Restaurant review: Hai Di Lao brings its famed hot pot to the San Gabriel Valley

Happy Chinese New Year! Red envelopes and lion dances for all! If you want to celebrate at a Chinese restaurant, and I can’t see why you wouldn’t, here are a few places to ring in the Year of the Rooster.   Ask Jonathan Goldbot where to eat on...

Let us contemplate for a moment the phenomenon of la zi ji, the known in Sichuan-style restaurants as spicy fried chicken, Chungking fried chicken, Chongqing spicy chicken, chicken with chilies, or spicy diced chicken. A proper plate of la zi ji...

When I became a parent last summer, the dining universe effectively split into two general categories: places where I could take my child, and everywhere else. In the first category, there are restaurants with amenities like booster seats, high...

I was, I confess, expecting to see a lot of mournful faces in the line outside the original U.S. Din Tai Fung in Arcadia last weekend, only a few hours before it was scheduled to shut down for a remodel. The faded strip-mall restaurant may not...

The moment I spot a customer at Chengdu Lao Zao Hot Pot get up from her table with a tray of uneaten raw shrimp and return it to the restaurant’s refrigerator is when I decide it’s time for me to settle my tab and go.  Unfortunately this wasn’t my...