Happy Dining

Yummy! Chicken wing is good! The price is good! There are 3 sizes can choose.

This place specializes in dry pot which is a pot that contains meat, vegetables, and any other add-​one that you choose. The dry pot comes in three sizes and different levels of spiciest. The medium size dry pot is enough for two people, but if you’re hungry af or didn’t get any appetizers, consider getting a large size for two (or medium size for yourself). I came here twice so far and had a medium size beef dry pot both times (mild spicy because I’m weak). The beef is good but the best part is the potatoes which soak up the spicy oils and sauces in the pot. The rose milk tea is good, the brown sugar milk tea is pretty much the same as the regular one. Service is good and fast, and the restaurant usually isn’t that busy, so you should be able to get a table easily.

Friday nite, also graduation week, we got there at 6:45pm. There is no wait at all. We got seated right away. water came quick n the waiter came quick to take order.
Dinner time I think they only have Large size dry pot (probably medium, I’m not sure). My friends and I (3 of us) ordered mild pork belly large dry pot. Food came quick.
Food taste: 4 stars. Leave you tingling pepper taste even its mild spicy. The pork rib is small chunk so eat to eat. The pot is pretty flavorful. I like it
Food quality: 3 stars. Large pot but portion of the food is small. If you are two men ordering a large pot, you will be hungry after. We had three people. My friends were still hungry after. They don’t put much veggies in the pot, only potatoes, some celery, and a few small pieces of color pepper. They lit the fire but it didn’t really help. If you add up the portion of the food, it’s over priced.
They did post many posters on the wall for promotions. Checking in on Unilocal and other Asian apps, you will get 10% off. If you didn’t pay attention to the posters, you will miss the deal. The servers will not remind you. N all the promotion is CASH ONLY.
I like the taste of the food but finds hard to go back becuz of the price.

First time here… just sat down ordered & they had to move us cause they have a larger group coming in. I’m sorry, I thought I got there first! We were a party of 8 & they moved us to a much smaller table with no apologies. That already left a bad taste in my mouth…
We ordered the chicken wing, shrimp & pork ribs. Must say that the flavor was good but lacking of any meats. Plenty of veggies but they do charge extra for them (from $ 1.99−3.99). The food here is basically stir fry & it’s kept warm on a warmer. Each medium plate comes with 2 bowls of rice & the large comes with 3.
Honestly, it was worth trying but that’s about it. I know it’s an Asian restaurant but worst service ever (the moving of tables, the waitress not refilling our waters or getting us napkins, etc).
At the end of the meal my son asked me why they were called «happy Dining» if we weren’t happy?!

Good restaurant，it is worthy to try。it is excellent!!!¡!!! !!!

Never come back here! ille-​mannered, cheating on materials! No star for this restaurant!

Really? 2 hours waiting with only one glass of water served, the area is not even full, are you that short of ppl?

Ever since I discovered this place a week ago I have been coming here for dinner 3 times now. It’s very authentic chinese dry pot. They use top quality ingredients, and the portion is huge. Love coming here!

The food was ok, but very oily and salty. The servers were not very good at English (I had to ask the same thing over and over again.
It was a good experience to try a new restaurant with a new kind of food, but for me, I dont think I will come again

I’ve never had this style of got pot. We got the chicken wing hot pot spicy. They warned us spicy was really spicy, but it wasn’t. The small comes with 10 really crispy wings which me and my gf liked.
Overall it was good, but won’t become a regular spot on the rotation.

I’ve had dry pot before, but not often. The place is very quaint and fits a good lot of people. Plenty of room however, as for the food it is good if you are relatively new to chinese dry pot. Not a good place to go if you compare it to other places, i.e. San Gabriel or Alhambra. I liked how large the serving sizes were, gave me plenty to take home. Come here if you are new to the dry pot scene, leave if you want something more appetizing since there are other places that can offer better dishes for those craving authentic chinese dry pot.

I order the large size, it should be for 3 – 4. Actually their dish get smaller and smaller, I can finish the large size by myself. But taste is good. Just not enough food.

Happy Dining is a lowkey restaurant in the woodbridge ares. The Dry Pot is really worthy to have a try, especially the mix pot with port and chicken wings. The place is clean and quite. There are not much people eating here. So, usually, you don’t have to wait for a table.
I only noticed 3 or 4 people serving here, but the service is literally acceptable, since not much eating here. It won’t so much people talking loudly here. I ordered a medium spicy pot with pork rib and chicken wing, which is my favorite one and adding the extra, thin noodle, potato，broccoli and the most amazing crab stick. The pork rib is really good. It taste a little spicy, but not the normal spicy. It comes with a little «ma», meaning that sometime you tongue will got kind of paralyzed. The pork is a bit of dry and easy take off from the bone. The potato is most amazing one in the pot. The potato is light fried and the potato tastes a little crispy but the inside it, it would be a soft and little sticky. Not only the potato original taste, but with kind of with the taste of black peper. The chicken wing is also worthy to have a try. The skin of it is crispy and taste most strongly and spicy. But it is juicy inside mixed with all spicy and other taste from other stuff. the juice is really hot and make you tongue more sensitive to spicy. Usually, I left the wing to the last, bc I don’t wanna the wing make me feel too hot to eat the rest .
Overall, It is tasty. but the pot is kind of oily and the taste is strong. U usually need to eat with lot of rice. Sometime u may feel stuffed with rice, even u hasn’t eat much pork or chicken wings.

Happy Dining is a lowkey Chinese food spot in the Woodbridge area. Their specialty is dry pot which is something you don’t see everyday. If anyone knows any spots similar to this, please let me know.
I ordered a dry pot with a mixture of pork intestines, cauliflower, potato, and celery. It was adequately spicy for my palate and complimented well with rice. It was satisfying because the level of spiciness intensified as time went by. The noodles in chicken broth were really good! I didn’t expect it coming from a restaurant selling dry pot.
They used to give hefty portions but ever since business started to take off, they have been cutting down and adding more potato which is disappointing. I want a pot with a decent amount of pork intestines, not cooked frozen fries. Service at this joint isn’t particularly great.

Super good! Fair prices and nice attitude. I love this place and always come with my friends.

The bf and I were led to try dry hot pot from a glowing recommendation from his coworker.
Our medium spicy hot pot came with potato, cauliflower, celery, and bean sprouts. And man they are not kidding with the spice here. It was delicious but just so spicy and hot that I confused pain with pleasure. Don’t get me wrong I love a spicy meal, but this place is next level. HAHA. I challenge all spice heads to try this place and not break a sweat! If we go here again I would probably opt for the mild to avoid any future spicy digestive pains.
This place deserves a try!
Review #8 of 2016

Good flavor but can use more protein in their dishes and can benefit from more attentive service. Lastly, overall a bit pricy.

First time having Mala xiang guo. It was pretty good. Just wish there was less potato (filler) and more veggie variety so you didn’t have to order at an extra charge. I had the pork rib and very spicy and it was very spicy. I’ll try medium next time as I’m afraid this will not bode well for me later in the day. Plus there is way too much oil in the very spicy version. My friend had the beef, which was ok. Kind of chewy. Would be nice if they did a rib meat or stewed beef for tenderness. Not sure this will be in the rotation, as I had bathroom issues later in the day. Could have been the ‘very spicy’ that did me in.

My foodie friend invited me to this after recently discovering (but never having tried) it herself. I was familiar with this strip of shops off Barranca Pkwy as it’s where I’d tried Las Fajitas some time back, so I knew the parking lot gets packed at lunch times. I showed up at 11.45am and fortunately there were a few parking spots still available down at the far end.
As I reached the restaurant I was fearing the worst, know packed these types of Asian restaurants get, especially on a Sunday. As my friends arrived, we entered the restaurant which is just a small newly renovated looking casual atmosphere. To my surprise, there was no wait and only 2 or 3 tables inside were occupied. Oh oh, I thought to myself. Hardly anyone here… could this place be that bad?
Anyway, we were seated immediately and given the menus. Hmmm… the menu actually looked quite good… a bit confusing at first (especially if this is your first time here)…but my friend figured it out and explained it to me. I kind got the impression that it was like a Mongolian bbg style meal, cooked in the kitchen, and served in a large metal dish. You get to choose from several proteins stir fried with various side ingredients included, and many additional items if you choose to add them. You also get to choose from regular to very spicy. I chose regular chicken meat (adding sliced lotus roots) and my friends chose spicy chicken wings (adding dried tofu).
The food came out pretty fast and was served on a flamed lit stand to keep the food hot. Yea, kind of like a hotpot meal, but without the soup and simply stir fried. Note that the small portions are only available during weekday lunchtimes, so we had to order at least a medium today… The portions are quite large so either bring friends or be prepared to doggie bag the leftovers if you’re eating here by yourself on a weekend. The meal included a bowl of rice.
Not only was the aroma of the dishes wonderful, it tasted delicious too! In fact, my order of regular chicken was cooked in a brown sauce which tasted very much like the chicken potato stew my grandmother used to cook for me when I was a kid. And what made the sauce thick and yummy were the chips sized slices of stewed potatoes… Yum! Oh, I have pretty much cut rice from my diet, but these dishes may be a bit difficult to eat by themselves… the sauce is a bit rich and salty and only tastes good when eaten with rice. I just wished they had brown rice available. Ok, just this once I went ahead and ate half a bowl of rice, and I must admit, it was really delicious, so comforting, and definitely brought back fond memories from my childhood.
Ok, it was drawing close to 12.20pm and the crowd suddenly started streaming in… and before I knew it the place was absolutely packed! And by 12.30pm when we left, there was a huge crowd of people outside waiting to get in. Ah! This is exactly what I pictured and expected this place to be like! Pricewize, it’s about $ 10 for a small order and $ 20 for a medium… the medium is more than enough to feed two adults, so the price is pretty reasonable.
The only disappointing dish we ordered was the green onion pancake. It just looked and tasted like it wasn’t cooked enough… quite doughy and limp like a crêpe desert… not even slightly golden brown. I probably wouldn’t order this one again. Other than that, I truly enjoyed the food here… it’s very different and very deliciously like a home cooked meal.

For some reason this review has been sitting in my drafts and this place really deserves a shout out.
Happy Dining has really become quite the popular restaurant. Dry hot pot seemed to be the perfect dinner on a chilly Friday night and I guess I was not alone with that thought. Shortly after I sat down, a line quickly formed outside with the wait being over 30 mins!
Although everyone speaks English, I can imagine it being quite difficult coming here if you’re not Chinese/​Taiwanese. The menu is written in three languages: Chinese, English, and Korean. Although clearly no one here speaks Korean.
They specialize in their dry hot pots which is basically a stir fry with an abundance of spices from peppercorn, cumin and chilies. You can pick your protein (vegetarian options also available) and everything comes with veggies such as celery, potato, and carrots. It comes in a giant deep dish (think BJ’s Pizza) on a stand. My favorite was the lamb! It was so juicy and flavorful without all the gross smells that is associated with lamb.
They also have a random mix of Chinese dishes. My favorite being the chicken noodle soup. It’s all home made and a perfect counter balance to the strong flavors of the dry pot.