Off your latest report I notice we may be reaching a crisis in running out of names for new Chinese restaurants. The Tao’s Kitchen that replaces Tianjin Bistro is nearly identical in name to Tao’s Kitchen Restaurant that occupied the space two doors east in that center over 15 years ago. At first I thought it might have been the return of the original restaurant (it does occasionally happen that a restaurant returns to an old location after the successor(s) leave), but the combination of the slight name difference, the passage of 17 years, and the fact that the restaurants have different Chinese names lead me to conclude this is an unrelated operation.
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Just call them all Northern Cafe. No one seems to mind.
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The Mamas & the Papas? 
Certainly a few of each here in SFBA.
According to a friend, the owner(s) of Tasty Box are the children of the former executive chef of Embassy Kitchen.
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Hmmm. Between this and Chan Kee a field trip to Diamond Bar might be warranted.
Confirmed: https://www.tastyboxbbq.com/about
“Tasty Box is the brainchild of two brothers, John and Tommy Lau. The brothers work alongside their Father and head chef Sing Moon Lau. Sing has been developing and perfecting Cantonese cooking for more than 50 years. He has practiced his artistry both in Hong Kong as well as here in the United States. In the past several decades, he has led multiple teams in opening new restaurants throughout the San Gabriel Valley. John is a general contractor by trait and has helped dozens of restaurant owners and franchisees build their dream restaurants. Tommy, the younger of the two brothers, is the expert behind the numbers with over a decade of experience in the financial services industry. Both brothers have worked in the restaurant business for more than a decade, before excelling in their current professions. Now the three of them are combining their expertise in this new and exciting venture, and invite you to share their passion for thoughtfully prepared treasures of Cantonese cuisine.”
Lau Sing Moon is the former head chef of Embassy Kitchen
If you are using Hong Kong as a measuring stick and know legit Cantonese cuisine, supposedly they are still a ways off, but for the area it has to be pretty decent. They have some limitations for sure. But set expectations accordingly before you go.
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I was completely underwhelmed. The words bland, rubbery and all bones come to mind. I was expecting average as was completely underwhelmed. Hope others experience are better than mine.
I was curious about that place. Thanks for taking one for the team. I guess I’ll save the calories for Ruby BBQ or Ming Kee BBQ (San Francisco).
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I went easy on them, I could have gone full TonyC fire breathing dragon. 
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finally got to try noodle palace which as mentioned in the last eater update, replace HK wonton specialist noodle boy. i don’t think they changed anything physically with the location in terms of decor. the menu is not extensive.
the portions are generous. particularly the wife special noodle. it’s similar in composition to its counterpart offered at laoxi noodle,
(tomato/egg, fried ground pork, pork belly, etc.) but there’s a major twist - YOU get to decide how much topping goes on your noodles - and in what proportion;
beware! those metal ladles are hot.
(mixed by the wife)
the overall serving size is larger than laoxi noodle house, but unfortunately, too salty for my tastes, and the noodles were a bit limp.
however the Q of the pasta on the next noodle dish was quite good: strifried with chicken and tree fungus and touch of cumin.
they were out of the appetizer we ordered, so we went with an order of pork/leek dumplings. a bit on the smaller side, they were juicy and had a interesting touch of sweetness
throughout the meal our water glasses were refilled with a level of enthusiasm most would find quite unusual in the SGV,
i was disappointed with the wife special noodle, but the three dishes were only about $26 before tax; i’m willing to go back and try more of the menu.
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almost forgot; i also tried the new fuzhou place hoping to get a chance to try any type of fujian cuisine, of which (as i understand it, fuzhou is a small subset).
they have english and chinese versions of their menu. at least the prices are the same. (i once went to a place that had menus in english, spanish and russian. the english menu listed the highest prices for the same items. i’ve always been amused by that.)
interestingly, there are items on the chinese menu which are not featured on the english menu. assuming english speakers wouldn’t order these items?
anyone conversant with fujian cuisine please clarify - but my first impression was that the last four items on the english menu are there for the tourists: “pork” stickers, wontons, chow mein and fried rice.
i have no idea if they’re authentic fuzhou, but our favorite item turned out to be the steamed buns at $3.50. already filled with juice, they came with a dipping sauce. i’d go back for these.
we tried the fuzhou fish balls which came in a bowl of clear broth. maybe it’s like eating a white castle slider if you’ve eaten them all your life. there’s a savory meat filling, but not something i’d go out of my way to order again.
we tried the soup with duck as well as a noodle soup with pork. while fujian cooking is supposed to feature soups, their subtleties were unfortunately lost on my palate.
i didn’t see any of the items i was hoping to find, like the gua bao, pepper bun, and other flour/bread items. i don’t think they were on the menu - i didn’t see any on any other tables either.
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This used to be quite common in Koreatown. I forget which place it was, but my Singaporean friend had learned enough Korean that the ajummas were always shocked if it were revealed he is NOT Korean, and he ordered off the Korean side of the menu for a lower price, and even when he ordered for me off that side, I still got charged the higher English price. Booooooo never went back there again.
I noticed that about Fuzhou Cuisine. I’ve seen it at other places in the past, and even surprised the waitstaff and owners at a few places when I ordered from that portion of the menu.
My favorite SGV menu entry was on the early iteration at Beijing Duck House, which wasn’t Beijing-style. It had one item translated into German.
when i first moved to LA, i used to count the number of mis-spelled.words on chinese menus. after a while i came to the conclusion that words weren’t mis-spelled as much as they were spelled the way chinese immigrants like my dad pronounced them:
“roast pok”
“sea cucumba”
“garoupa” (grouper):
Stuffed fish balls is one of the essential food items in Fuzhou cuisine. Doing a quick scan of the Chinese menu, there’s quite a few dishes that don’t seem to be exclusively Fuzhou. Definitely not the XLBs, that come in, oddly, an order of 7. Nothing about their dumplings cry out Fuzhou either.
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Doesn’t look like what you get at the Fuzhou style restaurants which populate the eastern part of Manhattan Chinatown either.
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I noticed that too. Beyond the fish balls, there wasn’t a lot that was obviously Fuzhou-style at Fuzhou Cuisine. I didn’t even manage to pick up a menu from the last, short-lived, Fuzhou-style place, but I understand it had a few more Fuzhou items.
makes me wonder who the target market would be, if any? i tried the fish balls since it was the only obvious fuzhou specialty on the menu. i suppose i’d consider using one as a replacement if i lost the ball while playing jacks given the similarity in springy texture, but i found them as uninteresting as anhui cuisine.
Looks like they have both 胡椒餅 and 麻饼, as well as 福州继光饼 (or Fuzhou bagels), all of which are pretty traditional Fuzhou items.