Jurassic Tea Spot/Cafe

I like attentive staff but when our beer is still ²⁄₃ filled and the guys are complaining about finishing it and the wait staff keeps on coming around and request you order more food and beer it gets quite annoying.
Granted it was a alcoholic joint with food. We barely ordered anything except for sautéed lamb which was quite good and sautéed Chinese Achoy and a pitcher of beer.
Another thing I don’t like is when our waitress put her hand on the spout of the pitcher when I saw her earlier counting money and picking at her teeth. I know for a fact she didn’t wash her hands. That was a huge turnoff and plus the fact she couldn’t answer a couple of reasonable questions about what we were ordering and was quite pushy in getting us to order more of everything.

It’s the Best Taiwanese restaurant among all Rowland height and hacienda height. Their specialty is Minced pork rice. People should really come and try. Seriously, People will regret if they don’t come. ;)

Came back on first day of their reopen after owner took a month off from vacation. (really, one month) at first i thought they have closed the place. i won’t be too surprise it they did, cause they do have another related restaurant next door, which is way more popular.
I am big fan of tradition of Taiwanese food. Specially what we called it Coin Delicacies, means its only cost few coins to purchase back in homeland (cheap cheap, around $ 2 usd).
Tea Spot/​Café has good selection of soy sauce marinated dishes, rice, noodle, meat. I have ordered Combo #8 pork knuckle rice $ 11.99 comes w side dish and drink. Overall experience is GOOD. I would come back again trying out different items. Maybe just order Take-​Out; since kitchen is kind of overwhelming for just few occupied table.
However here is my 2cents on how I felt about the place if i look at them individually:
Pork Knuckle: Good presentation, two boneless meat in center of huge bowl full of rice. Its very well marinated. Good Flavor through out skin and meat. Meat & Fat has right portion. Only concern i have is the quality of the meat. Because the idea of marination is to infuse the aroma into the food, but the pork still smell a bit too porky (natural odor of pig).
Rice: this is very subjective comment. Personally i think the rice is over cooked and too soft.
Pork Ear (side dish): crunchy from soft cartilage. top off with hint of chili sauce. Nice
Black Tea (drink): nice tea flavor, strong sweet taste to wash out salty taste from main dish.
Service: waitress are trying their best to accommodate all customers. There are two pretty waitress in uniform for about 40ish seating. There were about 15 guests at the time. They trying their best to get the order out in time and refill water if you have already finished your iced tea. Kitchen, Please work faster. I only got one hour of lunch. And most of your items are cooked already.
One last thing, they do take credit card. But, you have to leave Cash for Tip.

Excellent new Taiwanese place. Their minced pork over rice taste just like the ones in the streets of Taiwan, little bit fatty and sweet. Also I Was surprised how juicy the huge fried chicken filet was. The amount of chicken is double the ones you get at simbala. Will definitely come back.

Good food and friendly service.

This review is base on their services during lunch on ¹¹⁄₁₄ @ 1:00 pm. One of the young girl with glasses has major attitude problem when taking orders. Can’t follow instruction when we asked no ice for one of the drink. She tried to look busy but half the time is standing behind the bar staring into the space.
*Updated Review* So after the lunch, my wife and I are having upset stomach throughout day. I had the lunch special spicy beef noodle and my wife had the lunch special pork knuckle.
I would not be coming back for sure nor recommend this place to anyone.

There’s a sign said we have to enter by another door which is the old Jurassic’s entrance. We got in and there’s no line, The waitress asked us to wait a bit for seating.
Everybody seemed busy, but they left us standing there and occasionally telling us to wait a bit. There was a little girl wants to get lollipop next to the cashier, and she waited 10 mins to got someone’s help.
After 20 mins, I asked them if it’s already full, they said yes.
WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US AT FIRST?!

I like ordering to-​go lunch box from here. The lunch combo I usually order includes a fairly good amount of rice bowl, a soup, a side dish, and a choice of black tea or green tea.
Right now, they only open for lunch until 3pm due to remodeling. I hope it can be done soon so I can enjoy the food for dinner as well.

I ordered take out.
$ 9.99 for entrée, soup, side dish, and drink. It’s a great price!
The «Lu Rou Fan» was not good. Too sweet. I definitely had better ones before.
Winter Melon Soup was okay.

I see myself as an minced pork rice connoisseur since I ate that like it was my religion everyday when I was a kid in Taiwan. Ever since I came here, I have been looking for the perfect minced pork rice. I mean, even my parents couldn’t get it right because it is actually extremely hard to find the perfect quality items to replicate it like how it tastes in Taiwan. I decided to take my girl there since we are both Taiwanese American who grew up here and she loves a good, authentic Taiwanese meal as much as I do.
Protip: Support them by liking their Facebook and Check in on Facebook, you can get 10% off.
Pros: Small restaurant but has a really comfortable feel to it. Waitresses all had cute uniform on and greeted us in and out of the store. Food wise, lunch combo cost you roughly about $ 10-​$ 12 before tax. It includes the entrée, a side dish, a bowl of soup and green or black tea, all your choice. Both of us got the minced pork rice but we had all different soups and side dishes so we can share. For its price, it was very reasonable and everything tastes great. Minced pork rice is the star of the show and honestly one of the best I have ever had since coming to the States.
Cons: Has that slight, greasy feeling you get when you walk into a hole-​in-​the-​wall type of places. It could be the lighting too, but definitely can improve in that. Service is mediocre, could be a bit better but still better than most places. Food wise, the stinky tofu and the egg omelet/​roll were let-​downs, but then again, super hard to get the stinky tofu down and replicate it like how we do it in Taiwan. A lot of tables ordered it just like us, but I guess it was to satisfy the cravings.
Overall, I would definitely return to this place until they mess up big time or I find somewhere even better. But for now, its not likely and it’s a great place to get your fix, even if you have to drive 30 minutes.
Suggestion to the restaurant: Step up your stinky tofu game! Pleaaaaaaaaaase!
Final Verdict: ⁷⁶⁄₁₀₀ (3.8 stars) from both of us combined.

This place is pretty small so expect to wait if you come during lunch time. The inside is small, I think only 4 – 5 tables. Food is good and price is reasonable if you get the special, $ 9.99 entrée with soup & drink. There are variety of selection with pictures so easier for kids. Service was great, food was fast, and 10% off the bill with FB check in. I definitely will come back if I’m in the area and crave Taiwanese food!

Authentic Ground Pork Rice representing the flavor of Southern Taiwan! There are many places that sells ground pork rice in LA but none of them seems to get it right until I discover Jurassic Tea Spot/​Café!
This location is inside a quiet plaza in between 7^th ave and Hacienda Blvd Exit off 60, ample parking but the shop seems a bit small due to the overcrowding and the worst part is that they are only open for lunch at this moment :(No love for me to go there on weekends! The servers wear nice uniforms (similar to the pub next door as they are same company). Great services and always comes with smile.
Their rice dishes are great! For 9.99 you will get a choice of entrée, soup, side dishes and black/​green tea. Besides ground pork rice, I also liked their chicken cutlet rice. Unlike Japanese style panko crust, they are lightly breaded and deep fried and the portions are huge! Big enough for a guy like me to finish it. Maybe enough for two meals for small eaters.
Their pork spareribs soups are great too. I like winter melon personally but I know there are fans for the bitter melon soup too. There are several different types of soups that are available to choose from but make sure to go early before its gone!
Cash or Card for $ 20 up purchase. liked their FB page & checkin for 10% off total purchases.

The Good:
Fairly cheap– $ 10 for entrée, drink, soup, and side dish
Fast and has large portions
Semi-authentic…taste could be improved.
10% off with facebook check in
The Bad:
Found a eyelash in my stewed pork rice (ew)
Horrible parking structure
waitresses are inexperienced and loud
Space is super small and cramped
Overall, I would recommend trying it at least once. As far as this place thriving and doing extremely well, I wouldn’t count on it. Would I come back? Probably not, for some reason I still prefer JJ Bakery’s stewed pork rice over Jurassic’s. Also, still a bit traumatized from the eyelash.

+ traditional Taiwanese meal
+ good selections of lunch combo
— only lunch fort now
— parking maybe a problem

update 6−10−15
Went again today to get my missing pork leg rice. It was awesome. The meat melts in my mouth and the skin was slightly chewy. Listen if you’re into old school Taiwanese rice dishes, this is definitely a hit!
Original 6−9−15
I’m a sucker for good stewed minced pork rice. This hole in the wall claims to be a store that specializes in that dish. After seeing this claim on a eatery magazine, I felt compelled to come explore place.
Outside the restaurant I saw that they’re introducing pork hock rice besides minced pork rice so I decided to order both but at 1PM which is only 2 hours after their opening, they ran out of it. I ordered the minced pork rice set instead. The set comes with minced pork rice, soup of your selection, small side dish of your selection, cold black or green tea.
Minced Pork Rice
B for the minced pork rice. Taiwanese dishes are always about the umami taste of a mix of salty /​sweet /​savory. In order to create that you have to eat minced pork rice a certain way. If you don’t eat it that way, you might as well just order white rice add soy sauce and sugar then go home and slap yourself, because if you don’t I will. You just destroyed that dish by eating it the wrong way.
So long words short, the ideal way to eat it is to break the soy sauce egg and mix the rice, egg, and minced pork evenly together. Afterwards hold up the bowl close to your mouth, back straight (I added this ha ha), use the chopstick or spoon and in a scooping motion move the mixed rice content into your mouth. Now your mouth needs to suck the content in because besides the rice you will also suck in some air which carries the aroma into your mouth. The nice mixture of all those things will give you the best experience. At first you will taste the saltiness of the meat and rice, then you will have a savory sweet afterwards that is finalized by the creaminess of the broken scattered egg yolk… that…is…umami realized. When you’re done, bite into the sour yellow turnip slice to refresh your mouth, cleanse it for the next wolfing of minced pork rice. Repeat the entire step until you finish ^^.
This restaurant’s minced pork rice has the right flavor and taste according to my Taiwanese tongue however it wasn’t as strong of a flavor as I wanted. I wished the flavor to be richer. They have the right idea, so from reading the reviews bad or good I guess this is what they were complaining about. To be fair, most Taiwanese joints actually in Taipei now tastes like this to be healthier so in reflection the Taiwanese tongue in US is looking for 1980s 1970s Taiwan taste, which was oilier and saltier.
Small Side Dish (stew nappa cabbage)
B+ for the nappa cabbage dish, the cabbage was stewed where it was strong enough to be picked up but soft enough that it almost melts in your mouth. The taste is just right.
Soup of your choice (stewed deep fried pork spare rib soup with daikon radish)
A+ for the soup. The meat though fried, melts in my mouth. The radish looked old but was super soft without vein. The soup was well flavored which made me think of Taiwan. This was really well done!
Black Tea
D for black tea. Little to no taste, severely watered down to the point where I thought I was drinking one of those flavored water rather than black tea.
To refute some of the complaints, I’m going to rebuttal on behalf of the owner (to the owner if I drive away ur business ha ha sorry)
bad service? impatience? This is a ma /​pa taiwanese restaurant with limited service staff, either be patient and wait or go visit an american restaurant where they have a dedicated person at the door to still ask you to also wait at a higher price.
Bad Beef Noodle no level of spiciness…
They sell minced pork rice! The title says minced pork rice specialist! They just happen to sell beef noodle like 90% of the rest of taiwanese places they don’t give you choices of levels of spiciness. You want specialized choices of spiciness go eat at a beef noodle specialized restaurant! Do you go to beef noodle restaurants and ask to see if they specialize in the amount of sugar on their shaved ice? #$@%#^
I took off 1 star for unsanitary open air to ice cubes, and cold dishes such as taiwanese kimchi they just sit in the open air with no lid in a wet container, this is a no no especially in a 90+ heat summer condition, plus when I walked in, the place was so dark, I had to ask to sit outside, and lastly the waitress mopped the table and asked me to sit while the table was still completely wet, the manager had to remind her to wipe dry the table. My last complaint was that I was going for pork hock rice but they ran out at 1PM how could you run out of something so soon?
I guess quality over quantity, I’ll come again!

I’m always on the lookout for the best Taiwanese «lu rou fan» stewed pork w/​rice. Jurassic Café’s version did not disappoint! The pork was soft and flavorful and rice had just enough sauce so that it wasn’t dry and blended well w/​the savory pork.
We’ve been back several times and all of their dishes are pretty solid. The place doesn’t look like much from the outside, because it’s in a obscure looking plaza but don’t be fooled by it’s exterior, because you’re only missing out if you do. There’s also a really good AYCE sushi restaurant in the same plaza, but that’s for a seperate review.
Service is always nice and attentive. We’ve definitely became regulars and I can’t wait to try more of their dishes.

Huge disappoint, this is no a Taiwanese restaurant. All the dish that we order taste doesn’t like Taiwanese style. And take long time to get my dish .so disappoint. NEVER come back again .i wish there have a 0 star can choose.

What a huge disappointment after reading the raving review on Eater about this place. To start, who was the interior designer? The service bar actually takes up half the restaurant! What this means is cram spaces and weird table layouts. No wonder the long lines!
The menu was fairly limited. I ordered the beef noodle combo. At $ 11.99, it came with a big bowl of beef noodle, a side dish and with a green or black tea.
Unlike a lot of other places, the beef noodle here only came with one level of spiciness — and spiciness was all tasted when I ate that dish. The beef was dry and the most annoying since it is the type that sticks to your teeth with every bite.
For the side dish, even though the menu clearly states any of their side dishes, the waitress informed us that it was only a choice from the first left column. The chose the pig ears and it was tasted OK. It didn’t have the crunch I usually expect with pig ears though.
In the end, given the limited menu, disappointing taste and long lines, I wouldn’t be coming back here anytime soon. Instead, I’ll probably take my business next door to Jurassic restaurant instead.

After seeing an article in LA Eater, I had to make the drive out to check out this authentic, new Taiwanese café! It’s located in the same shady plaza and right next door to the temporarily closed Jurassic. For those not in the know, their alcohol license was suspended, but they should be back in business soon.
We were lucky to snag a table before the lunch rush. But service was super slow! We had to ask the server to take our order and then came the long waiting period for our food… But back to the actual menu, each entrée comes with a drink and soup! The green tea was watered down and I’m not sure what it was sweetened with, so I stuck with water instead.
We ordered the House Fried Chicken with Rice, which comes with a generous portion of chicken, steamed egg and a few pieces of veggies. Priced at $ 9.99, it’s decent for what you get, but I still think Sinbala is a better deal as you get more food. The extra few dollars just make up for the drink and soup.
The food was very good, but it took a long time to get our order. We saw many customers who arrived after us getting their soups and appetizers fairly quickly. They forgot about our soup as well, even after we asked about it twice. So we had to pack it up to go with the rest of our food.
Overall, good food at a reasonable price. Just arrive early to beat the lunch rush and to ensure your order is taken and served in a timely manner.

Did you see the article from LA Eater? Yeah, me too!
To start, yes it’s situated on Gale Ave in a notoriously strange and shifty lil strip mall, what with a Gentleman’s Club, a tobacco store, a car stereo place, a gun shop and a bar. But, once you’re in, you’re back in Taiwan in a cute lil café with all the standard (and necessary) offerings one desires… complete with the Taiwanese breakfast burger.
Having heard about the lines, I stopped by at 2:40pm in the afternoon not realizing they close at 3… so I opted to takeout. So right *now* I’m eating a delicious bowl of minced pork rice ($ 2.99) and slurping down a papaya milk which is not too sweet and perfectly delicious. The rice? Small portion but two thumbs up. You can order it as a set meal with a larger serving, a side, and a iced tea for $ 9.99. I was greeted warmly and I think I would’ve enjoyed eating in the café instead of in my car like a sad person.
Menu has a TON of offerings for me to wax nostalgic about growing up in Taiwan, and to lament how many times I’d have to stop by to try them all.
Challenge, accepted.
P. S. CASH ONLY: I should’ve known, but I made the drive over to Fresco, bought $ 5 worth of groceries and got cashback. No onsite ATM.