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.