San-Woo Bbq Express

Went there in the hope of findin transitional shanxi lamb soup. It turned out they don’t have it. Instead got the Luo Shin Fen, non spicy. It was pretty good, best I had in LA actually. The soup base is flavorful yet not too oily. Lots of ingredients, no meat in my soup which is a plus since I was eating light.
Service was fast and good. They accepted credit card, have validation if you park underground (two hour validation)
Overall very pleasant dinning experience. Will come back for sure

this is one of those places where you really need to know what to order. for run of the mill cantonese style food… it’s very average. HOWEVER the boss-​lady here is originally from Northern China and has also lived in other parts of China. The regional specialties are REALLY REALLY GOOD!
Solid in flavor in their own right, but add the bonus points for rarity of good mainland chinese food west of the 710… and San Woo is a home run for sure!
My favorite here is Liang Pi. think of it as a spicy cold noodle salad. noodles are wide, flat rice noodles. tossed with bean sprouts and cucumber slivers. sauce is a delicious mix of peanuts, dried red chili, lots of garlic! and standard soy sauce vinegar oil etc…
Spicy soupy rice noodles are GOOD too. Man. what a find!

for those people who gave this place less than 4 stars: YOU ORDERED THE WRONG FOOD!!! loll… in all seriousness though, i wish more people would notice this place for what it’s really good for: the liangpi, roujiamo, and guilin rice noodles. as a Xi’an-er, their liangpi and roujiamo taste just like what i had at home! soooo good! now every time i get homesick, i’d come here and order dat. :D

Cold flat noodle is good.

I walked by the restaurant in a weekend morning and wanted to try their Hainan chicken rice. But somehow I ended up getting the seafood wonton soup and the boba milk tea. The milk tea is way too sweet and tasted like sugar tea. The pearls were too soft and not chewy. The soup was okay but not what I expected: just pork and nothing else. A lot of wontons at least 10 – 12 but I would rather get better quality than quantity.

Got the duck wonton with egg noodle. Soup was a bit salty but overall it hit the spot as a snack. Friend got the milk tea boba and said the boba tasted like a pancake… interesting…

The best is

Took the train to Union Station to walk around Olvera Street & Chinatown and decided to lunch here.
San Woo has $ 4.99 lunch special items of which I partook of the Hunan Chicken & a regular price Peking Duck Won Ton soup. I didn’t have to wait too long for the food to come to the table. The Hunan Chicken had a drumstick & breast pieces, rice, broccoli and, I believe, pickled ginger. The chicken was served cold, of which I wasn’t expecting since I’ve never had Hunan chicken before, but was good and the portions of everything were satisfactory. The taste reminded me of the pieces of chicken in lugaw/​arroz caldo. The Peking Duck Won Ton soup was delicious. Lots of won tons & cuts of duck. The fat & crispy skin of duck is right up there with pork. So delicious. Rounding out the soup were carrot, pak choi (or similar green), green onions & cilantro. Fortifying & delicious. I filled up on the cheap.
The place itself is a hole in the wall with fair seating but can get really cramp & stuffy. Take-​out would be your best bet.
The restaurant has an A grade from the county, if that gives you piece of mind.
Definitely recommend!
NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM

don’t do it. there’s a million places in chinatown; don’t do something stupid like walk into this one.
it took me one bite of my peking duck to realize they don’t know what they’re doing back there. none of my food was hot, and i was one of two people in the store.
what’s worse, the woman was incredibly upset that i didn’t like my food, insisted that it was fine, and then yelled only what i can assume were sweet nothings at me as she slammed the cash register shut when i gave her a dollar for my soda and walked out.

Definitely coming back here. The roast pork was so crispy and yummy
that I swear the lechon came just off the grill.
This restaurant gem is in the heart of chinatown LA. The customer service was awesome and the food is delicious. I also got the seafood rice noodle combo and finished it before the roast pork and (steamed white) rice. Although food is yummy, like any good food, you must wait.
The pork fried rice was pretty good as well. When I go to Chinatown and get hungry, this is the place to go.

If you’re in Chinatown, hungry, want fast food, and don’t want to spend a lot, San Woo BBQ Express is the spot to hit up. Food was really bleh, let’s just say it was edible. The dishes were all bland, nothing stood out, I shared the Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Hainan, and Lemon Chicken (which was more like a Chicken Katsu) with my mom and sister. Spent around $ 15, ate and left — doubt I’ll be back.

I donno bout these other guys but I like this place… A LOT! The food is decently priced and big on flavor. Seafood fried rice is great and like wise with the shrimp fried rice. Now keep in mind where you are eating. This is a hole in the wall with really no standoutish-​ness to speak of, till you eat the food only then you will remember the name and location. My absolute favorite was the orange peel chicken. It is in no way shape or form what you are used to at the Panda Express or other generic Chinese eatery with heat lamps or heat pools or WHATEVER they use. This was made to order awesomeness! The sauce is amazing… Sweet, Tangy, Spicy, off the charts unlike any other I have tried. If your ever in the neighborhood and hungry as hell you gotta hook this up!

with no cash on me in chinatown, i basically had to eat at this place since they were the only restaurant open which accepted credit card.
i really wish i had cash on me.
the food sucked. the rice was mixed with old rice (confirmed this when i was paying– i saw the cook in the back mixing old rice with new rice together in a steel tray). can’t really say much. i ordered their duck and chicken plate with rice and i received duck bones and chicken bones with day old rice with freshly steamed vegetables.
note to self: carry cash.

Geez, the one time I give into an «impulse eat» … this is what I get. Chinese food is known for its speedy service and when I saw the word «Express» I thought «FAST» … NOPE! Got there during my lunch hour and the place only had 2 other seated there so I thought I should be in and out in a flash. I ended up waiting over 30 minutes, furious, and got back to work late WITHOUT EATING. Geez, I was so pissed, I only ate a few bites. The food is average, but the service, 0 stars. I agree with Stacey K – DO NOT GO HERE. Wish I did my homework before deciding to go there.

If this is the one inside the plaza, then DO NOT GO HERE. I HATE THIS PLACE. The food is your average chinese food, but aside from that… there was a dead fly inside my Watermelon juice!!! I told the waiter/​manager about it and she didn’t do anything! So i asked her if I could switch my drink (which was $ 3.00) for 2 boba milk tea ($ 1.00 each) she said okay. But when the bill came. She charged me $ 1.50 for the milk tea instead of $ 1.00. Now i know it’s only a 50 cent difference… but still! There was a freakin fly in my drink! She complained to me that they wasted drink mix on the watermelon juice. So that’s why she charged me an extra 50cents per boba milk tea.
Putting the fly detail aside, the drinks tasted horrible. The watermelon juice was not fresh watermelon juice. It wasn’t even watermelon juice. It was the taste that you’d get from eating a watermelon lollipop! The boba milk tea was powdery! AND the waiter kept hitting on my friend…
i will NEVER go here again. I left them a mere penny as tips. and left.