Taipan Kitchen

The dry beef chow fun has the proper wok aroma. The noodles have that smokey taste that is missing from most of the Cantonese places around here. The clay pot rice is properly done with the rice on the bottom of the clay pot crispy. Most places do not crisp it up properly. Yea it takes almost 20 – 30 mins to do this but that’s exactly what I want and you just can’t rush it. So don’t order it unless you have time.
Love the Singapore Noodles. Perfect us usage of Indian madras curry.
Service is generally with a smile. No attitudes here.

Been coming over here for over 4 years now! Excellent place for Chinese food and excellent service! For lunch, I usually order X.O. sauce shrimp fried rice and the seafood chowmein. There’s a lot of parking here and it’s located right next to Boston Café. Try this place if you get the chance. $ 10 a person for food and drinks after tax/​tip.

This place serves very good food… Their Kung pao chicken is probably the best I’ve ever had…
Having that said, I’ve hesitated to go back because they charge for white rice. I just don’t think that it’s right for any Chinese restaurants to charge for rice. Especially in an area that’s primarily Asian! I’ve ordered from this place 4 times, and each time it’s been a fight for free rice. I know I know… You’re probably thinking how petty I am, and that I should just pay for rice if I like the food… But I feel like it’s more of a poor business/​customer service thing. Korean people don’t charge for kimchee, the way Mexican people don’t charge for chips and salsa, the way Italian people don’t charge for bread… And the way Chinese people aren’t supposed to charge for rice!

This place has pretty good «wholesome» food. The menu is pretty vast here; they have everything from clay pot rice, to noodle soup dishes. We arrived for lunch last Saturday and was quite surprised by how delicious and moist the crispy ginger chicken was. We also ordered the wonton and a clay pot rice dish with pork and salted fish. They were both really good. I’m not sure if this place is amazing or not because I was starving and anything would have gotten 5 stars that day. I will say that the clay pot flavor was VERY mild considering this was a salted fish dish. Normally, a salted fish dish will knock your nostrils right off your nose. It’s an acquired taste, and I think it was not bold enough. I’ve had this same clay pot in Hong Kong and almost gagged because it was full flavor. LOL. The wonton noodle soup was good and filling. The star here was that crispy ginger/​green onion chicken. I saw the photo on Unilocal (of course) and was intrigued enough to order it. It was the best part of the meal.
The restaurant is situated in a strip mall and next to lots of competition, but it is pretty busy considering. The kitchen is view-​able from the dining area, and if improper food handling procedures turn you off than make sure you are sitting not facing the kitchen. :) The wait staff were super friendly to us even though they didn’t speak much English. Overall, I give this place a 4 star, because it reminded me of my trip to Hong Kong. Comfort Cantonese (I think) food that will make you feel like you’re eating a home cooked meal from your mom (if she’s Chinese that is…).
Give it a try! Even if you aren’t adventurous you can get the wonton noodle soups, fried rice, or chow mein! How can you mess those dishes up?

Great value Cantonese restaurant with great luncheon specials. Wonderful cold steamed chicken and seafood clay pot which comes with white rice and choice of refreshing tea drinks such as lemon or sugar cane.

I have been coming to this place for over ten years. Their head cook had been here for 15. He is good.
Nothing fancy… clay pot rice, porridge, fun, mein, rice, and stir fry items… all the basic dishes… just simply good cooking…
Their problem was never their cooking. It was that they were over priced and have no specials.
Since the old waitress bought the place from the original owner, there are luncheon specials now – until 4 pm even on the weekend except holiday. They will give you the option of a complementary soup or a beverage with the luncheon specials.
Minced Beef Rice is one of the low cost item on their menu, but it is very good. Most of the other place give you a pan fried egg. This place uses a raw egg in the middle of the rice, so you mix the raw egg with the beef and rice. There is a huge difference in the taste of the rice and beef with raw egg on them. Try it and you will see.

A very solid restaurant. When we first came in I thought it was a café, to my surprise it was a full service place with a regular menu, and for a little place they have quite a selection. All that we ordered was quite ordinary and nothing special, but the service was good and they charge a fair price.

Visited this place one night while I was waiting for a friend finish an meeting she had. I had about two hours on my hands so what do people do when they are bored… eat right???
Anyway, it was one of those nights where I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to eat and I wasn’t familiar with the area so this is where I landed.
Food consumed:
Crispy ginger chicken– I like ginger and I like crispy chicken. The combination was good and the ginger gave it a cleaner taste. I really liked this one! (4stars)
Onion pancake… bleh! It lacked flavor. I’ve had better. Nothing much else to say about it though.
The service was ok, the establishment was clean enough.
That is all…

The rice clay pot dish here is very good! Their fried tofu pot entrée is also very good. Service is meh guy seemed kinda annoyed despite not having too many customers in the restaurant but since the food was good it was ok I guess.
The entrees come with a drink, tried the lemon tea and felt like I was hit with diabetes instantly so don’t order that

Very nice great place for Cantonese foods, I would say here has best Cantonese foods in town.

My co worker took me to this place a couple times and we always order the same stuff: bac Choy dish or Cong sin cai and hot clay pot rice with chinese sausage. It is pretty yummy.

Prompt and courteous service. The server was well informed and very friendly.
Came with my family on Sunday lunch. Liked the portion size!

3.5: their clay pots are great, everything else is meh
Sausage clay pot: so good! This is my pick
Pork clay pot: also good
Chicken clay pot: the worst of the three
Braised pork: it’s a bit pricey for the amount of meat but it has a good flavor
Onion pancake: meh
Braised eggplant and fish hotpot: not bad
Chicken with scallion dipping sauce: meh
All in all, if you are not rushing to get a quick lunch, their sausage and pork clay pots are very good though it’s a 15 min wait. If you’re just craving comfort Chinese good, both earthen and Boston café next door excels in both cheap and good Chinese food. Taipan’s outstanding dish is just their clay pots.

Mmm, green onion pancake, xiao bau, and braised pork. The braised pork was too salty but overall, this place hits the spot when you’re craving some solid Chinese food. Next time we’ll try either the free range steamed chicken or the French style beef and their large selection of noodles.

I’ve always had low expectations of Taipan, considering I frequent the neighboring Earthen and Boston Café quite often; from what I’ve observed, there’s literally never a wait at Taipan because there are never any patrons there! At most, I’ve only ever seen 2 couples dining here — and this was during peak dinner hours on a Saturday night, so you can deduce how nervous I was when I found out that we were getting takeout from here for a family gathering.
I hate to say it, but my low expectations of bad service and fears of food inadequacy came to fruition. We went to pick up our order around 6:35, which was placed far in advance — and it still wasn’t ready when we got there, even though they had promised it would be ready by 6:30! The customer service immediately left much to be desired, as we were expected to just wait around for 10 – 15 more minutes for our order. They didn’t apologize and worst of all, they tried to put the blame on us, as they emphasized that they didn’t expect us to arrive so early. When the food finally did arrive, they didn’t even bother to help my mother-​in-​law carry it out! I was surprised, considering most Chinese restaurants at least have a cart and are willing to use it to help customers carry big takeout orders to their car. 1 star for super poor service — even beyond the typical bad Chinese restaurant service.
As noted, the food wasn’t very good at all. My husband compared it to the food you get at the food court at 99 Ranch (you know, the 2 or 3 item combo that comes with soup), but I beg to differ — the food at Taipan is actually still really inferior to «fast Chinese food,» which says quite a bit! We tried the pan fried noodles (I guess their version of chow mein?), which was really odd because the noodles were thinner than ramen noodles and they barely came with any veggies mixed in! They had no flavor at all and again, the texture was just plain odd. We also had the beef and broccoli, which came with awkwardly large pieces of broccoli that were tough to chew and beef that was even tougher to chew — mostly because it was fake beef! You could totally tell it was preserved and of poor quality. There was also an order of chicken, which seemed like a wannabe knock-​off of Earthen’s house chicken, as it came with some type of soy sauce and cucumbers, but it was nowhere up to par. The chicken was actually so dry that my husband threw away his whole portion! Out of all the different items we tried, the sweet ‘n sour pork was probably the best thing. The pork was extra deep fried and came smothered in sauce, so it basically masked the taste of the underlying cheap pork. At least it was a saving grace amongst all the other yucky dishes!
Needless to say, there’s a reason why I’ve NEVER eaten here, NEVER plan on eating here again, and NEVER see anyone else eating here. I’m still surprised they haven’t gone out of business yet. Seriously.

Came here for a lunch and found out that this is your typical Chinese café. Actually, I had forgotten the name of this restaurant until I tried Unilocaling it by typing in «Chinese Café». who knew there was actually a restaurant called «Chinese Café» around here. I thought that was just something funny I should share!
The seating is sort of cramped in here, but there shouldn’t be that busy on a weekday lunch. The staff here is really nice and are happy to help you :)
Me and my friends had ordered from the lunch menu:
— Beef Chow Fun — pretty good and was decently sized despite it being a lunch special. however, there was not a good beef to chow fun ratio, but it didn’t harm anything. the taste wasn’t too overpowering and I would say this is a pretty good and decent chow fun.
— Sea Food Chow Mein — the order was smaller than standard; there wasn’t that much noodles. One thing that did bother me was the sauce. or what us Chinese people call the «jup» haha. It was… very gelatinous and wasn’t really appetizing for me. But it was an okay dish.
— Wonton Noodle Soup — didn’t try it but… my friends seemed to have enjoyed it :)i don’t think you can really go wrong with a nice bowl of wonton noodle soup on any day! just remember your soy suace, red vinegar and hot chili oil for your wonton!
Lunch also comes with drinks. The waitress described a couple of drinks in Chinese but I didn’t fully catch her. so I just ordered the Lemon ice tea.

I came here for an anniversary celebration. There were 14 of us and as opposed to ordering banquet style, we basically ordered whatever we wanted. Taipan is located next to 99 Ranch in
Hacienda Heights on Azusa, across from Puente Hills Mall.
We ordered green onion pancake, fried calamari, fried chicken wings, two hot pots: Beef and turnip & Duck and taro, beef w/​scrambled egg over rice, braised pigs feet, mandarin pork chops, black bean sauce clams, steamed pork w/​fermented fish and ginger, steamed fish w/​gai lan, pea pod leaves w/​garlic sauce, chow mein and fried rice — Yeah, yeah I know. Rice and noodles at the same meal are a no no, but I was w/​a bunch of ABC’s.
The winners of the evening: Green onion pancake, beef and turnip hot pot, beef and egg over rice, braised pigs feet, steamed pork w/​fermented fish and the pea pod leaves. I especially liked the pigs feet because my late father used to make this dish. I hated it growing up, but I learned to appreciate as I became older. The pigs feet were nicely seasoned, tender and there was a fair amount of meat. Food like this has become the rage at a lot of restaurants that are charging a pretty penny for what is basically peasant food: 4 Stars.
The duck and taro hot pot was tasty, and a house specialty. Unfortunately, they used neck bones which are generally inedible. I thought there should have been more meat for the $ 13.95 price tag. The chicken wings, fried calamari, chow mein and rice were just OK also: 3 Stars.
The losers of the evening, the mandarin pork chops, black bean sauce clams and the steamed fish. The pork chops did not have any crisp or much flavor. The clams were not that fresh and some of the shells were broken. Lastly, the fish was overcooked, although the gai lan was fresh and crunchy: 2 Stars.
The ambiance was typical small Chinese. There were 3 round tables, in addition to a number of sqaure tables. We were seated to the right side and we had a view of the kitchen. The place was not crowded on a Sat night @ 6 pm: 3 Stars. The service was surprisingly good. We ordered the appetizers and hot pots first. The first dishes came out quickly, as did the secondary orders. Our water glasses were constantly being refilled: 4 Stars.
I would come back if I was in the area, but I would not go out of my way to come here. Taipan is a good neighborhood place, but there were too many inconsistencies for this place to be considered «top class» or «big shot», as the translation of its name implies.

This place does reliable, inexpensive food.
I love the tasty Cantonese soup and the clay hotpot selection. The noodle stir-​fry with beef brisket or chicken or seafood are classic dishes too. We always have leftovers but can’t help ourselves ordering the great food here. $ 50 – 60 easily feeds 4 people.

I tried this place for dinner because it was not the busiest restaurant on a Saturday night.
Bad choice… clearly why it wasn’t busy because and they even forget to put my order with the kitchen.
I had waited for half an hour and realize that they had forgotten, because the next two table got their foods even they came after me.
It made me look like an idiot with an Iphone waiting for my food… which never came.
I asked the servers about my food and they said «coming».
The male server called me bad name in Chinese… haha
They didn’t know that I learn and understand Chinese… and I left.
Bad employees!
Bad services!
Bad business!

My parents love coming here and now I’m a fan too! They’re known for their claypot dishes which my parents love so we ordered the assorted cured meats and veggies claypot. It’s served in a large ceramic bowl with rice, a few bunches of chinese broccoli and soy sauce to pour all over. It was pretty tasty and definitely comfort food. The rice was flavored from the taiwanese sausage and salted pork belly.
We also ordered the shrimp and egg rice and fish congee. Those both hit the spot as well. The shrimp and egg rice had a little too much cornstarch for my liking but the shrimps were huge and it tasted fresh. I didn’t feel like it was diluted with MSG which is pretty normal when I have it at other restaurants. The fish congee was soothing and also tasted fresh. There was a generous amount of fish and they didn’t taste fishy.
Service was good and I had a pleasant experience. I’ll definitely come back to try other things.