Da Qing Hua

This place is good for dumplings and handmade noodles. I love the green onion pancake here as well! They recently changed ownership again and no longer accept the stamp card. The portions are a lot smaller and offer less items on the menu.
They are quick to bring out the food. The soups are sometimes inconsistent with texture, but the flavor remains the same. They are not too pricey either. The food is not greasy like a lot of asian places.

Good place for handmade noodles and pancakes in SG.
This restaurant has survived for many years and that’s no easy feat at this plaza in which the great Luscious Dumpling is the king. I believe almost everything served at this place is handmade by the staff behind the see-​thru window and certain items require up to 15 – 20 minutes due to the fact that the items have to be made first.
Overall, it’s a solid place that serves Northern Chinese food. The price is cheap and service is adequate. Décor is decent but parking sucks sometimes.

Food was OK. Had to send one order back as the dough was still a bit raw. However, after seeing the men’s room, I am not sure if anyone washes their hands here.

The made-​to-​order meat pies/​pancakes are great! They offer many flavors — beef with green onion, pork with cabbages, beef with leeks, lamb, etc. Be careful while eating these — the juice might burn the tongue. They’re always perfectly seasoned and cooked.
The dumplings are delicious too. They are made on the site (you get to see the process through the window). There’re many different flavors to choose from.
The noodles are yummy and chewy. We usually order beef noodle soup, cold noodles, and Beijing minced pork noodles.
They’re very generous about their portions. The prices are super reasonable. The service is alright and the employees are friendly.
They offer weekday daily specials for $ 2.99. The most important thing is we never feel thirsty after dining here — I guess there’s no MSG. Expect some wait during weekends.

My husband and I were happily on our way to Hui Tou Xiang when I saw the sign for Da Qing Hua and thought, huh… I’ve never noticed this place before! I was craving scallion pancake and the sign outside says «pancake house» so I had to try theirs!
Service is very distracted, there were two girls working diligently, just not where customers needed them — ex, refilling soy sauce bottles rather than taking orders. If you want your check you need to yell out «check please» 買單, otherwise they won’t ever come back to your table!
We ordered waaaayy too much food. The menu has pictures and when you’re hungry it’s easy to go overboard! Started with scallion pancake of course, we also had a cold appetizer of marinated bran & mushrooms, hot and sour soup, xiaolongbao, and eggplant and potato. The cold app was was over seasoned and we had to press the sauce out of each piece in order to eat it. (I made 稀飯 this morning so my husband could finish the leftovers).
The eggplant dish was fantastic! All of the veggies were crunchy caramelized on the outside and tender inside. Be sure to ask for rice with this. The xiaolongbao skin was a bit thick and the soup was quite sweet. I added ginger and vinegar to balance the sweetness. It was ok, passable dumplings if you are not picky. The hot and sour soup was only a little hot and sour, but it was a good, thick consistency and not overly starchy. Overall the eggplant dish was my favorite and hot and sour soup was pretty good.
Total bill was only $ 31 and we are eating leftovers for 2 – 3 days! A solid a-​ok place for a meal especially given the price!

Came here for the first time today with my Chinese friends:) It was very empty inside at 1:30pm on Sunday so it made me worry a bit, but everything was not bad:). It’s of course not the best Chinese food, but was decent enough. Their pork noodles (chow main) was the best. They make fresh noodles there everyday! It’s chewy and very flavorful! Their dumplings were just okay. It’s far from Din Tai Fung’s. French style beef steak w/​black pepper sauce was disappointing though. We don’t need to order this again. If you want a really good beef loc lac, just go to next door at Newport Seafood:). Everything there is delicious! Yet I don’t mind coming back here when I don’t want to deal with a long wait and craving for greasy yummy chow main:)

This place CAN be 4 stars if you order the right thing: dumplings and noodles. Steer away from all other dishes!
Da Qing Hua (formerly MIchelle’s Pancakes) has the same concept as its predecessor — there is a window where you can watch the kitchen staff hand make all the dumplings and noodles from scratch. DQH offers a wide variety of Chinese dishes — from beef noodle soup, green onion pancakes, dumplings of all sorts, and sauteed Americanized Chinese food (which are really really bad).
MUST TRY:
–Zha Jiang Mian — amazing hand cut noodles and a meaty, but not overpowering, sauce. Yum.
–Beef Roll — solid. But not as good as 101 Noodle.
–Pork and Leek Boiled OR Fried Dumplings — solid.
–Beef Noodle Soup — at the time, they did not offer hand-​cut noodles for this particular dish. But the soup itself was very flavorful.
NOT SO GREAT:
–Spicy Pork Wontons (Szechuan style) — the dumpling skin was great but the sauce was way too peanut-​y and did not work.
–Sauteed Green Beans — way too much soy sauce and overdone.
— Kung Pao Chicken — so bad that we SENT THIS BACK TO THE KITCHEN! Poor quality of chicken meat… think it was chicken riblet meat? Very stringy and inedible.
Most plates average around $ 6 – 7. Choose wisely!

Not bad! Like many others, i stumbled across this place as an alternative option. Got the pork and shrimp XLBs. They were really good for the price. I wouldnt mind coming here to fulfill my XLB cravings. Otherwise the minced beef spicy noodle soup was insanely spicy. I had to laddle the chili oil out in order to eat it, but that aside the meat was super flavorful and I loved the pulled noodles they used.
Service and atmosphere soso. Nothing too good or bad to remark on. I wouldnt mind coming back, but this place wouldnt really be a top choice either.

I came here at the end of last month with two friends. It’d been on my list to check out for a while, and pictures of their beef wrap had me salivating.
We came for a late dinner (7:45 on a Saturday) and had no problems getting a table. And, as good foodies do, we definitely over-​ordered. We got boiled dumplings, two noodles (minced pork and spicy pork), the beef roll (of course!), stir-​fried green beans, and pan fried dumplings with beef and carrots.
The boiled dumplings were standard, and the two noodles were very generous portions, also pretty standard. The beef roll was a little bit of a let down — the beef was a bit dry and the green onion pancake was almost too crispy; I tend to appreciate when they’re flaky instead of hard. The stir-​fried green beans were a bit oily for my taste, but that’s usually true whenever I eat out. The pan-​fried dumplings with beef and carrot filling were good, but not as good as Beijing Pie House. It was nicely filled with a bit of juice though, which made them fun to eat, almost like xiaolongbao.
Service: Decent. The food came out really fast, and they were great about not kicking us out even though they closed at 9 p.m. and we overstayed our welcome. They were decent about refilling our tea pot too, which is always a plus.
Bottom line: Not the best joint in SGV but a cheap, bang-​for-​buck alternative.

We wanted to go to Luscious Dumplings to get Leek pancakes, but It was closed when we got there! Boo!
So we resorted to checking out this restaurant instead, since it was open at 2:30 pm & also served leek pancakes!
Leek pancakes, 8 pieces, $ 6.95
The skin was rather dry, insides were good. In my opinion, it didn’t taste as great as the leek pancakes at Luscious but at least it was not oily at all! :)

This place used to be called Michelle’s pancake. Maybe it changed ownership. The important things is that the food has not changed, it is still as good as ever.
There is a window into the kitchen so you can watch the cooks make all the dough by hand. You can see the craftsmanship they put into every dumpling, every won-​ton, every little strand of noodle. When a restaurant takes pride in what they do, magic happens! Fresh noodles have a very different taste and texture compared to premade noodles.
I love the minced pork noodles. The pork is infused with a soy sauce marinade and mixed with sliced cucumbers for a refreshingly clean flavor. The dumplings and chive pockets are amazing. The texture of the wrappers and flavors of the filling are just perfect. No other way to describe it. PERFECT!

Starting to go downhill.. .
The service is pretty bad now. When we walked in, it took awhile to get a someones attention because the 3 servers were all preoccupied and the place wasn’t even that packed. You can tell they were behind because there were so many tables that weren’t bused yet.
The dining room is split into 2, so if you’re in the side hall, good luck getting anyone’s attention.
XLB– Kinda dry
Beef Roll– the pancake was too hard n chewy
Hot and Sour Soup– Still good
Eggplant and Potato– Oily
Such a shame, I really hope they step it back up.

I’m recycling my review because I really enjoyed the fact that Da Qing Hua kept many if not all of the things that Michelle’s Pancakes had on the menu. In addition, it’s much more clean and larger for groups, which is a major plus. The décor is a lot more crisp and friendly. Out of the three dumpling places in the plaza, this one has the most vegetarian options. The prices are low enough that you can have a full meal without breaking the bank, so I give it a higher rating for the good combination of quality food and low prices. On top of that, there are more than just 1 or 2 choices for vegetarians/​vegans, so it’s appreciated!
There’s more than one vegetarian option on the menu. Great!
I really enjoyed the vegetarian dumplings (there’s about 14 or 15 per order) but I’m not use to the more fluffy texture of the filling. However, the skin is thinner than most places, which is great for people who are looking for something comparable but possibly better than Din Tai Fung.
My second best dish is the tomato and egg noodles. I think it had the right level of savory taste and if you like tomato-​based sauces, this dish is your friend. It’s good for lacto-​ovo vegetarians but not vegans, sorry!
The vegetarian pancakes (8) became smaller and less tasty than when I remembered. I loved the sauce for the house special noodles, which was peanut based, but the noodles is a little too hard for me, even though I know some people like the colder noodles to be a little tough for that style of cooking.
To boost the stars for this review is that the service was very prompt. We were greeted right when we got into the restaurant, and right when we sat down, one of the servers brought over the tea and other utensils. Very quick! The service was appropriate and people smiled. Smiles are great. :D See? So, here’s a thumbs up for the good service.
Remember that in that plaza there are three dumpling houses trying to get your business. You can choose which two of the three that serve vegetarian dumplings that your tummy wants to visit the next time.
Also, desert at Phoenix in the same plaza after your dinner is not bad!
Parking is hard to find when it gets really busy but there are some side street parking.

When in the San Gabriel Valley area, there’s so many Asian /​Chinese food options it often becomes sensory overload and who knows where to go or what to try new, where there’s often just places you routinely go to out of habit and familiarity.
I’m generally well versed in traditional Cantonese Chinese Kitchen cuisine, the standard no frills fare, so when introduced to variant regional cuisines it’s interesting and hard to compare, similarly if you like American food and want to compare Fried Chicken to BBQ Ribs to a Hot Dog or a Hamburger… it depends on what you’re in the mood for and what you like.
So, Da Qing Hua is a nice experience and for a Cantonese fan like me, it feels like an adventure. The regular noodles are good, as are the rice noodle discs they have (a bit dense and thick but unique and tasty). The Pancakes are great. I think of them as a cross between a shanghai dumpling and a potsticker with a different covering that retains the moisture (does not soak through either) inside and isn’t thick or doughy either. It’s a nice food experience.
This is located in a bigger outdoor complex with other businesses, so parking can be a tad difficult at times, but no impossible and there are neighborhood street parking options.
The service was friendly and they even proactively graciously came out to bring the take out food while we waited for it to be prepared, waiting outside the restaurant.
As a disclaimer for those who don’t read my reviews often… a THREE STAR (* * *) is considered in my book a good place to go to which I’d return to. My grading system tends to be F/​D = * /​C = ** (Keeping in mind, I don’t mind «C’s» it’s enough in school to pass!) /​B = *** /​A = **** and ***** — - And in fairness to what an A, B or C should be, and all are good places to me, I have to be a bit stringent on the grades so a place needs to have something extraordinary to earn a * * * * or * * * * * ranking from me, but those with * * * are good recommended places if you read the write-​ups.

Came here the other day to usher in the new year after finding Hui Tou Xiang packed with a group of people waiting outside. We remember seeing this place before so we decided to try it. After reading the reviews on the uneven service we were wary but, it turned out to be a really nice dinner. We were sitting right across the front counter so I guess that made it easier to get the waiter’s attention. They were prompt and courteous.
I had the pork chop noodle soup while my wife had the rice cake soup. Both were delicious. We also had the pork xo bao and they were delicate and juicy. The scallion pancakes weren’t bad either.
This was a pleasant surprise and it is nice to know we have two nice dumpling places next to each other. Three if you count Luscious Dumplings!

This place used to be Michelle’s Pancakes but they changed the name. I wonder what happened to Michelle?
Anyways we went here for Michelle’s Pancakes and noticed they changed the name of the restaurant but still decide to eat here. Mistake! The quality has gone downhill! Servers were nice but they forgot two out of the three items we ordered. There were big gaps of waiting for each dish and we had to wait 10 more minutes for our pancakes cause they forgot to put in the order. The server gave us a cold dish of bean curd for free because of that. Pass on the chilled cucumbers and the spicy wontons! The spicy wontons were at a good spicy level but they didn’t taste that great. The beef and green onion pancakes were juicy and good but they got so much smaller!
We won’t be back unless we really crave pancakes but there are probably better places in the 626.

I came here with my family because my mom heard a lot of good recommendations about this place on the Chinese radio. When we arrived, they gave us the menu’s pretty quick. Each dish they had included pictures on the menu, so it was really convenient to pick what we wanted to eat.
We ordered the lamb dumplings (pan fried), beef rolls, one of the pancakes, and the shanghai sausage. For drinks, we got their boba milk tea. The first dish that came out was the sausages. It looked nothing like the picture. It was a cold dish, so it came out pretty quickly. This dish was NOT good. It was a little on the salty side too. What I had in mind when ordering was that it would be similar to those Taiwanese sausages, but it is nothing close. Do not get it.
The beef rolls were okay. Probably the best out of the ones we ordered, but it was pretty bland. There was no taste to it. If this was the best out of the ones we ordered, just imagine how the rest of the dishes taste. The third dish that came out were the lamb dumplings. It was the most expensive order out of all the dumplings, so I expected this to be good. However, when you bite into it, you can taste a really strong taste of lamb. Normally, when you cook lamb, you will flavor it well enough to get rid of that smell/​taste, but this was not the case here. The pancake was pretty bland too. No flavoring whatsoever.
The boba milk tea here was pretty disappointing too. It came out pretty warm, even though there were hints of ice in it. It was also watered down, and not sweet enough. Pretty bad in my opinion, and I don’t even drink that much tea to know that this was not good.
Overall, don’t come here if you heard a lot a bout this from the radio. I always find those reviews untrustworthy. Unilocalers should know better.

This place was just A-​OK.
— We ordered the lotus root & sparerib soup (ou3 jie2 pai2 gu3 tang1) — the lotus root had a flimsy, limp texture. It tasted really old and not fresh. The meat on the spare ribs were really tough and dry. I would definitely not order this again.
— We ordered the pig ears appetizer (liang2 ban4 zhu1 er3) — this was tasty. It goes really well with the chili oil condiment on the table.
— We ordered the regular pork steamed soup dumplings (xiao3 long2 bao1) — this was good. It seemed like they made these on-​site and the dumpling skin was very thin, yet strong. There was lots of soup in each dumpling.
— We had the «pumpkin cake» — this was super oily, and didn’t taste like pumpkin in any way. It just seemed like a deep-​fried rice cake with some red bean stuffing inside. The only thing pumpkin-​like about this was the color. It’s not what I expected at all, and if anything should be treated as a potential dessert item.
— We had the shrimp/​leek/​egg boiled dumplings — these were OK. They were the least memorable in the meal.
— We also had the cold cucumber appetizer — these were fresh and crisp and good.
The service is not very attentive — when I first came in, I waited a minute before anyone acknowledged me (weekday lunch time… tables half empty). We were seated right in front of the cashier, and still had trouble getting the attention of the waiter during our meal. I waved at him while he was walking right past me at one point and he didn’t notice. He also initially forgot the pig ear appetizer we ordered, which we had to remind him of. He also did not come by once to check on us. When we were paying, we also left the credit card on the bill at the side of the table, and they took forever to pick it up.
The food, overall, was not bad, but I don’t feel compelled to come back with so many other better options to choose from.

And one more Chinese restaurant enters this already crowded strip mall, which already includes Luscious Dumplings, Hui Tou Xiang, Phoenix and Nanjing Kitchen. How much culinary star power can one strip mall have?
The illustrated menu makes it easy to order and the variety is pretty huge. The pork and lotus root pancakes were decent, the niu rou juan bing a little soggy, but the da qing hua fried rice was really the home run for me. Most fried rice dishes have this sort of heavy, greasy leftovers feel to them, but this was a minimalist’s fried rice: pork, scrambled egg and the slight bitterness of the Chinese mustard greens.
Nice touches: large window into the kitchen, lots of seating, servers dressed like they just walked off a Wong Kar Wai set.

NOMS!
Richard S. and I came here on a Saturday evening at the end of June, thinking it was still Michelle’s Pancake. They had the old faded menu still posted on the window and the sign above the door was missing. We got these brand spanking new menus when we sat down so we figured it was a remodel.
Our waiter was super nice, spoke English and recommended the Spicy Spare Ribs Noodle dish because it was their special that day for $ 2.99! SCORE! We got that instead of the beef noodles we originally intended to get and we both loved it so much! The spare ribs were tender and tasty and the noodles were flavorful with the yummy sauce. It wasn’t spicy at all and had a tiny little kick. It was so cheap and delicious that my buddy decided to get another to go for his brother!
We also had Beef, Carrot and Onion Pancakes– hot little pancakes filled with juice. I liked these a lot, but I have to admit that the Leek and Pork Pancakes were the BOMB. We loved these the best and the juices were much more flavorful than the former (of course, though! It’s leek and pork!).
We also got the steamed Chive, Egg and Shrimp Dumplings. Ah, don’t get these in dumplings. Get these in a pancake or something. They fall apart too easily. It wasn’t as flavorful steamed as opposed to pan-​fried types. Leave the dumplings for leek and pork filling and the like.
The chili sauce was great and our appetizer was a pickled spicy cabbage.
I can’t wait to come back and get more pancakes and specials!