Until now the location at 525 W. Valley Blvd. in Alhambra is probably best known for playing host to 9 different Chinese restaurants over the years (10 if you count two non-consecutive appearances of Sizzling King), and second best known as one of the longest continuously shuttered Chinese restaurant locations ever in the San Gabriel Valley (2015 to 2020). Consequently the opening of a new restaurant there, Tianjin Feng Wei, in the midst of the pandemic was enough reason for me to rush over there and see what was going on. In the process I found what might be a gem of a little restaurant that might fill two separate gaps in SGV food, the recent closing of the SGV’s only other Tianjin style alternative, plus the pandemic travails of Beijing Pie House, where at any given point in time I have no idea as to which, if either of their locations happen to be open. To my taste, the beef bing at Tianjin Feng Wei is superior to that at Beijing Pie House, with much more flavor, and it costs only $2.50. (And maybe it’s my imagination, but it also seems bigger.) The other dish I had, the beef noodle soup, was equally revelatory. Clearly the best beef I’ve ever had in soup, soft and flavorful. Also can’t remember a better tasting beef broth. Can’t do an overall rating of this dish because the noodles sat in the container (albeit separate from the broth) for 90 minutes before I ate them, but this is clearly an excellent version of beef noodle soup.
Wow this is a glowing recommendation will have to try!
Here to offer a less enthusiastic recommendation (I went 11 days ago). And I usually looove hole-in-the-wall Chinese.
I do agree that the beef pie is tasty, but not far superior to the one at Beijing Pie House. And the price has gone up to $3 per pie now.
The other famed Tianjin dish is their bao. The classic pork bao has the requisite thick skin, but I found the inside filling TFW to be one dimensional. The bao did not travel well, having soaked up way too much of its own condensate in the box during the relatively short car ride (Chauncey drives fast). I would recommend eating the bao right when you get it, without hesitation.
The beef noodle broth is nowhere close to the ethereal complexity of the bowl at Northern Cafe Monterey Park. It doesn’t even breach the top 5 SGV beef noodles for me. The noodles in my bowl were pretty much standard cafeteria spaghetti. Maybe Sergio wasn’t in the house when I went.
Even the “liang ban” dishes were poor. I actually tossed the cucumber into the trash after 2 bites.
Like I said above, maybe I went on an off day by the kitchen staff. Will try to give it another go.
i liked the bao, but then i had only a 10 minute drive to get home, followed by 2 minutes in the microwave. at $6.25 i consider them a pretty good value.
Thanks to those that took one for the team and recommended not to travel with these beauties… ate them in the car fresh from the shop and holy shit we wanted to get out and start hitting people they were so delicious. And their dipping sauces… whooo buddy.
Got the “beef pancakes” ready for later as well as a couple other dishes.
I need to do a mulligan here. It seems they’ve retooled things…
they raised prices from $6.25 (which was a great value IMO) to $7.50 (which is still a good deal) on those bao. call ahead on the bao if you don’t want to wait 20 mins.
Lots of favorable comment both on Yelp as well as the San Gabriel Valley food discussion group on Facebook. I think their beef pancakes is filling the Beijing Pie House void which is not being filled by the Monterey Park replacement.
i tried one and i wasn’t impressed. maybe i caught them on a bad day. however, the bao are a winner IMO.
I agree with this. Was really excited about biting down but it ended up oddly chalky and not so full of flavor. Is this another that needs to be eaten immediately and not re-baked?
Probably.
I usually re-crisp them on a cast-iron griddle once I get them home.
Hm, I had it straight from the takeout box after a 5 min drive home and the bing wasn’t chalky at all. More crispy on the outside but also chewy/stretchy on the inside. Kind of like a good noodle.
I am wondering if something was wrong with the ones we got, maybe not fully cooked or something. It just does not make sense given everyone else’s impressions. I am not a monster! 
They closed. There was a notice of special hours on Yelp a week before last which showed them closed every day. Then they reopened this past week—as Ace Burgers.
that seemed like a quick turnaround
Clarification. Ace Burgers is a rebranding of Tianjin Feng Wei. Guess the owners feel there’s more money in chicken wings.
According to the new Fung Bros video on Youtube (posted by @JeetKuneBao in the WSGV thread), Ace Burgers is trying to recreate the chicken sandwich and wings recipes from Chinese KFC and McDonalds. Looks like they even have the egg tarts like Chinese KFC.