Road Trip: Manie's Restaurant - Rowland Heights(Los Angeles)

**** Manie's has closed

Disclaimer: Those who are depressed about prices in San Diego should probably NOT read this post.

During our last trip to our old neighborhood we spent a good amount of time around Hong Kong Plaza. We used to live right up the block and would walk on over to Hong Kong Plaza almost daily. During our last trip we passed one of the restaurants that had been there for a long while but for some reason we had never taken the opportunity to eat in. What really caught our attention was the signage:

The large crowd on that evening was pretty impressive, the prices caught my eye, and when the  Missus told me it was a Sichuan Restaurant, and started naming the dishes on the poster, I was sold. So this past Friday, I took a day off, and we drove up to Rowland Heights and got to the restaurant just as they opened at 11 am.

After looking over the menu I noticed something and asked the Missus, who checked with the Server, who mentioned that the Chef was from Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan. I had never had Chengdu style Sichuan which I heard was a bit different from Chongqing style Sichuan, so needless to say I was very excited.

We placed our order and was served some clear soup with a pork bone in it. Not great, but pretty good and mild.

Smoked Duck with Chilies ($5.95 - all prices are lunch prices):

This take-off on the classic Sichuan Chili with Chicken, was probably the best rendition of any type of this dish I've ever had. The wonderful, crisp,  sweet-salty-smokey duck was stir fried quickly with dried red chilies, green bell peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and garlic, creating a very flavorful dish with great textures. As hot as this dish may seem, we found it to be more "numbing", then burning hot. There was alot of Sichuan peppercorn in the dish, creating that wonderfully addictive numbing sensation. Very delici-yoso!!!!

Pork Meatballs with Cellophane Noodles($4.95):

The Missus selected this dish off of the specials listed on the wall. I've had this type of pork meatballs with a brown sauce, where it has been silken and rich, and have felt almost decadent when eating these simple meatballs. These were not like those however. The meat was dry and grainy, and I thought the sauce was very bland. The Missus enjoyed the noodles though.

Fuqi Feipein - the famous "Husband and Wives" dish ($5.95), of course I could not go without trying one of my "baseline" Sichuan dishes:

This was another disappointment, very bland. This version was all beef brisket, no Sichuan peppercorns, no peanuts, no tendon, no tripe, no Chinese celery, nothing to help give the beef any flavor. Probably the worse version of this dish I ever had, just having chili oil alone on not very high quality beef made the dish feel greasy.

Chicken with Three Chilies($4.95):

Almost the same dish as the Smoked Duck dish, with some green onion and onion. Much milder then the duck, but very tasty. Watch out for those bones though. Again, not overly spicy, but nice and numbing.

Chung-Do (Chengdu) Cold Noodle($3.95):

I really love Sichuan Cold Noodle dishes. Chungking Restaurant in Monterey Park and Ba Ren make my favorite versions of the dish. Finding this dish on the menu also clued me in as to the origins of the Chef, as it was on the menu as "Chung-Do" style. I really didn't enjoy the noodles dish at first, I thought that it wasn't spicy enough, and used too much vinegar. But after eating a bite of the duck and chicken, then having a bite of the noodle, I discovered how refreshing and palate cleansing this dish was. When eaten in that context, this was very good.

But wait; we weren't finished yet! The Missus ordered the Sticky Rice Cake($3.95):

Called something along the lines of "Liang Chi Ba", this was very, very good! I'm not big on desserts, but this combination of peanut and sesame paste over gooey sticky rice has changed me. What a great way to end a meal.

So what's the damage for a six course lunch with tea and rice(which we never touched)? Thirty-two bucks! With leftovers for at least one or two more meals!

You can tell by the photo what we cleaned up, and what we took home!

Overall, we did find that the dishes at Manie's used more Sichuan Pepper then Chili Peppers, and was more numbing then "hot". This goes along the lines of what I've heard about Sichuan cuisine. Chongqing style is much more spicy and hotter then Chengdu style, which is milder, but more numbing. The other variable that comes into play is, that though the Chefs come from Chengdu, Marnie's (something like Luong Chau Shou in Chinese) is Taiwanese owned, which could change the food. Nevertheless, the food was a bargain, and some of the dishes were excellent.

Manie's Restaurant
18438 Colima Road #106 (In Hong Kong Plaza)
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Comments

[dietchilicheesefries]

kirk,

you got me with the chilis man! that dish looks great! i'm there...

whenever near colima road i eat at Tommy's or Banana Boat... next time i think i'm goin fo the chilis..

you should give Banana Boat off of Fullerton/Colima a try for some decent Thai if you get a chance... crab fried rice and bbq chicken is pretty good there

[Kathy]

Awesome awesome, I love this your review!
You beat me to the post! I came a while ago, but sigh, never got around to posting. lol. But now you make me want to go back and have the smoked duck and sticky rice cake. mmm. Esp the dessert, never seen anything like it before. There were so many options I didn't know what to order, but their dumplings in the house spicy sauce - so good!
I can't believe how much there is to learn about the different varieties of Asian food here. It's amazing (and I better go take advantage of it:))
Thanks for covering all these places in Rowland Heights, plan to go this weekend. yay!

[clayfu]

i believe its banana bay.

Banana boat is a lil take out/ taiwanese style place in the 99 ranch market off gale. They do serve pig intestines tho! my favorite!

all of the stuff at banana bay is good, service is quick, food is tasty.

Everyone i know always orders the fried rice with bbq chicken (huge bbq chicken)

i've taken a liking to the garlic chicken fried rice, but i usually ge tthe gravy noodles with onions and tomatoes, very tasty.

[clare eats]

Can you please ship one serveofthe duck and the dessert over express?
LOL

MMMM I want that duck!

[Reid]

Hi Kirk,

The dishes here look interesting, especially the ones with the chillies. Mmmm!

[dietchilicheesefries]

thanks clayfu!

my brain is fried, it is Banana Bay...

Banana Boat is a reference to "Scarface" that i can't get out of my head ... thats how messed up I am these days... "Look at chu now!"

[Kirk]

Hi Kathy - The lunch prices here are very reasonable - though the Fuqi Feipein was IMHO pretty lousy. Can't wait to read your posts.

Hi clayfu - Thanks for the rec. In the years we lived in Rowland Heights we never went to Banana Bay - maybe it weas the garish paint job, or maybe memories of the pretty terrible Korean BBQ I had at the restaurant that used to occupy the space. We did drive thru "Yes" Plaza, and had a nice laugh - we used to do laundry at the laundromat that is no longer there, when the mall was kind of seedy.....

Hi Clare - Due to quality control concerns, you'll have to swim on over....but it'll be on me!

Hi Reid - The duck dish was a very good, excellent rendition of Sichuan "chili" type of dish.

Hi DCCF - Too many brain cells burnt composing SpamKu! LOL!

[Pam]

DANG! you and your missus are champs...lookit how you cleaned up!

i saw that you mentioned chungking in monterey park...any idea what street it's on? i'm always looking for more good eats here in the sgv.

[Kirk]

Hi Pam - Chung King used to be our favorite restaurant when we lived in LA:

Chung King
206 S. Garfield Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Enjoy!!!

[Jack]

The dishes look pretty good Kirk, particularly the smoked duck w/ chilies

[Kirk]

Hey Jack - The smoked duck with chilies is as good as anything I've ever had at Ba Ren or Chung King

[Jeffrey Chow]

Kirk, thanks for the headsup on the restaurants in the SGV. I have to admit that this place, Manie's is one of our favorites when we dine with our parents. Our parents can't take the spiciness like they used to and they say that this place balances the taste without going overboard on the "ma"(numb) and the "la"(spicy). But I think I might try Chung King but I do so love Yungui also. Oh, so many restaurants and so small a stomach.

[Kirk]

Hi Jeffrey - I hope you have a great time in LA!