Restaurant: Lady Yan’s
Location: 203 W Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 872-6677
Date: October 2, 2022
Cuisine: (Mostly) Szechuan Chinese
Rating: Medium level Szechuan
I’ve eaten at this location as at least 5 restaurants.
It’s the familiar spot that once housed Sham Tsem (Alahambra), New Bay, and Happy Table, and GV Yummy. That’s a lot of restaurant churn — probably the most different restaurants I’ve eaten at in a single location in the SGV. The current name seems to be Lady Yan’s, but the old signs are still up there. New Qing Dao seemed to have been the same as GV Yummy. Not totally sure. It was very confusing.
The menu. This time around I think it’s Szechuan, more or less.
Cucumber Salad. The typical smashed cucumber dish, but an excellent version being smashed, very garlic forward, and well sauced.
Jelly in spicy savory sauce. The Chengdu street mung bean jelly. Not a bad version at all. I would have preferred a slight extra bit of tanginess in the sauce, but it was good.
Sliced beef and ox tongue in chili sauce. Nice version of this dish with the appropriate cilatro and peanut vibe. Regular meat and what is probably tripe or lung. Not as good as at GuYi, but very good.
Spicy wonton “soup.” Nice, although as usual for this dish the wonton’s seemed a bit under-seasoned (maybe just overwhelmed by the chili) and the “soup” is slightly watery.
Our one claw 4lb live lobster.
Lobster with ginger scallion. This was by accident as it was supposed to by Tyhoon style. I think the chef just didn’t want to. The lobster meat itself was fine but the prep was meh. Heavy. One of the worst Chinese lobsters I’ve had in a while.
Live fish kung fu style. Very nice fish with plenty of meat, chilis, veggies, tofu, potato etc. Overall lovely.
Tea Smoked Duck. Excellent pastrami duck. Very juice and delicious.
Sichuan spicy chicken nuggets. Very nice salty/numbing version of this iconic dish. Quite enjoyable.
Double cooked pork belly. Twice cooked pork. Awesome version with a really nice smoke and black bean flavor.
Sichuan signature mixed meats in chili sauce. Pretty much the same chili “broth” as the fish etc. Included all sorts of weird parts. The spam and liver/blood type stuff was good. There was also the chewy tripe.
BBQ Lamb Ribs. Served piping hot. Very fatty and full of sizzling flavor. Nice. The sauces didn’t totally work.
Eggplant with spicy garlic sauce. A 7/10 version of this dish. Pretty nice.
Green beans with garlic. Fine but nothing special.
Shredded cabbage. This had the obligatory pork belly and was generally fairly delicious.
Dan dan mein. Pretty typical Chengdu version. No peanut or sesame but a fairly addictive flavor all the same.
Seasoned peanuts. Nice, although not like the crack peanuts at Haige Star.
MaPo Tofu. Surprisingly delicious. Solid 8/10 version of this dish.
Chengdu style fried rice. Not exactly sure what was in here (other than the obvious peas) but it was very tasty.
Free totally weird Chinese dessert. Pretty terrible.
Citron au Courant Sorbetto – Fresh squeezed Lemons blended with French Currants (Cassis) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #lemon #cassis #currents #lemonade #citron
Overall, this place was solid, but slightly “uninspired” SGV Chinese. Now for outside the SGV it would be excellent, as it’s way better than somewhere like Szechuan Place. Lady Yan’s has a wide range of dishes and they do “pretty well” with most of them, very good with a few. The service was nice and MUCH better than at Happy Table or GV Yummy. The build out was identical. It’s fairly low rent and not super crowded. The space must be cursed. There are better Szechuan places, several, but I’d go back to Lady Yans happily enough. And they do have some lingering dishes from other regions (like the BBQ lamb ribs).
