This place is down the street from my badminton club and I always wonder if it’s worth a visit (beyond the name, obviously). Thanks!
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A De Luo Si Fen replaces Zui Xiang Yuan in Alhambra’s Valley Square. Stinky sea snail broth noodle soup is back! (That’s the only thing they serve.)
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Omg that sucks.
The space that was Zui Xiang Yuan was one of my childhood restaurants. I think it used to be Ban Mu Yuan. Original A&J??? I hope the new place kept that picture on the wall. I used to stare at it while waiting for my beef noodles, scallion pancakes, and pork chop rice with sour plum drink.
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Previous tenants in that space were Flavor Garden, A&J and A&E.
Boy do I miss the Flavor Garden egg and chive pockets.
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so sad flavor garden/ zui xiang yuan is gone. we had CH lunch there with a couple of the CH website folk over a decade ago.
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IIRC zui xiang yuan is flavor garden in chinese; that mall required every business to use a chinese name so they simply renamed the place.
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Yes!! The pork ribs with glutenous rice was the move.
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their fish dumplings were awfully good too
but they also had a hot & sour noodle soup that was the bomb.
and of course, those chive pockets
and their beef roll was WAY better
and if i didn’t want to go to BPH
i think i’m going to cry…
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Somebody just posted on Yelp that Colette has been sold, the chef is gone and the food is no good. I texted the maître d’ and he confirms.
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I seriously wonder if we were ever there randomly at the same time in our childhoods!
I think you mentioned the picture b/f, but I can’t recall what it was (b/c I think I’m also getting pictures confused w/ the place where I used to get my hair cut).
@secretasianman: what is the dish called in the 2nd pic? That was one of my favorite things to eat growing up. Is that the “pie” in Beijing Pie House?
RIP Colette
Can you find out where the chef is headed next. The good ones always land on their feet. I remember the opening weeks when the food was firing on all cylinders.
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It has been suggested by two seperate sources that Peter Lai, who was the original chef when Colette opened but left a couple of years ago, will be returning to Colette. Hope that’s true.
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I don’t get the inter-restaurant dynamics of successful Chinese restaurants, but is it the case that ownership is secondary to the actual chef? So in this case, Colette can survive being sold off so long as the OG chef returns?
Jin hai/Beijing pie house take and make at home dumplings
Half pork and cabbage and half onion and lamb
I could eat a bag of these
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The Lunasia in Pasadena has a grand piano on the floor.