Restaurant: Mountain House Rowland Heights 川山甲
Location: 18888 Labin Ct C101, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 986-5555
Date: June 9 & September 23, 2024
Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese
Rating: Best new SGV place of 2024
I had to wait nearly a year for them to get a beer and license before trying!
When we arrived, there was a Chinese American street fair going on in the middle of this mall courtyard.
Mountain House was hidden away in the courtyard. Parking ringed the outside basically looking at the service entrances. Really strange mall. I’ve been wanting to come here for 10 months but they didn’t seem to want to allow wine until V “sorted it out.”
Very nice build out.
With smoking koi bath — never seen one of these — and I wonder what the koi think about it
Fish extend to the ceiling.
Great private room. A touch cramped, but very private.
Pickled Spicy Cabbage on the table to start. These were awesome actually some nice chunks of aromatics.
Very good tea.
The menu.
Bamboo Grove Trio. Three various Szechuan drinking foods (including bamboo). Duck tongue, poached chicken, bamboo shoots.
Swing Garlic Pork Belly. Basically boiled bacon with super MSG spicy garlic sauce. It was all about the sauce.
Pepper Beef Tongue. More or less the same sauce, but the tongue was so tender — incredible dish.
House Chicken. The classic poached chicken in spicy chili oil. Not super spicy, but nicey balanced and very umami.
Szechuan Numbing Chicken. Last time we had the red pepper chicken — and on the tri — so this time we had the green.
Fu-Qi Special. Couples sliced offal, aka tripe and meat. Very nice version, although not as good as the perfect one at GuYi.
Okra Salad. Slimey and delicious in the same super savory sauce.
Spicy Hairtail. Some kind of slightly spicy fried fish.
Dumplings in Chili Oil. Solid version of this Sichuan staple.
Yibin Style Ran Noodles. Cold and a touch tangy with a little bit of sesame. Very nice.
Golden Baked Corn Kernels with Salted Egg Yolk. Awesome dunked in some red sauce.
Country Style Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables. Great version of this dish. Not as salty as usual, just silky and delicious.
Ma-La Prawns. This was the hotest dish. Actually pretty spicy, but with an almost candied chili. Really fabulous.
Pepper Lover’s Frog. Very tender and only “some” bones.
Short Rib. Pretty damn good actually because of the spicy sauce.
House Ma-La Dungeness Crab. Super delicious sticky rice underneath with a very smoky flavor.
Crispy Fish with Pickled Pepper. Great fish. Tons of garlic and umami.
Red Pepper Fish Head.
Garlic Shrimp. So garlicky and so delicious. Shells perfectly crispy.
La-Zi Chicken. The famous fried aromatic chicken.
MaPo Tofu. Probably the best I’ve had in LA. Or certainly really up there. Just awesome.
Spicy Shredded Eel. Like the popcorn chili chicken — but with fried eel bits. Really great!
Crispy Tofu. Just fine.
Crispy Chicken with Chilies. Amazing version of this dish and highly aromatic with that deep chili flavor.
Western Szechuan Lamb Spine. Amazing Sichuan flavor. Not much meet, but really delicious.
Shredded Potato. Amazing dipped in the spicy lamb jus.
Green beans with pork.
Gizards with Taro. Awesome pickled pepper flavor and nice chew.
Hot and Sour Soup. Nice and silky.
Garlic Greens. Solid.
House Special Fried Rice.
Numbing Pepper Beef. So good with that green numbing factor. Very tender beef.
This was probably the best Chinese dessert I’ve had. Peanuts, watermelon, coconut, raisons, cool jelly, sweat syrup. Fabulous textures of chew and crunch. Sweet and nutty.
Chocolate Mint Gelato.
Chocolate and Arugula gelato.
Amazing meal. Not only was it very fun, but the food was really really good. And the total was all in $85/pp. Very large Sichuan menu and nearly ever dish was some of the best versions of it I’ve had. Nicely balanced and executed. Fun decor too and solid service. Plus they have the private rooms and now allow the wine. It wasn’t as hot as many Sichuan places, just balanced. And probably the menu is 2-4X as big. It’s a little fancier, but isn’t more expensive. So it’s a total win win win. Then it must be mentioned that this is a peerless Chinese food group :-).
The courtyard was empty when we left, but had this neat “not in America” feel.
