A & J Restaurant

A to the MOTHERFUCKIN J… I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love this place. I’ve been comin’ here for a long ass time… Let me tell you why this is one of my favorite places when I go to the SGV… Oh yeah, SGV stands for «San Gabriel Valley» for all you non SGV’ers…
Location: This one is super easy to find… It’s right next to a Lee’s sandwiches. So if by chance you’re unable to fill up with some yummy ass Chinese food. Go buy yourself an awesome sandwich
Parkin: Typical Chinese parkin’ lot in SGV. People drive in the wrong direction, they don’t look out when backin’ out, and drive ridiculously slow… However, this parkin’ lot is super spacious
Venue: It’s nice. It’s got a super nice feel to it. When you walk in you’ll notice that there is quite a bit of space as well. The tables are wide and they are able to seat larger groups as well
Staff: Super sweet. Most of the waitresses are all women.
Menu: Most of times you’ll see a pencil and a long vertical slip of paper. That is typicall your order… It’s very common in Taiwan and Asia alike. However, if you’re unable to read Chinese and would feel more comfortable with an English menu with pictures then just ask for one
Drinks: Water or tea dependin’ on your preference. The tea is your standard Chinese tea you get in restaurants.
Price: The price is very very reasonable. I truly do believe the price may vary from location to location. Dependin’ maybe by 50 cents to 1 dollar. Though, the
Food: Saved the best for lassssssssssssst. What do you want to eat? Beef noodles? Xiao Long Bao? All that shit is here… Look through all the pictures that people have posted up or the other reviews but this place is the MOTHERFUCKIN DEAL… If you do come here you have to get the THICK ASS NOOODDDDDDDLES. I’m serious. You can choose between thin and thick… TRUST. The thicker noodles are so much tastier. I’m not a huge fan of niu rou mein (Beef noodles) the only reason bein’ is that I don’t like the tendon in the beef… I’m sure you can get it without but I always get their ZHA JIANG MIAN… MY CHILDHOOD FAVORITE. BLACK BEAN SAUCE with Ground beef/​WITH SHAVED CUCUMBERS… TOTALLY DELICIOUS.
*This place always delivers. It’s got a real mom and pop place to it. That is why I like it so much. It’s not tryin’ to fuckin’ cater to the white man Panda express cravings. For an affordable price you can get a really good size portions, tasty authentic Chinese food at an affordable price… SHIT I’m HUNGRY RIGHT NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW… Don’t make me drive out all the way to San Gabriel Valley to get this shit. The only downside is they don’t have one on the Westside!!!

Niu Row Mien to the max here people. I would recommend bringing at least 1 other person here, definitely good for chicks, you won’t spend too much here, probably less than $ 30 at the most.
If your chick is a little high class, you may want to go to a few places across the street, but if she digs this kind of good, man, it’s good to go.

As with all the other reviews, this restaurant was renamed A&E, but it’s still just as great. This place makes THE BEST spicy beef noodle soup, and I say this because the handmade noodles are what make it one of a kind. You can tell that it’s fresh and handmade by the taste and chewy texture of the noodles. They even give you the pickled dressing on the side to put into your soup. Other things I recommend are:
1) thousand layer pancake
2) pork dumplings
3) vegetable buns
4) pig ears
5) dry version of the spicy beef noodle soup

niu rou xien bing was good, but oily, the beef noodle soup was nothing special BUT tasted better than most Taiwanese restaurants can manage. Price on every item is reasonably. Portions are good an order of noodle soup plus one side dish is enough for a guy like me. Liked the idea of checking food you want on the menu to order, so even the very English limited waitress can bring you the correct order. They have a lot of «regular» customers as their food is brought out to them without ordering. Even though I liked this restaurant, I think Unilocal’s ratings of it are overstated.
–Out of 5–
Revisit Value– 4
Taste-​4
Satisfactio-​3

A&J Restaurant has now been renamed to A&E Restaurant. I believe it’s another name copyright type thing, kind of like how 85c Tea House had to change to Cha ID. The same owner (I see him there) and same employees. Nothing else has changed really.
However, they have a special where you order 3x of the niu rou xien bing, you get a 4^th one free. Same with the vegetarian version of the niu rou xien bing, but you can’t mix and match.
Oh, and they have a new menu which has pictures of all the dishes. This makes it much easier if you don’t know what to order, or if you’re like me, can’t read Chinese but know what you want.
Still delicious and my family of four can get full for less than $ 30. Read past review for more details.

Oh, A & J – you used to whet my appetite. What happened?
When you first opened, your Spicy Beef Noodles (with hand-​pulled thick noodles — chewy and al dente), fried Pork Potstickers, Pork Chop Rice, and Spring Onion Cake were my old reliables. I loved you so much I used to come in for lunch by myself.
Yes, I could handle the no-​nonsense, ESL waitresses who looked quizzically when I asked for an English menu (thanks for reminding me that I’m a disgrace to my race and illiterate). No, I didn’t mind getting my own hot tea in a foam, disposable cup. No, I didn’t mind sharing a large table with other strangers all bent on filling our bellies.
But now, the quality of food ain’t as good, the portions not as large, and the prices are higher. I’m giving you two stars — and that’s generous due to nostalgic reasons. C’est la vie, baby.

Changed the name to A and E due to franchise reasons. But the food is still good. The onion pancake is the best and so is the sour plum juice. Right amount of plum and sweetness.
The beef noodle soup is not as good as before though.

Dropped by earlier this evening and they’ve changed their name from A&J to A&E. Same menu, same employees, same everything — just a new restaurant name. I don’t really likey ’cause A&J sounds better, but oh well, it’s the same great food!
P. S. They serve the best and most authentic spicy wontons.

Name has changed but quality still the same! Now called A&E. [shrug]
Maybe I was particularly hungry today but it finally dawned on me that A & J sets the gold standard for beef noodle soup with tendon. With its rich spicy broth balanced out by vegetables I can’t see how it gets better than that!
Okay, I admit that I need to go back and «expand my horizons» by trying other dishes. But come on, when you have a good thing going.

The pan fired cake with beef filling is tasty and juicy. The pot stickers are not as good. It is a bit dry.
Note: CASH ONLY

We came here for a birthday lunch for my friend.
Service — excellent – seated and order taken within minutes
Cleanliness — clean
Price — dishes run from $ 4 to $ 8 ($ 39.86 total for 4 people)
Seafood —
Meats — beef, chicken, pork
Dessert — n/​a
Fruits — n/​a
Other —
Ordered:
(2) Pickled cucumbers — excellent — cold and a little sweet
(2) Spicy Beef Noodle Soup — awesome — broth delicious and plenty of beef
(1) Pork Chop Rice — yummy — a large portion of rice and pork
(1) Regular dumpling — okay — small and a little too moist for me
(1) Pan fried dumpling — moist and delicious — these dumplings are about 5 inches long and filled with delicious pork
(1) Meat Pie — drooool — not the correct name but it looked like a large biscuit filled with beef
If you want some great Taiwanese food this is the place to go – delicious food, great sized portions, and very inexpensive.

It’s in the mini-​mall behind Wendy’s. The shop is minimally decorated, but spotless. Service is attentive; our hot tea was never empty for long. It’s cash only, so make sure you stop by the ATM first.
THEY ARE CLOSED ON WEDNESDAYS. Boo.
The beef noodle soups are good, and whether you choose spicy or non-​spicy, good flavors are present. The thick noodles look like fettucini and are heavy in the tummy, so next time I think I will choose the thin-​cut noodles. The pickles in the soup are so delicious. We ordered the xiao long bao (mini-​pork buns on the English menu), a seaweed and bean sprout salad with sesame, and scallion pancakes that were really thick and dense. Everything was fresh and good, but it was a lot of food.

This is just like the Irvine location. Same great taste and quality.
I also get the spicy beef noodle soup with tendon and thin noodles as well: P

I’m not Chinese or Taiwanese so it’s difficult for me to order anything here alone. I have to rely on my boyfriend or his friends to assist me.
There really is a big variety of food here. The food is cheap and portions are plentiful.
This place can get packed fast… but the service is fast so there’s a quick turnaround.

I love Northern Chinese food! The thick noodles are especially good here (it’s also what earns this restaurant the fifth star) — it has just the right amount of chewiness and is cooked perfectly. The tofu with thousand-​year-​old eggs (they’re just eggs preserved a special way) is sooo yummy. To be honest, I like Sinbala’s (the Taiwanese chain) sesame cold noodles and minced pork noodles a little more. However, A&J has my favorite spicy beef noodle soup.
Tip: They do have an English menu if you can’t break out your Beijing’r-sounding Mandarin. You’ll just have to say «English» or «menu» and then just point.

Come here QUITE often for really good niu ro mien (beef noodle soup), ~$ 5 for a big bowl, really good niu ro shen bing, and I think that’s all I’ve ever ordered from here. Actually, I HAVE ordered wonton soup here, but it’s not very good; just stick with the NRM.
So cheap and so yummy. You know you’re in a hardcore Chinese/​Taiwanese place when all they serve is hot tea from a dispenser up from near the cash register.
Make sure you come with people who speak Mandarin. This place is hardcore fob. My bf and I barely speak Mandarin and can’t read the menu (yep, all in Chinese also) but as long as I can say «niu ro mien, shi de» then I’m good to go!
A meal for two (2 NRM, 2 niu ro shen bing) costs like, less than $ 15. Afterwards you can go to the bakery next door and spend your $$ on yummy baked Asian goods.

I think I will give this place a second chance since I am convinced that I just ordered wrong.
The dump act in ordering bad food in good restaurants happened a lot in the past. I almost consider this as a talent.
Anyway, I ordered their sour and spicy noodle. Bad choice. It was just a bowl of noodles with green onion mixed in the sour and spicy sauce. They didn’t even give me a piece of veggie (well, if you consider green onion as veggie…).
I also got their cucumber and it was just too sweet. It was edible but I wouldn’t order it again (maybe one of those days when I am just crazy about cucumber all of sudden after I sit down).

This is one of the few places that serves soft tendon. Many other places dont take the time to cook their tendons until its soft. Everything was pretty damn good, and at a good price. I still like the Noodle Nazi, AKA Dai Ho, the most, but for the price and size, you cant beat it.
Its right next to Noodle king, but A and J is a lot better

Service — 4 stars
Food — 5 stars
Value — 5 stars
A & J’s or Ban Mu Yuan is one of my favorite restaurants. My wife and I love taking trips out to Alhambra with some of our friends who’ve never had it before.
The food here is great. My wife’s favorite dish is the cold noodles (liang mein). Although traditionally it’s a summer dish, they serve it year-​round, so we get it every time we visit.
Their best dish is the beef xien bing, which resembles a hamburger patty wrapped inside a tasty wrapping. Please note, there is some meat juiciness that is trapped inside the wrapping, so when you bite into it, you may end up wearing part of it. Just something to watch out for; suggestion: don’t wear white like some of our friends always do.
Another recommendation is the potstickers. Unlike some other restaurants, you don’t feel ripped off after you order them. These potstickers don’t resemble the small dumplings pan fried; you get the traditional «long» potstickers and you get 8 of them per order. They’re oh so tasty and relatively inexpensive (less than $ 5 gets you a full order of them).
The Onion pancakes, the pull apart crispy bread, the shao lon bao, and a lot of the other dishes there are tasty as well. I wouldn’t really recommend the beef noodle soup there; it’s decent, but not overly great. Plus next door there’s a place that sells specifically beef noodle soup…
The restaurant isn’t that big and seats only about maybe about 40 people, so sometimes there’s a wait outside. They have the big round tables so they can fit slightly larger parties, but try to avoid the «rush» times to get best seating. There is air conditioning inside, and they take phone orders. Sometimes we just call ahead and order what we want, and show up and all the food is already ready waiting for us. :)
The wait staff changes a little bit, but all of them are very friendly. Note: you’ll see the big sign that says CASH ONLY by the register.

I am pretty sure this restaurant isn’t authentically Taiwanese.. .it seems to serve more Northern China style foods — starchy and bready. BUT, this restaurant is famous in Taiwan, so who knows?
This place is probably my all time favorite Chinese restaurant everrrr. I have been going to this place with my parents since I was in elementary school. The onion pancake is thick (only way to get flaky layers), the beef noodle soup comes in «lighter» soup (for those of you watching your msg/​beefy broth intake), and the panfried dumplings come in the old-​fashion style that’s rolled up and long, like flutes.
My mom loves the dan-​dan mein, it’s thick, FRESH CUT home-​made noodles that A & J workers make themselves, covered in this thick sesame/​peanut sauce that can come hot or mild. There is also a cold thin noodle dish that comes in this spicy oil and sugar/​vinegar mixture that is delicious. Another delicious spicy dish are the wontons swimming in this hot, spicy oil sauce with cilantro. My brother comes here for his favorite, which is the vegetarian shien bing, which also comes in a beef version too (be careful when you bite into it, otherwise you’ll lose all the precious juice inside).
Old people come for their xiao mi porridge (which I heavily doused with sugar when I was little), and the pig intestine steamed with miniscule rice pieces and yam. Sounds weird? Well it tastes great once you get over the funky smell!
The menu is a little daunting at first because it is this old-​fashion checklist that you read yourself (all in Chinese). It’s a little embarrassing asking for the English menu, so I usually ask my parents what the name of a dish is called before I order! But there is this one waitress who speaks English and was nice and helped me out when I forgot the name of the spicy wonton dish. The service isn’t bad.. .it’s quick and efficient, and parking can sometimes be a pain, because a lot of people drive in and out of the plaza for the grocery store and the other various shops/​eateries/​bank in the area.