Wang Jia Restaurant

Great little restaurant in San Gabriel. It’s been here for years and I’ve come a few times but just realized how great it is.
The menu has a wide variety of dishes at decent prices. Came in last night and got half a tea smoked chicken, some sauteed spinach, green onion pancake, deep fried fish, and some kind of soup. I enjoyed all the dishes and the portions were pretty big. Plenty left over to take home.
It’s in the little strip next with a few other stores and a tiny parking lot. It’s easier to park on the street.

the place is pretty homey and i enjoyed most of what i got. I’ve had the ‘shanghainese casserole’, vegetarian cold dish with spongey gluten, mung bean jelly and braised fish. the fish was VERY undercooked and when we told the waitress she took it back to the kitchen to reheat the remainder of the fish! nahhhhhhhhhhh. never again.

This place is quite small but it is very clean and bright. The service is very friendly. The food is good (home cook style) and the price for the lunch special is inexpensive! They have the lunch special on weekends too (except Tuesday and holidays).

My family used to be regulars here until the old management and head chef left a few years ago to return to Shanghai.
We recently discovered that they returned and opened a new establishment next to the El Pollo Loco in Rosemead (Garvey Location) called Old Shanghai Kitchen.
We went there last night for dinner, the food was just as I remembered it.
Happy eating!

Came on a Friday night. The place was completely empty and no one was at the counter to seat up. Went up to the kitchen to let them know we were here. Almost decided to leave the place since there was no sign of life but pretty glad that we stayed.
We ordered the sweet and sour soup, stir fried shanghai rice cakes, smoked duck, and fermented sesame rice balls. The smoked duck had an interesting flavor, nothing like I’ve ever had but enjoyable! Rice cake was also good. Initially thought the soup was not spicy or sour enough but it kicked in after a few spoon and it was really satisfying.
Best part was dessert. Mini sesame filled glutinous rice balls in a broth with fermented rice, shreds of egg, and sprinkled with osmanthus. Exceptional!
The place really is a hole in the wall and the ambience isn’t great. But the food is good and the prices are reasonable. I left feeling super full and fulfilled! Glad I didn’t pass up this place because there was no one in there. No one = more service for us!

I really want hope this little hole in the wall would be good. The waiters are really nice and sweet but after coming here 2 times and 5 dishes later, I come to conclude that the flavor is more homey than gourmet. Mapo tofu is spicy, more of a mala flavor which is different than the traditional spicy for other. Even their hot and sour soup is different. The worst dish was the talipia with brown sauce. I know the fish is frozen but that is not a reason why it wasn’t fully cook b/​c part of the meat was cold.

One of the worse meals… not sure if it’s the worst. My husband and 17 year old have nothing good to say either. My ratings:
Shanghai spare ribs – flavor is not great, meat is not tender. 1*
Braised Tilapia – fish is not fresh, yes, I know it’s frozen but could still be fresh frozen. Here I mean that the fish meat is bad, flavor of sauce is bad too. 0*
Hot and sour soup – not good flavor. 1*
Fuzzy squash with dried shrimp – okay, can taste the msg. 2*
Ma PO Tofu – large dish, spicy with ma la flavor. Not used to this flavor for Mapo tofu.1*
Stir fry shrimp – good. 2*
My son says the white rice is the best fish for him and he is usually easy to please.
We will NOT go again!!! Wasted our money today.

Hmm… it’s just average taste/​skill/​quality and a higher than average value ratio (food for money). Nothing really wow. I would go to other Shanghaiese places. Which other place… unfortunately my favorite places are out of business now. :-(

Shanghainese restaurant clustered among other Chinese restaurants. Small yet friendly, the description is plainly «hole in the wall,» which a lot of people actually seek out and prefer. Very nice service, they have an extensive lunch menu with entrees in the $ 4-​$ 6 range. Their excellent xlb is also just $ 5 for 8, which I doubt you can find a better price anywhere else. Shanghai food is known for their gummy rice cakes which they eat as their staple, instead of rice or noodles (northern Chinese). You can order this as a dish, and they also give you rice. We ordered drunken chicken, house special spare ribs, and chicken with bamboo and vegetable, they all were priced about $ 4-​$ 5 and were really good. You also get free hot and sour soup and pickled greens. Not a fancy place, but a good place for inexpensive, good food.

Eh… This place is alright. The first time I came I loved it. The second time it was ok. The third I took the food to go and it didn’t taste good. Food isn’t too consistent. Sometimes it’s undercooked, sometimes it’s just right. Kung pao was bland and chewy. Fried fish was way too bready and I got raw flour in bits. Also I came at 1pm but was charged full price instead of lunch prices. The one thing they do well is yang chow fried rice but you can get that anywhere

Pepper beef is awesome! (And very peppery)
Dumplings are good, but not the best ones around. (Although the there’s always disagreements and taste preferences here.)
What sucks is that it’s easy to spend much longer than an hour here… Not a good thing for a mid-​week lunch. Even getting water /​tea can take 20mins.

This is our one of us newly discovered favorite place to have good shanghai food or just chinese food for that matter.
Good sized portions and interesting menu. every time we come, we always want to try something new but usually ended up just go back to our favorites because we liked them so much: 4 treasures, seaweed fried fish, cabbage with flat noodles, shanghainese rice cake, smoke duck…
Amazing food & friendly staff, but somehow always empty! Come and check it out!

Wang Jia is a mom and pop restaurant that serves typical Shanghainese family style dishes. None of their dishes are spectacular, but everything is decently good at a very affordable cost, particularly their lunch specials. They pump out dishes faster than McDonalds during the lunch rush and contrary to the stereotype of Chinese restaurants, the service here is actually very good here. I would highly recommend coming here for a quick cheap meal, but be advised to come with someone who can speak Chinese because the English is limited here.
All and all…3.5 Stars.
Pros
–Cheap
–Good Size Portions
–Variety of different dishes
–Friendly service
Cons
–Greasy
–Limited English
–Location (Limited Parking available)
–Cash Only
Wang Jia is located across from the HK Supermarket on San Gabriel Blvd, near Las Tunas Drive in a tiny commercial shopping center.

Why is this place not more loved?
First, the duck herb soup is seriously, insanely great.
Second, the Chinese Okra is silky and sweet.
Third, the XLB are quite fine as well.
To top it off the service, while speaking very little English, is incredibly sweet, thoughtful and attentive. Even by non-​Chinese restaurant standards. We love this place and think more of you should too!

It is a tiny place. Staff can be friendlier but at least they’re not rude like many chinese places. My dad likes this place, so, we eat here.
Parking sucks

FOOD: This is another Shanghaiese restaurant amist the godzillion Chinese restaurant in San Gabriel Valley. I ordered my usual XLB and Rice cakes, no big surprise. It’s average quality there.
AMBIANCE: Small hole in the wall type of restaurant.
PRICES: Average.
SERVICE: It’s great, but I don’t think any of its staff speaks English
PARKING: Horrible! Restaurant is located on a mini-​strip mall along with 4 or 5 other stores, but there is like a total of 10 parking there? Yikes!
TIPS: If you don’t speak/​read Chinese, I would highly recommend bringing a friend that speaks Chinese with you.

Of all the varieties of Chinese food, Shanghainese is probably my favorite. It’s got so much more flavor and odd spices than most other regional cooking. Wang Jia is quite interesting because it is so authentic that there is only a vague attempt to even put English names on the menu and though the staff is game, they really have difficulty communicating if you don’t speak Mandarin. My wife and I had such difficulty (because she only speaks Cantonese) that we were grateful to the other patrons who helped translates our needs. When all was said and done, we mostly got what we wanted.
Shanghai spareribs were really good. Nice tang to them, not remarkably different from other versions but good flavor and nicely done.
Shrimp Stirfry was pretty average. Not bad but oddly bland for Shangainese food. The only real flavor comes from the vinegar dipping sauce which is tradtional but underwhelming. Wouldn’t order again.
Noisette Pork Pump is an interesting take on a traditional Filipino dish. Actually the Shanganinese version very likely came first but I’m not a historian. The pork leg is gigantic, and falls off the bone. It’s a nice dish, and one of the signatures here. I think I prefer that Filipino version which is more flavorful but also much heavier.
Best part of the evening was the Sesame rice balls in red wine sauce dessert. The don’t serve small orders it seems, but they kindly made an order for free and gave everyone in the restaurant a serving so we could try it. For that alone they get an extra star. That’s not something that happens too often, and they tried really hard to give us a great experience. I love Chinese food, but this is the first Chinese dessert I’ve ever had that made me say wow. Such nice flavors and textures, I wish there were more good asian desserts but sadly there aren’t.
Mostly I thought the food was very good, while my wife was a little less exhuberant. II’d agree it’s not at the level of Xiang Wei Lo or Shufeng’s which are superior, but it’s a solid place with some very good plates.
Just make sure you bring CASH, and a Mandarin speaker.
Best Plates: Noisette Pork Pump, Shanghai Spareribs, Sesame Rice balls in Red wine
Food — B+
Ambience — C
Service — A– (Mandarin speaking only)
Value — A–

Yummy!

:(I revisited Wang Jia Sa last week with my family. The old boss of the restaurant decided to return back to Shanghai according to the newer boss. The newer boss assured us that the old chef was still cooking. We ordered the usual suspects: duck soup, fried fish etc.
The portions were generous as usual… but, the food is not the same. Whatever creative spark – or old chef’s prowess and experience – was not present any longer. It seemed that the food was a mere imitation that didn’t closely resemble the food before. I’m sorry Unilocalers, the food is not good anymore. Not at all.
Sorry, but this place isn’t worth visiting, but they still offer their old menu albeit the taste is not there.

The food is bomb and I’m still suffering from a massive coma. Actually I just woke up from a four hour nap, remembering I should upload the pics for this place since there are none and I’m always hesitant to try places without pictures.
I came with the bfs family and they had been before so they definitely knew what to order. I usually hold back comments like «well there are only 3 reviews from people with less than 10 reviews» with them because I have yet to be let down with their choices. Though I saw that it was Shanghainese and that the people inside were definitely all hustlin’ around speaking in the dialect, we didn’t really seem to order many Shanghainese dishes. They were mostly spicy and Sichuan and last I checked Sichuan is pretty far from Shang hai.
Anyway, whatever. Everything we ordered was delicious so I really have nothing to complain about. The sweet and sour soup was pretty typical and nothing too crazy to write about. The Xiang La Tian Ji (
) was freaking delicious. Get that and the Spicy boiled fish (
) if nothing else. Who gives a rats ass if we’re in the wrong province of China.
The bamboo shoot dish was also awesome (
) — sorry the pic is blurry, I’m taking all of these with my phone cam. The wu gen cang wang (
) which is a Taiwanese dish full of intestines and pork blood also tasted great.
The crispy fish had seaweed in the batter which added to the fluffy and chewiness of the dish (
)
The eggplant, vegetarian yellow bird thing (veggies wrapped in tofu skin), and salt and pepper pork were also hits.
The best part of my meal was the jiu niang tang yuan or the fermented rice dessert soup with black sesame rice balls because I love that stuff and try to eat it on a daily basis. Especially when the fermented rice has osmanthus flower, thereby making it legit and completely Shanghainese.
Anyway if you were thinking Shanghainese OHHHH xiao long bao, don’t come here.