May Mei is a solid Cantonese restaurant that has been a local favorite for 15 years. The daily chef specials and long list of Cantonese specialities makes it a neighborhood must. There are many renditions of popular tofu dishes on the menu, like fish and tofu in black bean sauce and  Cantonese-style soups that can take hours to make, like the crab meat fish maw soup. Seafood is a main draw here including the salt and pepper shrimp, black bean clams, and salty fish fried rice.

Joy’s Unique opened in the middle of the pandemic to much fanfare due to its affordable lunch and dinner meals of traditional and Chinese-American dishes. The restaurant offers two-, three-, and five-course meals that include rice and soup. There are also all-day specials for individual-sized orders. Menu standouts include the French-style beef, beef chow fun, spicy and salted chicken wings, curry Dungeness crab, pan-fried tiger shrimp, and soy sauce pigeon.

Tam’s Noodle House opened during the pandemic selling only frozen Hong Kong-style wontons and dumplings. Now that on-site dining is allowed again, the restaurant serves Hong Kong- and Cantonese-style cafe foods like curry fish balls, barbecue pork, beef stew lo mien, steamed rice roll, and Hong Kong-style milk tea. All the noodles and dumplings  are made in-house. Tam’s offers three varieties of egg noodles including wonton-style egg noodles, rice noodles, and flat egg noodles. 

Hidden inside a nondescript parking lot is a small mom-and-pop that’s been around for decades. The affordable Cantonese barbecue meats are better tasting than the big name establishments in the area. In fact, ACC is a wholesaler to many popular San Gabriel Valley restaurants that cannot afford to have a barbecue master in-house. The restaurant serves both an Americanized and a traditional Chinese menu, along with daily specials like Hong Kong egg waffles, beef noodle soup, and even a handful of non-Cantonese dishes. The roast duck is a must-order and the roast pork is only available on the weekends and can be preordered. 

Nature Pagoda is a tiny mom-and-pop that has been around since the ’90s. The entire menu is based on traditional Chinese medicinal principles meant to balance the body for optimal health. The places serves traditional herbal teas and herbal medicinal soups, but the star dish is the claypot rice. A Hong Kong specialty, clay pot rice (bao zai fan) is a one-pot meal that is similar to Korean bibimbap. The bottom of the rice is crispy while the rest of the rice is moist and steamed with ingredients like mushroom and bamboo shoots, Chinese sausage and pork ribs, or salted fish with ground pork and tofu. All clay pot rice dishes are made to order so it may be a bit of a wait.

Garden Cafe is another Hong Kong-style cafe with a menu as big as the Cheesecake Factory’s. Diners can order everything from Indonesian fried rice to wonton noodles, Singaporean-style vermicelli, and even mediocre steak specials. Garden Cafe’s best kept secret is its weekly to-go set dinners. Both locations offer special dishes each week that are advertised on paper menus that can only be obtained at the restaurant. There is a new dish everyday of the week that may include a Chiu Chow-style or five-spice duck, braised short ribs with red sauce, or a Western-style dinner.  It’s important to note that both locations do not serve the same specials and the set dinner is only available for pick-up at 3 p.m.  

Atlantic Seafood serves dim sum favorites like the egg white snow bun, pineapple preserved salted egg yolk bun, and even frozen dim sum to-go, but what it really excels at is traditional Cantonese dinner time dishes like clams, egg custard, satay beef noodles, barbecued meats, suckling pig, salt and pepper shrimp, and herbal soups.

Ruby BBQ is a cut above when it comes Cantonese-style barbecue. The roast pork’s crunchy exterior gives way to tender hunks of belly, while the roast duck’s crispy skin sheathes moist, gamey meat.

A hallmark of a true Hong Kong-style cafe is a menu with enough variety to give the Cheesecake Factory a run for its money. The menu here, which varies at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, has something for everyone. There is a wide array of standard classics like pork chop baked tomato rice, pineapple buns with pork cutlet, claypot rice, congee, noodles, and scallop fried rice. The grilled steak entrees are served with either rice or pasta and come with drinks. There are also an array of Chinese-American dishes like honey-glazed spare ribs and honey walnut shrimp. Alice’s Kitchen is operated by the family that opened the original Delicious Food Corner in Monterey Park.

Find Harlam’s Kitchen in Rosemead’s Square Plaza’s run-down food court. One of the reasons people still come to the plaza is solely for Har Lam’s Hong Kong-style comfort food: wonton noodle soup, chow fun, porridge, and rice noodles with beef brisket and tendon. The stall is so tiny that you can see the staff standing shoulder to shoulder, wrapping fresh dumplings and blanching noodles. The metal chairs in the food court haven’t been changed in decades, while the  food is served in styrofoam containers. Harlam’s must-order item is the zhaliang, a crispy Chinese fried donut wrapped inside a thin rice-noodle sheet and topped with sweet soy sauce, sesame seeds, and scallions. 

Come to NBC Seafood for dim sum or a family-style dinner. The best dim sum to order is the special “To To” ma lai go sponge cake, which is layered with salted duck yolk and made using a recipe from a famous Hong Kong chef and food personality (梁文韜). For those visiting NBC for dinner, the family-style Cantonese meals are a hit. The suckling pig and lobster meal for 10 people consists of a half order of suckling pig, five lobster dishes, as well as stir-fried noodles, roasted garlic chicken, and dessert. 

Rice Box is the first hip and modern Cantonese restaurant in Los Angeles that really hits the mark. Diners can create custom rice boxes, choosing from the signature char siu (barbecued pork), black soy-poached chicken, crispy seven spice pork belly, or a vegan special. Chef and co-owner Leo Lee uses only organic produce, as well as ethically-sourced, sustainable, and hormone-free meat. The signature char siu barbecued pork uses Duroc pork and is marinated in a family recipe that’s been passed down for more than three decades. The triple-roasted porchetta is marinated overnight, cured, and roasted for three hours in the oven and then smoked.

Chef Lee’s rendition of the traditional Chinese celebratory dish beggar’s chicken is only available a few times a year and sells out quickly. Beaneath the proofed almond milk bao dough, beautifully decorated with Chinese characters for rice and box, is a deboned and brined whole chicken stuffed and steamed with abalone and shitake mushrooms, steamed rice, ginkgo nuts, and marinated egg stuffing wrapped in lotus leaves.