First Der Wienerschnitzel and now Burger King - Shancheng Lameizi Opens in Rowland Heights

For those who were horrified when 99 Ranch Market replaced Ralphs and Eastern Spice and its duck parts replaced the San Gabriel Der Wienerschnitzel, we now have Shancheng Lameizi Chongqing Style Hotpot replacing Burger King at the corner of Gale and Nogales in Rowland Heights. Since there is a famous similarly named restaurant in Beijing, the question is whether this is a branch of the original or a copycat. Based on the sizable crowd during the soft opening which started last week, I’d lean towards the former. Menu is limited during the soft opening, but I was very pleased with their basic broth with two types of tofu skin, tofu noodles, tapioca noodles and something similar to small chunks of french rolls. Also pleased with the free unlimited snacks. Not so pleased with the price–$10 for the broth by itself, with my light meal adding up to $20. I believe they charge extra for dipping sauces, but I didn’t require any. Shangcheng Lameizi is at 18932 E. Gale.

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Is there any other place like this in LA? Maybe that explains the rather high price?

You mean places like HaiDiLao or Laozao? Assuming you mean on the pricier side.

Is it worth enduring the terrible driving around there, I try to avoid gale and nogales at all cost.

Argh, sorry. Not paying close enough attention to the OP again. I forgot he mentioned “hotpot,” so I thought that the other stuff he mentinoed (tofu skin, tofu noodles, tapioca noodles, the other random starch) were unique to this restaurant (and not served hotpot style). Sorry. Ignore my first question. :wink:

Is it simply higher quality ingredients that separate the pricier places from the cheaper ones?

Usually, as well as the broth itself.

I thought Lao Zao was at the bottom of the price/quality spectrum, which might be supported by the fact that it was completely empty for most of the time I ate there. In contrast, Shancheng Lameizi was still quite bustling at 3pm.

They finished construction so the traffic is not “that bad” now at that intersection. I was just in that area yesterday around 6:30pm and it was smooth sailing.