The Best Time Restaurant

15 dollar Sapporo pitchers in the rainforest! What else can you ask for. Also on Wednesdays they give you large bowl of beef soup for $ 1. The Yakitori is good. The surf clam salad is bomb.

Pineapple shrimp fried rice. They make it Taiwanese style here, which is a variation of what I’m used to with the Thai version. It’s much more subtle, which isn’t a bad thing. For $ 10, you get can feed between 2 – 3 people… at least. I also like it cuz it’s open late and not very crowded, even during peak hours. Great for parties and plenty of parking! 11 PM kicks off karaōke.

Came here 2 times, the only good and value dish is thei skewer especially the lamb one cost $ 4 for 2 skewer, very tender and tasty, the non skewer dish are over price and small portion.

Kill me if they play «Happy Birthday» once more.
The «Spicy Chicken» appetizer is not bad, maybe I was already too buzzed, and only thing I have to complain about is the massive amount of chilli they put on the plate I couldn’t escape the wrath of the angry burning sphincter by the end of the nite.
Pitchers of beer was fair we paid about $ 150 by the end of the night for about 8 people. From what I remembered… Sapporo was $ 15.99 a pitcher Amber Bock/​Budweiser was $ 10.99 and a bottle of Taiwan Beer was $ 7
The place is fairly loud, not club loud. Loud enough for Asians to talk normally at a bar. This place also offers cards and dices you just need to ask the workers there.
I wonder what happened to the karaōke? This place has switched owners/​names since I last been here.

Wanted to try something new and decided to give this beer house a chance. The decoration is nice and the atmosphere is creative. However, this place lacks customer and it’s dead. We were one of the 3 groups there at 7PM on a weekend!
Although they have most of the dishes similar to other beer houses, but their food are SUPER salty! Especially the grilled items. I’m not sure if they did purposely or not, but be prepared to eat more than a week worth of sodium when you are here. They do have weekly special item at very low price, but that’s not enough to make up for a very salty experience. I really hope someone from their store can read the Unilocal reviews as what they are doing are not helping the almost dead business.
Pro:
1. Lots of parking
2. Empty so no waiting for a table
Con:
1. Super salty food! If they want to push for drink sale, there are other ways!
2. Waiter/​waitress will watch you eat. Not comfortable for everyone.
3. Some of the dishes are more expensive than other places
4. The drinks feel like watered down.

I like Indian more. But this place ain’t bad.

GREAT LAMB KABOBS & SPICY DISHES!
3^rd time here and was impressed. Guess I ordered the wrong stuff previously (stay away from fried rice or noodle dishes), this time ordered stir fried stuff and they were very tasty. If you’re into Chinese style lamb kabobs, they make them very authentic.
Watch out for karaōke singers into late night. If your not into dining while listening to people sing Chinese pop songs under the influence, you might want to stay away during the later hours where they open up the ENTIRE restaurant for karaōke.
Indian Beer House WATCH OUT! they keep slipping in quality, Best Time very well may become the better replacement.

The Best Time had it’s time…
This place was completely dead the last time I visited about 3 weeks ago, we were the only table. I feel kind of bad for the yellow polo shirt uniformed waitresses, just awkwardly standing around and watching us. Wooden tables and chairs were the theme, it’s casual and relaxing.
Some of the food are good I won’t deny, but not enough of them and not consistent. I’ll start with my fav, spicy surf clams, it’s served cold and lightly tossed in chilli oil, tasty and refreshing. Some of the decent and often repeated dishes are; Stir fried satay beef noodles, and spicy pork blood and tofu stew. Okay, the good stops here… remember, whatever you do, DO NOT order any soup. We ordered pork rib soup, and it reeked of rotten pork meat. They changed it for us to clam soup, and the clams had gone bad, simply inedible. And believe me, I’m far from trying to be harsh. But it was obvious that they probably don’t get enough business to keep the food fresh…
Keep in mind that this is a China-​run restaurant, so flavors of the dishes are a bit off if you’re hoping for Indian/​Jurassic (other beer house restaurants). It just doesn’t do it for me…

Even though this has become one of my usual weekday spots, it is honestly not the best. It is close by in the neighborhood and the parking is great here. A casual place if you just want to grab a pitcher and/​or a late night snack.
The workers are semi-​friendly. They just seem to like you more if you speak their language (mandarin). This also determines whether you get carded or not. Overall, they are okay, but they like to also mindlessly stand there and stand at the walls and it is difficult to get their attention sometimes.
The ambience of the place is supposed to be a replica of a forest. The place used to be called «Amazon». They have seating in the front and the back. The plus of sitting in the back is free karaōke after 10pm. Songs are not too updated, but nothing wrong with some oldies. If no one is singing, yes. you’ve guessed it. Chinese music.
The food is actually not too bad here. They give quite a big portion, but they should considering the price of almost $ 10 for fried rice. The things I love the most here are they skewers! The best salty snack to go with beers.
And finally the most important part: THE BEER SELECTIONS! They have the regular heineken and coronas in bottles, but they only serve Amber Bock, Bud Light, and Sapporo in pitchers. Trust me on this, order the Sapporro even if it is $ 2 more. The Amber Bock tastes a little. expired? Ew. I know. And no, I’m not the only one that thinks that. If you feel daring, go ahead and try it for yourself.

Slow service. Ordered a few simple dishes n food didn’t arrive until 30 mins later. Waitresses don’t check on you ever. You need to flag them down. Lots of older loud tw people that cheapen the environment.
Food priced the same as uncle yu Indian restaurant but tastes nowhere as good.
Would not recommend this place. Not coming back again
Ps dingy restrooms

Pros:
Good food.
Good service.
Easy parking.
Not Indian, which is to say that it’s not crowded with a ridiculous wait.
So close to my home that I can walk there if I choose to…
Cons:
Limited selection of beers, especially on tap.
Somewhat higher prices than it should be, given that it’s trying to establish itself against Indian. I think they should at least have some promotions to get more word-​of-​mouth marketing going…
We came here because at 8PM on a Friday, we would have had to wait another 30 minutes before our party of 6 got seats at Indian. I remember seeing this place while driving around in my ‘hood and looked it up on Unilocal.3.5 stars ain’t bad.
The food was delicious. Everything we ordered was at least as good, if not better than Uncle Yu’s Indian Theme Restaurant. I thought it wasn’t as greasy either. Unfortunately, the prices also seem to be on par as Indian, which I always thought was a bit on the high side. I really hope they have enough cash reserve to keep running this place until they get enough word-​of-​mouth going for it. I know that Chinese restaurants, especially in predominantly Asian neighborhoods, don’t like to spend much on marketing, but given the history of the location, some marketing expense would be a wise move and well worth it…
I really really hope this place is successful soon, and won’t be half empty on Fri nights…

The place was pretty dead when i came but the service and food was delicious so who can complain.

Grab your friends, eat a little, sing a bit. eat some more! For once, the name actually lives up to the hype.

Order the House Combination Fried Rice… you will not regret it!

I had this for dinner today and I was pretty impressed.
I ordered the Shanghai rice cakes, chicken gizzards, grilled corn and cold seaweed. The Shanghai rice cakes was very good and soft. Lots of vegetables and chicken and it wasn’t crazily oily so it was good. The chicken gizzards were really delicious and if you order 1, it comes with 2 skewers. The grilled corn was really good too. It was grilled with some sweet glazed. Im not sure what the glazed is… its not honey but its really good. The seaweed is a little spicy but its okay.
The service is pretty attentive and environment is pretty nice. Casual and its like a amazon-​ish environment.

I won’t fight any restaurant that serves to the dot. I think me and some buddies got in at one am, when Indian and My Friends was shooing us away from their doorsteps! The karaōke is awkward since it’s a shared system with the whole restaurant, but nothing a little liquid courage can’t handle ;)

I sometimes wonder if there’s a «name generator» that most restaurants in the SGV use, where it matches up a word like «noodle» or «dumpling» with one like «garden,» «house,» or «ocean» or something. If so, these guys didn’t get the memo. So, OK, full disclosure: I came here because of the name. And also because my friend who was treating me to dinner for helping her deal with a car accident said Indian was too far. But mostly cause it was called «The Best Time Restaurant.» Notice it’s not called «The Best Time» but «The Best Time Restaurant.» That’s the official name. How can you not smile.
The inside is what you would expect for something called «The Best Time Restaurant.» The theme is a sort of tropical, ocean, surf thing. The servers wear polo shirts, shorts and black cardigans if they’re cold (why don’t they wear something more tropical themed? I don’t know, but I suppose you can have the best time in a black cardigan… hell I have before).
I suspect it would get pretty rowdy in here. We were there on a Wed night at like 8pm and there were only a handful of other occupied tables there and already a couple of them were yelling at the top of their lungs and rolling dice or something.
The food was decent. Suan la tu dou si had an addictive flavor, but the tofu clay pot, though tasty, was a tiny bit too greasy for my taste. The cong you bing was disappointing (my second time being disappointed by a restaurant’s cong you bing in like a month… not acceptable). I didn’t get to try any meat dishes cause my friend is a vegetarian and I wanted her to be able to share everything.
There seems to be plenty of parking in the back, which is another plus. Heavy competition in this part of town (around Garfield and Main) but I suppose if you’re looking for a place where you can yell and eat suan la tu dou si while surrounded by tropical plants, you can’t have much of a better time than this. :)

Why didn’t I notice this place before? The food is great, interior is awesome, plus free KTV!

This place makes my list of Top 10 Places To Eat that No One Goes To.
Best Time Restaurant is one of those Taiwanese izakayas/​gastropubs similar to Indian or Jurassic that I’ve recently gotten into. While I can’t say that I’m an expert in Taiwanese bar food, I like the flavors at Best Time, well, the best.
Their stinky tofu is the best of the three Taiwanese pubs. The flavor here is nice and strong, and the odor pungent, but like all good stinky tofu, once you put it in your mouth, you won’t find it overbearing. The tofu itself is fried to a perfect crisp. Unlike the other reviewer, I like the sauce here best because of the strong garlic flavor (although I hear in Taiwan the sauce is typically even more garlicky).
One thing I should say is that the stinky tofu here REALLY stinks (maybe this is why it’s not on the menu). The first time we ordered it, a table of Chinese kids ACROSS THE ROOM complained and the wait staff had to ask if we would mind eating it out of a closed container. But since neither my friend nor I spoke Mandarin very well, we couldn’t really understand what they were asking. So the waiter went back to the other table and told them that we weren’t even Chinese. I guess they got so embarrassed for complaining about their own people’s food when they found out that the people enjoying this distinctly Chinese dish weren’t even Chinese, that they took back their complaint and ordered the stinky tofu too! Yes, it’s that good.
My favorite dish at this joint is actually the Spicy Surf Clam, and to be honest, this single dish alone is what makes me come all the way out here from LA. It’s quite simple really – large pieces of surf clam served cold, mixed with cucumber, garlic, and *lots* of Szechuan peppercorn. If you’ve never had the peppercorn, it’s kind of a minty spice that sort of numbs your mouth. The generous plate is garnished with a little ginger and it’s an awesome deal at 8 – 9 bucks.
The grilled skewers here are solid. I wouldn’t say they’re the best I’ve ever had, but they’re pretty close to what I used to get on the streets of Kunming when I was traveling Yunnan province in China. My favorite is the chicken cartilage (fatty and crunchy), but I’ve also had the chicken hearts, the lamb, the grilled chicken wing. And at $ 2.99 for two big skewers, this is probably the best deal you’re going to find in So Cal.
As the other Taiwanese bars have their own themes, the theme here is tiki/​surfing. The girls don’t’ dress as sexy as at the other places, but they’re cute in their white shorts and polo shirts, and their name tags light up. I’ve been here 3 times, and it’s never full, giving the ambience a little more laid back feel than at the other places. Good place to go if you want to throw back a few beers, enjoy a couple good beer food dishes, and chill out.
I hope this place manages to stick around for a while, because I like it better than the other two.

Not sure why this one doesn’t come up when I type in a search for «best» near Alhambra, or even «best time»…something amiss with the Unilocal search engine?
Amusingly, the Chinese name for the restaurant is something a little longer along the lines of «Have the best time when you are drinking» (or perhaps drunk)
Good little Taiwan style Itzakaya. Beer food. Really good skewers, I would say better than B20. We got a skewer combination which had about 16 skewers of various meats. Really a good deal for two.
The restaurant is pretty nice, almost a rainforest café thing going on with fake trees and plants. We went earlier in the evening before it was busy and had good service and were comfortable in a booth, but were disappointed that there was no bar.
Shortcomings like B20 and Indian in the beer department. Typical crap American lagers, the nearly undrinkable Miller Amber Bock leaves little to choose from. Taiwan Beer is the best option, unfortunately. Plenty of neon signs around the place for beers that are not served on the premises. Too bad.
Good food though, we’ll probably return.