Perhaps the unluckiest Chinese restaurant location in the SGV is upstairs in the Seasons Plaza on Gale Ave. in Industry. True there had only been four previous locations at 18558 Gale Ave., #270 while there are a few others in the SGV that have had double digits. But that’s four restaurants in 5 years, including the eastern branch of the regarded Beijing Pie House, which tanked in record time, as did the sit down branch of JJ. Perhaps restaurant number 5, Miss Tong’s Private Kitchen might break the jinx,and if they do so it’s because it’s something different. When I walked in I wasn’t so sure, though. Even though the light flashed “Open”, it seemed like it wasn’t, with a dark and completely empty restaurant. However when I got to the counter in the middle of the restaurant there were indeed 2 people there who said they were in fact open. No printed menu, though, just several memeographed pages, printed menus to come in another week. Normally when you scroll down the menu you can get a pretty good idea what regional cuisines are represented, but I was kind of stumped, particularly by all the “tanjine” dishes. So I asked the young lady in charge (don’t know if there’s really a Miss Tong, and whether it’s her), but she explained that it was Guangzhou style food. Which still puzzled me since the menu didn’t look particularly Cantonese to me. She went on to describe how the chef was from Guangzhou, and then she threw out the word that sounded like “Communist.” Hmm. Does she mean that this is modern style Guangzhou food, as opposed to the Hong Kong Cantonese we’re used to? And “tanjine” referred to the North African cooking vessels they used to cook many of their dishes. Anyway the Japanese chicken from the $12 lunch special menu was decent enough, so this would seem to be worth a return trip once they get their menus printed. Oh, and the decor.
Tianjin? Tagine? In any case, eating ambiguously Northern Chinese/Moroccan yet Japanese-inspired fusion Guangzhou/Communist cooking while staring that the prints on the wall sounds intriguing. Does Private Kitchen mean “invite only”?
Well that might explain the empty restaurant, but no. As an aside there used to be a Chinese restaurant on Valley Blvd. in Alhambra called Private Kitchen, and they too were open to the public.
Fuerdai parking lot, too…
Is this the former Michelle Pancake location with the outdoor patio upstairs?
And that sit down JJ was just okay, bad service, and poor A/C. They did have goose though.
Interesting artwork, to say the least…
Yes, that’s the location.
'#DatDecor
did they mean this? Serious question…
Or is it “everything put inside a tajine, so that’s what we’ll call everything”
Not everything is a tajine dish–there are just several scattered throughout the menu, so I presume they actually use it to cook the designated dishes.
yes i see the menu, let me rephrase it: “some things made using a tajine, so that’s what we’ll call em”
They certainly have some interesting artwork on the wall.