Ming Wa Restaurant

I usually have Ming Wa when I am looking for a good portioned cheap, home made taste meal. You cant go wrong with the pork fried rice, pork dumplings and hot braised fish fillet. These three items are good enough for 4 people and you pay a little over $ 20. If you care about how the place looks, I suggest you order for pickup. This place is cash only.
The only reason I didn’t give that extra star is because the customer service is lacking. The owner is an older Chinese woman with no sense of customer service and the place is literally a hole in the wall.

wonderful comfort food.
except always need to check make sure you have cash because it doesn’t accept credit card.
believe me everything is great on the menu.
service is good when you become an regular.

Cash only, but the food is great. I come here for the corn soup. It is most delicious!

This is a definite hole in the wall. Not fancy at all. Large portions and fair prices. Beef noodle soup was big and only $ 6.25. Not my favorite but good. I would def come back for it again. The squash was good too. It’s was $ 7.55. Not bad. They give you a lot. There’s so many other items on the menu that I want to try. I’m so full already but I had to order a pork chop rice to go. Everyone keeps talking about it!!! The guys eating it at the table next to me are saying it’s super good.

Kung pao shrimp… Dynamite…KP chicken also very good… I usually get it to go very quick. green onion panckace also good… I live up the street and tried most of the chinese in the area… this one is my favorite… I need quick…

I always order the same thing here:
–Pork pan fried dumplings
–Green onion pancake
–Potherb noodle soup
I’ve been coming here with my family since I was in elementary school. The food here is absolutely amazing. I love the way they make the pork pan fried dumpling because the skin is always so crunchy (but not too much) and the pork is nice and juicy inside when you bite inside. Another plus is their hot chili oil. It’s made in house and pairs perfectly with the dumplings. The only downside is that it’s cash only. But that’ll never stop me from going back.

The best dishes on the house are: sweet and sour soup, fried rice with preserved vegetable, fried dumplings, and pancake. The price is very reasonable.
There is only one server who may be the owner of the restaurant. I understand it is a mom and pop family type restaurant and work is hard. However, customers come in and return for a good meal and also would like to enjoy minimal good service. The server is extremely rude. She never smiles. Yes, she is doing her job — taking down the order, putting out the dishes, etc. But is this enough to run a restaurant?
The tables were all sticky and all needed to be wiped down.
I was warned by friends about the server’s behavior and was told that customers could be kicked out of the restaurant. Go and eat at your own risk at this restaurant. Two stars are for the food and 0 star for the service.

Don’t ever come here, the server here is extremely rude! Haven’t met anyone like her…

This place is horrible! Came here twice… first time there were huge lines so didn’t get to eat here… second time walked in on a Saturday afternoon… there was no line and also three empty tables. Saw the waitress was busy so just waited at the door, and she saw us a couple times but ignored us, probably because she was busy I guess… after about 5 or 7 minutes… we walked up to her (two of us) at the counter… and she still ignored us for a minute then asked if we are here for to go orders, told her no we are planning to eat here… she then said they are busy and there is a line and we have to wait 40 to 50 minutes. We looked around… again…3 empty tables and no one was waiting in line… they obviously don’t want us here, so we just left… don’t see the reason why… but will not ever be back here.

Let me put it this way: the ONLY reason this place didn’t get a 1 star today, was the taste and quality of the food.
I mean, LITERALLY from the moment we walked in here, we were told we had less than 30 minutes to dine, and less than ten minutes to order our food. Apparently they let diners come in as they are getting read to shut down their kitchen, which is an unacceptable practice. Either let people in, let them sit down and take their time to order, or politely tell them the kitchen is closing and don’t let them sit.
So no sooner do we sit down than the guy hovers over us and tells us to order right away. We ordered some pork dumplings, hot n sour, and #49 beef fun. Beef fun comes out first, then soup, then dumplings. When they brought out the dumplings, they handed us the check and asked us to pay right then and there. UNBELIEVABLE!
I told them to wait a couple minutes. They were back in two minutes to get my credit card and charge me. Then they brought back the receipt and asked me to sign it right then and there. It was just all too much.
That being said, all the food was delicious. I haven’t had hot n sour that good in a long time. My only complaint about the dumplings were that they were too salty. The beef fun lacked beef and was too heavy on the noodles.
Im not gonna lie — the food was delicious, and I know how to separate my experience of the restaurant and staff from the food. I will probly come here again during regular business hours, well before closing time. However the rude treatment we received (as well as others who were seated at around the same time we were seated), caused the score to go down.
Moral of the story: don’t seat customers if you are going to rush them out of the restaurant. Either you seat them and give them ONE very polite notice that the kitchen will close at this time, followed by the restaurant closing at arOUnd this time, and leave them alone after that, or you don’t seat them at all and stop taking customers 30 minutes before closing. That’s it – there are no other responsible options if you’re running a restaurant ANYwhere.

The food is delicious but when I dined in, it was horrible. My coworker introduced this place to us in the office. She loves the hot&sour soup from here and I agree. The hot&sour and the seaweed egg flower soup are very good and very filling. My other favorite dish from this place is the pork chop with rice. I’ve never personally been in the restaurant prior to dining in. Another coworker usually went to the restaurant and delivered the food to the office. But when I went to dine in here for the first time with four other friends, we were stuffed into a corner by a grumpy old woman. The table was right in front of the podium where they had the cash register. It was also directly in front of the entrance to the kitchen where you had a clear view of the dirty kitchen. Above all, when you first enter the restaurant, there isn’t even a cooked food aroma to the place. The smell was drowning and the closest thing I can compare the smell to is a sink filled with dirty dishes that haven’t been washed for weeks. The smell immediately turned me off. The table we were sat on was sticky and you can see the dried food stuck in the little cracks of the table. The menu felt grimy and my fork had a dried grain of rice stuck in it. When she served us the water, her fingers were gripping the tip of the cup. The host was rude and when we asked questions, her answer were short and she lacked proficiency in English. So, before it was too late, my friend got up and had our food ordered to go. I can never dine in here… what with the smell and the sticky tables and rude servers. The only reason why I’d come back here is for the hot and sour soup and pork chop. I’ll always order take out.

I’ve been here a couple of times already with a friend, and both were excellent! However, when I took my family here yesterday, we were less than satisfied. We had several dumpling dishes, including the pan friend pork dumplings, the Shanghai soup dumplings, the fish dumplings, and hot and sour soup. The best item was the pan friend dumplings. crispy on the outside, with juicy tender ground pork on the inside! The Shanghai soup dumplings, while still better than those found in any Ding Tai Fung restaurants, were just OK. The soup wasn’t as flavorful either for some odd reason. The worst, however, were the fish dumplings! Absolutely the fishiest fish dumplings we’ve ever tasted. the fishy taste even lingered after we got home! Gag!
So two four stars from my two previous visits with one star from my most recent visit, averages out to be a three-​star rating.
I’ll still continue to come here and try what their best selling items. This is just a fyi for anyone thinking about ordering their fish dumplings.

We were wandering around SG Valley on NYE on our way to a family function further east. We wanted to eat somewhere good and cheap. We were originally going to go to Sam Woo but it was crowded (as usual) with very little seating so onto Unilocal I went. Saw this place and driving by saw that it was relatively empty so we decided to give it a try. The place is your typical hole in the wall mom and pop shop (which we are totally fine with as long as the food is good!). I read beforehand that the lady who worked there was rude but I didn’t think she was rude. Just matter of fact and she spoke English well enough to communicate with us. As usual we ordered A LOT of food. We are such piggies! :P We had the steamed pork & shrimp dumplings (my 5 yo practically finished the whole plate himself), 3 ingredients with fresh noodles (the soup version — the soup was a bit bland and a little generic but the handmade noodles made up for it), xlb (steamed juicy pork dumplings), fried rice with pork and potherbs. So we weren’t too adventurous with our order (our main purpose was to get the kids fed) but we were pleasantly surprised with the food. I know everyone talks about the pan fried dumplings and I wish I had gotten a chance to try them but my kids prefer steamed so that’s what we went with. I personally thought they were ok and didn’t seem all that much better than DTF (which some of the reviews compared them to) but the kids devoured everything. And that makes this place good enough in my books. Unfortunately I don’t live on the east side but if I did, I could imagine trying out this place again. PS: Cash only!
Kiddo tip: As I said, it’s a hole in the wall type place. The bathroom is also a cleaning/​supplies closet, there’s no changing table. It’s a small space so leave your strollers in the car which should be easy to do because there’s a big empty parking lot for the strip mall.

Bad service? Give her a break. It’s a Mom n Pop operation where the wife does all the work in front of house while he cooks heavenly food in the back. She’s like the soup nazi so know what you want and don’t make eye contact. The food is the best here. I always get the spicy kung pao or the garlic chicken that is to die for also great soups. My girl loves the chicken noodle soup. Been coming here for years and the food has never disappointed. I recently got a smile from her. Baby steps.

Excellent food with easily the best stir-​fried vegetables in the San Gabriel Valley. I don’t know what they do in the back to make the vegetables taste so good, but I’ve never been to another restaurant whose veggies taste as well as this one.
Now, about the detractors:
1) The middle-​aged lady who works in the front is not rude but no-​nonsense. She doesn’t pretend to like you. She gets your order, brings you the food, and doesn’t smile. So what? Are you there to eat or are you there because you want to date her? This is a hole-​in-​the-​wall Chinese place, not Benihana, okay? If you want crap food but nice, friendly people, go to a hipster place!
2) It’s dirty. Again, it’s a hole-​in-​the-​wall Chinese restaurant. You want a clean Chinese place, go to P.F. Chang’s, then throw up afterwards cuz the food there is so bad. If you want a great-​tasting, cheap meal in a not super-​pristine restaurant, this is the place. Look, you’re not going to die from eating here, alright? Stop being such a pussy.

I came upon this little gem of a Northern Chinese dumpling house as I was driving and Unilocaling (I know that’s bad), with my favorite Classsical 91.5FM playing on the radio.
Then, I entered the place. Lo and behold! It’s same KUSC Fm on their radio. That’s instant good vibes. What are the odds of a hole-​in-​wall joint playing Brahms while you eat? Not even at those shi-​shi hoity-​toity, mostly overrated, establishments that I have been to (which deserve a whole blog all their own).
The food! Very savory ‘smal’ hot & sour soup enough to feed 3 – 4 people. Plump, juicy, perfectly fried potstickers. Excellent Shanghai xlb dumplings (though Mama Lu’s might be slightly better), Friendly service! (always helps to speak their tongue).
Final verdict: 4 Stars for the food & the musical ‘good taste’.

Note: they close at 3 pm and opens again for dinner. Sign says 11 am to 8:30 pm, but they verbally told customers to hurry and order before 3. Please don’t get hurt or take it personal. Humans need a break. They can’t work 12 hours straight 6 days a week.
But yay! New dumpling place close to home! Hubs think way better than Mama Lu’s. Their homemade fried dumplings are the best! Crispy and good filling! And their scallion pancakes are the best I’ve ever had! Airy, delicious and crispy.
Boiled dumplings have good skin and filling. Don’t get the XLB, thick skin and sadly deflated w/​no juice inside. But the other stuff makes up for it.
Also ordered hand made/​cut noodles because the name of the restaurant is really Ming Wa Noodles. That was really yummy.
I will be a regular. Their scallion pancakes and their fried dumplings are really good!

I been looking forward to this place for a while now. Yesterday, I was a bit hesitant to call in to order ToGO since I was worried that they wouldn’t understand my horrible Chinese but I called in anyway. I was glad that the lady understood and can speak in English.
Phone service was good… she took the time to try and understand what I wanted to order (first time, no menu and Unilocal’s photos was my only helper) hehhe she repeated my order and made sure all were corrected.
hot&sour soup– Thank you boss for letting me know that a small was good enough for 3 people… I was indecisive. I didn’t know if I should order large or small and the lady told me that a small would be enough for 3. Thank you for your honest answer. Soup was good. my cousin, my nephew and myself enjoyed it. We even had some left over and ate it today… still good.
mild spicy eggplants– now this was GOOD and the portion was GOoD! For about $ 8, you get like 2 layers of neatly sliced deliciously sauced eggplants. Totally worth it… I would come here just for this item.
Ordered: Pork dumplings (steam) — not one of my favorites because I had better elsewhere… Some were dried and the taste was a bit strange? Color looked kinda off as well… Ahh I m not even sure how to explain it lol some of it were too wet and sticked to each other… taking it apart caused the skin to ripped –_​– juice spilled
the steam juicy pork bao (xlb) — also not that great… The skin was a bit rough to chew on and the inside barely has the juice it supposed to have, therefore, the meat was somewhat dried. This other place sells this for $ 3.99 only and tasted a lot better… I can suck the juice/​soup in my mouth hahha
Again, good customer service, decent food, and decent price. The lady said they got a new menu and gave me one…
Will come again to try other food =)
Sorry for the blurred menu… When I snapped, it looked perfect but when posted it turned ugly. I blame Unilocal and the camera hahha

My eating experience was actually really good. I guess I caught the lady server on a good day. She was actually attentive and provided good service. Probably if I come back again I’ll get some bad service… we will seee!
My friend and I went all out on this place. We had some vegetable soup, eggplant, rice cakes, and a green onion pancake! I thought the vegetable soup wasn’t really good. It was pretty bland. The eggplant was really good. Can’t complain because I love any kind of eggplant from any restaurant that I’ve tried so far. Green onion pancake was good, but was kinda oily. So I had to dab it with a napkin to take some of the oil off.
Overall, I thought this restaurant was pretty good. I would definitely come back and would like to see others try it also.
John’s seal of approval! Thumbs up indeeed!

Most of the reviewers are right about being ignored at this place. The owner lady isn’t mean but she doesn’t really acknowledge you unless you basically flag her down. That’s what my wife and I ended up doing since we walked in here. We took Maggie C’s advice and just sat ourselves at an empty table which wasn’t even clean. There were several empty tables but they were all dirty. I was already getting annoyed at this point and got more irritated when the lady kept walking by and didn’t acknowledge us.
When we finally got her attention we ordered their famous hot & sour soup, rice cake with napa cabbage, and steamed pork dumplings. The last one was ordered by mistake. I thought I was ordering xiao long bao but it turned out to be just a regular steamed dumpling. It wasn’t bad but the pork filling could’ve used more flavor. If you want xiao long bao it’s #9 on the menu (steamed mini buns).
Not sure why so many people like the hot & sour soup here. My wife liked it but I thought it was too mild, neither hot nor sour.
My favorite item was the rice cake with napa cabbage although I could do without dried shrimps. The sauce tasted a lot like the kind used in Peruvian dish lomo saltado which I like. The rice cakes were cooked to right firmness to make it soft but still chewy.
Overall the food wasn’t bad and portions are generous. But I just can’t get over how many times we were ignored while we were there.
Cash only.