Late Night Longo

Apr09

Location: 7540 Garvey Ave, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 280-8188

Date: February 11 & June 10, 2018 and June 12 & November 6 & December 11, 2022

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Great Meal, Good Deal

The first week of February (2018) my SGV radar was buzzing about a new Cantonese place in the SGV. I think because Jonathan Gold wrote it up and then several friends went. Mostly they were talking about the dim sum but most Cantonese places are really 2 in 1 with nighttime banquet service. Since then I’ve been many many times and this is a composite post of at least 5 or 6 dinners.

Longo is on Garvey right next to the Longo Toyota. Lol.

It’s one of these big formal Cantonese places.

Tanks with live seafood.

There is a big glitzy menu too, but this one is more compact.

They have tons of private rooms. Some even have their own “en suite” bathrooms.

Peanuts.

Cucumbers with a spicy bean paste.

Chicken Feet. Of course Yarom has to slip in his chicken feet to satisfy his foot fetish. These are the extra un-seasoned buggers. Pretty much no one else touched them.

Chili oil.

Cold plate. Jellyfish, Honey BBQ Pork, roast chicken, roasted pork belly. The jellyfish was spicy and first rate with nice texture. The honey BBQ pork was sweet, soft, and delicious. The pork belly had a bit of porky quality and nice crispy skin. I didn’t try the chicken but people loved it.

Sweet sauce, sugar, and hoisin.

The geoduck alive.
Geoduck and lobster sashimi. The lobster had a nice texture but almost no flavor. The geoduck, however, was incredible again with chewy clam texture and an almost sublime “of the sea” briny quality.

Wasabi and soy for the sashimi.

Fried geoduck neck, salt & pepper style. Some of the best fried clams I’ve had (again). Super light and crunchy with that chewy clam center.

Peking Duck (2/11/18). The meat was very good. This was a bun place and they serve the classic “Pseudo Peking Duck“. People have their preferences as to buns vs pancakes. I like both, but pancakes allow you to eat more!

NOTE: On my second visit, for my birthday, June 2018, I had called ahead (twice) and reserved Peking Duck — but when I got there they told me “no duck, sold out” — clearly they had sold away my duck to the highest bidder as I saw some on tables! I was fairly irritated.

Duck Meat. Sometimes they also serve the meat separately. depends. I’m not sure I actually got any of this. Looks pretty juicy, like the Cantonese roast duck that it is.

Condiments. I didn’t get to try as they were on the other side of our very large and very slow lazy susan. Again it was served with buns which are vastly inferior to pancakes. But still it was overall a very tasty duck — if not the real peking duck experience.

Duck Lettuce Cups. Totally PF Changs style but actually quite enjoyable. Nice flavor and crunch. The hoisin here is sweet and doesn’t have the punch that a good Beijing place hoisin does.

Lettuce for the duck.

Fried Squab. Super delicious with crispy skin and very dark rich meat.

Suckling pig (half, 2/11/18 & 6/10/18). Perfect pig. Really, really crispy with nice pork flavor.

What happened to piggy?

Macau Style Pork Belly. Piggy with nice crispy skin. Good stuff. This is what you get if you can’t handle a whole pig!

Lamb stew (2/11/18 & 6/10/18). Interesting.

Fish with garlic on bok choy (2/11/18). The garlic made it really delicious actually.

Clams with green pepper.

Scallops with snap peas. Lovely.

Frog with Chili Peppers. It was not spicy at all but the frog had a reaally nice flavor and the bones weren’t too anoying. Fish + Chicken vibe in great sauce.

Sweet buns to “calm the spice from the frog.” People loved these and they were very fluffy.

Here comes the giant King Crab!

Brian shows off the scale.

More live seafood on a different night.

El Crab returns wokked with vegetables. Stir fried crab (2/11/18).

Crab Legs with garlic (2/11/18 & 6/10/18) which was awesome.

King Crab Legs, steamed with garlic, on glass noodles. Super tender, sweet, and garlicky. Fabulous. Others raved about the noodles (which I avoided due to carbs).

Close up of that tender goodness.

King Crab Egg Custard (2/11/18 and others). This was actually the best version of this I’ve had. The custard was silky and infused with sweet soy and there were very substantial chunks of crab meat. Totally addictive.
Crab parts fried with salty yolk (6/10/18). As I’ve several times found, this isn’t my favorite prep. A bit too salty and with that grainy yolky texture.

King Crab Body, Typhoon Style. One of the best crab bodies I’ve had. Tons of meat, very sweet and still moist. The fry was very tasty with lots of garlic flavor, but was as much a bread crumb fest as garlic. This wasn’t the crack-like pure garlic crunch.

Crab fried rice (6/10/18). Great stuff!

Black Pepper Lobster. This is the head and legs part of the lobster — we ate the tail raw. It was okay, certainly well cooked, but the sauce wasn’t particularly peppery and the parts of the lobster we had (mostly legs) are a little tough to get the meat out of.

Fried tofu with mushrooms and broccoli (2/11/18 & 6/10/18). Very nice actually. Love the delicate sauce.

Kung pao chicken (6/10/18). A nice tasty version. I got some tame dishes on this day because we had a bunch of SGV noobs in the crowd.

Walnut shrimp (6/10/18). Fairly light, mayo forward version.

Sole with black bean sauce (6/10/18). Turned out to be moderately spicy!

Braised pork belly with preserved vegetables. Rich!

Filet Mignon with mushrooms. The mushrooms were great but the beef was kind of chewy. Yarom substituted this for the pork belly with preserved veggies which we supposed to have (a great dish). The beef was meh.

Pepper lamb chops. Not sure I get this dish.

Pea tendrils with garlic (2/11/18).

Ung choy (6/10/18).

Preserved fish eggs fried rice (2/11/18). Nice and salty.

Vegetable fried rice (6/10/18).

Yang Chow Fried Rice.

Simple lo mein (6/10/18). A lot of the Chinese food amateurs enjoyed this.

Seafood chow mein (6/10/18). I always love this dish.

Beef chow mein (crispy). I just ate the beef but it had that tasty MSG soft tenderized beef.

Weird sweet bean soup (2/11/18).

Another weird bean soup.

Walnut soup (6/10/18). MUCH much better than the bean soup — actually kind of pleasant.

Sweet Soup. Interesting textures and a sort of medicinal quality, it was just sweet with almost no flavor. Weird like most Chinese desserts. There were goji berries and some sort of sea plant with a jellyfish-like texture.

Custard buns (6/10/18) on the house. I enjoy these mild sweet things.

And a bit of cake (someone brought on 2/11/18).

For my birthday dinner (6/10/18) I brought some Sweet Milk Gelato I made:

On the left, a new flavor: Limoncello Zabaione Gelato, an eggy frozen zabaione made with Sorento Limoncello.

On the right, Gluten Free Triple Chocolate Cloud, Valrhona chocolate base, Valrhona cream cheese fudge, and gluten free oreo substitutes.

More gelato.

Triple Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped Oreos! — 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 #Valrhona #chocolate #oreos #ganache #icing #NestléCrunch

Bloody Apple Pie Gelato — A Tahitian Vanilla Custard base layered with my house-made cinnamon bourbon apple pie filling, house-made Vanilla Caramel Blood, and house-made Grave Soil Charcoal Graham Crackers (GF) — 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 #applepie #apple #cinnamon #caramel #GrahamCracker #halloween

Got crabs?

The service was absolutely first rate the first time we came (2/11/18). The manager above really took care of us. The food was great too. Not the best Cantonese banquet I’ve ever had but really very nice with a lot of first rate dishes. The pig and crab were as good as it gets and the crab was a total deal at only $19-25/lb. The duck was very good too as were a number of the other dishes.

The second time for dinner (6/10/18, I had been there another time for lunch), the service was a bit different. They were mobbed. I had called ahead (twice) and reserved Peking Duck — but when I got there they told me “no duck, sold out” — clearly they had sold away my duck to the highest bidder as I saw some on tables! I was fairly irritated. They also took a LONG time to come over and take our order. Once it got rolling they were reasonably attentive. Food was still good, but they could have done a way better job with us.

In 2022 (and once so far in 2023) I went to Longo a whole mess of times. The meal follows a certain pattern, but it’s a great place for fresh seafood and lots of good Chinese eats. And the fact that they have big private rooms where they let you be loud, obnoxious, and do your wine thing is awesome!

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For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.