Tokyo Fried Chicken Co. Soft Opening

Tokyo Fried Chicken Company is the successor to The Open Door. The restaurant still has the same owner and staff, but they decided to do a complete 180 on their previous food and theme. The restaurant is currently still in its soft opening stage.

 The chicken is similar to chicken karaage. It is marinated in soy sauce, ginger and garlic and fried in rice bran oil. Diners each receive a plastic glove for the chicken so that your hands don’t get dirty.

The fried chicken dinner set for two which comes with two legs, two wings, two thighs, steamed chicken rice,  pickled cabbage, and your choice of two sides. They offer regular sides and “premium” sides for an additional charge.

For my sides, I ordered curried creamed corn and mac and cheese. The mac and cheese was pretty tasty. There are also other unique items such as collard greens, truffle tater tots, truffle-butter edamame, and shisito peppers. 

 Each table has several different sauces to complement the chicken. There is the standard  ponzu and  spicy ponzu as well as the sauces they are testing out before their grand opening. I was given a yuzu sauce and a sweet and sour sauce. 

Although the chicken was succulent, I didn’t think it lived up to the hype. For me, the chicken had to be dipped in massive amounts of sauce to have flavor. The chicken alone was bland. Sauces should complement the chicken, not require them.  

For a two person set, it is approximately $25 without alcohol before tax and tip. Overall my impression of the restaurant was so-so. I was such a big fan of The Open Door, that maybe I would give them another chance. Plus, they have fried chicken skin, which sounds amazing. Also, TFC has imported popsicles from Japan. 

Happy Eatings!

R.I.P. The Open Door

122 S Atlantic Blvd
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Cantonese Goodness

New Lucky has long been a staple of excellent Cantonese cuisine. I’ve posted about their amazing geoduck done two ways before, and here are some of my other favorite dishes from here. New Lucky’s Winter melon soup is one of the best I’ve ever had outside of Asia. It can feed at least 10 people. Call to reserve your winter melon soup because they do run out! 

 Cold appetizer of spicy and garlic cucumber.

 Our winter melon soup!

 Our winter melon soup!

 Our winter melon soup!

 Salty duck yolk fried pumpkin sticks.

beef stew.

 Green bean pumpkin dessert. 

Chiu Chow dessert with ginko and taro. 

Happy Eatings!

415 W Garvey Ave

Monterey Park, CA 91754

This is What a Lobster Roll Should Be!

I had a pretty epic meal today in Boston... Check this baby out! 

How beautiful is this? This is how every lobster roll should be! It should be so massive that you can't even see the bread! Yes! 

 Belle Isle Seafood was a tad pricey. They don't cook any of your food until you order it, so the wait can be around 30+ minutes. 

 We got little lobster buzzers as we waited. 

 Here's the view of our meals. 

 The crab cakes were very delicious. This was a small side order. 

The fried scallops were good, but nothing to rave about. 

But let's not forget that the day was about this baby right here. I'm drooling right now just thinking about it!

Belle Isle
1267 Saratoga St
Boston, MA 02128

Happy Eatings! 

I Ate Bambi

Ha Tien Quan,but there are many unique Vietnamese dishes at this restaurant that are not typically found at Vietnamese restaurants. One of the more fun bizarre food dishes I recently had there was Deer sate noodle soup. Yup, I ate Bambi. Sorry. 

Deer is very lean with minimal fat. It is more favorable. If you’ve never had deer, the closest way to describe would be that it has a similar texture to lamb, but tastes like a more flavorful beef.

Would you go have deer?

529 E Valley Blvd

San Gabriel, CA 91776

Go Big or Go Home! Brick Toast Edition!

My dessert last night. Go big or go home! A teddy bear brick toast with layers of ice cream, fruits, chocolate, and cookies scattered throughout the monstrosity! Can you hang?



534 E Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Happy Eatings! 

Japanese Fusion Food

Bust out your wallet because this post is a little on the pricer side!

The Open Door is a small Izakaya-style (tapas/small plates) Japanese restaurant in Diamond Plaza. It can get pretty pricy, but if you love Honda-Ya or Furaibo, then TOD will absolutely blow you away. Seating is limited and TOD has some awkward hours. So beware! FYI, they’re only open for dinner. They're also closed Monday and Tuesday. Since Open Door likes to switch up their menu frequently, I like to pop in periodically to try out new dishes. Here are just some of the dishes I've tried. 

 Whitefish with Yuzu sauce 

 Oil seared scallop with chives, cherry tomatoes, and garlic. 

 Edamame Vichyssoise with uni and quail egg.

 Beef tongue carpa with chimichurri & crostini.

 Beef Tataki 

Tuna on crispy rice sushi. 

Two sashimis in one! Uni on scallop sashimi. 

 Salmon sashimi.

Clams.

 Fried soft-shelled shrimp.

Japanese shishito peppers. 

 Bone Marrow.

 Pork belly – which came with a little fried pork skin on top.  It comes with a poached egg which you need to mix and pour over each piece.

Beef Stonepot Rice.

Yes, The Open Door seems a little out of place in Monterey Park perhaps, even to the point of being a tad pretentious for the San Gabriel Valley. They also have Happy Hour for cheaper prices!

If you like watching the game, then this may be perfect for you. They have a good happy hour, decent parking, and allow  you to store your unfinished bottles of alcohol. I loved how they had typical tapas dishes for the people in my party that didn’t like to try anything out of the ordinary and more of the unique dishes for the more outrageous eaters like me.

122 S Atlantic Blvd

Monterey Park, CA 91754

I'm Featured on Huffington Post. Take a Look!

A preview of the video. I promise that it's all sorts of crazy. 

(Click to see the video for 'How to Eat a Xiao Long Bao').

Huffington Post also picked up the video and wrote an article about it. Click here to read it! Thanks for watching and reading!

Happy Eatings!