Four Sea Restaurant

The first thing I noticed when i walked in was how dirty and messy the whole place is…
Despite that, we ordered some soy milk, fried dumplings, and rice balls.
Nothing memorable compared to Asia of course, but pretty good for the states. Although the food is also pricey, I will stop by here once in a while when I crave for Taiwanese breakfast!

Marinated beef wrap and salty rice roll is
! But good lawd my morning breakfast was expensive! Oh, on the sign will say Si Hai which translate to Four Sea in Chinese. Got lost and finally figured it out after I spoke to a friend.

I actually like Taiwanese breakfast sometimes and all its carby-​goodness. But I suppose I should be more specific and say that I am really mostly addicted to fan tuan, also know as rice roll.
The food here is okay in general. I liked their fan tuan the best, which is no surprise, but it’s quite expensive. They are ginormous, however, and I’d have to say the best I’ve had here so far. The pickled veggies are pretty good and I prefer the marinated egg over the fried egg option. Same price for both.
I do have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the gua bao. There was way too much sweet peanut paste for my liking and the bun tasted weird and was much softer than expected. Meh.
Tables are sticky as heck and hardly get cleaned. This is definitely a legit Asian establishment if you couldn’t tell by their yelling out the numbers in Mandarin. Anyway, there’s good and bad here until I can find a better spot.

Love the food here. Except they don’t pack their to go food properly. Hot steaming food in a styrofoam containers. Not healthy. And sometimes they don’t label things property so not sure what you are getting. Mostly this happens with the soy milk. But the most important thing is the taste of food and it is good.

3.5−4 stars. If it were closer, it’d likely be a more frequent visit for my family and me. As usual, we ordered way too much, and we all came home and knocked out immediately.
Salty milk — needs more pickled veggies! but came out piping hot, which was great.
Chinese cruller — of course, had to get this with the soy milk, and they were huge. We actually didn’t even finish 1 despite ordering 3 but they’re good to take home and eat later.
Daikon cake — favorite dish. They add garlic to this so it’s got extra flavor.
Taro cake — other favorite. Tons of taro flavor. This and the daikon cake held up nicely and were not mushy at all.
Daikon pastry — started with this, as good as anywhere else. Should ask them to heat these up next time.
Onion pastry — I prefer the daikon one but this is just as good.
Green onion pancake with egg — good, but I prefer without the egg. It actually tasted more bland because of the egg to me.
Sticky rice roll — huge. Definitely share this. 3 stars.
Gua bao — still on the search for ones in the States that are comparable to the ones in TW. Meat wasn’t fatty enough (not at all actually) and there was too much pickled veggies. Didn’t taste bad, just not how I like it.
We were able to snag a table for 4 right away at noon on a Saturday. You order and pay first and then they bring you the food, which for us, came out about 10 minutes after ordering. They also have fresh ground coffee which my sis gave 2 thumbs up for.

Four Sea is located at the end of a small plaza. The store sign out front is written in Chinese/​pinyin so keep an eye out for that. We came on a Sunday morning around 11am and it was not crowded at all. Walking in, there was a short line to order food at the register. We waited no more than 5 minutes. The rest of the restaurant was lined with tables and chairs, kind of like a cafeteria. There were larger groups of people hanging out as well as solo people having a quiet breakfast, reading the paper.
Pros: CHEAP + BOMB food. (~$ 40 for the entire meal)
Cons: If you greatly value cleanliness and aesthetics, this place may put you off a bit. The tables are a little sticky, the floors look run down and you can tell the place could use a shower (or two). I’m usually more focused on the food so this stuff doesn’t bother me much.
Now let’s talk food:
1. Unsweetened Soy Milk — Hot (豆浆)
They also have a sweetened version of this but I prefer mine unsweetened because there are so many flavors going on with the rest of the dishes.
2. Sweetened Soy Milk — Cold (甜豆浆 — 冰)
My friend got the sweetened soy milk — cold, which was delicious! It’s sweet but not overly sweet. I’ve had the same one at Huge Tree Café and I like this one a lot better because the sweetness is milder.
3. Salty Soy Milk with Deep Fried Cruller (酸豆浆)
GET THIS! Absolutely bomb. I’m still thinking about it now.
4. Deep Fried Cruller (油条)
A Taiwanese breakfast staple!
5. Salty Rice Roll (饭团)
Greatest invention EVER! I just recently discovered these. Yes I’m Chinese and it’s a little embarrassing that I had no clue what these were. If I had to choose one thing to get from Four Sea, it would be this 100%.
6. Fried Radish Cake (萝卜糕)
The outside is crispier than ones I’ve tried at Dim Sum restaurants. It goes extremely well with the soy milk. I would definitely reorder this.
7. Egg Covered Tortilla (蛋卷)
Nothing too special here. It was a bit bland for my liking. I probably wouldn’t get this again.
8. Steamed Buns (小笼包)
Not my favorite… ²⁄₁₀ of the buns were broken, which shouldn’t be the case. The juice inside is a crucial part of this dish. The skin was also very thick, not like the traditional steamed bun skin but more like a dumpling.
9. Green Bean Pastry (豆蓉酥饼)
This was meh. The filling inside was dry and crusty. We would tell that it’s probably been sitting there for a while.

I met up with the cousins on a Sunday morning for some Chinese breakfast. This place was the second choice behind Dim sum. Your typical Chinese breakfast place, you have to order at the front and they call out your number and bring you your order. I really like the salty soy milk and chinese dounuts but I didn’t like the fried onion cake with egg.

Doesn’t taste good. So many people. I went there on Sunday at 10. Their service is good.

I liked how this place had a lot of seating unlike most Chinese breakfast places which are very small and tight. You have to order at the front and they call out your number and bring you your order. The food comes out very hot and fresh. I enjoyed the salty soy milk but I didn’t like the fried onion cake with egg. It was drenched in oil and too crunchy. If I come back I’ll make not to order anything fried.

I love the fan tuan add egg and tw veggie. Also their veggie bao.
2 star because the workers are are just terrible. Rude and mean. I told them not to cut my fan tuan in half because its hard to eat it and everything starts falling out. They brought it out and it was cut in half. Told the girl and she said «o i didnt see it on the order sheet, so what do i do now?». I said you need to go and make me new ones lmao…
Then she came back and pretty much threw it on the table and walked away.
And yes this place is super dirty, tables are allll sticky and so are the chairs. I had to wipe it down myself. And i saw a dead cockroach in the nasty bathroom.
Def wont be coming to this branch again…

This place is kinda filthy. Dirty dishes everywhere as the cashier does double duty and only buses the table when she’s not taking orders at the counter. She puts the bin of dirty dishes on the chair wherever she goes, but it should be on a cart! There’s a thick layer of grease everywhere. Food on the floor. Overall, the uncleanliness is unsightly and gives a bad and icky vibe.
Food was ok. No complaints for the soy milk or rice roll (added picked veggie & egg). The egg omelet or egg wrapped in tortilla (as they call it) is mediocre at best. Turnip cake looked over done, but taste quite fine/​alright.
Probably will pass on this place. If it’s this dirty on the outside (referring to the dining room), I doubt the kitchen is clean.

The name on Unilocal is misleading. The signage on the restaurant is Si Hai Restaurant which is the Mandarin translation of Four Sea Restaurant in pinyin. Otherwise, good place. I ordered the sweet soy milk, deep fried cruller, tea marinated egg and the sweet rice roll at the counter. There was about 7 people standing behind me and the female customer right behind me kept creeping up behind me rudely and anxiously. I wasn’t done ordering and she wanted to start ordering. At one point, she began shoving me. So I glared at her and she backed off. If she didn’t, I probably would have said something to her! Later, a girl brought the food to my table. I asked her to wipe down my table a bit since the table had not been cleared off from the previous diners. She politely did so with apology. I would go back.

I was in the 626 area for the weekend so I wanted to eat a Taiwanese breakfast for the full San Gabriel experience. When I searched on Unilocal,this restaurant was the first result. The food was decent but the restaurant had a very dirty feel despite having an A grade. There was a vinegar fly trap left on the table. DISGUSTING. I feel sorry for the poor soul who used the vinegar without noticing all of the dead insects at the bottom. I guess my expectations of cleanliness should be pretty low when eating at a hole in the wall Taiwanese restaurant in the 626 but seriously?!
I need recommendations for the next time I want to have a good Taiwanese breakfast!

Great Taiwanese breakfast place in the SGV. You order at the counter and then either eat in or take to-​go. The clientele is exclusively Taiwanese and they play Taiwanese news in the restaurant, so this place takes me back to Taiwan.
I ordered the hot sweet soy milk (甜豆漿) which comes unsweetened. It had a very pure, soy flavor that went well with all the carbs.
The best thing to order here is the pan-​fried turnip cake (蘿蔔糕加蛋). This was crispy, hot, and savory (with the help of a little MSG).They put some of their garlic soy sauce on top of the egg, and you can add more at the table. So unhealthy but so so good!
The salty rice roll (鹹飯糰) was good, but nothing that special compared to other Taiwanese breakfast joints. Prices are about $ 5-​$ 6 per person. The waiters don’t speak much English but the lady at the counter did.

Surprisingly I like this place more than Huge Tree now, so I think I’ll be coming here from now on to get my Taiwanese breakfast cravings instead. Compared to Huge Tree though, there are a lot less options here, but I personally feel like they make the food better here. Over there they have beef noodle soup and a bunch of soup options so if you’re looking for that, this is not the place to come to. ALSO this place accepts card (all types I believe) so that’s more convenient for everyone!
Fan Tuan was amazing, it’s a must order here. Scallion pancake probably was the next best dish after that, even though it didn’t look that appetizing, it tasted delicious. The tea egg was good too but nothing special since all tea eggs taste the same. Oh and be sure to order the turnip cakes! Wouldn’t recommend XLB though, I would say go to a restaurant that specializes in making them — like Mama Lu’s or Din Tai Fung. I also wouldn’t recommend the beef sandwich, it was really dry and needed to be soaked in sauce or something.

When I need to get my soy milk fix, I come here. The only problem I have is my Chinese speaking skills suck. It’s to the point where I resort to Chinglish, more glish than Chin :(
I’ve had my orders mixed up quite a few times and yet I always come back. I blame myself for not being a better Mandarin speaker. It’s the fried to perfection onion pancake and sweet soy milk. It’s like crack. Or maybe it’s the MSG. I can’t be certain that they use the stuff, but it makes me wonder. You get so thirsty after eating here. Washing it down with soy milk just makes everything better…
I also suggest you try the marinated egg and baked tofu slices. Tasty.
It takes a while to get your order (even if you call your order in for pick up) so be aware.

Our go-​to Taiwanese breakfast joint. After having been back 4 or 5 times in the past 3 months, I have to say, we always go back to ordering the same winners.
Sweet soybean milk — got the authentic taste of Taiwan. Sweet, a little thick, fresh.
Egg pancakes /​«dan bing» — not as thin and light as the ones in Taiwan, but these are the Godzilla version with full on multiple eggs ‘n chives. One of these babies probably has at least a 3 – 4 egg omelete in it. BUT, SOOOO good. Very satisfying.
Rice Rolls /​«fan tuan» — Basically an Asian burrito made out of sticky rice isntead of tortilla. LOVE the ones with «suan cai» (sour pickled veggies) and the braised egg. I could eat this again and again. It’s even delicious re-​heated another day. We always buy 4 or 5 to bring home for a quick lunch or dinner during the week. About $ 4.50 a piece.
They got other selection of goodies like: Salty soybean milk, sticky rice («zhong zi»), all kinds of flaky pastries filled with red bean or taro, fresh baked man tou, you get the gist!

1. No beef rolls at a Taiwanese restaurant?!
2. No beef noodle soup either???
My cousin and I were REALLY looking forward to these and to find out that they didn’t offer them was sososo saddening. For that, I’d rather go to Huge Tree Pastry. I find their Taiwanese breakfast a bit tastier and they have the delicious beef rolls and noodle soup!
They open at 8am! On a Sunday, too! No traffic and parking hassle so that’s a major plus in my book! (Huge Tree Pastry opens at 7am!) You’ll want to know that the restaurant isn’t under «Four Sea». Keep your eyes peeled for «Si Hai» next to a bakery in a small plaza behind the gas station. We didn’t know that so after passing by «Si Hai» FOUR times, decided to pull up to make sure, and lo and behold!
Also keep in mind… Zero understanding of English. I suggest you do what we did and pull up their Unilocal page to reference with photos. With or without pickles and/​or eggs in your Fan Tuan Rolls will be a struggle to specify, though.
We ordered:
—Offfffcourse the Fan Tuan rice rolls! Yumm, they’re such deeeelicious creations! Dried, seasoned and shredded pork with the chewy and flaky Chinese donut all cocooned in sticky rice! You CANNOT pass up on these! Super satisfying and carb-​y! There is the option to add pickles and/​or eggs! They use too much rice, though. My cousin and I used to buy a jar of the shredded pork and make our own Korean version of Fan Tuans ^^.
—Chinese donuts. They’re super fun to eat! They deceivingly appear to be dense, but actually are not! It’s mostly hallow inside. Crispy, chewy and oily! Overall, it’s not so flavorful. Not salty, nor sweet. Just chewy and bland but I personally love it!
—Bao Bun with Braised Pork Belly and Peanut Sauce. It was good, but I thought they could’ve gone a little easy on the peanut sauce. The pork belly was very tender and flavorful, pickles were crunchy and sour, and the bun was warm and chewy!
—Turnip Cake with eggs. I’m not big on it so my opinions shouldn’t matter, but it was mushy and flavorless.
—Scallion Pancake was okay but I’ve had much better. They were crispy, but didn’t taste fresh. It tasted like it was re-​fried on a pan, which I’m sure wasn’t the case, but it was dry and slightly stale.
While I enjoyed the food for the most part, the meal felt incomplete without the beef rolls and beef noodle soup so next time I’m wanting Taiwanese breakfast, I’ll be heading over to Huge Tree Pastry!

Rating: 3 ½ stars
Credit Cards: Doesn’t take credit cards. Money talks!
Location: It’s located in a plaza next to a mobil gas station
Parking: There’s a small lot in the plaza, but you can try parking on the street also.
Ambiance: Love the ambiance! Feels like a coffee shop where people are eating, drinking, and reading the newspaper all at the same time.
Service: Not much service here.
The process goes like this:
1)Get in line
2)Choose what you want and a lady will take your order
3)Pay and then you are given a number.
4)Sit at a table and wait for your food to come.
Cleanliness: 1 step backwards. Your arms will feel a bit sticky when you rest your arms on the tables. Doesn’t seem like they wipe the tables down thoroughly. You’ll also see tables with empty bowls and plates out from previous patrons.
Beverage of choice: hot peanut soy milk. The bowl comes piping hot and satifies my tastebud all the time. FYI: Becareful not to burn your tongue. It comes already sweeten, but you can always get water and dilute it a bit. It kinda resembles a diet peanut soy milk if that makes any sense. It’s a bit filling. So ask for a togo cup just in case.
Food of choice: I usually pair my peanut soy milk with the chinese donut. Just rip a piece and dunk it into this amazing concoction of peanut and soy milk. Repeat action untill all gone!
I don’t usually deviate when I order taiwanese breakfat, but others rave about their fan-​tuan!

Probably biased because I love Taiwanese food.
Get here early to find a parking spot in the lot or street parking, Also get here before the crowd stars coming in.
Their process is very bad. One lady is there to take your order, place your pre-​made items on a plate/​bag, shoot the order to the kitchen. I don’t know why it ends up being so complicated but it takes the lady forever and the line starts building all the way to the door.
Once you finally order, the food comes out pretty quickly. They will call your number and carry it to your table.
My suggestions:
Sweet Soy Milk: It comes unsweetened so you can adjust it to your liking with the sugar on the tables. One can easily be split for two people unless you want A LOT of soy milk. I am not a fan of the salty soy milk but that is just my preference
Radish Cakes with Egg: Not a lot of radish which is sad but the flavor of the cakes are good and the egg on top is the best part. The table has garlic soy sauce for you add to the dish which enhances the flavor since it can be a bit bland (maybe just for me)
Salty Fan Tuan: Sticky rice wrapped around pork sung, picked veges, and youtiao (Chinese cruller). This is my favorite thing to have at any Taiwanese breakfast joint. Perfect balance of sweet (from the pork sung) and the savory for the veges and added mix-​ins.
Things are cheap and delicious. Tables can get a bit dirty since it’s a fast food joint so you might need a grab a napkin and some water to whip it down or ask a waitress to come clean it. TV is on in the background usually showing Taiwanese news.