This place Really deserves a better rating than 3 stars only Came here Saturday afternoon, I had received Fast service, Food was cooked quickly Food was low-oil and healthy and delicious Especially that King Pao Chicken and Green Beans dish A real nice healthy local option, for Chinese cuisine.
旭
Rating des Ortes: 5 Arcadia, CA
this restaurant was awu, they changed the name to be kungfu king and right now they change the menu too. the restaurant has lunch special every day! the price is much cheaper than old menu! the price of the crab and lobster is lower than other sea food restaurant! my favourite is smoked lamb chop and house special grill fish! just try them!
Cindy Z.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Los Angeles, CA
Expensive. My family used a Groupon so it wasn’t so bad, but I wouldn’t come back otherwise. My dad bought the Groupon before they changed names and the owner was nice enough to still let us use it. As to the person in a prior Unilocal review complaining about being forced to pay 20% tip for using the Groupon, it says it clearly in the short fine print of the Groupon. The food was pretty good, except for one of the dishes we ordered. I’m not sure what it’s called in English, but the thick noodles of jelly-like texture in a spicy sauce(I think it was an appetizer) was SO salty, it was almost unbearable/inedible. It would’ve tasted so much better if it had less vinegar/sauce or was diluted. We were also disappointed with their dry hot pot; it was nothing like the dry hot pot restaurant’s we always go to. It just wasn’t dry or aromatic enough; just tasted a sauteed dish they placed in a metal bowl for show. There wasn’t even a fire inside the little ceramic part under the dish, which we thought was strange because why use that ceramic part if there’s no fire? The service and fancy environment was nice; this would be a fine place to celebrate an event with the family, but be warned that it’s pricey.
Gavin T.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Temple City, CA
Mediocre food and mediocre service. Waiters and waitresses didn’t seem to interested in us until were ordered. Food was not bad but not good enough to return for. Overall, mediocre.
Judy Y.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Walnut, CA
I had came here a couple times using my Groupon. The food was good and the place was clean that’s why I kept buying the Groupon. But yesterday when I came, the name has been changed but they still honor the Groupon. The food was still delicious under new management. But when the bill came, they charged 18% tips and we only had two people. I know most restaurants charged 18% tips when you have a party of 6 or more. Amount of tips should be determined by customers not mandatory. I was never charged like this the few times I came before. I don’t know if they use it to make up the discount or what. I won’t come back again
Shane K.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Pasadena, CA
My friend and I came here because we got a GROUPON deal. When we received the check, we was shocked that the waitress wrote down 20% tips for us on our bill. We felt embarrassed to question about their behavior but just had to accept it This is totally unacceptable that they put us on that position. We don’t mind to pay 20% tips if the service is really really good. The food is just ok and the service is so so. This is a very bad business practice. We are not even a big group. we are just 2 persons.
Even Y.
Rating des Ortes: 2 City of Industry, CA
This restaurant tastes just so so . But the sever of this place is no good(very bad actually), I ordered the A WU fried rice /and two more lunch special and something else… when i asked the server for the white rice it come with my lunch special, they said you already order the fried rice, why you need the white rice? Then they give me that when i asked the second time. When we finish our meal but not ready left about 3pm, the closed the light just because they almost close at that time.
Anita C.
Rating des Ortes: 1 Irvine, CA
I came here with my family for Chinese New Year Eve because everywhere else we wanted to go to was booked. The food did not stand out since most dishes we ordered can be found in almost any Chinese restaurants. The service was sub par. Granted that it was Chinese New Year Eve so they were busy, but the place wasn’t fully packed and there were no line at the door so it shouldn’t take 30+ minutes to bring us water and refill the tea pot! According to my parents, the Peking duck here is a little cheaper than most places in the area and in SGV area. So if you want cheap duck, come here…
Mark L.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Santa Ana, CA
Glazed duck skin very crunchy and all the meats neatly deboned. How was it done? Other entrees prepared with equal élan and confidence. however, there are also a few bland dishes that are meh. also enjoyed the crispy fried buns with condensed milk. do check out the beautiful décor above.
Maruko X.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Los Angeles, CA
Daokou style chicken — *** very dry, tasted ok Stir fried lamb with cumin — **** flavorful, recommend Eggplant — **** tasted good, recommend Fish with chopped green peppers — *** average taste Mapo tofu — ** so so
Kaylee D.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Arcadia, CA
Like many that have failed before, this place will fall into its footsteps. The thing with the 626 population is that we like our food good and we like our food cheap. Everything here seems pricey compared to all the other big Chinese family style restaurants($ 2 more per dish). As for taste, it was ok. If you put their dishes up against the same dishes from like Sam Woo or New Capital, I wouldn’t really be able to tell the difference. Sad to predict that this will be a different restaurant in about 6 months.
Kevin L.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Temple City, CA
Ordered the kung pao chicken, garlic and wine chicken(?), and some other pork dish that was recommended by the waiter. Kung pao chicken was basically a bunch of chicken pieces cooked in a soupy sauce. It was more or less chicken that was stewed… Garlic and wine chicken was flavorless. The outside of the chicken had a bit of flavor, but it wasn’t cooked long enough for the flavors to marry. The other pork dish was very salty. All 3 of our dishes were not good. Two stars because the restaurant looked pretty clean.
Margaret T.
Rating des Ortes: 1 San Marino, CA
Came with the family last Sunday. Ordered 3 dishes: house special chicken was supposed raved by customers, braised 3-layered pork with mustard greens, and a $ 27-spicy fish fillet in a crock pot. Chicken was horrible, 0 * because flavor was lacking, meat was not tender. Pork was 2−3* because the flavor was fine but not spectacular, buns that went with it were soft and good. Boiled Fish with chili – flavor was«ma la» flavor, good and tender fish slices, superb fish balls with roe filling. This I’ll give 3 – 4 *. Since the whole meal was spoiled by the chicken and pork, I feel that it deserves 1* overall.
Kim B.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Los Angeles, CA
I feel bad only giving this 3 stars, because it really was a very decent meal. Coming from Hong Kong, I tend to be underwhelmed with Chinese food in Los Angeles, and this was really quite good in relation to that. The restaurant definitely tries to set itself apart by it’s presentation, and in that respect it achieves its goals. The mashed eggplant and the koi fish jellied pig skin were flawlessly presented in a unique fashion. However, their taste didn’t match up to their looks, and wasn’t really worth the 25 minute drive. The best dish for me was one I rarely order at Chinese restaurants(but I was with a bunch of westerners) — the fried rice, which I loved. The cold mung bean noodle and the mutton soup noodle are also worth a mention. The rest of the dishes were underwhelming. All in all, worth the visit, but my Sunday hangover food could be much closer, less complicated and better tasting.
Richard L.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Los Angeles, CA
This location is consider a curse for many Chinese restaurant, many comes and goes in very short time. Latest one is using a popular Chinese Franchise name maybe that would change the fortune. One thing that stood out to me, it was this restaurant post cartoon picture of the current Chinese President Xi Jinping… I ok with Chinese celebrities and entertainer but having head of China in the restaurant in the U.S. might be a cross the line. It is best for restaurant to stay away for political ties.
The interior is ok, I thought might have been better since is using a franchise tag, Shanghai #1& Hai Di Lao Hot Pot both have nice décor. The menu here looks like in the high side, many entrée here are over $ 10. We order two item off the menu; one is the mutton noodle soup and a house specialty fried rice. The mutton noodle soup cost $ 10, decent portion size. I wish quality was better. The soup broth has msg based, the noodle look like a knive but doesn’t tasted like it. The mutton was in small cut portion and wasn’t tender. The one thing I like is the quail egg was also in the soup but wasn’t only got one… The house specialty fried cost $ 11, this one actually deliver. Both in presentation and as well as the tasted, decent portion size for what it is. Service was not too bad, they to come after few wave… This place is pretty clean just it just open for few months. Their got lunch special which range from $ 7 to $ 9, their regular menu price is kinda pricey for what you getting. I probably would prefer going some of the restaurant in the valley for similar price but this is new and has room for improvement.
Maggie C.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Los Angeles, CA
I first read about Awu from LA Times. The pictures look good but this place has too many fake reviews both good and bad. Ordered: koi jello pork skins, sweet sour fish and mustard sliced pork. Koi jello pork skin($ 12.95): it’s not as pretty as the picture but it’s still cute and creative. It was bland! It tasted like nothing. The sauce didn’t help since the jello couldn’t absorb the sauce. It was hard pouring the sauce without making a mess since it was served in a champagne flute. I couldn’t use the spoon to scoop the sauce because the opening was too small. Koi jello was served with sugary sliced cucumber that was overly sweet. Sweet sour fish($ 19.95): it didn’t look like the picture. My fish was similar but it was not cut as thinly as the picture posted. The picture on Unilocal and on the menu looks almost like noodle thin. My fish was very greasy. It was crispy but hard. The sauce was too thin. I asked for the sauce on the side and my waitress wanted to pour the sauce on top when she brought it to the table: X Mustard sliced pork($ 9.95): this didn’t look like the picture either. My pork was darker in color and it looked messy. It didn’t look appetizing at all. The only flavor I tasted was salt and it was hard. The waitress was waiting for me to order from the moment I was seated. It was uncomfortable since she was so close to the table and kept staring. She kept asking me in Chinese to order and I kept saying not yet. Cute aquarium and they have private rooms. Friendly service but they need to learn not to touch the customers while serving. Don’t keep going if you see your customers lean away from you. 2 stars! Good luck to you but I won’t be back. Awu is not yummylicious!
Pickkoz Z.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Fullerton, CA
First things First, the marinated Chicken is awful. I thought since it is their featured dish, it would taste awesome. In fact, you couldn’t be more wrong. I took my family of 13 here for a large dinner so I get to try more dishes since my first time here was just the 2 of us. This place doesn’t have your typical dishes. Everything is more like, I wanna say Shanghai or maybe not. I’m not sure. The taste overall is not to my liking. I always feel like it is missing something, some flavor I’m familiar to. Some dishes look better than it taste and sometimes they may come back and tell you they ran out of that dish. Our table keeps missing a pot of tea or water every time the waiters came by. They takes it and it never return. When I asked the waiter to pack up old plates to create room for new dishes, it took 5 attempts. In the end, they gave us a huge bill that wasn’t even ours. Luckily we read the list, price was double than ours. Overall, the food is not worth the price.
Hans T.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Beverly Hills, CA
Over the course of my Chinese childhood and travel experiences, I can say that this has been the most unusual Chinese meal I’ve ever eaten(I have very little experience with northern Chinese food). Despite this, I found the meal to be quite good! The garlic chicken we ordered was fantastic, the fried rice was delicious, and the eggplant and garlic dish served as a tasty and cool respite from the almost overwhelming, yet deliciously so, heat of the fish and mushroom sprout dish. Service was fantastic and polite, and helped us choose which dishes to order. However, I found some dishes, most notably their signature fish-shaped gelatin, to be not fantastic and, occasionally, a bit too strange for my liking. In addition, even though we arrived right when they opened, they seemed to be out of a lot of their dishes which was a bit disappointing.
Joseph H.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Alhambra, CA
Let me first by saying, don’t believe everything on Unilocal.My family and I came here for dinner. The food was presented nicely and the customer service although slow was friendly. Therefore there is two stars. Now we sat down and looked over the menu. My brother tried to order some dishes and they kept saying we don’t have it. That was upsetting! Anyways the food came and it was nice to look at but the taste was definitely not complimenting the appearance. The beef was chewy, the chicken was bland, the grilled lamb chop was fatty, and other were ok like the tai chi soup. Not to mention it was quite expensive for not tasty food. Definitely will not come back unless some changes are made.
Fiona G.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Los Angeles, CA
The Chinese food here has the best presentation among Chinese restaurants in LA! Very genuine and so delicious!