Kung Pao House

I urge everyone to boycott this place. Right before they close at 9pm, I noticed a man and a woman putting food away. While doing so, they grab the food in the food container with their hands and eat. They even lick and suck their fingers. Please do not support this place.

Not the best, but I still come here quite a bit to eat. Why? It’s convenient, cheap, and for certain items, the food is decent for the price.
Convenience:
Sometimes you’re in a hurry and you need the food to be ready for you, because you don’t have time to wait for them to cook it. Sometimes you’re getting groceries at the adjacent 99 Ranch, and you don’t have time to go find parking elsewhere. And in my case, sometimes you are at Full House next door getting cha-​siu by the pound, and you just need a side of fried green beans from here. Plus, there’s usually no line here.
Price:
At $ 4.99 for three items, it’s much cheaper than Panda, and you can get filled up with a complete meal. I love my 4 and 5 star-​rated Unilocal joints, but I can’t afford to eat that every day.
Food:
I’m only endorsing certain items. The fried green beans («sih gee doh») are good when they have them. The other long green beans are not as good. The meatballs are decent, and although the meatballs sold next door are larger (due to more flour/​filler), these are tastier. When I get take-​out for my Dad from here, he specifically requests meatballs from here and not next door.
Service:
For this kind of restaurant, I feel like the owner is really nice. He looks like he’s working really hard just to break even, and yet he is welcoming and patient (esp. when I can’t decide what I want) and pleasant. He actually reminds me of my father in law. The Shau May next door has more choices, and the veggies actually look fresher, but some of the workers can be rude and impatient.
This place is in a food court and looks dingy, and nobody is going to come here to celebrate their birthday, but I do choose to come here again and again.

This restaurant is grossed, the meatball cabbage tasted like medicine, the ball is hard, the place doesn’t look clean. I am thinking twice of coming back. Cheap tho, $ 3 bucks for 1 item combo.

Love the cold noodles here!
I have to say the boxed lunch/​dinner choices are very similar to their next door, but Kung Pao House also offers a lot of noodle dishes. our favorite is the SzeChuan style noodles; these are made to order and takes about 5 mins. Generous portion enough for two, favorite part is they give you a lot of cumcubers; a must have for cold noodles.
I have heard friends said the noodle sauce is too salty; if you like lighter flavor, please tell the owners while place the order.
PS. I think the people at KungPao House are the most friendly ones in that food court :)

I was looking for some cheap Chinese food and came across this place at the food court in the 99 Ranch Plaza in Arcadia. The place basically serves food similar to what you will get at Panda Express but more authentic. The flavor of the food was good, and it was definitely cheaper than what I will get at Panda Express. I only spent 4.99 plus tax for a 3 items combo. I definitely would come again since it is cheap and has a large variety of dishes to choose from.

It can be really easy to overlook the Chinese takeout stands in this particular food court. Full House in the corner is the old standby with dimsum and BBQ. The new kid on the block is Daikokuya, bringing foodies. And most people barely get beyond the bakery at the entrance who come for hot dog and taro buns. But back before Asians were foodies, their parents fed them two or three item Chinese food combination lunches. Rice or chow mein + 2 or 3 entrees + free soup. At least mine did.
On a Saturday morning, we arrived at the food court too early for either of the above better reputed food stands and opted to order a 2 item combo from Kung Pao House instead. There was another takeout stall just next door but this one won us over with its good looking chicken that we ended up not ordering when we found out it was a cold dish. Instead, we got scoops of napa cabbage stewed with tofu and a chicken curry. Was there MSG? Likely. But it was also dirt cheap at $ 4 for a nice sized lunch for two people and seriously soul satisfying.

This is Paul’s place. His place deserves FIVE stars.
For years, he has been doing things the hard way. The right way. He spends his days tossing fresh food above a blazing fire in his tiny kitchen. What in the hell is the matter with you people giving him less than 5 stars?! What do YOU usually get for about 5 DOLLARS?!
How can you complain that these goods are not as good as the grub from the guy next door?! I haven’t had the goods from the guy next door, but I can clearly see the breaded chunks swimming in their prospective strawberry-​jello-​colored sauces. Paul would NEVER coat a meat-​like chunk in batter only to send it off to a river of red food dye and sugar. No, no. Not Paul’s style.
He wouldn’t presume to think that deep-​fried food would sit well beneath a heat lamp for the day’s wait. Know what? He’d be right. There you have it negative reviews, within this distinction lies the difference between you and Paul.
I found this amazing/​tasty/​healthy/​ridiculously affordable fare after shopping at 99 Ranch while hunting for healthy. What is it about staring at aisles of delicious not-​yet-​made food that makes us so freaking hungry?
The food court housing Kung Pao House just north of 99, is pleasant and option-​filled. Boba, bakeries, a clock shop, frozen yogurt, ramen and a few food stands. Take your purchases to the center of the court where about 30 tables wait. At lunchtime, I’ve always found a seat.
Americans were raised on Chinese food stands found in mini malls. The millions of versions of Panda Express and-​the-​like are our life’s blood. The infamous two-​item combo. –Rice and chow Mein, or one of each, along with a couple scoops of food with a LOT of sauce.
Some are better than others. Most have the same stuff for the same price. Along with the same health conciousness/​heart– attack-​in-​the-​making, equivalent to the worst-​for-​you super-​sized meal. I LOVED these places when I was a kid. What kid doesn’t love candy-​coated meat and fried noodles?!
The five-​year-​old Mary B. would have stared at Kung Pao House and Paul’s many vegetable options, lower lip a-​quivering, hopeless and lost. The little girl that I was, who craved whatever the heck chicken Mcnuggets really are and Wendy’s corn dogs, would have tried to give Paul a knuckle sandwich for proposing that I option for so many colorful vegetables. Young me: «Deny me candy meat?!» *cracks knuckles* «Then prepare to meet your maker Paul!!» (I played video games when I was little.)
Now grown, I have come to appreciate the rarity that fresh food is. The oddity that being able to see the colors of non-​beige meals or taste the crispness of food that started from soil.
I’ve seen the damage that french fries dipped in ranch dressing and 7 – 11 nachos for breakfast does firsthand. I now long for more variety than sweet-​n-​sour, ranch, & honey mustard dippin sauces can provide. In a world where factories process miscellaneous substances, REAL food is hard to find. *Especially on the cheap.
In the same world that does us wrong, Paul does us right. He works HARD. Harder than most, harder than me. He doesn’t just reheat yesterday’s stuff, he is always adding fresh goods to his bounty.
Since Paul is a one man army and cooks his food from scratch, he knows EXACTLY what ingredients are in each and every one of his dishes. This is rare in a food court. I’ve been given too many blank stares when asking about the ingredients for my food allergy’s sake. I hear things like, «Um. it comes in a pouch and we microwave it lady.»
My hunt for healthier meals ended here. Some things keep well when sitting, some don’t. Some dishes get even better with time. IMO, lasagna is even better as a cold leftover. Marinated vegetables are another one. Thankfully, Paul agrees with me on this one.
Sliced lotus root, bean curd wrappers stuffed with stewed cabbages, smokey sprouts with garlic and ginger, whole cooked fish, braised eggplant, and the dark green veggies of the day are a couple of the amazing things I’ve had here. Everything is at least 4 stars, but my favorite is the stuffed bean curd, 5+ stars.
2 entrees, rice & soup $ 5. Paul knows that I love coke zero and hands me one without my having to ask for it. You might be served by Paul or his wife, if Paul is killing himself in front of his tiny stove, but either way you will be in good hands. After your first visit, you will be remembered when you return.
Service, value, food = five stars. They don’t appreciate you? Well I do. You were hard to find. I’ll be back to see you again and again. Now that I found you, I want to see you all the time.:-)

Cheap and delicious. You can get a huge box of food plus soup and rice for about $ 5. There’s no reason to ever go to Panda Express in Arcadia.

*shakes head*
I knew already before stepping into the Arcadia 99’s Food Court that my dinner was probably going to subpar tonight.
Why did I eat here? Hell, it’s cheap, no tip, no service. It’s just somewhere I can eat real quick and get outta there after a long day of watching Football (Ya, I had a hard day today).
I ended up getting the 3 items plus rice and *ahem* soup. It wasn’t really soup. It was more like warm starchy water with some egg drop and seaweed, pretty F-​ing nasty indeed. The 3 items (fatty pork w/​Mai Cai, stir fried celery, and spicy tofu w/​duck blood) were pretty oily and almost pretty inedible if I wasn’t hungry. For $ 5.40 after tax, it was really whatevers. This was my 2^nd trip to the Arcadia Food Court (Xiao Mei was my first trip, bleh), and I don’t plan to make a 3^rd. Damn this place for being so close to my place, otherwise I’d never even consider eating here. I think I’d had a better meal by cooking a package of Shin Ramyun with eggs. Oh wells, lesson learned: Arcadia Food Court has fooled me twice, shame on me.

I usually go to Hsin Hsin Shau May Deli next door, but i thought I would try a new place. I can see why most people go next door usually. They dont have as many choices and their portion size is small compared to Shau May. They do have some items that the other people dont have that I like so it was good to eat there.
It tastes average and the food was cold unfortunately.
I was tempted to get cold noodle but so many places dont make it right and for $ 3.80 i could get a 2 item combo instead so nevermind.
The cold tofu with thousand year egg was ok. i dont recommend their beancurd sheets unless you put hot sauce on it, too oily. vegetables were ok.