Help! Need chinese or japanese dinner rec for turkey day

[yellohbella]

Hello Hounders-

We're doing thanksgiving dinner out this year and in need of a good chinese or japanese restaurant. We're traveling from the west side with toddlers so within 20-25 miles would be great. It'll be 7 of us in need a place with a mix of fantastic seafood and meat, noodles and dumplings for the kids. None of us speak or read chinese or japanese and we have palates that gear toward standard fare but done well and no spicy options. Price range can be $25-$50 pp. Looking for a nice restaurant that will be noisy, busy, and kid friendly. Please no dives or holes in the walls Also, if we can make reservations awesome! Thanks so much in advance for your time.

[raytamsgv]

You may be hard-pressed to find dumplings at dinner. As Chandavkl, almost all Chinese restaurants will be kid-friendly because kids are expected to eat with the adults. In particular, Cantonese and especially Hong Kong-style restaurants are known to be very noisy.

Here are my other recommendations for restaurants with well-translated menus or a wait staff with reasonable fluency in English (your individual waiter may vary):

Elite in Monterey Park: Cantonese seafood. This is my favorite place. The menu is translated very well.

Tasty Garden in Arcadia: Hong Kong-style food. The menu has lots of pictures. Translations are pretty good, too. They are probably the busiest restaurant in this list.

Capital Seafood in Arcadia: Cantonese seafood. The food is solid, but it's not as good as Elite. They probably speak the best English out of these restaurants. They might take reservations, but you should check.

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Tasty Garden
1212 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007

[ipsedixit]

Good list.

I'm going to add Seafood Village (Temple City location) to that list. Menu with pictures so ordering is quite easy.

[sushigirlie]

Are you suggesting it will be so crowded that it will be difficult to find a table? I was thinking about going to Elite with my parents for Thanksgiving.

[Chandavkl]

Just saying it could be more crowded than a typical Saturday night.

[Chandavkl]

Thanksgiving is a unique day when it comes to Chinese dining because virtually all neighborhood Chinese restaurants (i.e., located in a non-Chinese neighborhood) are closed. What that means is that all of these Chinese restaurants workers (along with everybody else in the Chinese community who gets the day off) are free to dine in their favorite San Gabriel Valley Chinese eatery, leading to massive crowds. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner a couple of years ago when nobody volunteered to host Thanksgiving over at Sea Harbour in Rosemead. However they don't take reservations, so we just arrived there right when they opened for dinner at 5pm. I think Lunasia in Alhambra takes reservations. Most of the other Chinese restaurants out that way don't. And all Chinese restaurants in Chinatown or the San Gabriel Valley are kid friendly, because Chinese don't leave their kids at home when they go out to dinner. You may have trouble finding dumplings, though, unless you go to a smaller restaurant that features that kind of item.

[yellohbella]

I was thinking of Seafood Harbour as I had the most amazing dim sum there a few months back but did not know anything about dinner. Can you recommend any must try dishes?

[Chandavkl]

I'll defer to Hound extraordinaire Exilekiss

http://exilekiss.blogspot.com/2010/08...

[ipsedixit]

With a group of 7, Sea Harbour will take reservations.