Did you mean to ask @JThur01. I have not been to most of the places on his list.
The Yunnan food I’ve eaten here in California doesn’t match what I’ve read about or seen in Netflix food porn. My guess is the cuisine is famous mostly thanks to perishable ingredients that are only available there.
Concur, to a degree. Folks I know who have been to Yunnan mention a much greater variety of dishes, and some with uniquely local ingredients, but for something like Crossing The Bridge Noodles or other basics, one isn’t going to do better short of catching a plane to Kunming.
Nope. Yunnan Restaurant in Monterey Park, formerly known as Yunkun Garden; Yunnan Garden and Yunchuan (and I think other names) 
…or its sister restaurant on Las Tunas in San Gabriel, which is in the 168 Market plaza, but used to be where Delicious Food Corner now is.
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What distinguishes Crossing the Bridge Noodles from other bland, simple chicken noodle soups?
Amongst many other things a THICK layer of OIL above the noodles and soup to keep them warm until slurp time.
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The soup takes a few minutes to cook, and it is then spooned out into small bowls. Jim Thurman of LA Weekly writes that “with the rice noodles and fresh chicken, it’s reminiscent of an extremely subtle version of Vietnamese pho ga [chicken pho]. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone, as Yunnan shares a border with Vietnam.”[4]
Does anyone in the SGV serve it topped with a thick layer of hot schmaltz?
Not that I’m driving anywhere for that.
Not much really. The most distinctive thing is the adding of thin slices of ham. Yunnan is known for its ham, but I don’t think it’s likely one would get true Yunnan ham here (one of those local ingredients, as you mentioned).
Presentation wise, it was about as good a show as one could get in the SGV since Bamboodles 
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I believe the confusion is that the rest of your list has the style followed with the restaurant names, whereas it is reversed with Yunnan.
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It’s called an error 
I forgot to add the name in quickly throwing a list together. It has been corrected.
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Saozi mian Aka Qishan Saozi mian is also a famous dish in Xi’an and all Shaanxi province granted, it is next-door to Gansu
The dish sounds a little different but it is one of the famous dishes in Xi’an A quick Google search will show lots of results
Yunnan is famous for mushroom dishes
You won’t find those here. But I have seen both the steam pot chicken and crossing bridge noodles. The last really are sort of a Chinese version of the pho ga. I think they’re delicious. If somebody can only take very highly piquant dishes and assume that that’s good cooking, may not be for them. However there are all kinds of spicy dishes available in the yunnan kitchen. Sichuan is just next door
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re chicken fat
You don’t need a thick layer to keep it hot. The more fat you put on top, you’ll just get one big bubble.
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I like -lately-lao xi er
On Baldwin in Arcadia
Shānxi style noodkes, esp knife cut (dao xiao) and cats ear noodles
Limited menu very good (shanxi, Datong and taiyuan, not shaanxi, xi’an)
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I don’t believe that sao mian and saozi mian are the same…
I can’t find the characters so possibly
Is this place you’re referring to?
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There are two branches. I prefer the one on Baldwin.
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double agree - baldwin one seems better to me.
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