake– flour is too thick
Spicy pork– for that price portion is small. It also very oily.
Wonton soup– this dish not bad. Very flavorful and the wonton skin is thin
Sticky rice dumpling– something new to try.
Stinky tofu– over fried it and made it very dry.
Dumpling– the dumpling skin is very thick and there was no broth.
Service– very very bad. She doesn’t take your empty plates away. When the check comes she just stand there and waited for me to pay.
Don’t think I will be back.

This is a chinese SPECIALTY restaurant — for soy sauce braised foods (they call it «pot stewed fowl on their menu) with 2 options, regular or spicy. And the spicy is seriously deathly spicy… be warned ;) Remember to order by POUNDS. Tell them if you only want half pound, quarter pound, etc.
==FOOD==
**POT-​STEWED FOWL** (Lu-​wei in chinese), in order of my favorite to least favorite:
1. Duck feet ($ 14.99 per pound): I always get this in spicy. SO DAMN GOOD! Gawd I’ve always been a fan of chicken & duck feet, they have freaking PERFECTED the duck feet here. The consistency of the skin is PERFECT– chewiness level where you have to use effort to pull off the skin. Obviously don’t expect to get a lot of meat off duck feet; that’s how it’s suppose to be. Eating duck feet is more of an enjoyment than «I’m hungry and want to fill my stomach» type of food. A little expensive, so I usually get half pound which is enough to last me for a few days. Confession: I have a serious addiction and been back to Jue Wei Kitchen probably 10+ times within a few months just to get their duck feet.
*Comment: This is the spiciest «pot-​stewed fowl» choice I’ve had at this restaurant.
*Tip: fridge your leftovers, as pot stewed fowl is meant to be eaten either lukewarm or cold.
2. Duck wings ($ 9.99 per pound): Cheaper, but the flavor isn’t as good as the duck feet. Still, it’s my second favorite here! One thing to notice is that they have the wings cleaned PRETTY well; you might spot a few ‘hairs’, but definitely less than most places I’ve been to. Remember to bite off any spots of hairs you might see, as it’s not good for digestion. Duck wings have more meat than the duck feet, so it’s more filling if you’re hungry. Less spicy as well if you compare to the duck feet.
3. Pork ear ($ 11.99 per pound): Hmmmm, so good. You can tell it’s fresh and good quality by the clear-​cut crunchiness of the cartilage. They have a few options for sauce: spicy oil (ma-​la) is my favorite option. Unless you’re not a spicy eater, I would not recommend the original flavor, as it can taste slightly bland.
4. Duck gizzard ($ 11.99 per pound): This was alrighttt. In comparison to chicken gizzard, it’s a lot less chewy and more meaty. I definitely prefer the crunchy, chewy consistency of chicken gizzard better.
**HOUSE SPECIAL COMBINATION RICE PLATES**
1. Hot Pepper with Chicken Rice ($ 7.99 & Spicy): See picture for reference. The chicken flavor is good, but not very spicy. They have cilantro mixed with the chicken which adds a nice kick of flavor. Comes with cabbage on the side and a fried egg. My most recent visit, they also gave me a complimentary cup of wintermelon tea– yum! One of my favorite drinks :)
2. Hunan preserved meat rice ($ 9.99): Ehhh, this dish was mediocre. The meat tastes kind of like bacon, but sweeter? I would not order again.
**SOUP**
1. Sweet rice ball (jiu niang tang yuan) $ 6.99: YUM! It’s hard to find this dish, and I’m so glad they have it here! To elaborate, the dish consists of sweet rice soaked in a sweet wine soup broth, along with black sesame filled mochi balls. Definitely a dessert soup, and you drink it hot. I would say the broth could be more flavorful, as it tasted just slightly watered down. But overall, a great choice and I would order again and again. A good choice for cold weather :)
==SERVICE==
Okay… sadly, the service is barely making average. It’ll save you a great deal of pain if you can speak Chinese Mandarin to them, or have a friend who does go with you. But, just don’t have high expectations of service for Chinese restaurants is always my mentality and you’ll be fine. You’re not paying for service, you’re paying for food.
==PRICE==
CASH ONLY!!!
Definitely overpriced. But I’m still coming back, because it’s hard to find such authentic «pot-​stewed fowl» restaurants! I usually spend from $ 20-​$ 40 in a single visit.
==LOCATION==
Convenient location with plenty of free parking! Same plaza as Sinbala and Arcadia Supermarket. The plaza RIGHT next to it has Ding Tai Fung and JJ Bakery, some of my favorites as well. This is why I always overspend when I come for any of these restaurants… I end up going to all of them!
==OVERALL==
Can’t wait to come back and try their other dishes. :D

My first time here, the foods is delicious, the service not bad. Will recommended.

I’ll most likely update this review soon as I do plan to go back to try more of their food.
Their food is great, they have a big variety of marinated cooked Chinese food, pig feet, duck head, squid, sea snails, duck feet, etc. Lol I can already hear the cringes of some Unilocalers. Anyhow the food is delicious, while I can only speak for the marinated items they have at the counter, what I tried was really good. If you like spicy, try the spicier version of their pig feet and duck feet. It’s really pretty spicy but ugh, it burns so good.
The problem I have with this place is how inefficient it seems. Really there aren’t that many customers waiting to buy the already cooked, already marinated food behind the counter. They finished the transaction by cutting and weighing the food. This shouldn’t have to take 10 minutes for every customer, but it does here. If the kitchen could work faster, the line should go by in a breeze. But instead I waited 15 – 20 mins for 3 customers in front of me.
Other than that, I will come back to try more of their dishes. they have lots of soup noodle dishes as well as classic fried rice items that look really good.
Till next time!

Their speciality items are authentic regional Chinese– Very spicy soy sauce braised food (called lu-​wei in Chinese). Some assortment of non-​spicy options offered, but not all.
A wide variety of «Lu Wei» offered:
Duck Neck, Duck Tongue, Duck Wing, Sea Shell, Dried Tofu…
Warning: the spicy version is VERY spicy (but good)!!