Since our move to Palos Verdes, we’ve learned that Chinese food, let alone Taiwanese food, is hard to get nearby. For Taiwanese, we satisfy our breakfast cravings at Peter’s Place, but otherwise have had to venture to SGV weekly to get our fix. We more recently have started hitting Artesia / Cerritos and were actually there to try a Pho place but happened to see Class 302 next door. They had a big crowd and so we figured we should try it. It’s not amazing and it’s a notch below places we enjoy like Sinbala, but for being 25 minutes from home, we’ll take it!
Fried fish cake was well fried. Crispy but not greasy. A bit soft for my liking and no dipping sauce but nice seasoned with salt / pepper. Black pepper beef was tasty but not quite a traditional Taiwanese black pepper steak (we usually go to Chiou House) as it lacked the pepper bite. But if you forget that it’s supposed to be Taiwanese teppanyaki, you’ll actually enjoy it. BBQ corn was perfectly good and reasonably priced. My pork bone noodle soup with wonton and noodles was decent - the broth did taste a bit instant noodle packet-y but the wontons were delicious. Stinky tofu was stinky, the taiwnese kimchi was excellent but no chili sauce and the tofu wasn’t fried crispy enough. To top it off, the shave ice had a great texture and the toppings were plentiful and delicious - ai yu, boba, mochi, pudding and grass jelly…
It’s worth noting on QPR scale, this place is great. Prices are reasonable and portions are huge. But I’d note that the execution is just a tiny bit off… everything is close to being great but typically was off on one aspect. Except for the Taiwanese shaved ice which we all enjoyed greatly! We’ll be back!
Hey I am Taiwanese-American who grew up in that part of the county.
Most of the time I spent grew up eating was in the SGV even though I lived in that area. The Cerritos-Artesia area has a good amount of Chinese people but the food has always kinda been second to what you can get in SGV. There are some solid spots but not quite as good imo as Eat Joy, Cindy’s, Ahgoo’s, Corner Beef, Dai Ho.
Cannan and M’s Kitchen (when I grew up it was May’s Kitchen I believe) has solid homestyle Taiwanese food.
Bopomofo also has their second location in the area. It’s cafe food. I like their drinks, popcorn chicken, and sandwiches.
I had 302 a long time ago at the Rowland Heights location!
Cool! I think you summarized it well - solid spots but not quite as good as what you can get in SGV. But, when weighing a 25 min drive to solid vs 55+ min to good / great, sometimes, solid is what you want!
We’ve only been to Canaan for breakfast and haven’t been back since we discovered Peter’s Place in Torrance. But we should try it again sometime for dishes, although Eat Joy has become our go-to place for that… that said the pricing at Eat Joy is getting egregious and so we may have to scale back - $26 for my chayote leaves is a bit much! We’ve also ordered from M’s Kitchen - unfortunately, it’s not much of an eat-in type of place so that’s why we only do takeout. I do need to try Bopomofo because I’ll have to see how it comps to our current favorite place for that type of food, which is Half & Half Old Time Cafe - the fried items are excellent, the soupy items are good but unfortunately too sweet, but the real star there is iced do hwa with all the toppings 302 is a nice addition to our rotation!
Ah good to know! Is Pho Tasty in that same plaza as 302? I think that’s the one we were going to but we got sidetracked, lol. Will have to try Garlic & Chives!
Class 302 Cerritos is as good as any other Class 302 location - Especially great for summertime mango shave snow! (I believe it’s shave snow, not ice). Canaan is a solid and frequent dinner choice for my family when in that area.
More Cerritos/Artesia updates, since we’re on the topic:
Portugal Imports has closed. They are planning to reopen in the OC later this year. I guess I gotta drive further to scratch the itch for pasteles de nata and bacalao.
IMO Northern Cafe Cerritos has better noodles than Shang Jie, unless you are into lamb.
They actually have both styles - shave snow with the mango all over and shave ice, which is the more traditional version and has a black sugar base versus milk.
That is great to know re NC Cerritos… We saw it and were almost tempted to try it. We go to the one in Gardena all the time but don’t love the actual noodles, which are hand-pullled but not Q at all… Will have to try this branch!
On your rec, we hit up Canaan for dinner tonight. It was excellent. Peking fried spare ribs were on point. Not too sweet, fried crispy but lots of meat on the bones. Homestyle clay pot soup with assorted meats and seafood hit the spot. Simply a big steaming pot of light broth and vermicelli topped with napa and chock full of fresh ingredients. I haven’t had this dish in a long time and it’s why I went! Jellyfish heads and mushrooms - loved this dish. Jellyfish was “snappy” and the king mushrooms were perfectly cooked in a simple, slightly sweet sauce. Chicken pie - no review bc my kids ate it all. Doban fish fillet - we asked for it less spicy and they accomodated well making sure the dish had flavor while not being too spicy! We will be back - honestly, on par or better than many of hte places my in laws take us to in the SGV and at 28 minutes, very close to home. Thanks for the rec!
I’m not a fan of their normal food items. But we hit them up for their weekend breakfasts a lot. Egg pancake, sweet and salty soy milk, chive pockets, fan tuan, etc. All pretty well executed.
Return trip. Again, everything was on point. Some items were a bit oversalted, but that was the only quibble. Meatball soup was 90% of the way there… was lacking that chinese celery to give it that “Taiwanese” taste. Fried chicken leg was excellent - crispy skin, tender meat, delicately seasoned. My kids devoured their fried porkchop, so I didn’t taste it. Shaved ice was again perfect - the mochi is these large, delightful pillows of chewy goodness!
302 is a nice addition to our rotation!