Chang’an Restaurant

The food is very good here. The favors are excellent and the quality of meat is noticeable.
There are several dishes from the lamb skewers to the variety of fired rice.
If you like a loud ambiance with interesting modern décor that won’t disappoint.
However, the prices for the food is quite expensive even accounting for the quality of food.
Case in point, a small bowl of rice costs $ 2 each. A bit ridiculous even for «high end» dinning that doesn’t feel like it’s high end.
Bottom line: if you want good food and a cool place to eat but don’t care about the cost, this is a great spot. Just not a good value.

We went to Chang’ An because it’s new and it had «good» reviews. This place tries to be high end with its décor and the presentation of its food and its high price. It thinks it offers creative chinese tapas. However, upon eating their food, none of us were impressed. Most of the food was SALTY! eck! I had to ask for a bowl of hot water to wash off the salty sauce from the duck dish, from the eel dish, from the beef dish.
Their signature salad was unimpressive. In their seafood tapas the scallops had a chemically taste to it. When the waiter brought this dish, there was one piece of toast on the bottom plate, it slid off onto the table as he laid down that dish, he just turned and walked away!
The funniest thing was the fried rice, it came out on an old tin pan that looked like a pan you’d use for your microwave. The waiter did not give us bowls to eat the rice, and after scooping the rice onto our plates, it was hard to use our chopsticks to eat the rice. The waiter put us in a corner, it was hard to get service as none of the waiters looked our way.
We five ladies will not be returning.

1÷16÷16: About time someone fancy’ized traditional Chinese food! My gf read an article about the chef and how he wanted to open a gastropub serving Chinese food, and so for the longest time this was on our radar.
Unfortunately, he picked the very worst location for this type of restaurant. It’s on the top floor of the old Chinese Hilton complex, replacing the old hot pot place. Why is that so awful? – cause this location is as straight up China as it gets. Everything around is in Chinese. All the people are Chinese. EVERYTHING is Chinese. I would assume this would be extremely intimidating to all but the most adventurous Caucasians. But yet, this is the PERFECT type of Chinese restaurant for the trendier folks. If you stuck this place in Oakland or San Francisco, OMG, it would be packed with a 3hr line.
Anyway, yeah, it’s real Chinese but kicked up 10 notches. The interior is trendy and very modern, not in a FOB’y way at all. The staff is REALLY attentive and nice – puts many Caucasian places to shame. Unfortunately, they’re not well trained. For instance, my waiter poured the beer so horribly it was more than half foam – I had to grab the bottle from him. But anyway, very nice service otherwise.
And the food… EXCELLENT:
1. Koshihkari Echigo Beer $ 12: Sorry, forgot how it was.
2. Red Berry (cocktail) $ 6: So my gf says it’s «too light and too much ice. It’s not good.» If she says a fruity drink is not good, it’s really not good. ³⁄₁₀
3. Grilled Sausage $ 3 (Berkshire pork smoked sausage, cherry tomato): Forgot.
4. Chang’an Signature Lamb Skewer $ 3 (Chinese style New Zealand hindshank lamb skewer): Per my gf, who grew up in Xinjiang: «Super good! Meat is very tender and I loved the spice combination. The lamb is imported from New Zealand and the spice mix is also imported all the way from Xinjiang China. Xinjiang is the area in China makes the best spicy lamb skewer. THey used similar spice mix to mimic the flavor of famous Xinjiang Lamb skewer. They did a fantastic job on this. The taste, texture, flavor, everything, it’s the best i ever had in US.» The best huh? ¹⁰⁄₁₀
5. Kobe Style Beef Tataki $ 16 (seared & sliced filet mignon steak): She says, «Loved it, the flavor was really good. And meat quality is good too.»
6. Chao-​Niangao (stir fried ricecake) $ 12: «The ricecake was so soft. And they used fresh clam meat and some special green to sautee the ricecake, which is not the traditional way. But the flavor really came together. And the cooked the whole dish perfectly. It was the most impressive ricecake ever had.» I agree with her – I’ve never had stir-​fried ricecake better. Very special. ¹⁰⁄₁₀
7. Zhaziji (deep fried chicken with red chili pepper) $ 18: «I liked it, it is fried diced chicken meat sauteeed with lot of hot chilli pepper. And they added some little anchovy to bring more flavors, which I think it’s creative. But. it’s not like the crispy kind of fried chicken, the meat is drier than normal fried chicken. » 7−8÷10
8. Hongshaorou (red braised pork belly) $ 16: «It’s a decent braised pork belly. There is nothing wrong with it. but also nothing super special about it. Everything was cooked right. Meat was soft and potato was cooked well too.» ⁶⁄₁₀
9. Grilled Beef Tongue $ 9: She says, «It was good. cooked well with good seasonings.» I remember that it was flavorful too. A bit like good KBBQ. ⁷⁄₁₀
10. Seafood Stew $ 18 (minced winter melon stew with scallop and crab meat): «Good, tons of crab meat in it.»
11. Scalded Squid (Seasonal) $ 22: Perfectly cooked squid – exquisitely soft. And the dipping sauce was nice. ⁸⁄₁₀
12. Chuanchuan-​xiang $ 16 (skewers in spicy soup): She says, «Loved the broth, it was spicy and numbing. It’s traditional sichuan spicy flavor. It had mushroom, quail egg, black fungus, fish balls, spam…, but I still wish they could added more stuff in it.» For me it was a bit less impressive, but I liked the variety. Cool idea. ⁷⁄₁₀
13. Durian dessert pastry $ 3: «It was alright, pastry was not very flaky.» I agree. Not sweet enough for me either. But I guess if durian is your thing, then go for it. ⁴⁄₁₀
14. Chang’ an Ice Cream $ 5 (birthday, on the house): It’s cool they give such a substantial dessert for birthdays (my bro’s). Lots of stuff in there including a pretty large variety of fruit. Green tea ice cream. Pretty damn good. ⁸⁄₁₀
15. Osamthus Rice Balls $ 10 (mini rice balls in sweet rice wine, osmanthus flowers): I’ve never seen this at a restaurant, but it would be soft mochi rice balls in a soup of fermented alcoholic rice (like how my mom used to make it.) My gf says, «This would be rice balls It was all right. Did not taste much rice wine flavor.» I dunno if I agree – seems just about what I would expect. ⁶⁄₁₀
If I still lived in SoCal I think this would be my favorite Chinese restaurant.
⁵⁄₅
#chinese

High end Chinese food. But the thing is the wait for food is toooooo long though there are only few people there! They said they were busy but they were not! Wait for 30mins for the shrimp! Will come back but hope they could do better!

Too high expectation base on everyone’s review. Interior designs and atmosphere are great and it fits the new fusion style however it doesn’t match its quality. The oysters are not fresh and no taste. Judging by the Menu price is not worth it. To compare with something similar I will say EMC or Grand Center oyster is cheaper and more fresh. Definitely not going to order the cocktail anymore, it’s a glass of syrup, too sweet and the waiter excuse was «it contains low alcohol content» so why it said 6% alcohol when it’s really a glass of syrup. The three star is only for the nice decorate.

This stylish and modern looking Chinese restaurant is located in the middle of San Gabriel. It’s very unique in its ambiance and presentation compared to most Chinese restaurants.
Service/​/​Service was good. There were a few things on the menu that we didn’t understand and the waiters kindly explained the menu to us. The waitress made sure our glasses were always full
Food/​/​Quality and taste of the food was excellent. Their food presentation stood out to me. Although, the portions are a bit smaller than most Chinese restaurants in the area.
Parking/​/​Parking is available in the structure downstairs. You can take the elevator to the third floor.
Overall/​/​This was a great experience and does not feel like you’re in the heart of San Gabriel Valley. It has more of a Downtown vibe. Food was good but portions were smaller and on the pricey side.

New concept– high end Szechuan food! The interior looks like a hip bar with modern seating and sports tv but the food menu is straight up Asian.
Came here on a Thursday night and it was dimly lit and not crowded at all. I found most of what I wanted to order on their Unilocal page and thought the best dishes were the crispy chili chicken and the lamb and filet skewers!
The house salad is alright, it’s pretty much crown daisy or Chinese tong ho veggie with dressing. I wouldn’t recommend it. I don’t also recommend the beef tongue. It was very chewy. The beef tetaki was one of my friend’s favorite, but I still believe the skewers are better than them all.

Located on the top floor next to the SGV Hilton plaza is Chang’an. Expectations were high due to the good reviews and, finally, a place to have some good food and drinks in a DTLA bar-​like setting. Unfortunately, it was a hit and miss.
Walk in and the place is bright. Am I at the hospital? Turn those lights down.
The tables and chairs setup was nice. With Edison lighting and sorta of that rustic Mad Men vibe helps you forget about the hospital lighting.
In the 626, it’s all about the food, right? But, what about service? We usually don’t care about 626 service, but when you’re paying $$, the service expectation can’t be ignored.
We get our drinks and the draft selection here is limited, well, very limited. Only one. Someone in our party ordered a glass of wine. It looked under poured, so she expressed her concern. The manager brings out a measuring cup and water, and demonstrates that the exact amount was poured. Huh? Just give her a couple more of ounces, my goodness. Some others tried the sangria, but they said that it tasted like water.
In terms of food, we tried the filet mignon skewer, beef tongue, and sesame ball soup with rice wine. The filet skewer was over seasoned. No thanks. The beef tongue was cut too thick and, again, over seasoned. The sesame ball soup was decent, but nothing too special.
Service, well, was slow and, simply, disappointing. Hopefully improvements are in the works.

Currently here waiting for our check to come …
First impression: Am I in DTLA ?! This place has an intimate feel, very cute set up.
My boyfriend and I came in for a late dinner, walked in and was seated immediately. There were only 3 other tables seated.
Service is extremely slow … I got hungry waiting for the second dish to come out …
Food:
We ordered the spicy skewer soup (STAY AWAY) it’s disgusting. no flavor, definitely a waste of $ 16.
Lamb skewer, beef tataki and the beef tongue skewer and they were all delicious !
I would come back just to try more but they should really pick up the slack. I don’t know if I should blame the waiters or the cooks in the back …

The restaurant is on the 3^rd floor of the plaza next to Hilton.
Parking: There’s plenty underground.
Atmosphere: I’m giving this place a +1 star just because they are one of the few places in SGV that actually puts effort into aesthetics. Most restaurants look like they just rented out an old office to serve food in. Oh, and don’t cheap out on heat lamps! It’ such as waste of a nice outdoor patio space at night with no heat.
Price: Hate to sound cliché, but you’re paying for the experience. I guess the aesthetics don’t come cheap because the food here can be expensive comparable to the foods you’d get in the jankier restaurants in the area that don’t use vintage light bulbs.
Drinks: The cocktails taste very light. If you’re a drinker, I’d stick to things that come in bottles.
Food:
Chang’an Salad– It’s the house special and it’s as good as everyone says it is. I was surprised because it came out much bigger than it looked in the pictures. Definitely a must try.
Beef tataki– Can’t go wrong with beef tataki, but it was the opposite of the salad in that it came out a lot dinkier than it looked in the pictures. They also seem to have skimped on the showcasing element that night, because it didn’t look anywhere as sexy as the pictures.
beef tongue– pretty good
oyster shooters– Didn’t taste right with me. I prefer the ones with quail egg and ponzu. This one tasted like oyster in vodka and sriracha. Seems like they skimped on some ingredients.
oysters– A lot smaller than I thought they’d be. They were more clam-​sized than the big oysters you’re thinking of.
lamb skewer: We had already had quite a bit of food, so I just wanted to sample the $ 6 lamb skewer. The waiter then unsuccessfully tries to steer me to the $ 26(?) lamb chop one. Nice try.
spicy skewer bowl– With some room left in our stomachs, we rolled our dice with this one. It’s pretty much just hot pot items on skewers in a bowl of spicy soup (don’t drink it).
Overall, this place is worth a visit, but keep an eye on our budget. I also wish they’d take more chances with the food to differentiate it from the rest of the cuisine in the area to justify their higher cost. Maybe throw in some truffle, artisanal cheese or garlic aioli? I wish they’d put as much effort into their menu as they did with their stylish aesthetics.

This stylish, very nicely decorated place is a nice upscale option for good Chinese dining in San Gabriel. I’ve always chosen some yummy hole in the wall places where the food is great but service and décor somewhat less so. This is not the case with Chang’an. The food and service both complement the great industrial atmosphere.
With our waiters help we ordered a good selection. The huge by delicious pork elbow was savory and fell right off the bone. The crispy shrimp and salad were both also excellent. We ordered fried rice on the side with sausage. The sausage was sweet and savory and flavored the rice perfectly. Our favorite dish was the black peppered beef tenderloin with mushrooms… delish!
We’ll be back!

I haven’t been to many restaurants where the owner is also the hostess/​waitress, but their customer service is definitely above average, and this may explain why. My guess is other owners also work in the restaurant. The décor is beautiful and the ambiance is elegant. The food is an acquired taste but can be five star depending on your preferences. It is on the more expensive side compared to the area but they make up for it with the service and the ambiance.
Chang An of course is the famous capital of China before Beijing became the capital, and houses Terra Cotta warriors among other historical relics. It is a nice choice of name and hopefully this place can morph into a Chinese relic as well.

I came here with high hopes. The reviews were so good that I was expecting exceptional dishes. Especially it being Chinese food in the SGV. I guess I should have expected less so I would come to enjoy the dishes more but no matter how much I wanted to like it, I didn’t. It is just okay.
Here’s what my party had:
Drinks: SOHO Lychee, Redberry, Peach, Strawberry
The 4 cocktail drinks on their menu was delicious. Thirst quenching and you can barely taste the alcohol which means big trouble if you drink too many cause it will hit you like a freight train when you least expect it.
Food:
Crown Daisy Salad-​We thought this was arugula salad in the Unilocal pictures but thoroughly enjoyed it anyways. The dressing definitely made this dish great.
Rice Cake with clams– this was my fav dish. I would come here just to eat that. It is different from the other Shanghai rice cakes I’ve had and the flavors were fresh. You can taste the freshness of each individual ingredients and they meld together so well in flavors with the soft chewy texture of the rice cake. Nomnomnom…
Shrimp & Scallops: I didn’t like this dish at all. The flavors were very one dimensional like it was boiled and sprinkled with lemon pepper salt.
Beef and Lamb Skewers-​The meat was tender and flavorful. The lamb was a bit fatty but overall it was good.
Lobster-​It just didn’t stand out for me. The flavors were ok.
Raw fresh oysters-​The only way to have oysters is to be sure they are fresh and they deliver just that here. Comes with 3 diff sauces. (soysauce, a spicy soy, and one with wasabi)
Skewers in Spicy numbing Szechuan sauce– a variety of veggies and meats on a stick. Some were better than other.
Beef Tataki-​The beef was soft and tender with just enough sauce. An extra layer of flavors when eaten with the shiso leaf provided.
I may give this place another go but only if I have friends who really want to go and try it.

Food was pricey but good. Would probably give 4-​stars for the food. Maybe we were a little hungry but we ordered 10 items plus dessert for 3 people. The portions that are served is like Chinese tapas style. Both lamb and beef skewers were very tasty. There was a fish soup that was also memorable. I would recommend skipping the Shanghai pork ribs and squid.
Music was a little loud. The playlist felt like more of a club environment, than a restaurant or wine bar. So where it falls behind of course is the service. For the price we paid, I felt service can definitely be better. I think minor tweaks can make this place very good. Would go back to try again. And yes, should come with someone that understands Chinese.

Good BBQ. The best in town. Love the chef! Beautiful restaurant!
Beef tone is highly recommended!

This place has a high-​end, modern look with a young, hip vibe. It looks like one of the fine dining establishments in downtown LA or Melrose area. Only problem is, the food didn’t taste like one. The presentation was great but the food tasted like something you can get at any average Chinese restaurant in this area for about half what this place is charging.
The Seared Scallops with stir fried crab meat sauce and crystal noodle was definitely not worth $ 26. I don’t expect scallop dishes to be big but I was expecting about four jumbo scallops and expected them to be main part of the dish at this price. This was more like two jumbo scallops cut up into eight pieces and scattered around a crystal noodle, which was the main part of the dish. I paid slightly more at other high end restaurants but got five jumbo scallops and just a small amount of vegetables or some carbs on the side. The sauce on this dish wasn’t all that impressive or different from other Chinese restaurants. It tasted like oyster sauce even though the menu said crab meat sauce. House Eggplants with shrimps weren’t too bad at $ 16, but again, it tasted like something I already tried at other Chinese restaurants for half the price.
Our food took a long time to come out even though the place was only about 60% occupied. Luckily they made up for it by giving us their signature salad on the house. It’s all arugula with some soy-​sesame based dressing.
I feel like I might have missed the point of this place because I couldn’t quite figure out whether it’s trying to focus more on fine dining or going more for the club/​lounge look. The décor and price point is more in line with a fine dining place, but the loud music and large selection of alcohol seemed more in line with a lounge. This place has quite a selection of skewers and appetizer items which are more reasonably priced so it might be better to stick with these and some beer & wine instead of going with main dishes.
Business statistics for this place indicates it’s good for kids but I have to disagree. This is really more for people in 20s and 30s and not really a kid friendly place. At the bar they have two flat screen TVs and they were playing music videos with chicks twerking and showing off their booty. I actually thought it was kind of funny because every single video was like this even though they were by different artists.
It’s located on the third floor of a busy plaza, north of Valley Blvd at Abbot Ave.
You may want to make a reservation if you want to sit at a table. My wife and I came here around 7 on a Sunday night and the hostess asked us if we had a reservation. Since we didn’t have one we had to sit at the bar. Not a big deal except for the fact the TV was in front of us and I had to watch bunch of chicks twerking their ass on the screen. I don’t have a problem with that but just don’t want to watch that while I’m eating food.

I’m not sure what it is, but to me, not-​so-​great food doesn’t hurt me as much as sub par service.
We approach the hostess, and I proceed to ask her, verbatim, «Do you still serve food after 10:00 pm?» I asked this because their dinner hours are till 10:00, but they have late night hours from 10:00 till whenever, so I wanted to know.
She was completely dumbfounded. She had no idea what I was talking about. I could see that she felt bad, and honestly, this isn’t her fault. The hostess is somewhat the face of the establishment, and while she’s very pretty, she’s useless if non-​Mandarin/​Cantonese speaking Americans come through. I understand that this is the SGV, but have some basic English skills.
HOWEVER. The food was good, somewhat has a modern touch to traditional Xi’an dishes. HUGE portions. My friend and I saw the price and was like ok, maybe we should just order 2 dishes. and we were right. Luckily we were hungry, since I’m sure three people could’ve shared. Aside from that, ambiance was great too.
Overall, I’d return, but only with someone who has better Mandarin skills than I do.

I really like the concept of Chang’an Restaurant although I do think there are some inherent challenges that the restaurant faces as it tries to lure customers in.
The biggest challenge? It’s just hard to find. Go up the plaza elevator to the 3^rd floor or climb the stairs — it’s the first restaurant you’ll see to the right and it’s a beaut! A fancy bar, a huge dining area and some pretty lights make the usually not-​so-​pretty looks of the plaza into a DTLA-​lite location — great for dates and small outings. (One odd small note — we loved the music videos but didn’t like how the ambient music didn’t match up.)
Prices are also not too bad — ranging from $ 5 – 12 for basic drinks to $ 10-​$ 20 for smaller dishes and $ 15-​$ 30 for bigger dishes. A full bar is available although I went for some of the cheaper soju cocktails (about 3 of them ranging from $ 5-​$ 6 each). Food-​wise, we tried a few different things including the filet mignon skewers (solid — especially at a great spice level) and the fried rice. I do like the presentation for the most part as well — the skewers come out on these fancy silver skewers for instance. The duck appetizer dish oddly was only okay.
Parking isn’t too bad if you go downstairs to the parking lot (later at night, I’m guessing it’s free since there isn’t a parking attendant there). Service is also pretty solid — a little awkward sometimes still as the staff tries to figure out the right balance of hip and fancy but they are very welcome.
All-​in-​all, I’m a fan of the concept of Chang’an — a much more button-​down and fancy lounge/​restaurant that tries to be hip in an area that is much more rooted in the traditional and food. Worth a check-​out if you’re in the area.

I’m pissed. Already tried this restaurant… only come to find out WACOW has coupon for it at 30% off this month (October)!!! For those who doesn’t know where to obtain a copy of WACOW magazine, below is a link for the coupon. (Need to bring hard copy of coupon)
Translation of restriction of coupon:
30% off entire bill
Mon-​Thu 4pm-​6pm, 10pm-​12am
Dine-​In only
One coupon per table
Cannot be combined with other offers
Expires 10/​31/​2015

Okay, so I really wanted to give this place a 5 star rating. I had this place bookmarked since I noticed that it was listed as the «hottest and newest» place in the 626 hood. The only 5 star rating in my books would be for their service and venue/​décor.
On with the menu:
Everything on the menu is written in Chinese minus the alcohol list. Granted that this place is located in the 626 area, I find that tons of ABC’s can’t read the menu. How does one order if you can’t read the menu? I had a lot of trouble just trying to figure out what items they were selling and to top that off, the place was absolutely empty for a Sunday evening for a Labor Day weekend. Fortunately, because we told the wait staff that we can’t read Chinese, they were able to help us by going down the menu and describing each dish. At this point, in my head, I was thinking… how is this an efficient business? Are they only trying to cater to a certain crowd? Anyways, we were then told that the «English» version would be printed by next week. I know this place is new so there’s definitely a few kinks they have to work on…
We ordered the following:
Beef Tataki for $ 12 — This was the ONLY dish that my friends thought was worth trying. It was this slightly raw beef tartar plate with capers drizzled with some type of sauce that also contained green onions and pine nuts. Yummy!
Beef and lamb skewers for $ 8 a piece: This was nothing to rave about. I had better skewers at Uncle Yu’s Indian Restaurant for half the price. The marinated meats had no special taste and the powered red chili and herbs didn’t do that much to boost up the flavor. I would totally pass on this dish as we were pretty disappointed with this order, especially since it was sub-​par.
Lastly, we ordered their seafood tapas for $ 15: This came with shrimp and scallops. I love scallops and sadly, this was overcooked. Our party thought it was rather chewy and that’s what happens when its overdone. The seasoning of the plate was the only thing that was great about it and nothing else. Definitely not worth the price if quality was poor.
My opinion: This place is more ideal for just drinks, not for fine dining for the quality that you’re getting. There’s plenty of other places to dine at, especially in a city that’s known for plenty of yummy eats. Also, most of the reviewers on here rating this place a 5 star barely have any reviews on their Unilocal account. I find it odd that they decide to just review a new business all of a sudden… makes me want to believe that this is saturated to have friends of friends help boost up the ratings…