Restaurant: Yunnan Garden
Location: 545 W Las Tunas Dr, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 308-1896
Date: May 21, 2017
Cuisine: Yunnan Chinese
Rating: Solid!
Apparently there aren’t many Yunnan restaurants in American — most people don’t even know it’s a separate Chinese province and assume the speaker means Hunan (different province).
Anyway the SGV has got one of the few.
But they don’t have a liquor license yet and we had to settle for a Hedonist Tailgate Party instead!
The interior clearly used to be a coffee shop in the 60s. Look at that soffit and the old hanging lights!
Cold starts of pickles, lima beans, and shredded potatoes. The last of these needs chili oil and vinegar!
Spicy tendon and pig ear. Everyone’s favorite meats! The tendon was very good actually.
I’m not a huge pig ear fan though.
Dan dan mien. It wasn’t that spicy, and didn’t have the ultimate nutty complexity, but the noodles were excellent and perfectly cooked. Certainly tasty and satisfying.
Pea tendrils or whatever. A solid garlicky colon sweeper.
Brian has occasionally been known to try a vegetable.
Kung Pao Shrimp. Decent, if a little “typical.”
Smoked chicken and a kind of fried tofu. I liked both. Loved the tofu and the chicken had a nice pastrami-like tone.
Same chicken but with peanuts and pig knuckles. Ick!
Spicy Fish with French Fries. Excellent sauce filled with lotus root, fries, etc. I like real mountain potatoes but the fries did work.
Lamb “ribs.” Very very fried. With some cumin. Similar dish to the fried Szechuan chicken tossed in aromatic chilies. Not much meat on those bones though!
Goat in spicy sauce. Pretty tasty.
Spare ribs with chilies. Excellent!
Fried rice with preserved vegetables. Fine, not the best FR I’ve had by any means, but who’s counting?
Fried chicken with chilies. I think it was chicken. Hard to tell. haha. The batter was that yolk and salt very heavy kind, but it was delicious.
Cured pork with pink tomatoes. Again with the yummy pastrami thing.
Walnut shrimp. An okay version of this. Not the best.
Overall, Yunnan Garden was solid. Not my absolute favorite SGV place, but awesome compared to the lame Chinese available in most other locales. Interesting. Pretty similar to Szechuan here. Not totally sure these are all Yunnan dishes. I would have to research.
Oh, and we did go to Solju afterward. Never hurts.