Hui Tou Xiang Noodles House

we’ve been here twice now. the XLB and hui tou are our favorite dishes. skip on the noodles– they’re cold. not my cup of tea. not only that, but it’s super cheap! if you buy 5 dishes, you get a 6^th dish for free! we’ve never had to wait for a table, but maybe that’s just cause we’re lucky. they always seem to be busy. pretty sure we’re going to be regulars here.

Solid Chinese food in San Gabriel. It is relatively small, with about nine tables. The service is attentive and food comes out relatively soon. We ordered the popular pork hui tou, which was good but not fantastic. The pork is flavorful, but the wrapping is a bit bland. It tastes good dipped in some vinegar and a drop of soy sauce. XLBs were not bad, but not as good as DTF’s. The insides were juicy but the skin was a bit thick. In addition, we had a vegetable dish, which was actually really tasty! It was slightly sweet with some garlic, and not too oily. Overall, the food was good, but not somewhere I’d be back too soon.

Came here for pick up so can’t comment on service, but will say staff were friendly with ordering. We ordered 3 flavored dumplings, vegetarian dumplings, and potstickers which everyone liked. What was really good was the shrimp noodles, although not a huge portion. Overall, would come back for takeout, but would say in comparison dumplings are good but not on Din Tai Fung scale…

I had originally wanted to try out Luscious Dumplings next door on Christmas Day but they were closed and this restaurant situated right next door was open so my buddy and I decided to come here to eat. They have this buy 5 and get 1 free deal where you choose 5 dumplings of your choice and get the 6^th free. Each dumpling selection has about 8 to 10 pieces. I want to say that their Xiao Long Bao was 10 pieces each while their pan fried dumplings were 8 pieces each. We ordered 3 different Xiao Long Bao plus 2 pan fried dumplings (sorry, I can’t remember the names), plus the free one whose name also escapes me but it was fried dumpling item.
Xiao Long Bao was the best one. Wow. I’ve never been a big fan of Xiao Long Bao in general, at least the ones made in dim sum restaurants but I’m guessing that this is how «real» Xiao Long Bao is made. It was exploding with flavor and soup inside the dumpling. If you’ve ever watched the HK film called «God Of Cookery» starring Stephen Chow and Ng Man Tat where Stephen Chow and Karen Mok makes the «Pissing Fish Balls,» it’s like that. You bite it into it and the juices and meat just explodes in your mouth. OH MY GOD!!! It’s that damn good. So I would advise that you be careful when eating them. Don’t put the whole thing in your mouth when they bring it to you fresh out of the kitchen. Otherwise, like me, you’ll be scalding your tongue and mouth while trying to chew and taste the flavor. That was fun. (Not really). It was like sucking on a cock and hoping the cum doesn’t accidentally slide down your throat and burn your esophagus in the process. (Oh no, he didn’t!!!) Yes. Yes I did. Now deal with the imagery. (Mwahahahaha…) But in all seriousness, no homo. And it really is that hot so do be careful.
The pan fried dumplings had good texture. Not soggy. Not bland. Just the right amount of meat. I would imagine that some folks might find the flavor non-​existent but to me, there’s no other way to eat dumplings than by itself with no sauce. That way, you can taste the freshness of the meat filling. If this is how dumplings are supposed to be made, I think that this place definitely set that bar pretty high. Mm mm DEE-​licious~~
Service was adequate. No complaints. The young man got us what we wanted in a timely manner.
Ambiance. Quiet. Intimate quiet. It’s a really small place. I can’t imagine this spot accommodating more than 36 folks at any given time. I think there were 3 booths on each side (a total of 6 booths) plus 4 tables lined down the center. The register was on the left hand side from the entrance and the kitchen was the door right next to that. I don’t believe they have any restrooms there but don’t quote me on that. It wasn’t something that I paid attention to that day on Christmas.
Price. Each dumpling dish was between $ 5 – 6 each. I think the noodle dishes were a couple of dollars higher. There’s a $ 20 minimum that you need to spend before they allow you to charge your credit card. I believe it’s Visa and Mastercard only. At that point, you might as well just go with their buy 5 get 1 free deal. I would highly recommend going this route. Plus, if you don’t finish, you can always ask for some boxes and take them home.
All in all, while I didn’t get to try out Luscious Dumplings that day, which is supposedly the golden standard of standards in the SGV so far as dumplings are concerned, this restaurant definitely surpassed my expectations because it was such a small and unassuming place right next door.

What a great find! I’ve been coming here for a while but recently became more involved in the Unilocal community. The plaza looks a little run down, and parking can be difficult at times but it’s worth it! This place specialized in Hui Tou; it’s a fried elongated dumpling. While the Hui Tou gets fried, the juices of the beef or pork soak marinate into the skin. It’s absolutely a treat!
Their Juicy Pork Bao isn’t anything special. I just come here for the Pork Hui Tou and some Cold Cucumbers!
Also, they write it in Chinese, but it’s buy 5 entrees, get 1 free!

Small unassuming restaurant in an unassuming strip mall. This shop is sandwiched between luscious dumplings and an indonesian grocer. Small restaurant with a relatively attentive wait staff.
They had a special going, where if you order 5 mains/​entress you get a 6^th ish free!, appetizers don’t count towards the deal, but if you’ve ordered 5 mains you can pick an appetizer as your free dish.
We got pork w/​leek pie, xiao long bao w/​crab, 3 flavors dumplings, pork hui tou, a beef noodle and a pork belly noodle. This is arranged in order of tastiness,
The pork and leek pie was super good, came out fresh off the griddle, it was hot, juicy and full of flavor, but be careful, take care with the first bite, or you might get scalded by the juices inside it.
The xiao long bao, was very tasty, as others have said before its not delicate like the ones at DTF (din tai fung), these ones are heartier, but the flavor is there its damn tasty, could’ve used a bit more soup inside but its good. The 3 flavors dumpling was well made and tasty, had a good wrapper that didn’t wasn’t flimsy or too thick. solid.
For me this restaurant does a good job, but they need to change their name or something because the least favorite dishes we ordered were the ones in their name. THe pork hui tou, was an uninspiring finger shaped pan fried dumpling… and the pork belly noodle was just lame, clear broth that lacked seasoning, some limp noodles… they didn’t even try on that one!
So it seems like if you order anything that isn’t part of the restaurants name, you should be doing pretty alright.
p. s. they are stingy with their napkins, they give you one sheet of those crappy phở restaurant napkins. We asked for some additional napkins during our meal and they gave us each an additional sheet. Was there a run up on napkin prices that I’m unaware of? why are they so precious here?
Get the pork and leek pie!

I was pleasantly surprised that the food here was actually not bad.
Maybe because I was starving but I really enjoyed their Egg and tomato noodle. The texture of the noodles was perfect and just the way I liked it !
My friend however felt like the dumplings he ordered felt like they were frozen dumplings and not freshly made. But, personally I enjoyed what I ate.

This review has been a long time coming, but I came here with a bunch of Unilocalers for dinner on a Saturday night. We arrived fairly early — before 7 — were all able to avoid the dinnertime crowd and find parking in the pretty small lot. Since this restaurant is located in the same plaza as the popular Luscious Dumplings and Phoenix, it can get incredibly crowded while waiting at restaurants or for a parking spot!
I believe what draws customers into Hui Tou Xiang is their special buy four items, get one free promotional deal. I mean, that’s what drew me to look into the restaurant in the first place. They also have simple spicy appetizers they serve to the table while you wait for the food, which was pretty nice.
Hui Tou Xiang is popular for their special potstickers that are in a rectangular shape rather than the traditional pot sticker shape. I believe this is so that both sides of the pot stickers get an even cook making the skin of the dumpling to taste uniformly crispy on all sides.
Pork hui tou: Flavorful and tasty. The skin of the dumpling was slightly crispy but still chewy, which I liked. The flavor of the pork was good as well.
Beef hui tou: Not as flavorful and juicy as the pork. There wasn’t as much of a taste. Skin was cooked evenly, but I’d skip the beef and just go for the pork.
Crab xiao long bao: It was pretty tasty, but I still prefer Mama Lu’s to this one. Not too memorable, but flavors were good. I’m not a big fan of crab XLB in general, so paying a whole lot more money to get crab instead of pork isn’t my thing.
Sesame noodles: No taste at all. We added all the additional sauces given to us and all we could taste from the noodles was the sesame oil. No flavor, no taste, no good.
I think we ordered one more dish/​received one for free, but I have no clue what it was — which probably means it was just okay.
Overall, the food was decent for the price we paid. I wouldn’t say that anything was extraordinary or outstanding. Honestly I don’t think I’d come back to this restaurant when I can get Mama Lu’s instead.

Had this place bookmarked for quite a while and finally got to try it with my friend. We started off with the stewed seaweed, which really stimulated our appetite. We also got the 小籠包 xiaolongbao with crab meat, comes with 10 pieces only for $ 6.95… what a deal. Taste was up to par with DTF and Mama Lu’s (although Mama Lu’s is still my all time favorite), but this place is great for those on a budget. We got the Hui Tou Pork, comes with 8 pieces. Obviously had to get this because c’mon, it’s the restaurant name. I only had one before I got too full, their portions for everything are so giant considering the prices. Also got the the shrimp fried noodles which was amazing. I think I finished all of that mainly because it was too good — probably my favorite item out of this meal.
Only downside is that you have to spend a certain amount to use card (I believe it’s $ 20) so they didn’t allow us to split the check. There’s plenty of parking and it’s not too crowded here. I’ll definitely be back!

I love how its not super crowded here to get a bite to eat. Like a hole in a wall, foods good. Great for kids and groups. When you order a certain amount you get a dish for free added on of your choice.
Regular xlb here is just OK. Its a tad bit too sweet for a xiong long bao. I had ordered the crab xlb before and that was better then the regular ones.
Hui tou dumplings are a must get here. The pork is extremely juicy and delicious.
Seasome garlic noodles are light and good as well.
Tomato noodles are light and a bit oily. I think they used a oil base sauce to make this dish so it comes odd really oily when you scoop it out or eat it.
Overall its pretty affordable. Foods good and great for groups. Again it doesn’t get too crowded here so of you’re hungry and don’t wanna wait this is a good place to go to.

It’s my first visit to HuiTou Xiang Noodles House (回頭香麵館), mainly because my first choice was closed on Mondays, but that turned out to be a blessing as I discovered this joint near-​by.
It’s a small family owned/​operated eatery. Service is good even though it was a full house. They served us a dish of kimchi before taking the order. I asked for recommendations and discovered HuiTou is the house specialty so I to give it a try. It turned out be pan-​fried buick-​shaped potstickers with crispy skin and juicy fillings. We also ordered XiaoLongBao per recommendation, stewed beef soup noodles and braised meatball soup noodles. Most entrees are either $ 6.75 or $ 6.95. Credit cards are accepted with a minimum purchase of $ 20.
Overall, I am likely to be back. Since the flavor of soup noodles were mediocre, I will order mostly dumplings, pancakes, and potstickers.

I was craving dumplings and the pictures from this place looked so good.
The restaurant is small, but there are plenty of parking spaces available.
Fill out the order form that is available at the table. I got my order for take-​out and it was ready in 15 minutes.
Pork hui tou ($ 6.95): 8 pieces of tubular shaped dumplings. The dumplings are tightly closed on both ends. The skin chewy and thick, compared to other dumplings. The pan fried dumpling skin is brownish and it tastes like Chinese pancake. It was very doughy; I wish the skin was crispier :(
Open up your dumpling and you’ll see pinkish minced pork filling. The flavor is kinda good, but very subtle. Dip your dumplings in chili sauce and vinegar-​soy sauce mix.
3 stars!
Hui Tou Xiang Noodles House is almost yummylicious!

It’s a mom and pop place. The service is pretty good for a Chinese restaurant. You should try their dumplings!
Spicy Wontons: Spicy and tasty! They put a lot of chili flakes on the dumplings so beware. I think the level of spiciness (medium) is good for the dumpling size.
Pork Hui Tou Dumplings: Good. It’s a long, rectangular version of a potsticker with yummy pork juices on the inside. The dumpling skin is nicely pan-​seared but it’s a little thick. Bite carefully, starting on a corner, because they are hot and the juice may leak out!
Xiao Long Bao: Good, but not as good as DTF. The skin is thicker and the pork dumpling is not as juicy.
Parking: Fairly easy to find spaces in the plaza
FYI, cash only!

I came here because I saw this restaurant featured on a food channel about their rectangular dumplings. The restaurant itself is very small, with only a few tables. Luckily we didn’t have to wait though. We ordered the pork hui tou, the pork and leek pancakes, spicy wontons, and a pork soup noodle.
The texture of the dumplings was something that I’m not used to. The skin was really thick and I got really full from eating just the skin on all the dishes. Also, after awhile everything just tasted like too much pork. The pork soup noodle was only average, not very flavorful. My favorite was probably the spicy wontons, though it could’ve been even spicier.
Overall, this place was pretty good and the prices are fairly low. I definitely will be back to try some of their other dishes.

Overall, the best thing to order at this place is the Hui Tou, hence it’s in the name of the restaurant. They have a buy 5 main courses get 1 free, so we definitely took advantage of this and got 12 items to try all their dumpling-​type dishes. It’s a small restaurant, but one that’s worth checking out for their Hui Tou!
+ PAN FRIED PORK/​BEEF HUI TOU. Their signature item, and both were delicious. The dough is pan friend perfectly on both sides and the meat is flavored very well. There is a bit of soup inside, so that was tasty as well. Not too greasy. Dip it in some vinegar and the chili they give you and you’ll find yourself stuffing your face with these.
+ PORK AND LEEK PANCAKES. Similar to the Hui Tou in terms of preparation, but they are like little pockets with pork and think… think of this as kind of a chinese empanada. I’m typically not a fan of leek since the taste is overpowering, but I enjoyed this dish. Keep in mind that if you order a bunch of these items, you will be consuming A LOT of dough!
+ THREE FLAVOR DUMPLINGS. Their menu really doesn’t define what the «three flavors» are, but it contains: pork, leek, shrimp, and egg. I really enjoyed this dumpling since the flavors overall were very subtle. It’s a nice dish to have if you get tired of eating the pan fried items. The skin is a bit thick.
+ PORK AND NAPA DUMPLINGS. Another good dumpling with standard flavors. If you aren’t a fan of the leek flavor, get these.
+ XIAO LONG BAO. I’m reading all these reviews comparing these to Din Tai Fung or Luscious. I wasn’t a big fan of these (both regular and the crab) and I don’t see the comparison.
+ SPICY MEAT WONTON. I was a bit underwhelmed by these, the chili oil wasn’t as spicy or flavorful as I would like in this dish.

What do you do when Luscious Dumpling (next door if you didn’t know) has an enormous wait line? Go to Hui Tou Xiang (aka the place next to Luscious). One thing I don’t like is their name. I can’t even pronounce it! But their food will make up for it: p
Pork & Leek Pancake ($ 6.75)
Fried to perfection. There is a perfect amount of stuffing, and the entire dish goes well together. When it comes out, it’s piping hot so give it a minute or two before you chow down.
Pork Shumai ($ 6.95)
The skin is a thin and a little to hard for me. Not the greatest. I’d definitely save my stomach for something tastier.
Pork & Napa Dumplings ($ 6.75)
My favorite thing here! I like boiled/​steamed better than fried. I could order two of these all for myself.
Parking can get a little difficult, but circle around or try to get some street parking!

I saw this restaurant on a food tv show called What The Fung? and thought I should give it a try and miraculously it was so close to my house. The place looks like any other Chinese restaurant in Sgv. However, they servers are pleasant, greeted you, and service was good.
This place reminds me of DTF. Same type of food but the biggest difference is that you don’t have to wait over an hour for overpriced dumplings here. I always thought DTF was overrated anyways. I ordered the hui tou, sesame noodles, and 3 flavor dumplings.
The hui tou is what they are known for. They are the only place in svg that makes their fried dumplings in an unique shape of a rectangle. Watch out of the juice because it is hot! I only wish was that they put more meat in the hui tou. I recommend to order this.
The sesame noodles was also very uniquely made. They serve with freshly homemade noodles with thinly sliced cucumber and eggs. Most places would mix all the condiments together. However, this place leave the side soy sauce, minced garlic, and peanut sauce on a separate side tray for you to mix for your own desire. I would recommend to order this dish.
The 3 flavor dumplings wasn’t anything special. The shrimp tasted pretty fresh. So I guess that’s always a good thing. Lol
Overall this was a good experience and would recommend anyone to come here if you haven’t try it out.

The Shanghai dumplings were good here, for the San Gabriel Valley. I think is a decent alternative to traveling way out to Din Tai Fung if you fear the waiting, crowds and commuting distance. I’d definitely come back here again (and again) if/​when in the area with a craving for Xiao Long Bao
The menu is fairly robust with soup noodles, soups, rice dishes, and other food items, reasonably priced.
I had the pork and cabbage pan fried dumplings a.k.a. Chinese Potstickers (similar to Japanese Gyoza, but with a thicker wrapper/​skin). They’re smaller more boxy than rectangular in size and shape than traditional potstickers, but very tasty.
We had the Shanghai Noodle Rice Cakes, which were/​are thick dense disc shaped rice noodles, similar if not exactly like what Chow Fun is made out of, but instead of thin ribbons, these are thick oblong oval coin shaped and much thicker and dense. It’s unique, so ‘tho I like Chow Fun a lot better, whenever this dish is available I always end up gravitating towards it more because it’s a menu rarity for me given I usually frequent Cantonese Chinese cuisine restaurants.
The JOOK (Congee /​Rice Porridge) was very inexpensive, we had that and it was done with «the works» lots of ingredients. I usually like mine cheap and plain, not so decadent, but it seemed like a great bargain and good price with quality too.
Parking is fairly easy and this isn’t in a crowded part of town either, so it’s a nice neighborhood restaurant.
It’s very clean inside and spacious seating too.
We were actually looking for «Luscious Dumpling» via Unilocal using Waze but got navigated towards Hui Tou Xiang and just opted to try this place out since they touted having Dumplings, and at first I even thought both restaurants were one in the same as an A.K.A. «Alias» moniker, but am glad I stopped by to discover this nice restaurant.
The service was very friendly too, which always makes for a pleasant experience.

A nice alternative to DTF, dumpling house. We are experiencing some June Gloom in May, so naturally, I’d resort to something warm and/​or soupy. Dumplings are great for this kind of weather.
Looking for a place other than DTF, we made our way here. Small and not too bad of a wait. Friendly service and they work fast.
Crab XLB: Nicely done. A tad bigger than DTF’s dumplings with a sweetness to the juice.
Leek Dumplings: crispy on the outside, hot and flavorful on the inside.
Spicy Wonton: the dumplings itself was tasty. I assumed the spicy sauce topping the wontons was more flavorful to make the dish special, but it was just chili oil. (the one’s at your table). DTF does this dish better.
Sesame Noodles: cold noodles; good, but bland. I don’t mind that it’s not overpowered with sauce. It was quiet refreshing for me.
I’d come back for the XLB.

Lately I’ve been in the noodle and dumpling mood so I decided to check this place out with the bf. This place is a small and modest eatery next to Luscious Dumplings and Taipei Bistro. There’s lots of selections to choose on the menu, however I will tell you one thing: order the hui tou dumplings!
We ate:
1. Hui Tou dumplings: We got ½ pork and ½ beef dumplings. Just imagine these dumplings as kind of like xiao long bao (because once you bite into the dumpling, you can slurp up some of the juice) but with a slightly thicker dumpling skin is long shaped. Overall, these are delicious! I prefer the pork over the beef. (⁵⁄₅)
2. Stewed beef noodle soup: The broth was decent, but my bf and I were disappointed with the noodles. They did not taste fresh at all. The consistency and texture of the noodles seemed like they were store bought and not your typical fresh handmade noodles. You’re not missing out with this one. (³⁄₅)
Overall, we thought the highlight and possibly best thing out of the menu is the Hui Tou dumplings. Service is good and parking can be somewhat limited because the plaza can be busy during lunch and dinner hours.