Monja Taiker

Great Food … Good Price and Quick Service!

Had the pork chop rice lunch special. Salad, big portion main dish and sides. Taste good! Bang for the buck!

Their lunch special combos are really good ~~~~. Will definitely come back again ~. Very nice place to have a quick lunch during week days~.

Food was great. I had the red grain pork rice which is good. Portion was good enough that I could take some home.
It’s better to grab lunch here since they have lunch special included drink

The food here is delicious and reminds me of my hometown Taiwan! The service is quick and good!

This place is great. Good food and great service. I love the red grain prk. So tender and juicy!

The world has been blessed with this place! First off I’m a fan of any place that plays Big Bang and Sistar while I’m eating lol
In terms of food, their red grain pro is bomb! ⁵⁄₅. I would brag about this dish and place to all my friends :)

Loved their «red grain pork» until it was more than 50% red grain fat and breading. Got it to go for dinner, was extremely disappointed when dinner time came around to find that it’s mostly fat… this is probably Ok for people that don’t mind fat… But I’m used to lean rather than fatty pork.

My wife and I decided to try this place out after grocery shopping nearby. Very nice little place with great food. A lot of it reminds me of Taiwanese street food, noodles or rice and fried snacks etc and they’re pretty quick to prepare everything (though they weren’t so busy when we visited around 1pm on a Sunday).
The food is excellent and pretty cheap actually. I had a bowl of noodles for $ 6 and my wife ordered a small bowl of 卤肉饭 for $ 5. They also have milk tea and other drinks like that.
The staff is also really nice too and currently they give a 10% discount for takeout orders and Unilocal/​Favebook check-​ins and reviews.

*To-​go order
We came here on the same night as getting Savoy Kitchen, and decided WHY Not, since we were in the area. Of course passing by SGV we had to stop by a Taiwanese place for dinner.
We ordered:
–pork chop rice 4.5 stars!
–red grain pork rice 4.0 stars
–wontons in chilli oil 4.0 stars
A solid 4.0 stars and above people! This place has legit Taiwanese food! Every Taiwanese restaurant we go to, lover Always had to get the pork chop rice. It is one of the most easy dishes he can use to judge the quality of a restaurant. The pork chop was crispy, even while it was in a steaming container for 40 minutes drive home, the flavors were tasty and well-​seasoned, and the Number one reason: the portions were outstanding. Not only was the pork chop good but the sides: pickled veggies and sautéed cabbage was authentic and delicious. Lover says he’s never had pickled veggies that yummy before. Since he’s the expert, I’m going to take his word for it.
The red grain pork he wasn’t really into since it was a little bit too sweet for him, however I loved it. I’ve never seen fried red pork before. Yum. Also the wontons are outstanding since they were still intact 40 minutes later. Usually the wrapper gets too soft and disintegrates, but these help up quite nicely. Someone tagged a picture of the wonton saying it was «Chilli wonton soup» Uh. No. It’s not a soup. There’s just so much oil it looks like a soup. I love it! Not only was the wrapper good, but the meat inside was also tastey. Overall, everything was great.
We got all of this for $ 22 plus it was SUPER YUMMY food. We will definitely be back even though it’s not very close, we’ll make a special effort to come here.
Muy Muy Bueno!

One of my favorite Taiwanese places to eat at. Super affordable and it’s absolutely delicious! Must get red grain pork, it’s a must… Yes a must… ill say it again. MUST!!! Just get the red grain pork plate that comes with veggies and rice minced pork! Amazing! The Wifey always gets dry noodles with red grain which is also good! If you place takeout you get 10% off ;-)
Happy grubbin!

Surprising find next to a Chinese grocery. I had the Monja Red Grain Pork Dry Noodle, and Taiwanese Sausage Rice. Both were delish, I forgot I was eating a $ 9 dish. Beware the raw garlic slices in the rice dish! I’ll have dragon breath for the next few hours.
The food tasted fresh, gotta love crispy fried meat!
Google Maps sent me through the back entrance on Pine St. but you can also enter from San Gabriel.

My dad suggested we come here to eat and I was a bit skeptical because he’s more about price than about quality. When we sat down and were handed the menus– I saw that they offer 10% off with a good review on Unilocal or facebook. So I checked out their Unilocal and they had pretty good reviews. more skeptical. were these reviews legit or did they just want the 10% off?!
Anyways I didn’t opt to mention checking in on Unilocal but we ordered the monja red pork rice and dry noodles. The pork was different than regular bbq red pork as they deep fried parts of it and so it’s crispy. I like it! The food is very heavy though. They give you a large bowl of dry noodles but I thought it was too much food. I ate a small bowl and I was full. Too much oil? It felt heavier than it needed to be. Overall, it felt decent and the reviews were pretty accurate. I’d stop by again.

Monja.monja.monja.
Why didn’t I try you sooner?
Ordering over the phone was a challenge :(I had to repeat everything more than once.
Monja red grain pork rice ($ 7.65):): the famous red grain pork was bland and not crispy. At least the pork was semi juicy. The rice with meat was pretty good. The dish also came with pickles and napa cabbage with beancurd.
Chicken roll ($ 4.95) ground chicken in crispy beancurd and served with sweet sauce. It was semi bland, but the skin was very crispy.
Small strawberry lychee ($ 2.69): the drink was moderate sweet and I could taste the bitterness of the tea. I liked this drink a lot and it almost reminded me of the tea from Ten Ren.
The ground pork was very comforting that I actually went back for more. I also got chicken roll and it was better than the first time.
It took me a while to like Taiwanese food because it’s usually bland, compared to other Asian foods.
4 stars! I am hooked!
Monja Taiker is yummylicious!

Yummmm!!! Just thinking and writing this review makes me wants some of their dry noodles, milk tea and that famous red grain pork meat.
Came here for a late lunch this past weekend with my BF because I wanted to show him how good this place was. First time here I had ordered it to go and didn’t feel like it tasted that good. The portion was smaller. So I wanted to give it another try and dine in this time.
My BF was craving for some dry noodles, so he ordered the minced pork dry noodles. The sauce and meat on the noodles was perfect when you mix everything together. Has just the right amount of flavor.
I wanted to try their red grain pork because there was so many pictures of it on Unilocal.I’m glad I got to try it because it was pretty good. The outside was lightly crispy and it tasted like the chinese char shu. I got it with the rice and it came with napa cabbage vegetable which was very good. We cleaned up the plate pretty good.
Their milk teas are very good too! I ordered the lavender milk tea with boba and it was very creamy. I love milk teas!

I usually get the monja red grain pork dry noodle which is really good but today I decided to try something new and ordered a house dry noodle. I also ordered sweet potato fries and a green tea.
House dry noodle: it’s a bit spicy but not too bad, the minced pork/​beef (not sure if it’s pork or beef) and sauce give flavors to the noodles, the sauce can be a bit salty near the end but it’s not too bad. I would order this again.
Sweet potato fries: it seems like plum powder is sprinkled on top of sweet potato fries which I like the most. It’s not like some other places where it tastes like they poured a small jar of plum powder to the sweet potato fries. For these sweet potato fries, you can taste majority of the sweetness and a bit of plum powder.
Green tea: make sure you mix the drink before you drink it! The sugar sits on the bottom so if you don’t mix it, you’re basically drinking the sugar. The green tea is bitter with a hint of sweetness to it.
I would come back to try other dishes on the menu when I’m around the area again! There’s also 10% discount for takeouts and online orders.

It’s simple and greasy but I’m always drawn to this place for lunch after morning clients visits in the Rosemead area.
I always stick to the lunch combo and always get the same thing (old habits die hard…). The combo I get has: popcorn chicken, dry noodle with pork, iced black tea, and a side of pickled vegetables and bean curd. And I pay for an upgrade to a large iced black team. If you stick to this, you can’t be disappointed. I can’t even finish the entire meal so usually take the popcorn chicken home. Pop them in the oven and you get a delicious snack later =)

Came here a long time ago and wasn’t too appealed with the food so didn’t come back, but we were in the area and only wanted to snack plus drink soup so decided to give it another try.
Minus one star for customer service. Walked in and server wasn’t too happy, because he was having dinner and it was 30 minutes before their closing so I could see a «dammit are you serious?» expression. I used to work at a restaurant so I know how that feels, nevertheless it’d give customers an uncomfortable feeling. Then we ordered and of course they didn’t make us feel welcomed, but whatevers.
Food quality is decent, different from what I remembered last time, maybe they changed a chef (been like almost two years since I last came). Another plus for their menu and pricing. I think their food was decently priced and they have a large variety, not like some Taiwanese places where they only have like ten items on their menu. The portion of the soup was also pretty large.
We ordered a Sesame Oil Chicken soup, a famous dish in Taiwan, and it wasn’t too oily or salty. I won’t say it’s similar to what they serve in Taiwan because this dish is suppose to be soaked with cooking wine, but of course they can’t use too much wine in their food due to federal laws and whatnot, but it’s very similar to how my mom makes it at home, so suits me. We also got the Fried Pork soup, where they would fry pieces of pork chop and cook it in a soup, which was also to my liking. Ordered one of their appetizer, Assorted Stew Mix, another typical Taiwanese dish where they mix seaweed, bean curd, pork ears that’s been cooked in a stew for a long time with chili sauce, and this wasn’t too bad either.
Contrary to my experience two years ago, I was pretty satisfied this time around. Will come back for the food but maybe their staff has got to be better at what they do.

Foodwise, Monja Taiker captures all the essence of authentic Taiwanese food — savory dishes with slightly sweet aftertaste, yellow pickled daikon radish, etc; however, the staff was nonchalant and the service was below average using the SGV (San Gabriel Valley) standards. This is the second location and the original store is located at Rowland Heights.
Random fact: Monja was known as the oldest part and the original birthplace of Taipei. Now the area is currently known as Wanhua District.
Menu: Get one of the three advertised dishes here — Monja red grain pork (rice or noodle) /​chicken roll (rice) /​Taiwanese sausage (rice or noodle). Lunch special available (Monday to Friday from 11 AM to 4 PM). If you are adventurous enough, then there are other interesting dishes you could try (e.g. B2 Tomato Sauce Beef Noodle Soup, D2 Four Flavor Soup, B3 Sesame Oil Chicken Noodle Soup, etc).
***
B8 Pork Chop Noodle Soup ($ 6.25): Pork chops were marinated first and then deep fried later — not too bad at all and tasted pretty similar (but not exactly the same) to pork chops I had from the Taiwanese railway bento shop. Noodle soup had a nice broth. (⁴⁄₅)
A7 Chicken Roll Rice ($ 7.25 — chicken roll is handmade in a Taiwanese banquet style): Fairly pedestrian flavors for chicken roll, but good crusty & flaky exterior layer. (3.75÷5)
A2 Monja Red Grain Pork Rice ($ 7.50): Basically red grain pork is crunchier version of Cantonese BBQ pork. Cabbage tasted savory and Taiwanese dried radish tasted somewhat decent, but minced pork was too greasy for me.
***
I personally prefer pork chops and red grain pork over chicken roll, but I do think all three items are acceptable. Solid Taiwanese food with lackluster service.
P. S. — LA Weekly had an article about Monja Taiker back in 2012 (
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Came here for their lunch special. Place has really trendy décor and is very clean. Wasn’t busy so we were seated immediately.
I ordered the Combo C ($ 7.99) choice of fried pork chop/​Taiwanese sausage/​popcorn chicken/​chicken roll + choice of rice/​noodle soup/​dry noodle + bean curd with vegetables + green or black tea. I got the Taiwanese sausage with dry noodle and black tea.
My brother got Combo D ($ 8.99) which included Monja Red Grain Pork + choice of rice/​noodle soup/​dry noodle + bean curd with vegetables + green or black tea. He got rice and green tea.
Everything was so delicious and tasty! Huge portions too! The Taiwanese sausage was so savory with a little hint of sweetness to each bite. Both the dry noodles and rice were served with their signature meat and pickled vegetable gravy which was amazing. The Monja Red Grain Pork is their must-​have! Very similar to Chinese BBQ pork but with a sweetened twist. It’s cooked perfectly which added nice crunchy bite.
You’ll definitely leave full and satisfied with their lunch specials. Decent prices too. Can’t wait to come back here again!