Sam Woo BBQ

After the change of ownership, this place has gone down hill, the new owner raised prices and the food quality went down the drain. The place is dirty, look the floors when you walk in, the tables and chairs are sticky, need a thorough wipe down. Its now only Sam Woos by name, compare to the other Sam Woos, this is by far the worst in terms of food quality…

I love Sam Woo BBQ. This is my first time trying the San Gabriel location and it did not disappoint.
The free drink was awesome too. I tried the Chinese herbal tea and it was so refreshing. My hubby tried the lemon tea which was good too. Not a lot of places give you free drinks so KUDOS to Sam Woo.
The food came out fast and service was good. Roast Pork was nice and crispy. The fried rice, egg plant were tasty too. The only thing I did not like was the black pepper beef chow mein because it was very salty.

Core Canto style food is severely lacking. Dry fried beef chow fun was terrible. Not enough oil, and wok was not hot enough.
Walnut prawns were mealy and over breaded.
Peking duck was all skin, and meat was soft with no texture.
Stay away from this Sam Woo.
Severely disappointed.

First off, Ive never experienced racism at the hands of my fellow asians (I’m half asian, half hispanic so I look Filipino, go figure).
I walk in, take a number. Sit down.
Asian couple walks in, manager promptly sits them down before me, completely ignores me. I look at him and hold my number up, he doesn’t even apologize. Gives me the hand to wait. I wait. For 10 more minutes as I’m finally sat.
I will continue to leave negative reviews until someone reaches out to me to make this right.
I used to love this place, now Im just disgusted.

Who doesn’t love Sam Who? I mean Sam Woo! I think we’ve all made that joke at one time or another. And of course, we all come here for the food, not really the service. The last visit here, pretty much validates that.
Trying to get hot tea here was like pulling teeth. We had 4 adults in our party and all of us wanted hot tea. We asked when immediately seated and took 10 minutes to get us 2 cups. We waited another 30 minutes and they said they were washing the cups. It wasn’t until we were pretty much finished with the food, we asked again and still nothing. We just ended up asking having hot tea in those plastic tumblers which they gave us water in. That’s pretty much what you have to settle for.
The red bean soup after dinner is quite good here. I haven’t had one of these in a long time and it was just like I had remembered, hot and slightly sweet.
We didn’t order any BBQ items here, even though that’s what they’re known for. (I do love the char siu and craklin pork) But I have to say, the simple foods like the won ton noodles and the yang chow fried rice is top notch. The won tons are probably one of the best I’ve had, meaty and juicy.
The whole fried fish they have here is also quite good, I think it’s Sole they fry.
We also got pan fried noodles (that came out too soggy) and the steak in the birds nest (that portion was way too small)
That said, this place would have a much better rating when its not busy and up some of the ingredients in the dishes.
Free parking in the lot.

Another day, another Sam Woo.
I find this Sam Woo to be better than the one I went to a few days ago (on Valley). Menu is relatively the same but service is better and I got free lemonade tea and dessert this time. Price is very reasonable and food is definitely good. I think I’ve found my new spot. Will definitely come back again since this one is a tad closer to home.

After the Sam Woo on Garvey closed down years ago, my parents and I had the hardest time finding Roast Duck that tasted as good as that OG Sam Woo. Two years ago, I passed by this place on a lunch break and let my parents know that there was one here. We tried it out a couple days later and fell in love.
The interior of this place is unlike any other Sam Woo I’ve been to. It’s much cleaner, the waiters are nicer and they offer lemon iced tea! If you want authentic chinese food, this is definitely the place to go.
I love their soy sauce chicken! The skin is nice and smooth and the meat is tender. This place can get really crowded sometimes but the food is worth the wait. They have this lamb stew that’s amazing. It’s more of a lamb hot pot sort of dish.
It really doesn’t get better than this. Love this place!

I can’t believe I haven’t found a place earlier. you taste different from other Sam Woo. They have tasty dishes and I love their Hong Kong waffle eggs. I would say they are the best ive Ever had in LA.
we ordered the string beans, eggs with shrimp, salty fish meat cake. everything was super delicious. it did not taste too oily but has the perfect flavoring.
can’t wait to come back!

I used to come to this location years ago, when I lived in San Gabriel. Don’t know why I forgot about it, but sure am glad I re-​discovered it!
We came around 1:30 on a Saturday, which was a good because we were seated right away and it wasn’t too crowded from lunch.
We had:
*Spare rib appetizer, good but sweeter than we expected. A bit too goopy for me but my wife liked it.
* Hot Braised Green Beans, asked them to add ground pork and this was DELICIOUS!
*House Special Fish Fillet, Oh My Gaaaaa GOOD!
They also served some soup «on the house» which I wasn’t crazy about but with all the food we had coming it was not a problem.
This is the only Sam Woo I’ve been to where parking isn’t a nightmare. And, perhaps because it wasn’t too busy, our service was quite friendly and good.

I love love love love this place for late night dinner specials! The dinner specials start at 9:30 everyday of the week! For their dinner specials, you get a free sweet iced tea. According to their paper menu you can get refills for 0.50, but last time we went they didn’t charge for refills.
Some typical items we order:
Duo BBQ Combination ($ 7.99) — You can choose from roasted duck, roasted pork, bbq pork, soy sauce chicken, and sausage. We normally order BBQ pork and soy sauce chicken. The soy sauce chicken is flavorful and it is even more delicious with ginger and oil sauce! The BBQ pork is good, but a little bit on the drier side. I prefer my BBQ pork more moist and tender.
Choy Sum with Fried Minced Pork ($ 6.99) — Yumm, this is my absolute favorite vegetable! The choy sum is fresh and crunchy with lots of garlic and flavor. The fried minced pork is delicious, it is like small pieces of pork rinds drenched in the delicious garlic flavored sauce. This is my favorite!
Beef Brisket Turnip Hot Pot ($ 7.99) — This is delicious! The beef brisket is braised with turnip making both extremely juicy and tender. It is not too sweet or too salty, it is just right and flavorful. I love drenching the sauce over my white rice. Yumm…
I’m a regular here and you can never go wrong coming here for some cheap, quick, decent Chinese food. Will be back again soon!

Not bad at all. This particular Sam Woo outlet seems to have better parking and seating availability than the Sam Woo on 140 W. Valley Blvd. (the one I usually go to), but the prices on their menu seem to be noticeably higher (especially for seafood).
In any case, this place is still worth a try, because their food is quite good. We ordered Eggplant with Garlic Sauce, the Three Delicacy Combination Plate (we selected BBQ Pork, BBQ Sausage, and BBQ Duck), Young Chow Fried Rice, and an Egg Waffle. All of those dishes were quite tasty, and filling in portion size. Can’t go wrong with any of those. The complimentary Mung Bean and Tapioca soup served for dessert was not bad, either.
For the most part, service here is pretty typical of Cantonese restaurants (i.e. bereft, and less than exemplary), but I should note a conspicuous exception to that pattern that we experienced during our visit: my sister had unintentionally knocked over and spilled her glass of lemon ice tea. The manager promptly had the mess cleaned up, and supplied my sister with a replacement lemon ice tea at no additional charge. I felt that he handled that incident in an most efficient and effective manner — kudos to him.
There is the usual array of characteristically-​Chinese advertisements for local businesses embedded in the menus and placemats. I recall seeing ads for insurance services, legal services, SAT tutoring, and the likes. Quite tacky, but seeing as it presumably helps keep their prices from being higher … eh, I guess I’ll just go along with it.

Cheap, quick, delicious Chinese food! They take card when you eat there, but cash only if you’re buying at the to-​go area.
My family and I eat here all the time– their portion sizes are generous and the food is so so good/​filling. They also give free lemon iced tea during lunch.
My favorites:
+Roast Pork
+All the chicken
+Mapo Tofu
+Fried rice with preserved meat

Good place for Chinese/​Cantonese food! They have your typical Chinese fare such as BBQ, chicken chow mein, pork belly, braised string beans, etc. You get the point, pretty much everything Chinese-​food here! But what I’m really a fan of is their late night menu/​specials! The specials range in price from $ 4.99 to $ 7.99 and come with a free sweet ice tea. There is a HUGE variety in this late night menu that also includes some seafood items if you like.
Food (⁴⁄₅)
Squid with Spicy Salt ($ 6.99) — the squid with spicy salt tastes like most other places around the area. Lightly breaded and sprinkled with garlic, fresh chili, and salt. It’s NOT spicy so don’t be afraid. If you like squid, you can’t go wrong with this.
Braised String Beans ($ 5.99) — braised hot string beans. fried and then steamed! Prepared with garlic, it really is a simple dish. Another you can’t go wrong with.
Duo BBQ Combination ($ 7.99) — you get to choose TWO types of BBQ. I ordered the duck and roasted pig. The duck was very flavorful, not overly salty, and actually had a decent amount of meat on it. The roasted pig was also very flavorful and roasted perfectly. The skin was crispy, yet not too chewy.
Service (³⁄₅) — it seems like during the late dinner specials Sam Woo is always so busy. The problem is that there isn’t enough workers. The restaurant was basically full and I think I only saw two or three servers. Some of the food came very early while the duo BBQ took the longest (weird cause it’s already prepared.)
Also, why do you charge me for rice? How can I eat this without rice? :(Owell, guess i’ll keep payin’ for rice!

If you’re looking for quality food for an affordable price, then Sam Woo BBQ is the right place to be. My family has been here a few times, but most recently, we dined here for lunch (utilizing their lunch specials) and dinner. The experience for lunch and dinner is different. When you are here for lunch, they give you free soup and it’s delicious! You also get free lemon iced tea all day long, very refreshing. They charge $ 1 per person for rice and it’s pretty much unlimited from there.
The food: I highly recommend getting the 3 delicacy dish for $ 12.95. You can choose from a large variety, but I highly recommend the roasted pork because the skin is very crispy and they remove all the bones. The soy sauce chicken is very juicy and another great choice. If you order the sausage, you’ll have to add another $ 1. This took me by surprised, I thought this would be the cheapest item on the menu. However, it was still delicious. I would not recommend the duck, there was barely any meat.
Another recommendation is there Crispy Fried Chicken — $ 9.95. We order the half size and it was plenty! The skin was very crispy and the meat was very tender. This dish is served with fried crackers. Squeeze some lemon over the chicken and enjoy!
There were two items that we didn’t enjoy. The Spare Ribs with Honey Walnut — $ 10.95 was not what we expected. We enjoy Shrimp with Honey Walnut, but it is not the same for the spare ribs. The spare ribs were battered and deep fried which is too over powering. We also ordered the Fried Pork with Honey Sauce — $ 10.95. Again, similarly to the Spare Ribs dish, this pork was battered and deep fried and covered with a sweet sauce. The top portion of the dish was sweet versus the bottom of the dish that did not get any sauce.
The service is decent, but that’s cause they focus on the food! The restaurant is outdated, but clean from what I can tell. I highly recommend this place, it’a great find!

I LOVE SAM WOO! I’ve been to this location 3+ times and most of the items are a hit. One of my favorites are the crispy noodles with fried chicken (or fried pork) because it comes with a homemade «gravy» and is easily under $ 9. We tried the dinner portion of clam and basil and it was so fresh, the clams were large, and the sauce was so delectable, but did you know they have a cheaper and slightly smaller lunch special version?! We will be getting that next time.
HK breakfast is quite good here as well, the ramen noodles and spam had a nice clear broth and good texture. I wouldn’t recommend the stir fry noodles as it was too soy-​sauce-​heavy and not juicy, but everything else was fine.
Parking can be busy, and they do have a parking attendant monitoring the activity. Their take-​out counter is very good also! We either get the intestines or char siu (sometimes both) to go.

A-​ok. Came here late one night and got the fish filet with tender greens and Fuzhou fried rice. Both dishes were flavorful and well made. The fish portion was too weak for the price though, too many veggies and barely any fish despite the high price (around $ 12 or more). Def did not get my money’s worth here. The fried rice portion was big so I was happy with that.
The fish portions seem to be a hit or miss because I do recall getting more at a different sam woo location, but the amounts seem inconsistent with any sam woo though.
On the bright side, I love that they give complimentary hot tea. Can’t get enough of it! This location also has plenty of parking in a nice looking plaza, the restaurant itself is pretty spacious and comfortable. I also noticed a lunch special menu which goes through weekends too!
Service wasn’t bad, waitress was attentive. Overall I’d come back because the food is good and cheap!

My family and I love coming here for the wonton noodle soup. This place has to be one of the best wonton noodle soup spots in the SGV.
They have this fried fish skin from Hong Kong, that is interesting. You can order family style, individual, however you like your Chinese food. I love their Duck, paired with rice, wonton noodle soup, however you want to style the duck. /​quack
You have your choice of water, hot tea, or a free iced drink. However, the free drink consists only a lemon ice tea (not your Hong Kong style but a terrible tea with a slice of lemon. Pass) and a herbal tea. Eh. Herbal Tea it is.
It’s one of the only Sam Woos left in the SGV — they used to be plentiful and within walking distance (ok, within a close driving distance). It kinda makes me sad since it is one of my favorite places.
This Sam Woo shares a lot with a supermarket, bakery, stores, and other restaurants. Plenty of parking. Tasty good food. Yay! I’m a fan!

How do I love thee… let me count the ways:
Health, cleanliness grade A.
Anglo woman’s ability to communicate… Yes.
DUCK, when you want it, whenever you want it… Yes.
Roast pork and bar-​b-​que pork, as much as you want (they have half a hog hanging there).
Now this might not be a good place to take your vegetarian or squeemish friends as the pig, the ducks and the chickens all have their heads on, also you will see chicken feet in the to go line in addition to the intestines…
I do buy my duck and pork here. A half a duck is around $ 10, you can’t buy raw duck for that price. The take out line sign says cash only but they let me use my credit card. The half duck feeds me for two days. I have not eaten here for dine-​in but the take-​out is a four for me. I have them cut the head off the duck and not chop it.

This Sam Woo is a pretty successful location and has strived when most of this strip mall did not!
I love that there are lunch specials on weekends (rice, soup and tea/​iced lemon tea are included).
Upon entering, you will see their butcher/​take out counter first. You’ll get to see their display of duck, chicken and BBQ pork hanging in the display. If you can’t get past the site of the hanging meat, you won’t be disappointed!
Some of the dishes that you can’t go wrong with:
— two delicacies (pick your two meats; I usually get duck and BBQ pork)
— lemon chicken (breaded chicken)
— filet mignon cubes served in a creative fried noodle bowl (see picture)
— kung pao chicken
— baby bachoy w/​garlic
— string beans (the salted ones w/​minced meat)
Pass on:
— spicy/​salted fried tofu (literally little cubes of tofu deep fried, but not seasoned enough)
— scrambled eggs (unless you like fluffy and slightly soggy eggs… not my thing)
Pro tip: They accept Visa and MasterCard.
Unilocal 100 Challenge — 2 of 100

This is my favorite restaurant in the 626. If you’re looking for legit Chinese food, then you’re in the right place.
Parking is a cinch. Once you walk in, BOOM, there’s that beautiful duck hanging right there, waiting for you.
My favorites are the roasted duck, Lobster and noodles, Filet mignon cubes, and the fried pork chops, but you really can’t go wrong with any order off the menu.
The service is pretty awesome as sometimes I think they are even overstaffed. There is ALWAYS someone waiting to attend to your needs. Like, can some other restaurants learn from Sam Woo?
When your tummy is all full with all sorts of authentic Chinese dishes, DO NOT forget the pudding. THE BEST pudding IN THE WORLD. I love it. I get 2 orders every time, no matter HOW full I am. #IGoHard