Emperor Noodle

This place has some nice unique dishes. The braised pork is sweet and flavorful. The pork is very tender and melts in your mouth good. Also had the pan fried bun but it was not juicy at all. Most places I have been to the buns are filled with juices.

I ordered spicy pork and it was cold. Asked the waitress to heat it up again n it was still cold. What a disappointment

So disappointed about the jiaotou which cover noodle when you start eating. I ordered 腰肝面, which is the inside of pig, it smells gross! The fish noodle is to salty. Cash only also make it very inconvenience to pay. Anyways, I won’t be here again.

Better gave them a zero !!! After ordered some drink and food from its neighbor with excellent services… totally can’t stand for this restaurant type of «services «…I told that «waitress» I preferred to have a to-​go …and I put my wallet out… but she and her co workers ignored me… I really don’t get it !!! …I was invisible for them for a while… I saw they were ok busy for their three tables dinning customers… then I left !!! What a bad customer service !!!

Owful, Chinese cheating skill, let says duck, but actually dried ducks, it sucks, fuck you

Service: 3* My mom and I walked in around 5 pm on a Friday and they were still empty. We asked if we can park in the back and it felt like they were confused because we look Chinese but don’t know how to speak it. I get that glare all the time haha so I’m used to it.
It was our first time there and it seemed like they don’t really know how to speak in English but this one lady tried (A for Effort). My mom wanted sticky rice because after I showed her about 5 places to eat in Unilocal!one of them had it, but it wasn’t from here. I guess it was more of a miscommunication on my mom’s part but the lady kept saying fried rice no sticky rice. But my mom kept insisting she wanted sticky rice. I just can’t help but smirk with these two ladies who don’t really understand each other lol.
Food: 4* I’ve never really had a shen juan bao before. I’ve had a lot of bbq pork buns but juicy pork buns? never! I’m a fan! The noodles came out piping hot and it had good flavor. However, we also ordered two other things, the cold chicken and the fried rice (after going back and forth on the sticky rice situation). I’d go back for the Shen Jian Bao and the noodles! Anything else, order with caution.
Parking: In the back but limited. They do have reserved signs for each restaurant but the bottom of the sides says 30 minutes or something. That’s why we were asking if we can park there. But apparently, you can park there more than 30 minutes. This is the SGV after all lol.

Okay, okay… we came to this restaurant because it was part of a top ten list from some review we saw on FB. Restaurant opened at 10am and we were the first ones there at 10:15. Not even a single soul in there should have been a sign… AND They were were still mopping the floor after its open! Food was salty, unspectacular and still cold because it was not «heated» correctly from the day before!!! LOL. C’mon guys, people pay for these food!!! They pay to get rated on that list is what I’m guessing!!!

We went to this restaurant after checking out all the Unilocal reviews.
The service is poor to average because the server lacks etiquette that borderline on being rude, typical from new immigrants from mainland China.
The food came out promptly. Although the photos posted on Unilocal looked impressive, the flavors were rather mediocre. There wasn’t a single dish that wowed us!

When I was sitting down haven’t order my food I kept hearing the chef in the kitchen spitting??? I got gross out and walked out of the restaurant! I thought it looks clean! The Spitting got to me and just no respect and manners for other customers!!! Just plain EWWWWWWWWW to the MAX !!!

The service was so bad. I came here a few days ago. The moment I came in alone I guess they saw me as not important to be seated and/​or as a paying customer. I just wanted to order a bowl of noodles. And made me wait more than half an hour. After ignoring me they finally came with my bowl and I also ask for water and they refused to bring it. It took them half an hour to bring my water and I’m almost finished with my meal. And the food was really salty and hard to eat without water.
Maybe they made it that way because I was by myself. And when they did bring out the water after asking 6 times, they slammed the water down and turned away immediately.
NEVER WILL I COME BACK HERE EVER. The food and service was very bad. it felt like they didn’t want to serve me.
It was so irritating to be mistreated.
The waitress gave so much attitude and she left outside to talk and made me wait even longer. And she didn’t even say sorry. I also saw her eat from another customer’s plate before serving it to them.

Find someone that speaks Mandarin here and book it to San Gabriel for the best pan fried buns in the greater Los Angeles area. Be warned though, this place is cash only. This place isn’t very well known for their XLB (xiao long bao) but if you get 4 – 5 order of xian jian bao with a friend you’ll be set. Their noodles are also good since it’s their namesake, I would highly recommend their beef noodle soup. Lots of meat and very well prepared noodles. They also have soup dumplings which are very very solid.

Cash ONLY! Prices are decent & everything tastes good.
Came here for the usual XLB (Xia Long Bao) AKA Juicy Pork Dumplings but tasted decent and didn’t like it too much. My friend liked it but it didn’t taste the same as ones Iv’e tasted.
Recommend!
*Fell in LOVE with their Shen Jian Pao (juice pork buns) which are fried crispy golden on the bottom and black sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Love how the top is soft and bottom is crispy.
Ordered:
Beef Noodle Soup– good
XLB– ok
Blanched greens over oyster sauce– love (simple dish and affordable)
Egg rolls– good (better at Phở restaurants)
Go here if you don’t want to wait to eat. Service was good each time I went but bring CASH no ATM machines around.

I came to this place craving some really good XLB and I really had hoped that this place would satisfy the cravings, but it sadly did not. We came here on a Saturday afternoon during lunch time and took a little bit to find the exact spot of the restaurant among the confusing back parking lots of so many other ones in the area.
We finally found it in next to a café and we could tell that parking gets pretty packed here as this place had to carefully block out certain parking spots directly for the restaurant patrons. With high expectations and noticing that their chef was taking a cig break outside (and praying that he washed his hands!!), we walked into the restaurant.
The restaurant décor is simple with bold red and black designs all over, olI d hanging light bulbs (which are coated in a nice coat of dust) and simple wall art. The food, however, wasn’t that good IMO. We ordered their fried XLBs, a bowl of beef noodle soup and some rice cakes, and everything was too salty and too greasy. The fried XLBs were too greasy and you can still see the film of grease left behind from the dip in the oil fryer and the taste was bland and jut not very alluring. The noodle soup was salty and our rice cakes were greasy and drenched in soy sauce as well. We eagerly tried to finish we could before paying for our bill (cash only) and waked out without a second look back.

Place was really empty when we arrived. The duck soup was their speciality but it was pretty salty but acceptable since the flavors were very rich. The enoki mushroom was literally just steamed mushroom with sauce, so I’m assuming their other vege dishes are like that too. The Shen Jian nap which was the pork meat fried bun had no soup and the meat and bun were dry. The water was also warm and not Iced.
The only plus side is that the interior décor is nice but other than that there were limited choices in food selection. If you’re a pork lover then you’ll like here more…

This place is the definition of crappy Asian service. My party of 3 came around 5:30 on a Friday. The place was fairly packed, and the only table left was a huge circular table better suited for a party of 6 – 7. The waitress had us sit there so we obliged, thinking it was nice of her to seat us right away. We spoke too soon.
Shortly after we sat down, she angrily yelled at us that she forgot there was a reservation for 7 coming in and she needed the table we were sitting at. She forced us to move to another table, but the catch here was that we had to share it with another party of 3… So we were basically sitting face to face with 3 strangers. We offered to wait for the next table to clear up, but she refused and wouldn’t let us. What! I’m all for spontaneity and getting to know new people, but if I’m going to be paying for service, I’d expect my own table at the very least.
Food here is also mediocre at best. We ordered the noodles with yellow fish (idk how to say it in English, so that’s a rough translation from Chinese lol) and it was nasty. The fish tasted spoiled and the soup was way too salty and doused with msg. The Shanghai spareribs were also ridiculously salty. Judging from the number of people that went in and out of this place when I was there, it seems like a popular spot in the 626. Personally, I don’t see the appeal.

We’ve passed by Emperor Noodle a ton of times, but finally came in to try them out. The parking lot is tiny and the parking spots are reserved really sporadically among the businesses in that small strip mall. Fear not, there’s also some street parking on Main St/​Las Tunas.
The quality of the food is really fresh, but the service is incredibly slow. If you have time to dine, I would recommend trying them out.
We had a few of their noodle soup bowls, Shanghai soup dumplings, and their fried pork buns. My favorite was the beef noodle soup! I’m drooling just thinking about the dish.
Overall the food is 4 stars and service is 3 stars.
Unilocal 100 Challenge — 90 of 100

Came here after an unsuccessful dumpling and beer festival. We were pretty impressed. Their sheng jian bao was really good. The meat inside of the bao was really juicy and the dough was no too soggy (as you would expect). The sesame added a very nice crisp texture to the bite. Their flavors are great. It wasn’t too salty, nor too bland. They have a variety of sauces on the side for dipping so that definitely helps those who prefer more flavor. My friend also got the beef noodle soup, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Their prices are really cheap for the enourmous portions that they give you. We shared the bao and some of the soup and it was all under $ 15. I would recommend this place for a quick bite or some cheap dinner.

I have to say, today was not a good day to visit this place because it was hot outside and this restaurant doesn’t have air conditioning. It was too hot inside to really enjoy the food. With that information, I will try to be fair about this review.
We asked for water, but I guess we failed to ask for ice with our water… hmmm…hot outside, hot inside… ok I’ll just drink warm water. We ordered the XLB juicy pork dumplings and pan fried pork bao. Both were very tasty. The dough on the XLB was almost as good as Din Tai Fung. I wished they would have offered fresh ginger to go along with the dumplings. The pan fried bao was surprising good. I loved the sesame seeds at the bottom of the bao that was fried to perfection. The meat inside was moist and the dough, soft, not tough.
Customer service was average. Might come back in the winter time to give it another try.

What is a Sheng Jian Bao? It’s basically pan-​fried pork soup dumplings (pan-​fried xiao long bao with a more thicker dough skin). After hearing about this place, of course I had to check it out! When I got here, I was surprised that there was only 2 parking spots allotted for the restaurant; the other parking spots were for a café next door. So come here early or you’re going to have to find street parking.
We ordered:
1. Sheng Jian Bao: I was expecting the pan-​fried pork soup dumplings to be much more moist inside. Instead, the meat filling was very juicy and flavorful, however the texture of the bao was just too thick for me. Too much carbs. An order comes with 4 and I recommend sharing. We ended up ordering 2 plates and we just had so much leftover. Basically, the «bao» part was too much for me; but the inside was pretty good (⁴⁄₅)
2. Braised Pork Belly: People say that the Sheng Jian Bao is the star of this place, but I beg to differ. The pork belly here is delicious! It’s the best thing here, imo. The pork belly was juicy and flavorful! It comes with some tea flavor eggs; and it’s best served with rice! Very filling! A definite must try. I recommend just skipping the Sheng Jian Bao and just order this instead (⁵⁄₅)
3. Beef Noodle Soup: My boyfriend didn’t like it. I thought the broth was decent, but the noodles didn’t taste fresh and the beef was just meh (³⁄₅)
I can’t stop thinking about the pork belly. It’s really good. Next time, I would just order that and be full and happy. I forgot if they took credit card, but we just paid in cash. Service was decent.

Directly across the street from the Golden Deli off of Las Tunas (and the corner of Mission Boulevard).
You will be hard-​pressed to find an server that speaks and understands anything other than Mandarin. Fortunately, the menu is also written in English with pictures of many of the dishes.
Their pan fried pork bun (Sheng Jian Bao) was chosen among LA Weekly’s Food Writer Jonathan Gold’s six favorite dumplings in 2013. I have never tried pork bun prepared in this fashion and I was treated to a wonderful surprise. The pork ball was moist and very flavorful, as was the piping hot broth. The surprise was the nice crunch from the bottom of the pan fried shell. Sprinkled with sesame seeds, these dumplings were irresistibly delicious and — priced at $ 3.99 for four good sized pieces — unbelievably cheap!
On the other-​hand, the Emperor Noodles choices — ranging in price between $ 4.99 to $ 7.99 — definitely missed the mark. The Chinese Green Noodle with Pork, $ 5.99 and their special Duck Noodle, $ 7.99 were not exactly what we expected. Both are noodle soup dishes. While the hand-​cut noodles were fresh, firm textured and really soaked up the broth, there just was too much of it and also a lot of broth. We were disappointed that they were so skimpy on the meat and vegetables portions.
The highlight of our dining experience was unquestionably the Sheng Jian Bao. These pan fried pork buns were as good as advertised and ranks favorably with my own shortlist of dumplings in Los Angeles. They alone are worthy of many return visits.