Choy's - Chinese, Anaheim

2801 W. Ball Road, Anaheim CA 92804
(714) 527-6848
Parking: in shopping center parking lot
Hours: open until 2am

Last Visited: January 25, 2006

Food: 2 stars
Atmosphere: N/A
Service: N/A
Price: $ to $$

Our family friends received the menu to Choy’s as they were entering Disneyland. The colorful menu shows a variety of offerings with color photos of beautifully displayed entrees. Although the small map on the menu says that it’s not to scale, you have no idea how not to scale it really is. There are two streets shown between Disneyland and Choy’s. In reality, there are many many more. It was about a ten to fifteen minute drive from Disneyland to the restaurant.
For this visit, we ordered take out.

- Beef Chow Fun – The beef chow fun contained chow fun that had been sautéed with slices of beef, onions, and green onions. Although the color is similar to that of typical chow fun, this was just not close enough. The flavor was a bit on the sweet side, and not quite the right combination of flavors. However, the rice fun was nicely separated. Fair. $6.50

- Wonton Noodle Soup – The menu states that it’s Hong Kong Style Noodles, but it’s not. It’s some other kind of noodles. The wontons are more wrapper than meat and the broth contains carrots and other vegetables that aren’t typical of wonton noodle soup. The broth looked more like the base for hot and sour soup. If this dish had been called chicken broth with wontons and noodles (non-Chinese style), it would have been satisfactory. However, as is, it doesn’t meet typical wonton noodle standards. Fair. $5.50

Fortune cookies came with the food.

If you’re looking for authentic Cantonese style food, Choy’s is not the right place for you. If you want an adapted version of Chinese food and don’t require authentic flavor, it will probably be fine.

Light House Buffet - Seafood/Sushi, Los Angeles

201 Arizona Ave, Santa Monica CA 90401
(310) 451-2076
Parking: street parking and parking structure nearby

Last Visited: February 22, 2004

Food: 4 to 5 stars
Atmosphere: 4 stars
Service: 4 stars
Price: $$$

The Light House Buffet is known for its Royal Seafood Buffet and ranked amongst the nation’s top five buffets by the Food Network. During my visit, lunch buffet was available for $11.95 per person and dinner buffet was $18.95 per person. Considering the quality of sushi and sashimi, this is an excellent bargain for sushi lovers.

The restaurant is medium sized raised seating in the center of the room. Here you’ll see a large fish hanging from the ceiling with fluorescent lighting and black lighting creating an interesting blue tinting in this area. The tables are black and the chairs are wood.

When you enter the restaurant, you immediately notice the array of sushi available. The sushi chefs stand behind the counter making unagi sushi, maguro sushi, ebi sushi, and salmon sushi amongst other standard sushi offerings. There are also long rows of California rolls that are rolled in toasted sesame (which I found scrumptious) and similar California rolls rolled in shrimp roe. The California rolls are cut thinner than usual, but you may take as many as you wish. There is also a large heap of salmon sashimi, maguro sashimi, and other items. All were excellent. You can’t get this variety at better prices elsewhere. Note that there is an additional cost for beverages.

Adjacent to the sushi table is a long steam table of hot seafood. This includes salt and pepper shrimp, seafood egg patties, crab legs, large jumbo shrimp with the head still on, pan fried fish, as well as sautéed vegetables. There is a good variety of what is offered from fried oysters to teriyaki chicken to fried rice to tempura to steamed clams, you’ll find a number of choices to select from.

The cold table contains a large poached salmon covered with tartar sauce, large salmon roe over lemon, salad, desserts, and a variety of fresh fruit, including melons, bananas, mango, and papaya. All the accompanying sushi sides such as wasabe and pickled ginger are located here.
The other cold table contains a bar of sides. This bar included seaweed, sunomono salad/pickled cucumbers, seasoned spinach with sesame, and edamame. The last table contains miso soup and egg drop soup.

Of all the things I tried, the miso soup was the most disappointing, lacking in flavor and being colder than I like for my soup to be. All the sushi and sashimi was wonderful. The sushi is endless and you can go back for more. They also offer sushi to go.

The hot dishes ranged from average to better than average, but the draw for me was the sushi bar. The cold bar containing sides typically served with sushi is also great since you can go back for enough edamame to fill your heart’s desire. The fruit bar is fresh and simple.

The friendly servers frequent the tables often to remove dishes and fill your drinks. You’ll also like the automated towel dispenser in the restroom.

The Light House Buffet lives up to its Royal Seafood name. It’s an excellent value if you love sushi, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the quality of sushi you receive. If you don’t like sushi, you’ll probably still enjoy the selection of seafood offered. I would definitely return for more! The Light House Buffet is a must try!

Luscious Dumplings - Chinese, San Gabriel

Best Noodles and Dumplings, Los Angeles

704 W. Las Tunas Drive #4
San Gabriel CA 91776
(626) 282-8695
Parking: in shopping center parking lot

Last Visited: February 22, 2004

Food: 4 to 5 stars
Atmosphere: 3 to 4 stars
Service: 3 stars
Price: $

Luscious Dumplings is located in a crowded shopping center, but is worth every effort and the wait. When The Lee’s brought us to Luscious Dumplings, there was already a crowd forming for lunch, and it’s no wonder. I would call them Scrumptious Dumplings if they let me name them.

The décor is simple with light colored faux wood panels and matching wood tables and chairs. The decorations are simple and the overall restaurant is bright with light streaming in from the windows. There is capacity for about 40 to 50 people at most.

The restaurant is run by a father and three sons. During my visit, I only caught a glimpse of the father, and the two sons were serving the guests. Service is not excellent, but you’re really visiting for the dumplings and noodles. The young men are fast and furious, but not sloppy - it’s just not the gentle service you might expect of a five star restaurant. You might even catch the brothers playfully do a kung foo fighting stance toward one another during off moments. It’s a family restaurant run by family and for family.

Tea is served in teacups for small tables and Styrofoam cups for larger tables. The servers fill your cups as they check on the tables. You get a sheet of paper with the menu choices written on it and you can select the quantity and size you want to have. Food arrives quickly after ordering. While waiting, you’ll receive a small appetizer dish that contains chopped celery, boiled peanuts, and other vegetables that have been marinated with a slightly spicy sauce.

- Sliced Beef Tripe with Chili Oil Flavor - Tripe is very very thinly sliced. More thin than I’ve ever seen tripe sliced before. This helps each piece to absorb the flavor of the chili oil and chili flakes as well as the chopped cilantro. A lovely presentation of tripe with red and green. It’s a great tasting dish. $3

- Flavors Stewed Bean Curd – Dried bean curd is stewed in a five spice marinade. The bean curd is warm and infused with so much flavor. It’s another great dish. $3

- Minced Pork Noodles with Mushrooms – This dish came without soup. Pork is minced and sautéed with mushrooms and poured over noodles. The flavor of the mushrooms is delicate and the combination goes well with the noodles. Good.

Noodles in Soup with small Bok Choy– Many flavors/choices were available. We tried four of the six. All the noodles are uniform in length and diameter. They’re absolutely positively fresh and you can taste the difference. All the noodles are made al dente to just the right texture. Noodle soup is available in large bowls ($5) or regular bowls ($3.50).

- Salted Pork Slices with Noodles in Soup – Pork is thickly sliced and marinated in a salt/fish sauce. It’s a simple recipe, but it’s difficult to keep the pork tender. Luscious Dumplings does an excellent job with this recipe. The pork is served with the noodles and bok choy in a light broth. The flavor of the pork is distinct, but it doesn’t engulf the delicate broth. Very good.

- Flavors Stewed Beef with Noodles in Soup/Stewed Beef Brisket with Noodles in Soup – Both of these two flavors seemed very similar to me. After trying one after another, I still couldn’t distinguish the two. Both are very good with tender beef and a savory broth. The beef is stewed in a strong five spice flavoring so that its completely infused. Again, the noodles are great as they absorb the flavor of the meat.

- Beef Tendon with Hot and Sour Sauce on Noodles, Soup Separate – Well, we never got the soup with this one, more than likely because we had so many soup dishes already. The beef tendons are tender and succulent. The hot part of the sauce is a dollop of Chinese chili sauce, and the sour is light. Since one of the people at our table couldn’t eat spicy food, we took out the chili sauce, but there’s still a subtle hint of spiciness which combined with the sour makes a unique flavor that combines well with the noodles.

Enough about everything else – now onto the dumplings. Each dish contains ten dumplings.

- Chive, Pork, and Shrimp Dumplings – The pork is ground and shrimp and chopped chives are added to create the dumpling filling. The flavor of the chives is strong, but it doesn’t overpower the dumplings. The meat in the filling is loose and tender (not dense like other places) and the filling is juicy. The wrapper is just the right thickness. The combination of ingredients creates wonderful dumplings.

- Cabbage, Pork, and Shrimp Dumplings – The flavor of the cabbage is less distinct than the chive as above. Otherwise everything else I said about the dumplings above applies here. Great.

- Fried Dumplings with Napa cabbage, pork and sole – These dumplings are a little different looking than what I expected. They’re pan fried until golden brown on one side. They’re so juicy inside and the heat from cooking the dumplings stays in the dumpling for a while. Excellent.
Luscious Dumplings also has combination meals available – dumplings and noodles together. They’re a great bargain at only $5 each.

The only thing I would change is having teapots at each table. This would be much more convenient. The other thing I would like is for Luscious Dumplings to offer more locations. The food is so excellent that I wish I could go more frequently. It’s oh so good – unforgettably fresh and wonderful – this is a must try!

Places to Go - Los Angeles

Last Updated: September 6, 2009

Sushi Nozawa, 11288 Ventura Blvd #C, Studio City CA 94604, (818) 508-7017