Genki Living

I was so sad to see this place closed down today. I have a lot of great memories eating crepes and those Nutella filled fish!
Luckily, there are other locations.

I am a fan of crepes and I like sweet stuff so I agreed to come here when my friend brought me here for my birthday. It wasn’t that great. The staff sure is friendly and the place is cool-​looking. The food is okay. The crepes were small and very hard, very hard. It was like munching on stale bread. I got the strawberry nutella and my friend got the strawberry with kiwi and banana. He said it was alright too. And the wait took forever, over 25 minutes for a crêpe which was not so great. Parking is hectic because Diamond Plaza is very busy at night.
Overall this place is okay. I would recommend it for dessert and during the day! I’m sure I’ll be back here again.

OMG! It’s ALIVE!!!
I thought I’d never have a Genki Living crêpe again after the closure of Genki Living in Arcadia. It was truly a sad day when that occurred.
So surprise, surprise when driving down the 60 and I see a Genki Living sign. I literally broke off my route then and there to see if I was dreaming.
It was good, but not nearly as good as I remembered it to be. For myself, the crêpe wasn’t crispy enough. But seriously, I’m just happy to see it back in my life.
I will be back.

You really can’t beat their crepes. They’re crispy, the texture is perfect, and they don’t skimp on the ingredients. LOVEEEEE it :]
Oh and their teas are yummy too. That and their taiyaki’s are sooooo good (get them in all flavors!)

Genki sells both sweet and savory crepes which can be customized by adding extra toppings, provided that you pay a small fee. Drinks and traditional Japanese snacks such as takoyaki and taiyaki are also available for purchase. Personally, I’d stick to the desserts and snacks, since they’re not really known for their drinks.
On my first visit, I split a strawberry crêpe with vanilla ice cream with my friend. The crêpe was soft and supple, filled with hefty slices of fresh strawberries and topped with a generous scoop of ice cream. I also had the chance to sample another friend’s strawberry and nutella crêpe, which had a crunchier bite. I’m not sure if it was an employee’s mistake or if it was intentionally made that way, but I preferred my more delicate crêpe over the my friend’s crispier one. I also ordered a taiyaki with custard, which took about 15 minutes to prepare. Sort of pricey but the deliciously crispy treat was worth it.
I went back a second time for a custard crêpe with strawberries. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as great as the crêpe I had during my previous visit. Though it was pleasantly light, there was barely any custard and the strawberries didn’t taste as fresh. I wasn’t as enchanted with it as I was with the first crêpe I had here, but it was still enjoyable.
Although the workers are friendly and polite, the service isn’t flawless. Be prepared for a wait, especially if there are people ahead of you in line. Even when we were the only customers, it took about 10 minutes before our orders were ready. During my second visit, I specifically requested custard crêpe without whipped cream, but to my dismay, it came with whipped cream anyway, so I guess the guy at the register heard wrong.
I never understood why the Genki Living in Arcadia closed down. It was the only place nearby that offered taiyaki and okonomiyaki, in addition to some tasty crepes. Or maybe its demise was a blessing in disguise. Had the Arcadia one had stayed in business, I think my waistline and wallet would have suffered for it. Regardless, I’m glad that there’s a surviving, possibly thriving, location out here, even if coming here is somewhat of an inconvenience.

A friend and I went here wanting some dessert. We went on a Wednesday afternoon around 3:45 — 4:00 PM.
Restaurant size is a little small, but it can seat a lot of people. There were only two people there when we went, so we expected a pretty quick dessert fix.
You do have to order first before seating yourself.
Also, remember that it’s CASH ONLY! Don’t make the grave mistake of coming to this place with only your card!
What’s cool is that they have promotions on weekdays (I believe they exclude Fridays… I’m not TOO sure…). One of them was buy two drinks, get two Taiyaki (Japanese fish-​shaped waffle cakes) free. My friend wanted Taiyaki and a drink, so it was a win-​win situation.
I ordered a strawberry, Nutella, cheesecake, and cream crêpe along with an iced mango green tea.
My friend ordered 3 Taiyaki and a matcha red bean slush.
Because of the promotion, we ended up having 5 Taiyaki: 2 red bean, red bean + mochi, taro, and taro + mochi.
The crêpe was HUGE! Crispy, delicate, and filled with a good amount of strawberries. The cheesecake got lost in the strawberries and Nutella. It was still good nonetheless.
The Taiyaki were pretty good. With the «buy 2 drinks, get 2 Taiyaki free» deal, it tasted even better. My personal favorite is the classic red bean.
My iced mango green tea, however, was not good. It was like pure liquid mango syrup to me. It was EXTREMELY sweet. Like they probably put equal amounts of syrup as they do with the tea.
As for the matcha red bean slush, it was so-​so. If you’re a true matcha slush fan, you’ll like it.
Service was OK. There was only one guy manning both register and the food (which is gross now that I think about it). Our order was staggered. First came my mango tea, next the slush, then my crêpe, and finally out came the Taiyaki. It’s hard to imagine how slow it might be if there were other people. However, the guy serving us was nice.
I’ll be back whenever I’m craving their crepes or Taiyaki. As for drinks, there’s always Tastea up the street.

Two Words Dawg. LIQUID DIABETES.
Am I the only Unilocaler that thinks the only flavor they have here is SUGAR? Why is everything so damn sweet? I orded the Milk Tea and Peach Green Tea, both very rich, but way too syrupy. Maybe, it’s just me but I can’t drink this. About 10 years ago, I could handle it, but I’m still feeling the effects of the sugar high as I write this review.
I love desserts but there’s a way of making them without adding excess sweeteners. Imagine if you were expecting food rich in flavor but what you got was food covered in SALT. Not pleasant, right? My tastebuds have changed and can distinguish the difference on what stuff like this should taste like.
Once again, another establishment without a restroom. Why can’t you make my life a little bit easier? OK, I’ll deal with it and move on. I like the interior of this place. Looks like I’m waiting to place my order next to a bus stop in Japan. I look to my left and there’s a picture of what appears to be two Japanese movie theater ticket booths. Film posters for Goldeneye and Legally Blonde are posted above. Cute.
Guess who’s waiting in line in front of me? It’s character actor, George Kee Cheung (
). He played Chau in the Starsky & Hutch remake starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. He must live around this area. Weird…
Anyways, I look at the menu and it’s too widespread with so many choices to choose from. I’m overwhelmed cause this might take a while. I order #88, the red bean shaved ice with green tea ice cream. Dude, it’s like a big mound of Sweet ‘N Low. They spray what seems like liquid corn starch all over the shaved ice. Also, the plastic spoons are so flimsy that they bend when I try to poke into the ice. I don’t even get napkins. Really? I can’t eat this…
The crepes are HUGE, about the size of a small monkey head. Kinda like the ones you see in the movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. When it comes to food, they say bigger is better, but I’m gonna really start to believe that the crêpe is more of a meal rather than a dessert. Plus, when I envision crepes, I’m thinking soft, melt in your mouth crepes, like the ones from Harajuku Crêpe.
I’m going to revisit Genki Living and also try the one in Garden Grove to see if that fares any better. Sorry Kadi, I’m not impressed…

Cute hang out joint. Though it’s considered Japanese styled, employees speak Chinese. I was glad that they were accommodating to my parents’ request of milk teas without caffeine.
1. Mango Green Tea with lychee– Yummy and it was their $ 2 special.
2. Taro milk with pudding– Warm, tasty, and not too sweet. Just the way I like it.
3. Rose milk with pudding– A bit too sweet and taste more like strawberry than rose, but tasty regardless.

Went midday to get okonomiyaki, but nobody was there who knew how to make it. Would come again, but in the evening instead!
Had shaved ice with red bean and matcha ice cream. Could have been a bit better. Shaved ice was 70% flavored like mocha, 30% just ice. $ 7.

Facts to know:
1. Cash Only
2. Crepes are SUPER crispy
3. You order and then seat yourself
4. Big parking lot
The ambiance was pretty cute and intricate! It was very «petite» with around 10 tables. The staff were ok, however, the cashier did not understand me when I asked to custom make my own crepes two times… But her co-​worker helped her out and quickly saved her by explaining to her I wanted to make my own crepes. I got a crêpe with nutella, strawberry, and strawberry ice cream. The cashier again messed up my order and said «oh what? chocolate ice cream?» and I repeated my order again. It bothered me a little, but no big deal, maybe it was her first day or something!
It costed a little bit more than $ 6.25. The crêpe was extremely crispy and with every bite, pieces were falling everywhere. They gave a lot of strawberries and a lot of whipped cream. However, it wasn’t too bad. They just need to train their staff a little more probably. It was worth a try! I liked this more than crêpe luv back in Alhambra.

I came here on a weekend since my friend recommended this place.
Located inside of the Diamond Plaza, it is at the very end of the strip mall. This place is very small inside but the owner definitely put a lot of efforts in making this place pretty with all the Japanese decorations around the place. The menu on top is pretty big and could be a bit overwhelming if you are first timers.
We ended up ordering the Takoyaki and Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki (The Osaka style is also available but we just randomly picked one). The wait of the food took awhile as there was only one person working at the time. Once the food arrived, we were so ready to dig in. I was a bit disappointed with the Takoyaki since it wasn’t even hot and the whole outer layer was a bit soggy. Considering I’m a big fan of this dish, I wasn’t very happy about it. As for the Okonomiyaki, it was very salty. I’m not sure how it was supposed to taste like since it was my first time having it but I didn’t like it as much as I hoped.

We finally went back to this little place after staying away for a long while due to the terrible service that we had been getting from the rude, sullen girl that worked the counter previously. We saw new people behind the counter so in we went!
We’ve had the sandwich crepes before as well as the dessert crepes, and I thoroughly recommend trying the different varieties. But on this night, we ordered the hot, fish-​shaped, custard filled pastries (sorry forgot name) and the Oolong milk tea and settled in.
Wonderful pastries! The milk tea? Delish. The service? Not so great though the nice kid behind the counter was certainly earnest enough. He just kept making mistakes, like forgetting our change and making one of our milk teas with some strange flavor we hadn’t ordered. And then, there’s the fact that we speak no Japanese, only Mandarin and English between the two of us, so maybe that was the issue!
It’s definitely worth checking it out there, especially if you can muster up just a leeeetle patience for the well-​meaning staff.
I’ll definitely be back.

The overall concept of this place is cool, but they’ve got a lot of kinks to work out. Genki Living’s décor is like a busy Japanese city shrunk down into a little store. It’s not very big at all, in fact, they’ve expanded it by taking out a «kitchen» area so they could fit more tables in. They have a wide variety of treats such as crepes (savory and sweet), boba drinks, and other Japanese snacks that I can’t even pronounce. I’ve been here a few times and I usually get crepes every time. When it comes to crepes, I like to get the savory crepes rather than the sweet ones. I’m not really sure why, but I really like the ham and corn or the club crêpe. Surprisingly, they’re very filling too.
I like the fact that you can watch them make your crepes and other random treats. It’s kinda interesting to see them put on the batter and all the ingredients in a particular manner. I’ve gotta say that this place is a hit or miss on quality and service. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes not so much. It’s not a bad place to check out though.

Review is only for the taiyaki’s.
We got 3 taiyaki’s for $ 5. We got ham and corn, red bean and mochi, and custard. Even though they looked really cute… they were all just okay. The guy behind the counter said that the custard one was a popular one so we decided to try that one and honestly… I took like 2 bites and didn’t want it anymore. The ham and corn one was good though, but the taiyaki’s are a little bit too bready and I wish it had more filling inside.
Will be back to try the crepes though!

What in the world happened!!! This place seriously STINKS now…
My bf and I came here for some boba and crepes. Once again, there were only two employees working here, but hey… at least it’s an improvement over one! As usual, they took forever to make everything. But this time… they totally didn’t listen to my request!
I specifically ordered a lightly sweetened milk tea and the lady sweetened it with a TON of high fructose corn syrup because she mixed it in with another person’s order, which wasn’t even the exact same drink! When my bf asked if she could try to remake it, she kind of gave him a blank stare, but just added some more tea to it. It didn’t solve the issue. In the end, I had to throw the entire thing away. When the lady saw the full drink going into the trash, she asked me, «Oh, so you still didn’t like it?» but at that point… she didn’t even offer to fix it or to make me a new drink. I guess that’s Asian service for ya!
On top of that, I noticed that this place is REALLY unsanitary. They don’t seem to wash dishes at all and when they drop food, they just throw it right back onto your plate! I witnessed this a bunch of times!!! We also saw them scooping up the remaining ice chunks of an ice cream tub and tossing them onto the top of a new ice cream tub… umm, woooooow. I was speechless!
Also, the employees really don’t seem to know what they are doing when it comes to making drinks (as evidenced by my overly sweetened drink) or crepes, as they were all bubbly and thick textured… yuck! This place has DEFINITELY gone downhill!!!

I’ve been desperately wanting to try Genki Living ever since the location closed down in Arcadia. To my luck, we found one in Rowland Heights… and what can I say? I REALLY love my sweets.
This particular location is a little strange; I really couldn’t see Genki Living from the entrance of this plaza. It’s in the far back, so just keep on driving after the entrance! If you see Kula Revolving Sushi, park!!!
The layout is definitely cozy. The (wooden) chairs may not be comfy, but the decorations are beautiful! It looks like there’s a movie ticketing place inside along with displays on some of their crepes! You seat yourself after you order, although I can’t imagine that the store has a capacity over 25.
Their menu is extremely extensive, and I couldn’t really decide on what I wanted to eat! Savory vs. sweet? Ramune? Tea? We settled for the 1 fruit (strawberry) + cream + nutella crêpe for ~$ 5 and a bottle of strawberry ramune ~$ 2. The crêpe skin was nothing like I was accustomed to. If you’ve ever have crepes, you’ll know what I mean — it was extremely crunchy and a little stiff. It felt more like I was eating a soft wafer than crêpe? The cream was whipped cream… on the top and only on the top. The strawberries were fresh, and the nutella ratio was perfect. It wasn’t necessarily a «horrible» crêpe, but it wasn’t good either and it was definitely not worth the $$ or the drive. The strawberry ramune tasted a little strange; I should’ve ordered the regular one instead.
Staff was minimally friendly. There was only one party ahead of us, and it took them quite a while to make their 2 crepes (5+ minutes).
No trash can though, so we ended up having to walk outside to throw out our napkins and bottle. I saw a couple ask an employee to toss out theirs though, so maybe they have one in the back.
Sadly, Genki Living wasn’t worth all the fuss. I won’t be returning.

The first time I came across this place was when my sister and I just had dinner @ Banana Bay. We didn’t wanna go home yet so we Unilocaled for a place that was nearby and would definitely fulfill our sweet tooth.
Genki Living popped up in the list. The name sounded kinda interesting and when I checked out the photos my mind had already decided «Rachel, we are sooo going here now!!» Fruits and ice cream wrapped in a crêpe? How innovative!
As far as space, it’s a bit small. The ambiance is mostly inhabited by Asian teenagers and young adults. It’s open late so that’s a plus.
I ordered the strawberry, kiwi, custard and vanilla ice cream crêpe. The crêpe was thin and crispy which I liked. I wish they put more strawberries and kiwis. I think I only got 4 slices of each. The cost of this crêpe was around $ 6 – 7. I think it was a bit too expensive for a crêpe.
I won’t deny that it fulfilled my sweet tooth but I wouldn’t be coming here that often. This place is just… ok.

I have to admit, I’m not much of a crêpe person. First time I had a crêpe like this and it reminded me of something sweet, thin, and crispy like a fortune cookie with all sorts of possibilities of fillings…
When I first walked in, the menu and all of the choices looked very daunting. But I pulled out my trusty Unilocal app and saw that the Nutella with strawberry and vanilla ice cream was popular, so I decided to give it a whirl. I didn’t know what to expect at first but I wound up liking the crisp texture of the crêpe with the nutella taste in it. With the strawberries, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream, it was sort of like having a handheld sundae…
It was cold that evening too so we also ordered one of their hot chocolates drinks and that hit the spot too…
The place looks like it gets busy in waves. One minute there’s nothing going on and the next, a whole group of people come in. Wait time for your crêpe can thus vary wildly, not good for all you instant gratification kind of guys…
The seating can be kinda dicey too…
3.5 stars…

Most horrible service! Gave my party of 4 only 1−2napkins every time we asked :/​fail. This crêpe place was not worth getting bad service.
Lady was not nice, actually all the people there seem pretty disgruntled. I mean I would be since it was so hot there and it was night time past 9pm! =/​
Cute décor though, dirty and stained furniture though. Very very very small place with maybe one small table outside for seating too.
Park in the plaza lot. Its below the Cue picture place. Again, the crêpe was not worth the bad service. I didn’t even expect service, but to ask for more than just 2 napkins after buying so much is not that hard.
Lucky for them they’re in a popular plaza. Think I might travel back to 626 for my crepes now. Good bye Genki!

I’ve always hated this plaza because its always crowded and parking is a pain in the a$$. However, my dearest Unilocaler friend happens to love their crêpe here. So, I needed to try and see and taste for myself. Coincidently, my other friend was just raving about this place because of their tako balls and their okinomiyaki plates here. He is not a Unilocaler but does dine out alot as well.
Well it just so happens, even in crepes, my gf and I share a few things in common– we both had the banana, with cream and nutella crêpe. As a Unilocaler, my gf was detailed on the texture of the crepes, consistency of the cream and flavor of the nutella. So, here it came. First bite was good. I’ve never had crêpe that was mildy crispy and wow, tastes so good. The cream (which I think they could’ve added more of– but that’s ok, its not like I need the extra calories!) was heavenly; firm yet soft, buttery and JUST the right amount of sweetness. Nutella wasn’t at all over powering and had the right enough of chocolate flavor. Bananas were fresh.
I was fulfilled after the crêpe. However, I really wanted to try one of their okinomiyaki plate that my other friend was raving about. I decided to order and take it to go.
While we watch her make it thru the clear glass window, OMG. looks so good and huge! It was certainly a meal within itself. Anyway, when I arrived home, I couldnt help but taste it right away. It smelled soooo good. Wow! First bite was sooooo friggin good… So it consisted of a crêpe (semi-​crunchy) at the bottom; layered on top was seasoned, cooked cabbage, with egg noodles flavored like yakisoba, tako, shrimp, fish cake on top of that, bonita flakes, ginger and dripped with their sweet sauce– one with a creamy base and the other like tangy teriyaki. Idk, but I so loved it. It was one of those first experience at tasting something, accompanied with «omg, so good… omg, so good. «
I am definitely coming back. Thankfully, its 5 minutes away from me:) I just need to come when its not so busy because of the parking. Indeed deserving of my 5 star.