Southern Mini Town

The Service: Very small restaurant but they really pack as many tables as they can in that tiny space. One server but she can really multi-​tasking and didn’t feel like lacking customer service.
The Food: Authentic Shanghai cuisine, majority customers are from China. We ordered 7 dishes, my favorites are…
Pork Kidney Slices — Super tender, great texture! Light sauce with ginger. You will never imagine that is what «pork kidney» taste like!
Pan Fried Pork Bun — Freshly made~ handmade dough. The bottom of the buns are crispy, the meat are juicy and the buns are so soft. Highly recommended!
Few dishes are just so-​so…
2 flavor shrimps — same type of shrimp, one without sauce and the other one with sweet & sour sauce
XLB — oversteamed, super dry inside the dumplings, no soup juice at all. The dough is getting hard.
The Parking: Plaza parking (free)

I’d have to say this is my new favorite place to eat authentic Chinese food for lunch.
My friends who live in the area know all the places and they said I’d like this restaurant, and they were certainly right… with one exception, I didn’t like it, I loved it.
It’s a very nondescript restaurant in a mini mall. You probably won’t see it from the street. Parking can be a challenge, but there’s plenty of two-​hour free street parking available close by.
The prices are very reasonable. Almost all the lunch items are between $ 5.45 and $ 7.45. The food is fantastic. It’s fresh, plentiful and delectable.
If you want to get that «undiscovered hideaway» food experience, Southern Mini Town is it.
Go there for lunch, or dinner, just go there. You’ll really enjoy it.
See my pics of the fantastic food:

My family’s go to spot — nothing fancy from a décor and service perspective but the food is super solid. The pan fried pork buns here are on par with the ones you get in Taiwan. Also love the steam sea bass, glass noodle w pickled greens, pork spare ribs, and sesame ball egg drop soup for dessert.

Solid Shanghainese cuisine and very inexpensive.
I have only discovered this place recently when Lake Spring at Monterey Park was closed for renovation and my son was craving for «pork pump.» I Unilocaled Shanghainese restaurant and found this place and gave it a try by ordering takeout.
I of course ordered the pork pump, which is a braised ham hock/​upper hind leg (always wonder why it is called «pork pump» — I am guessing it is a translation from Chinese 蹄“膀”). The recipe calls for a whole round ham hock near the butt, skin on. The pork pump is cooked in boiling water, deep fried and then braised in sweet soy sauce for hours until extremely tender. The pork pump was often served on a bed of spinach and the brown sauce it was braised in. Our pork pump did not disappoint. The meat was so tender and flavorful!
We also got the «lion head» meatballs, a pork rib dish, a vegetable dish and a fish fillet stir fry. Lots of food and all delicious! The pork pump and the lion head meatballs were the stars but the simple stir fry spinach was also very good. All these lunch specials + the pork pump came to about $ 50.
The restaurant seating area is somewhat small and when I picked up my food around 1:00 p.m. it was mostly full, with only one table left. But the food was ready when I got there, about 25 minutes from the time I ordered. That’s some fast cooking!
I also appreciate that they used the aluminum pan for the pork pump and lined the styrofoam boxes with aluminum foil for the other hot dishes.
Will return.

Inexpensive dishes for good food! :) Just discovered this place with my mom the other day. My mom comes here all the time with her friends.

Too expensive for the mediocre quality of food.

It is surprising to find authentic Shainghainese food around here. The food is cooked by i believe two cooks and it is tasty. Due to this being a small Chinese establishment the servers are very attentive to you when you wave them over. They have vegetable specials placed near the kitchen which change depending on the cook. The place is next to golden deli and therefore parking can be a hassle but you may park on either of the streets on the side. My favourite dish to order are the eggplants and the fried buns which is basically a bitesized meat bun which has been fried and steamed at the same time. The food is a bit more pricey during the night time but they have lunch specials throughout the weekday!

Worse customer service ever. I called to order for pickup and a lady picked up the phone, when I asked for pick up she said today can’t it’s too busy just for eating inside? This was so rude, if you are so busy inside how are you gonna have some more people come and eat, there is no space! So wouldn’t make sense to take orders for pick up? So confusing… Also every time I go there the staff never greets you with hello or goodbye. They just hand you the bill. I am not going back to this place again and do not recommend it AT ALL.

和大家点评的差不多 服务的确很一般 甚至不怎么好 本来打算去一面之交的 因为停车位满了 所以跑对面plaza停车时就顺道进了小南国 菜口味也很普通 给人感觉差不多就是国内一个街边小店 所以没太多要求 凑合吃 旁边的越南餐馆生意挺火爆 大家可以去尝试下

I would like to give them zero star. But I don’t have the choice to choose ZERO! The waitress is extremely rude! I went with my fiancée. And they would like to squeeze more seat for their customers so the waitress wanted us to change a spot. She wouldn’t be able to ask me nicely! She pushed me from my back several times ask me to stand up. The food is not good! Trust me there is a lot of Chinese restaurant better than this one. I would recommend don’t go!

This is my Sunday lunch place, and I love it. I come here with my family a lot, and we always order the clear noodles with mustard greens, the pan fried steamed buns, and some kind of whole fish. Forever favorites. Their sesame rice dessert soup is also top notch, and they actually have little osmanthus flowers sprinkled on top.
I always eat at leeeeasst two of the pan fried steamed buns because they’re just the best. Fluffy but at the same time crispy on the bottom and the meatball is juicy and flavorful. If only I had a faster metabolism then I’d just eat the whole order and nobody would want to have lunch with me anymore.

This restaurant isn’t too popular. I guess it’s because all the customers get sucked towards Golden Deli (an awesome restaurant, but the wait for a table there is horrible), which is unwarranted, as the food is pretty good here.
Southern Mini Town only has maybe 6 – 8 tables? It’s really small. Don’t expect 5 star service here. The waitresses kinda lounge around the cash register and watch TV until food comes out from the kitchen, at which point they will bring you the food and then return to their post, eyes glued on the TV.
Portions are small for the price you pay, but the food is pretty yummy. My favorite is this shrimp dish with sweet and sour sauce (the one they put on the fish filet dish, I think), as it goes great over rice. Another dish that sticks in my mind are the green beans. Whatever seasonings they sauté it in is pretty awesome.
I think I tried their dumplings and xiao long baos once, but it wasn’t memorable. Considering that nearby is a Mama Lu’s and a Din Tai Fung, well, you can’t win everything.
As Unilocal suggests, A-​OK. Good place to fall back on if every other place has too long of a wait.

Solid 3*.
We came here after Mama Lu’s was too crowded and Noodle King was closed for their summer holiday. While not the best Shanghai place I’ve been to, the food is pretty good and prices reasonable.
Tofu– Sorry. I’m a bit hazy on the name. I believe the Chinese was 鼓醬豆腐 in Chinese. It is not 家常豆腐 but similar. This was the best dish.
House Special Tendon– It is the first thing in their menu and was very good. Maybe a tad too sweet but I’d order it again. Eaten with tons of white rice it is a winner.
West Lake Beef Soup– Most Americans might not like it but my HK buddy and I did. Not super strong which was refreshing.
Xiao Long Bao– Skip this. Pretty meh. Its ok tho. you can’t get everything right.
Green Bean and Eggplant Combo– In Chinese… this is a combo of 魚香茄子 and 四季豆. I was chatting with our waitress about how I’d never had both of these in the same plate before and decided to try. Really good. Not over powering.
All in all… Southern Mini Town was a good fall back option for us. We ate like kings for $ 40 (5 dishes) and went home happy.

I was going out with my friends who wanted to go to a Taiwanese restaurant nearby. Since I am not really crazy about Taiwanese restaurants except for a handful few, we decided to try this one instead. Oh, boy. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been eating at home far too much (I just had a baby) or this restaurant is good, but we finished everything. Everyone in our party liked the dishes. We ordered two tofu dishes, a fish dish cooked with rice wine sauce, sauteed eggplant (I like the ginger touch), some cool cucumber for a nice crunch, and some dumplings.
I was still eyeing the last piece of fish when my friend took it with her chopsticks. Lesson learned. Never hesitate when eating out with a group!
Yes, it’s not because I was craving restaurant food. It’s really that good!
They gave us some white fungi soup to finish it off. Next time I’ll take my family here. Good stuff!

Delicious shanghai food here! One of my favorite places for brunch on the weekends. Everything is fresh and does not taste generic. It does get crowded, especially with large lunch groups taking up the huge tables. There are a few smaller tables for 2 – 4 people, but the restaurant itself is quite small.
Recommended pics: crab XLB (juicy, tender), pork steamed buns (crispy bottoms and generous amount of filling), vegetable fried rice (fresh and healthy tasting with bok choy bits).

A small café where you can find authentic Shanghai cousin and a few dishes from other Chinese cousins. The taste of many of their dishes could be competitive even in China. Great quality for their very cheap price.
But, like most authentic Chinese restaurants, don’t expect much on service. You will get your food on time and you will have tea or water or whatever but don’t expect much more than that, like smile that sort of things.
5+for price and taste. 2 for everything else.

I was craving Benten Ramen and was just circled around the parking lot 4 times (I hate this parking lot) when I remembered that most Japanese restaurants are closed on MONDAYS! WAH! I wanted noodles but Golden Deli had a huge wait. And so I scanned the plaza for the next best option… Southern Mini Town!
Southern Mini Town looked familiar since I remember reading about it in an article about about «4 Best Shanghai Restaurants in LA.» (Here’s the article:
) And so I decided to give it a try.
I asked the server for noodle recommendations and she recommended the Thick Cut Shanghai Fried Noodle. The noodles arrived shortly after I ordered and I dug in. I felt the noodles were not cooked all the way through… They were still a bit hard in the middle, and not in a yummy, chewy way. Very average dish.
I guess it’s not really fair for me to judge SMT based on one chow mien dish… But I’m not sure when I’ll be back. But I’ll be sure to try the following dishes next time I come and adjust my rating accordingly: Fried Seaweed Yellow Fish, Two Flavored Shrimp, Lamb with Cumin, Lettuce Wraps. Someone please try these and let me know how they are!

A mixed review for this restaurant.
Ambiance 2-​star: tiny restaurant and crowded seats, almost no walking space between tables. The waiting line was long, only two large tables inside, make sure you call in to reserve table first. Parking was hard to find during dinner time, and you have to seek around residential area for street parking.
Service 1-​star: slow, impatient and sort of rude. When we asked if we could take another table inside, we were told «Don’t you see it’s reserved already?» with very impolite tone. Be quite honest, no matter how good their food was, the service was really bad. Let alone their food wasn’t that great either.
Food 3-​star: Some were good some were bad, too much MSG in the soup, made you dizzy and thirsty afterwards.
Garlic Baby Back Ribs — ** below average taste, the meat was not fresh
Crab fried rice cake — **** tasted good though overpriced, recommend
Flaming Shrimp — *** average taste, under-​cooked, the shrimps were supposed to be crispy
Bamboo Shoot Top and Duck — *** soup was okay, too much MSG
Shredded Beef with Hot Pepper — **** good taste, would recommend
Shredded Dried Bean Curd with Bamboo — *** tasted fresh
Pan Fried Dumpling — *** about average
Chicken in Wine Sauce — **** very flavorful, recommend
Fried Seaweed Yellow Fish — *** average taste
Eggplant and String Bean in Brown Sauce — *** average
Price 2-​star: For one dish, they raised the bill price without telling us first. Felt to be cheated on the pricing for some dishes. Considering the quality and potion, it’s just okay, about $ 20 per person.

Dinner with friends, 5 of us. This is a tiny place, but when we were there, it was packed. We had to wait for about 30mins for a table.
Service, expect your typical Asian no-​service. Friend ordered all dishes in Mandarin.
Food was very good.
We had:
Shanghai Thick Noodle Chow Mein: noodle was perfect al-​dente.
Noodle with Scallion: a little too soft on this one.
Fried Seaweed Yellow Fish: very crispy and hot, very good. it was served with a sweet & sour sauce, I think.
Wuxi Style Spareribs — my fav! crispy spare ribs with sweet and savory sauce, perfect with rice.
Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet — ok, not my fav.
Sauteed Squash — good. just need a plate of veggie to balance the meal.
Glutinous Rice Balls in Wine Flavoured Soup — perfect dessert.
Our bill was around $ 55.00.

Dear LA, you have annoying traffic, dirty air, humid summers, but I don’t care. I am still immensely jealous of the people who live in the valley and within 5 min drive to great Chinese food.
We came to Southern Mini Town at a fellow Shanghainese girl’s recommendation. Five adults plus 2 kids ate well on 6 entrees and 2 orders of xlb all for under $ 50 before tip. How is that even possible. For one thing, the eggplant special was only 2 bucks, and secondly, one of the entrée was comp because we spent X amount of dollars. I wasn’t aware of how much we had to spent since the entrees on their own was already a bargain.
All the entrees were great and invoked a sense of nostalgia in me. The xlb was the only miss since they weren’t very juicy. I kind of gambled on that one by ordering in a place that doesn’t specialize in xlb.
Rice cake stir fried with julienne pork and mustard greens illustrates the beauty of Chinese food. One dish contains the perfect balance of protein, vegetable, and starch.
Stir fried shrimp was simple and straight forward. The authentic version uses small fresh water prawns that you can’t get here and the simple treatment is used to showcase both the unadulterated flavor of the shrimp and its luxuriously tender texture. Here, medium sized shrimp was used instead so the taste was somewhat lacking, but you can only make do with what is available.
The eggplant was done in a classic Shanghainese style with generous amounts of oil, soy sauce, and sugar. The eggplant was soft yet still retained its shape. It wasn’t exactly health, but so comforting when the oily salty sweet eggplant pulp is eaten with white rice.
Fried fish with seaweed powder is another classic Shanghainese dish. Its a classic because its so good. Crunchy puffy fried fish with a hint of refreshing seaweed flavor.
We also got two none Shanghainese dishes and both proved to be tasty. Fried ribs topped with fragrant bits of garlic, cilantro, and scallions was particularly satisfying to a garlic fiend like me. The spicy wings was unique in that it tasted like it was marinated in shrimp paste and fried with peanuts, chilis, onions, and garlic. It wasn’t easy to eat since it was quite bony, but the work made the morsels of meat all the more tastier.