A Li Shan Restaurant

The food isn’t fresh and takes very long time! I ordered the basil chicken and the meat was dry and salty! The waitress was very slow and not attentive to customers! Will not go again!

Great Taiwanese food in Rosemead. They recently offer more new dishes and the manager Tony is great. I especially like their Miso salmon, 3 cup chicken and their local street food小吃。

Quick tips: AVOID IT. AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE. TURN BACK.
There is a fine line between restaurant and dumpster, I think this place strays on the latter side.
According to other Unilocalers this place has been open since October 2013. The main page for this restaurant Hunan Seafood Restaurant states that this place is closed. However, we headed in because the sign was still the same and they were open. It was incredibly surprising to us that this place was now named A Li Shan restaurant of Taiwanese flavors and fusion. This should have given us a hint to leave because of the incredibly blatant false advertising.
Anyways, when we arrived around 1:00 PM hoping to beat the New Year rush, the restaurant was only 10% full. However, more than 90% of tables were still waiting for their food. Let me let that sink in for you – 90% of the tables were waiting for food… at 1:00 PM. Now waiting is not a bad thing, but according to the table next to us who had come much earlier than we did, they had been waiting for 20 minutes for minced meat and marinated meat rice. For Unilocalers who are unaware, this is usually an easy and fast dish to prepare.
We were blissfully unaware of this problem when we ordered. After taking a glance at their menu and noticing a placard urging us to try their spicy dry pot, we ordered it enthusiastically. The lady taking our order paused and then said, «yeah we can’t do that.» What kind of restaurant leaves up those signs and says we can’t do a dish? We settled for a spicy boiled fish, smoked duck, and two other dishes.
Anyways, as we sat waiting for our food, we watched as others in the restaurant began to get impatient with the waitstaff. During the 30 minutes we waited after ordering our food, we had the pleasure of listening to the constant bickering between the chef (s) and the kitchen staff. They had obvious problems with expoing food. They were massively disorganized. There was a ten party table that had ordered dishes, and they were serving them first. Most places would have multiple people working on multiple dishes or prep stations where each station would put final touches on food. This place seemed to have one chef working on one dish at one time.
After we waited for 30 or so minutes, and asking several times whether our food was coming, the couple next to us who ordered the minced meat rice dish was getting ready to leave because after an hour their food STILL hadn’t arrived. There were some unfriendly words that were exchanged between the couple and the waitstaff. The couple even accused them of lying to them about the status of their food. Right as they got their coats on and they were heading out, the food magically appeared on their table.
Then, the most bizarre thing happened. One of the owners of the restaurant stormed out, in a classic Kitchen Nightmares style, and told the couple that they could get out of his restaurant and that they didn’t deserve to eat at his restaurant. Another lady who was a co-​manager came out and physically held back the guy from getting physical with the customer, and apologized for him and their slow service. I didn’t believe what I was seeing. Instead of taking ownership for the slow food service and even comping their meal, he stormed out to say that they were in the wrong.
At the same time, our first dish the smoke duck came out. For Unilocalers who do not know, this dish is usually served on a cold plate because after all the duck is pre-​smoked and then it just needs to be cut. There were three major issues with this dish. First, the duck was undercooked. Second, there was sushi ginger as a garnish. YES, you read that correctly, sushi ginger. Third, the duck was not pre-​smoked. I’m pretty sure they poured liquid smoke, salt, and oil over it and prayed that it would magically taste correct. The duck was flavorless in the middle, covered in an oily hot mess of a sauce, and tasted bloody. This was possibly the worst dish I have had in the recent times.
Now, you may recall that we had asked several times for our other dishes. A few minutes after the smoked duck came out, we received the spicy boiled fish. It looked like one of the most unappetizing messes I’ve ever seen. First, the oil separated from the water, spicy oil, and other ingredients. A truly large amount of oil floated over the pieces of fish filet. Here is where we decided to get up and leave. My dad gave me a piece of fish filet, and it was completely raw in the middle. We paid for the smoked duck and left quickly before we could be berated by the other manager.
I swear, my only explanation on how bad the service and food could be is that we were on hidden Kitchen Nightmares camera. I could imagine Gordon Ramsay having a nervous breakdown after eating in this place. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

This is a new restaurant that opened since oct 2013. Been here tonight with some friends, and the food was great! Service was excellent as well. We will definitely come back!!!