Gui Lin Cuisine

This is the best Guilin rice noodle in Los Angeles ! Full
Of flavors! Definitely the best in town ! Rich favor, lots of authentic ingredients … The chef is a Chinese lady who really know what she is doing. Their Chinese herbal tea is great and has gear value too. I have no idea why the average is this low but my friends who I recommended to the places are pleased with the food as well!

I sometimes find myself craving Guilin style noodles since I tried them for the first time in the SGV a few months ago.
It was one of those times and I decided to try this one that I found via google maps. I parked and decided to give a quick look at Unilocal reviews. Reviews were mixed and several noted the bad service, one even calling them dishonest.
After having that lunch there, I feel the bad experiences may be due to miscommunication or misunderstandings. or at least I’d like to think that. But I did find them to be friendly, and my experience was a good one.
The food was tasty, and the menu is pretty extensive, I want to come back and try more items.
I did find the dry noodles different from the couple other Guilin places I’ve tried. This time instead of reading the menu, I pointed to the photo of what I thought was the dry noodles with beef, and I said: «this one, with beef, and very spicy please». I got the noodles and found them to be tasty, BUT, it appeared as if there was, asides from the beef, also bacon in the mix. Or some smoky meat. It was tasty but prefer a more plain beef for this dish. Maybe this one was some ‘special’ noodles for theirs.
I also had a 3 appetizer combo, pig ears, cucumbers, ear mushrooms.

The meals served here are very homey and simple. Soups are herbal based and offer a wide range of notes, from savory and sour broths, to succulent meats served with a steaming portion of rice. The environment is typical of most SGV Chinese restaurants – pictures of meals on walls, a fish tank and a laid back staff. Cash only might be the only down side to this place, but not worth docking star since its to be expected with these types of restaurants.

you want some down home Guilin cuisine, this is the place!

The food is very delicious!!! We love it so much, and they have very good service to customers, I asked them for water was like 6 times but they gave it back a smile;) very friendly… and they allow free wifi in the restaurant.

The first time I had been there was with my friend. She told me this restaurant was very nice. Because of I am a new customer, the owner suggested me to order the popular noodle called ultimate noodle. That was very good, and I like that so much. Right now, when I have free time, I must go there to eat. Most of noodle in there maybe I have taste. And the owner is very nice to me and we talk just like the friends. I like this restaurant. It is a nice place to have food.

This is not a recommend. The waiter treat us bad and ask for tips. He use bad words. Don’t go to this restaurant.

Very bad service. The owner or manager is not honest and I have the same issue as many other customer! THEY FORCE UOU TO GIVE THE TIPS! I came here with my family and they were laughing at us with very rude attitude. Food is ok but I can tell you that it’s not Guilin food! It tasted like fast food with roster beef. Not authentic Guilin rice noodle!
I won’t come here again because the bad attitude and just so so food.

This one said it is Guilin cuisine, but the food is not tastes like Guilin style. It is more like vienamese food. By the way, the waiter has very bad attitude. I don’t even want to give them one star.

fake food, not guilin rice noodle. More like fast Vietnamese noodles from super market. Waiter knows nothing about the food and the manager or owner’s attitude is rude.

It’s a very, very, very disgusting experience. A real experience.
The owner and old waitress are not friendly at all. They don’t have smile or talk to you. They are not from Guilin, I’m sure.
Not to mention the food. The food is totally different from what is called «Guilin rice noodles», and the flavor is really terrible. It’s not like rice noodle at all.
And the most nasty thing is, after I paid cash and looked at the change (the coins are a little dirty so I just took a glance at them), the waitress said to me,“This is America, you have to pay the tips.” ??? What???
What a stupid so-​called Food Service Staff!!! Both of food and service are bad, what is worse, they force you to pay tips!!! This is bullshit!!! This is the worst nightmare I have ever come to a restaurant!
Maybe they have not realized they aren’t suitable for food service job.=_=

Served the wrong dish and asked to change, and the service was terrible. When checked, they charged tips by themselves on the receipt.

Their food is good. But they are not honest! Be careful of your bill, check it before you pay, especially for «to go». The lady with the short hair is not honest!
Unilocal took away my review because they thought I didn’t explain the details. Now I explain what happened to me. I ordered fish rice noodle to go through the phone at lunch time. When I got there to pick up my order, I want to add a 3-​cold dish. Which for vegetable is $ 5.99, for one meat is $ 6.99, two meat is $ 7.99. The lady with the short hair helped me with that. I ordered seaweed, bean curd (tofu), and potato. All 3 are vegetable. Then the short hair lady left. The long hair girl helped me with my payment. The long hair girl asked in Chinese «Did she ordered meat in the 3-​cold dish?» The short hair lady said «yes, charge her the one meat price.» I heard everything but I said nothing. Because I thought maybe they were talking about other customer. However, after I saw my bill, I realized that they were talking about me because they charged me $ 6.99 for the 3-​cold dish. Then I explained to the long hair girl, and she helped me to change my bill. I didn’t pay more money, even though it was only $ 1 more. However, I was very angry and upset. I always come here to order to go, and have never checked my bill. Maybe you guys always did this kind of trick in the past. Your employee is not honest at all. I couldn’t accept their attitude even though the money amount is super little!
I’m glad to receive the owner’s reply. But he said there was nothing to do with «honest»? ! I’m afraid I couldn’t agree with that! OK, I just explain what happened to me, and let they other Unilocalers make their own judgement!
The following is the owner’s message:
«Ms.Moon thank you for your explanation. However this incident has nothing to do with dishonesty. It seems to me that was poor communication between the two employees. Also you could have complained for the misinformation. Nevertheless the dollar in question was given to you right then. In order for you to accuse someone of being dishonest, you need to have proof otherwise it is considered disfamation of character. I strongly recommend that you remove your comment from Unilocal.»

The price is right in this Guilin style restaurant. Portions where good and I liked the flavor. Now I’m white not Asian so I’m no expert but I ordered chow fun which is always flat noodles, in this case it was chow main noodles and when I asked her she said this is Guilin style chow fun. Sounded strange but again I’m no expert. I order a veggie noodle soup and it was good I also got a scallion pancake and she brought out a dip that was good. My favorite part of the restaurant was the hot sauce. Not the oily one the one that looks like it has soybean past in it. It’s soooo good I put it on everything.
Also this restaurant is cash only which got me into some trouble as I typically only use card. I had to leave and run town to Bank of America and pull money out. Kind of a pain because most signs in the restaurant are Chinese. Afterward I did notice a English sign on the back counter which said cash only. If in the area I may return but with all the delicious restaurants in Monterey park I have many places to try before I go back.

I went here for lunch and when I tried to explain my food allergies the lady at the cashier said she didn’t know English. I tried to call for someone in the kitchen to maybe translate, but she started getting angry when I asked if anyone spoke English in the kitchen. It smelled good and the place was clean, but to not have someone on premises who doesn’t speak English is dangerous. So if you have food allergies, do not come here as they will not understand any of your requests. You literally are asked to point at the menu when ordering. Since I couldn’t communicate with the staff, I had to leave with an empty stomach and potential repeat business. I’m not saying everyone should speak English, that’s not fair, but if you’re serving food that is potentially dangerous or harmful to customers due to allergies, I think having someone who speaks English is important. I gave three stars to be nice because this business is obviously struggling if they can’t afford an English speaking employee so this is more a fix it ticket for the business.

Once in a while, I have crave for their sour spicy rice noodle soup. Had been here for four times, twice for dining in and the other two times for taking food out.
Every time I had been here, there is this lady who takes order, makes drinks, and brings out food to the table (Well, she does everything!). I am not sure if she partially owns the business or just works there, but she is always nice even when the place gets very busy and she is there by herself. Much kudos for her hard work and hospitality.
I haven’t been back there awhile since the last time I ordered the noodle to-​go, the soup had boiled down and was very salty. It was like noodle soup base 3 times concentrated…: /​
But, now that I am writing about it makes me craving for their noodle again. Maybe on next rainy day: p

DO NOT COME HERE!!!
The noodles used to be just ok. Now it’s just too bad. Tooooo salty!!! You will need to drink 2 gallons of water. And the owner’s (I believe she is) attitude is really bad! I don’t know why she gives you a kaka face when you giving her your business?! And you need to tip her 20% for a bad food and bad service ??! (she will tell you off if you tip is less than 20%) seriously… Not coming back ever again!

We came by this restaurant by accident. After suggesting noodles for lunch, the fiancé suggested that there was a very good noodle restaurant on the second floor of this plaza. It’s been several years since she’s been there and was quite adamant that the restaurant was still in business. As we walked back and forth, looking for this ‘restaurant’, we stopped in front of Gui Lin and she goes, I think this is the restaurant… Well, that was reassuring.
So we went in, sat down and she looks at me and goes… ‘I don’t think this is the same restaurant.’ Well, okay then…
Turned out to be a good mistake. The noodles here are a bit different that what you’re used to. The broth is flavorful and they packed on a lot of toppings, scallions, lettuce, peanuts.
Definitely worth coming back here again!

So I’m giving this place one star purely on personal preference. My gf loves this place but I can’t see why.
I ordered the no 31. Dry spicy beef noodles.
I was starving when ordered it.
It was the first time I’ve ever been this hungry and didn’t eat more than 3 – 4 bites of my food…
I typically love Ma La, I really love spicy but this was much less spicy and way too mouth numbing. The numbing was to the point I couldn’t taste anything else.
The beef slices had that slight sickly greenish shine that roast beef deli meat gets.
I ordered a kiwi drink which wasn’t terrible but seemed more than half water.
I see a lot of people have given this a good review but it’s really not for me. This was honestly one of the worst places I’ve ever eaten at.

The Ultimate Noodle is made with «crack and unicorn kisses.» $ 8.99
Honestly, it tasted terrible. The rice noodles (signature Gui Lin dish) was over cooked and the noodles had a lingering, foul taste. I presume its from the soapy water at the bottom of the bowl. Service is appalling, to say the least. Will never be back. Visit at your own risk.