L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley Has a Thriving Chinese Culinary Scene—Here’s Where to Eat

Yang grew up eating in the Chinatowns of Flushing, Queens; Sunset Park, Brooklyn; and Manhattan before moving to Los Angeles after getting cast in ABC’s hit sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. It took him a couple of seasons of eating mediocre takeout before he dove into the thriving San Gabriel Valley regional Chinese restaurant scene. “When I finally got there and ate some real Chinese food, I felt like I was home,” Yang says. 

Savoy Kitchen

Head to this tiny restaurant for the Hainanese chicken rice. It’s super tender and is served with ginger sauce, a garlic sauce, and a slightly spicy chile sauce. 

Jazz Cat Hotpot

It’s cool to be able to cook your own food at Jazz Cat, and you can dip whatever you want in the broth, like raw egg and fish cakes, and all the vegetables. 

Lunasia

Any dim sum is good dim sum to me. One of my favorite dishes is beef cheong fun, which is steamed beef inside a rice paper roll served with a sweet soy sauce. 

Bopomofo

The boba in SGV is pretty amazing. In L.A. they serve you stuff like Coca-Cola boba, and I’m like, “That doesn’t count as boba!” Here there’s a whole other range of flavors. 

626 Night Market

This only happens in the summer, but it’s an outdoor market that’s a collection of the best restaurants serving really good street food.