Minchi rice and baked pork chop rice 
No pics. Baked bolognese spaghetti, spicy salt fried squid (not sure what it might’ve been specifically called on the menu), and red-bean ice for me. 
And it was indeed solid!
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The Northern Bistro replaces Mr. Breakfast in Rosemead serving Dongbei food. This is their Northern Chinese Casserole with corn cake.
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And returns the space to Dongbei-style, since Chef Geng was in there for years prior to Mr. Breakfast.
How was it? I don’t know if I’ve ever Dongbei-style food.
There’s a fair amount of Dongbei food around. My dishes were quite good.
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the first place i recall would have been shenyang on garvey near atlantic. tonyc raved about their naengmyeon (the region is close to the korean border) as they allegedly made their own buckwheat noodles.
other menu items included (fake) race dog meat and cumin chicken bones (the only iteration made in the SGV that i’ve enjoyed). that location has changed hands a few times, but has stayed dongbei IIRC. then there’s the aforementioned chef geng. my favorite dish here was the cold noodle which i found reminiscent of japanese hiyashi chuka.
there was thousands nasty, er, tasty, at the corner of new & valley. the location burned down a few years back. there’s another dongbei place on san gabriel that specialize in potato noodle. i tried them back in april. JCHF potato noodle is the name of the place.
the noodles looked machine made and i found them unremarkable.
i found the cumin chicken bones similarly unremarkable, though there was a lot more meat and not nearly as deep fried as i expected them to be.
there was a shenyang tasty whose menu provided some interesting items such as
but their version of naengmyeon wasn’t bad.
these were also a pleasant surprise.
there’s also a sheng yuan on san gabriel. been meaning to try them since they specialize in liaoning cuisine.
really small place (8 2 seat tables with one table typically occupied by the help).
most popular noodles there seem to be their spinach noodles.
the other noodles have decent Q
but there don’t seem to be the belt-sized noodles common to shaanxi on their menu. their roujiamo might be the best i’ve had in the SGV (at $7 it should be).
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I quite like Dongbei food. Real stick to your ribs stuff, very Midwestern U.S. type fare. Along with Cantonese/Shanghainese, probably the least spicy Chinese regional style, and uniquely distinctive. Totally self-serving, but here was an overview of classic Dongbei dishes:
The caveat here being the entire restaurant listing has changed. Only two of the restaurants survive, at different locations, with slightly revised names: Shen Yang on San Gabriel moved one space up and became Shen Yang Tasty, and post-fire Thousands Tasty eventually relocated to Rosemead as Tasty Thousand.
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Nice report 
TonyC touted the Shen Yang in San Gabriel. At one point, there were three different restaurants named Shen Yang, none of which were related! (is that peak SGV or what?) The one he liked was next to the HK Market (now Good Fortune) on San Gabriel Blvd. It closed for a bit, then re-emerged the next center to the north (in the former space of Hunan Restaurant), as Shen Yang Tasty. Its always been my go to for Dongbei, admittedly for their variety of items compared to the other places. It also seemed they did many dishes just that little bit better than the others.
The Shen Yang on Garvey is the only place I recall serving the faux dog meat dish. It became another Dongbei place, Guan Dong Da Yuan, which reportedly has closed as well.
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Anybody hit Bund No. 8 yet? Went with my gf and her parents and I was really pleased.
My parents are from Shanghai and, as she is wont to explain, my mom is notoriously picky about Shanghainese food. She liked it a lot for lunch.
Sadly, I did not take any pics. We did order some classics, like the aster & spiced tofu “salad,” red braised pork, mixed rice, shengjianbao, and scallion oil noodles. We also had spicy cauliflower, which may be a hangover from the space’s life as Embassy – it was decidedly not Shanghainese.
The first was heavy on the sesame oil, and what I remember eating often in the house. Pork had that deep red and gelatinous fat, supplied with two eggs (yolks yellow and chalky, as I remember from my youth); mixed rice came in the stone bowl and mixed tableside; SJB bread was light and fluffy, fried perfectly (but unfortunately, no soup inside); and the noodles were appropriately topped with little shrimps.
The mixed rice was the standout. The Shanghainese salt pork! The lard! It was the table’s favorite, too – gf and her family are not Chinese, and haven’t eaten many regional cuisines but for hot pot here and dim sum there, so was pumped they were down with something my mom would throw together when we had only bok choy and old rice (but, curiously, home-cured salted pork?).
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One One Dumpling (the original Luscious Dumpling) in San Gabriel has apparently closed.
Zhenwei Kitchen replaces Bistro Xia In Alhambra, serving Shaanxi and Japanese (?) food.
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I remember Garfield Theater, El Rey at 335 W Main, and The Alhambra (old Edwards on Atlantic/Main). I’ll never forget sneaking into Amityville Horror at El Rey with my school friends and being scared out of my mind LOL
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Been seeing signs for DaPaiDang in the smaller plaza next to Focus Plaza (is it still called that?) on the second floor. Looks like they may finally be open.
Wondering if anyone has any info.
Google shows pictures with the OPEN sign lit up and people inside eating.
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I’m bummed about the demise of Guppy House as well. I enjoyed the Taiwanese shaved ice wave and looked forward to going when the crowds died down. Never got that chance. I heard through the grapevine that Guppy House was also done in by nefarious mismanagement.
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We liked it for a casual lunch for 2. I don’t know much about Shanghainese food, but we quite liked the red braised pork belly and the Shanghai stir-fried noodles. Pork belly was layered (and the fat is so crushable with rice) and the sauce was complex and not too salty. It was pretty warm out when we went, so we ordered cold appetizers of drunken chicken and jellyfish in aged vinegar. The vinegar wasn’t so sharp but rather tasted a bit like mellow spices, though to nitpick I wish it was proportioned a little bit easier to eat since the jellyfish is thin and slippery and the cucumbers are smashed (maybe they’re not supposed to be eaten at the same time?).
Menu looks pretty interesting. Prices were quite good for what we ordered. They have stuffed 8-treasures duck and others that I haven’t seen around too often.
drunken chicken
jellyfish
pork belly - lunch special portion
noodles
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Macho Burger, yet another spicy Chinese fried chicken sandwich place, replaces Kungfu Chef in the San Gabriel Hilton shopping center.
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Does Chinese fried chicken generally involving numbing/Sichuan peppercorns?