Kim Tar BBQ Restaurant

The Kim Tar chain has been around for decades. I arrived in on a weekday for lunch before the noon hour. Parking was no issue in the shared private parking lot and I was seated at a booth.
Selected the house special noodle soup #2 large with flat white noodles. The tasty soup contained a chicken wing, roasted duck, ground pork and veggies. I wasn’t a fan of the lunch specials a few visits ago but the BBQ looks inviting here.
Service was attentive and cordial and they have several locations in the So Cal area. Reasonable prices on their soups and consistency will keep me returning here.

First off, most of the people leaving good reviews arent even asian and probably have no idea what its supposed to taste like.
I work within walking distance and we frequently order food here which gets me more mad because we spend so much money here. Food is bland and inconsistent, you can order the same thing everyday and it will be different tasting everytime. I have a feeling they dont care adout quality or good service because they are the only chinese restaraunt around here.
The past few times I came here they «forgot» items I ordered or left out part of an order. This time I called to let them know, the lady didnt seem to care much, thats fine because I can spend my money elsewhere, I do have to eat lunch everyday like most people, I just wont be coming back here again. I really wanted to be frequenting this place, but I dont think they want our business.
Bottom line, the food is pretty sorry, service obviously sucks, and the place is filthy with cockroaches eating next to human patrons.
Come here if you want to get ripped off with low quality food and bad service. If you dont agree with me, keep eating Kim Tar until you find out what real chinese food should taste like. If you cant tell the difference, then you probably deserve to eat this garbage and put up with those horrible ladies attitudes.

Would’ve given a higher rating except that servers are very rude. They really need to work on their manners! That being said, the food is really good and you are almost willing to overlook the bad service.

ordered a salty duck rice noodle soup, the duck came with tons of fur on the skin. I told the waitress there are too much fur on it, the waitress told me just don’t eat the skin… And said all the duck like this! OMG such bull shit. This place sucks

Great Food

Good for roast duck, soy sauce chicken, bbq pork, roast pig etc. I only like the House special noodle soup. Other than that, I dont really eat here for much else.

My Chinese American friends brought me here and have to admit I hesitated going to a Chinese restaurant — I found the food to be too oily, over sauced, with over use of MSG. This place however was different. Loved the char siu, roast duck, and fried green beans. Icing on the cake was the taro dessert at the end. My friends frequent the place with her family and her 80+ years old mom loves it. Certainly changed my perspective on Chinese food. I’ll be brining my family here.

I phone ordered a Beef w/​Black Bean Sauce. Went to pick it up and stood at their counter for almost 10 minutes before someone even acknowledged me. Then… it was CASH ONLY. Had to go to the ATM in the 100 degree sun [yippie]. Get back to the office… food is nasty. Seriously… the food from Asia Kitchen is 10 times better. Oh… and lunch specials for take out do not come with soup.

MY FAVORITE NOODLES ;U; I CAN’T GET THESE NOODLES ANYWHEREE except here
The two things I always order:
— House Special Noodles (Thick noodles)
— BBQ pork or duck!
and I love the spicy chili at the side ^_​_​_​_​^ it’s suuper spicy.
This is actually my favorite restaurant: o
those noodles singlehandedly won my tastebuds over. and since when did duck/​bbqpork taste that good .-. :))

cockroach in food! this reataurent is dirty and the managements attitude is despicable! They acted like this is no big deal. thare are roaches running around as we speaking to the manager in the kithen. I called the LA county health department infront of the man’s face and guess that did he say? Let them come!
Guys! for your own sake (sick)! stay away!

I really like their soupy noodle with duck and chicken. I think their most popular item is the salty chicken or duck? Don’t remember currently, since I haven’t been there in awhile! This means I must go here soon! Their food here is always fresh and pretty good, so its worth a try! I think they have been open for like 20 – 30 years already? Kind of crazy huh?

This place is whatevs. Ok food. To me it tastes like a typical Chinese restaurant. Service is like a typical Chinese restaurant. It sucks. The servers sit there and chit chat while I have no water and need a refill on it. Same with my wife’s drink. But you don’t go to a Chinese restaurant expecting great service.
I would come back but prob just for take out. Ok joint I guess.

Kim tar is one of my favorite dirty hole in the wall places to go to. With booth seating and probably even bowls and utensils straight out of the 90s, there is possibly nothing better for Hakka soul food.
The house noodle soup is a staple and depending on our mood we will get either the thick flat noodles or the mi tai mu, which is a chewier shorter and fatter version of regular rice noodles. The soup itself has a mash up of meats. Throw in a cut of chicken leg, offal up that soup, veggies here and a fish cake there.
The bbq pork and bbq duck rice plate is also a must get. You can try not to eat all the rice but ohhh we always do.

Maybe I went on an off day, but I wasn’t impressed by the food I got here. I was in the area for an errand and wanted to try this place for a while, so I got some to-​go of their BBQ pork with noodle soup. I found the flavor and texture of the BBQ pork lackluster and relatively tough, respectively. I tried some of my boyfriend’s roast pork and thought it was unmemorable also. Edible, but definitely not as good as other similar places I’ve eaten at. I was disappointed. Maybe their other dishes are better, but for their deli meats, I’ve definitely had better.
Cash only, by the way.

This.Is.My.SPOT!
As far back as I can remember, I have been a customer here. I remember when I was very young my family would come here to eat and I’ve seen the waiters come and go but the best ones stay. I can remember the satisfying house noodle soup and the delicious duck these guys have, it is still as amazing today.
This place always hits the spot, they are a bit rude but they don’t mean it intentionally. The duck is always something I get here. I will be coming here till I die or they shut down, till then I’ll be telling everyone!

I was in the area for a class and was starving afterwards, so we decided to eat here. When we pulled up to the restaurant I was like whoaaa this area is a bit sketchy! I could see 2 strip clubs and 2 liquor stores in my peripheral vision. But, as I’ve come to learn, most great eats aren’t located in a fancy area so I was willing to give this place a shot.
I ended up ordering the Singapore style curry noodles and a Chinese donut for dinner. The donut was surprisingly fresh tasting! I think they made a few batches throughout the day. Apparently they are known for their house special noodle (which you can get in a soup, or dry version). I’ve been eating this quite often in my area (OC) at either Trieu Chau or Capital Noodle Bar, so I decided not to order it. Biggest mistake of my LIFE! I had a bite of the dry seafood noodle and it was so bomb, I suffered through the rest of my meal because I knew I made the wrong choice. A definite must order if you come here.
This restaurant is cash only, but there are a few banks nearby and an ATM in the liquor store directly in front of the restaurant. ($ 2.50 transaction fee I believe)

I remember my brother talking about Kim Tar in a different location years ago. My sister-​in-​law suggested getting dinner from here and it turned out to be a great suggestion.
Kim Tar is like Sam Woo BBQ because it has a deli in front which serves BBQ meats like roast chicken, roast duck, BBQ pork, etc. The menus and prices are pretty similar.
The whole roast duck was very plump, meaty, and tasty. The BBQ pork/​cha shu was pretty, glistening, and flavorful. We also ordered won ton soup which was full of stuff that I don’t usually see in other own ton soups, but it tasted good with a great tasting broth. The fish porridge wasn’t real flavorful, but I enjoyed the BBQ pork fried rice which had lots of ingredients. We also ordered Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce which was cut into manageable pieces.
Kim Tar is located in a shopping center with Superior Market. The workers were nice and patient which isn’t always the case at Chinese restaurants. I’d definitely go again when in the area.

This is really bad treiu chow noodles. The whole restaurant stinks of butchered pig. The soup is really stinky, like they didn’t clean out the innards before boiling all the goodies in the broth. I couldn’t finish my soup it was too disgusting. Big thumbs down. Go to Alhambra instead. Hot coffee is pretty good tho.

I really wanted to like this place. The reviews here looked really good and my family used to come here many, many years ago. However, over the years, the quality of their food have decreased. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon with a party of 10, the restaurant was about half full. They still have great lunch specials everyday… but be careful because they are pretty shady.
First, all of us ordered from the lunch special. This includes a soup, egg roll, and the entrée. All of our dishes came out, but we were still waiting on our soup. We decided to ask the waitress and she took it upon herself to ask us how many we wanted. REALLY?! You’re going to ask us how many we want? It’s a given that we should get 10 soups for the 10 orders we got. She looked like she wanted to give us 5 or something like that. They’re lucky the soup was pretty dang good. It was super hot, the way I like it.
Second, I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken or you can actually call it the Kung Pao Everything but Chicken. Seriously, they were really generous on their portions, but my dish had maybe 6 or 7 dices of chicken. I tasted more of the peanut, bamboo, and chestnuts then I did the chicken. They truly skimped out on me. I was not happy.
Third, someone in my party ordered the Diced Beef with rice (Loc Lac). He took a bite and decided he will just have water for the rest of the meal. I had a taste and I agreed. It was tasteless and very chewy. The dish had more rice than anything else. Do not order this dish.
Forth, someone ordered the Beef Chow Mein. Be careful of this dish if you’re not a big fan of bean sprouts. The person who ordered this wasn’t a fan of bean sprouts, but that’s fine because she would usually pick them out or eat around. This time, she decided to pick around the bean sprouts. When she was done, half the plate was filled of bean sprouts. I know asians love them… but another example that they’re cheating us by using cheap. low quality vegetables.
I rarely give 1 star, but that shows how much we all walked away upset. Give it a try. maybe you’ll have better luck. We didn’t.

I’ve passed by this place several times when I used to live in the area but never considered trying this place. It could be because of the restaurant name… I mean who puts the word «tar» in the name of a restaurant? Would you order a bowl of hot tar?
We were actually walking towards Iguanas and Ranas Tacos when the $ 9.99 live lobster sign on the windows of Kim Tar intervened not once, but twice and we ended up never making it to the taco joint and instead went in here, sat down and started inquiring about the lobster.
It turns out the $ 9.99 deal is for their small lobster, which I took a look at the tank and saw it wasn’t that much smaller than the $ 12.99 medium one. We agreed to order it, cooked in garlic & butter as they recommended over the other 2 ways. We also decided to order the house special noodle soup with the large noodles.
The noodles came out first and I loved it! It didn’t need any sauce and tasted just right. It had some duck, shrimp, ground pork, fish cakes, and some other stuff but it all combined to make one hell of a bowl of noodles. Flavor was spot on and they deserve an award for the best use of MSG in a noodle soup dish.
The lobster while small was a pretty good deal for $ 10. I felt the sauce was a bit too much. I’m not a big fan of butter sauces, so if I came back and ordered lobster again, I would try the ginger sauce or even just plain steamed and ask for a side of dipping sauce.
Because I enjoyed the noodles so much, I’d like to come back and try the other ones too. I also want to try the roast duck which I almost ordered over the noodles. It’s too bad that I don’t live around here anymore cuz I want to come back and try so many of their dishes!