Hot Stuff Cafe

sadness!!! hot stuff is closing their doors… so my sister and i went for our final lunch date here
so many memories from the original hot stuff on valley blvd to this reincarnation
you will be missed dearly
everything from
the excellent waitstaff from service to recommendations
the ever-​changing menus
weekly specials
~*~
on our final dining experience:
uni carbonara: urchin is in the sauce
chicken bang bang: delightful appetizer
duck!!!: cherries & lima beans
reminiscent of my days in france

Meh. I really wanted to like this restaurant.
First time was a disappointment, so was the 2^nd time.
Ordered:
Corn Soup: Comes with the meal. Salty. Plain. Not sweet. Not enough corn.
Pork chop (some fancy name which doesn’t seem to mean much)
It was a bit on the bland side. Doesn’t come with anything else besides the sauce and some peas. ($ 16 + $ 1).
The restaurant itself has a nice feeling once you’re inside. Service seems fine. but the food is not good at all. They’re «known» for the idea that they’re making a new menu by the year. but I have yet to enjoy anything. I guess for anyone who does end up here. STICK TO STEAK.

This very unassuming name and location does not inspire great cuisine at first thought but upon looking at the menu and delighting in the first bite of the meal I quickly changed my opinion. I was first brought here by my parents who were raving about the food for months and finally decided to try it as a celebratory meal. I was pleasantly surprised by the delicious unagi pizza and the bread. They also have an amazing fruit tea (served hot or cold) which we always order and vary the hot and cold depending on the season.
Honestly, the name turned me off for a while (I know, I know) because the name just doesn’t create a good image in my mind for fine cuisine. The location also didn’t make me want to visit. I’m willing to amend my original opinion though, considering the amazingness of the quality of food. The service is great too. We’ve never had to wait long for water refills or for our plates to be cleared. I’m no foodie but it’s very clear the chef has taken the time and effort to design a menu worthy of representing Asian-​French fusion. Every dish blends well together and you feel like you’re eating a $ 100 meal for much less.
Parking is on the side or street.

I have been here many times now and brought many of my coworkers, friends and family members as well. Many of them also said it is a gem of a place. It *IS* that good.
Their latest lunch menu items, candied «BLT» sandwich is just *WONDERFUL*. There’s just no word, in addition, to describe it. I have been back nearly every month for 3 – 4 months in a row now and ordered that every time. Delicious and completely addicting, especially now that I have been on a paleo-​diet and lost nearly 30 lbs and this is completely what I should *not* have. I really need to suggest to them to make a salad of this instead.
I just hope that more people will discover this wonderful little restaurant and call it their culinary inspiration or home. I also hope that chef Wong will continue to dream up more delicious creations and challenges the palettes his patrons.

This place is delicious — I would come back again (although not everyone in my party is as enthusiastic as I am). It’s a great balance of Taiwanese styled steak/​café food and a little French fusion.
+ love the corn soup (simple, but so good)
+ 10 oz rib eye
— pasta sauce was very mild, needs flavor
+/​-​garlic bread
+/​-​seabass dish (super small portion)
+ veal 2 ways
— I really don’t get the add egg for $ 1 on the fries or pasta (did nothing for me)
+ crème brûlée (they are all good, try all the flavors)
+ chocolate lava cake (ommmmg it’s worth the calories)

My cousin loves this place, I think maybe lunch might be better.
Got the chicken and it was cooked French style. I was not happy about that style of cooking. Just the red in the meat grossed me out. Blood and chicken does not work for me, but it was considered cooked. I lost my appetite. Tried their fillet and ny, it was very chewy.
I’m not sure what other people ordred but all 3 dishes was not too bad, but not good either.

I think the actual thing I really liked were the french fries and the spicy chicken cabbage salad with chili lemon dressing. The steak special for lunch was so chewy. Maybe it was the way they cooked out or the cut of meat was really mediocre. It was hard to eat too. Also ordered a fried egg on top of the steak. Came with a side of soup and bread. Both were decent, nothing particularly special. I’ve been here only twice but the last time I did I went for dinner and they have this mushroom fettucine that was pretty good. The service was good though. The food is really average.

Been several times and its always good.
The service is great and the place is rather small.
Food is pretty good, creative, and certainly fusion –but not really to my taste. (Ive had fusion before and the fusion at hot stuff café is definitely more asian than anything else). Its a bit pricey for the taste but as I always go with my parents, id gladly come back again.
Foods Ive tried & Enjoyed: Bacon wrapped filet. Pasta, Unagi Pizza, all the soups.
They also have cool pre fixe holiday menus.

Three plus. Note that fusion is not one of my favorire food genres.
I came here once (a while back in 2010… they seem to have changed their menu since then) for DineLA week and had a hard time finding something that I could eat here (no dairy or meat). I actually ended up eating ravioli, which was nothing all that exceptional… it’s a hard dish to get right.
We tried the chocolate spaghetti, which was quite a let-​down, actually. I was expecting more flavor. The slushes are okay. I think this place got more «Asian» after I came here.
However, the concept is cool, and the waitress was friendly.

I come here at least once or twice a week. Why? Because of 3 main reasons:
1) Their Classic/​New Entrees. Although their sizzling plates are pretty good, the right side of the menu holds my focus. It consists of gourmet dishes at relatively reasonable prices. I enjoy seeing and trying their new creations. On the current menu, the Veal 3-​way is definitely a MUST try as well as their «celebrity breakfast» (appetizer).
2) Their Desserts: Some of their desserts are pretty damn good. Like their entrees, I enjoy trying their new creations. For instance, on their current menu, their Dulce De Leches: Simple and DELICIOUS… admittedly, it’s kind of a small portion but… I don’t care… it makes me and my stomach happy.
3) Their Iced Black/​Green Tea: it’s liquid crack
They also have a weekly prefix as well as an occasional Saturday Tasting Menu, which keeps things new and exciting. I highly recommend coming here, not only to eat some good food, but to try and experience different flavors and ingredients.

Hot Stuff Café has a menu that changes seasonally. I really enjoy the eel pizza (somewhat of a staple on their menu), as well as the various duck dishes they come up with (changes with the menu, constantly).

Uh, HELL NO!
All of the Unilocal reviews said that the meat was undercooked so I ordered a ribeye, cooked medium and it ended up hard and dry. I think it would’ve been bad even if I had gotten it medium rare. I got some sweet potato fries with the «steak» and the fries were not the best that I’ve had.
My friend and I shared a decent salad. It was the highlight of the meal.
The bread was also not that good. This is an Asian attempt at a nice restaurant and it sucked. Oh yea, their corn chowder is egg drop soup with corn; eww!

This place used to be called Romantic Steakhouse and sat on the corner of Valley and Del Mar. The English name was changed to Hot Stuff but the Chinese name remains the same. My favorite dish at Romantic was the half cornish game hen with a steak and pasta. The hen was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The pasta sauce had a hint of sweetness to it.
Since they moved to this new location, prices have gone up significantly without any improvement to the food. Sure the food is still good but not for the price they charge. Chicken is gone from the menu entirely, replaced by a plethora of seafood options. The steak is still good but does not stand out from Garden Café, Sunday Café, ABC or any of the other Hong Kong eateries in San Gabriel.

Great local Asian fusion.
I probably frequent Hot Stuff Café once a month, partially because a friend of mine is a chef here, but mostly because they always have interesting Asian fusion gourmet items that change seasonally. I love coming here because there’s always a chance to try something new. Hot Stuff reminds me of a lot of fine dining restaurants that have words in their dish description like veloute, panzanella, puttanesca, etc. You’re always left to ask the server plain and simple, «what is it?» And when you do find out what it is, you’re like. eh OK! I’ll try it! What’s always good is that they serve you a complementary cup of vegetable or corn soup with freshly toasted garlic bread.
I say that I frequent Hot Stuff café once a month also because it’s definitely not cheap eats. A simple 2 dishes for 2 people will run you at least $ 35 easily; that’s with water and no dessert. If you decide you wanna try one of their fancier appetizers or desserts with your meal, it could run you an extra $ 10 – 15. But it depends on how you’re looking at it. The price is pretty steep for your everyday «café» dining. However, I did say that some of the dishes are in fact gourmet, so you are getting quality ingredients and labor intensive entrees which can be more closely compared to the more posh establishments that you would not find in the SGV. You get a «fine dining» type of entrée for probably less than they’d charge you at a super fancy French restaurant in Beverly Hills minus the extravagant dining atmosphere.
The service is always prompt and usually pretty friendly. Parking is not a problem because they have their own parking lot. As far as worth goes, I think the creative entrees served at Hot Stuff is worth the occasional visit but definitely too costly as an everyday go to place.

3 stars says it all… this place is just a-​ok. Located in the middle of San Gabriel, this place seems a bit out of place in terms of its food and décor. The food is asian-​fusion, somewhat like high-​end hong kong café style food. The décor is modern, yet warm. Definitely not similar to anything surrounding them.
All entrees come with a bowl of soup. We got to choose between corn chowder and beef vegetable. The corn chowder was super watery, even too watery to be labeled as a cream of corn soup. They also give you a basket of garlic bread. However, there was so much butter on the bread that you can see the butter ooze out when you squeeze the bread.
For my entrée, I ordered the sizzling plate bacon wrapped filet mignon, medium rare. My steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare, but there wasn’t much taste to the steak. All their steaks are covered with black pepper sauce, so you can’t really taste any actual meat juices. The plate also came with a side of spaghetti or rice, and also veggies. The spaghetti was not very good: pasta was too hard (and not al dente), and the tomato sauce just tasted plain weird.
2 stars for food. But service gets them 1 extra star. The waitresses were always coming by to fill our water glasses. Besides that, there is really nothing to rave about this place.
Overall, mediocre food and pretty good service = 3 stars.
Parking: Lot parking right next to the restaurant, and also street parking.

Came here to have dinner with my best friend… I’ve been wanting to try it for some time now… the reviews seemed promising. Service was good. They were very nice and respectful. Came by to check up on you. everything came out at a fairly decent rate.
Vegetable soup was very bland. Cheese bread thing was flavorless. I’m not a crust person so i took it off and you can see the oil dripping down which made me feel guilty for eating it.
I ordered the filet mignon wrapped with bacon with fries and apparently it only comes with black pepper sauce. I asked for no sauce which eventually became on the side after some language barriers. When it came out it was with the sauce but I didn’t want to complain. Fries were good.
we ordered some ice cream dessert thing. which were really cute but was really hard to eat. so i tried a little of each flavor twice and gave up. and the waiter came by and asked if i liked it and i was honest and told him i didnt and he gave me a free sample of another flavor they are experimenting with. but it was really sweet and hard to take down as well. so i didnt finish that either. and im a ice cream lover but i couldn’t eat it.
there’s plenty of parking. the layout was nice and clean. perhaps i didnt order something that others normally would but at this moment i wouldn’t come back.

I have nothing good to say about this place. Came here with the bf for our monthiversary. My boyfriend wanted to try it out because it was down the street and through word of mouth. Here are my complaints:
1. It was not packed at all when we went, but yet the 4 working waiters/​waitresses failed to refill my water AT ALL my entire meal.
2. The menu didn’t appeal to me so I didn’t even order anything, My bf order the Top sirloin with pasta and added an egg. This was all we ordered. Just one dish. We ordered right after the table to the right of us ordered. By the time the couple next to us finished their entrees (the guy went all out with starters, entrees, and desserts) my bf’s meal still hadn’t come out yet. We told the waitress and she said it was coming soon. My bf got his dish when the couple was done with their desserts. I’m sure they had forgotten our order and didn’t admit to it.
3. My bf asked for pasta, they gave us rice. The least you could do after forgetting our order is to get the order right.
4. My bf ordered the steak medium. It was rare. Full blown red bleeding meat inside. Hardly cooked at all.
5. Waitress never came asking if the food was okay or anything. All time, we had to call for them.
6. Took forever for them to get our check, but they were so quick to grab the bill when I put my card down.
Again, this place was not even packed the night we went. There was 4 servers and the restaurant itself isn’t even big. There was no excuse for such horrible service and crappy food. You can bet I will not be stepping foot in this shitty place again.

Haven’t been here in a while — it redecorated. Love the new look.
Got hot fresh fruit tea — Also loved it.
A bit pricey, but until I find a place with hot fresh fruit tea like them I’ll come back for the tea.

Sorta Juicy…
I am biased because one of my friends work here. I think this place has potential and it’s not bad but just the location of where it is just feels too weird for the food they serve. I tried this place a couple of times and both times it felt like its OK. I wanted to like it but it didn’t blow my mind away. I think the chef has potential and it really has some good tastes, but it just felt overpriced especially the Monday Menu nights. The food was mini sized and trying too hard to be French in the middle of SGV. So I give this place props for trying and I know it will succeed but it just didn’t really tickle my fancy.

My perspective for Restaurant Week is to go to restaurants that I would otherwise probably be unable to afford, and make the most of the prix fixe meals offered to exercise my foodie training. However, my date for the evening had a different attitude for DineLA, suggesting trying a new place that neither of us had heard of or would have tried had it not been for restaurant week. And with that, off we went to Hot Stuff Café.
I won’t lie, a healthy dose of skepticism accompanied me on this dining excursion about 1.5 miles from my home, but the menu looked intriguing, I had good company, and I was starving.
The café is just that… a simply decorated HK-​type café, with some French-​inspired essence. Classy.
Instead of providing 2 – 4 choices for each appetizer, entrée, and dessert, Hot Stuff created three set menus to choose from. Normally, I’d like a little more freedom of choice than that, but I happened to like all of the dishes in the sets, so we ordered set 1 and set 2.
The meal began with a basket of bread that is hardly worth mentioning, and corn soup that was kind of weak. Meh.
My first course was cornmeal crusted deep-​fried escargot. I’ve never had escargot any other way than swimming in a pool of garlic butter, and though the texture of this particular preparation was interesting, I wasn’t floored by it.
Second course was mussels accompanied by shoestring potatoes. Delicious! The mussels were in a light, savory tomato and herb broth, and the shoestring potatoes were addictive. My date stole a few and they really complimented his tuna tartar.
Third course was the most gigantic «short» rib you’ve ever seen… it made my date’s filet look itsy bitsy. The meat was braised so well that it easily fell off the bone. It was accompanied by creamy potatoes and some vegetables, but clearly the short rib was the shining star on the plate.
Dessert was somewhat unmemorable, but it was a 1000 layer cake with Gran Marnier flavoring, but that’s pretty much all I can recall because it wasn’t as strong as the preceding dishes.
All in all, it was a fantastic meal shared with terrific company and made for quite a great date. I look forward to their menu for the upcoming restaurant week.