- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
Seafood Village
Categories: Restaurants Seafood Restaurants Chinese Seafood, Chinese [Edit]
684 W Garvey AveMonterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 289-0088
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street, Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Loud
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- No
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
180 reviews for Seafood Village
Review Highlights
"their house special crab is soooo good."
(in 41 reviews)
"Chiu Chow city is in the Guangdong province."
(in 17 reviews)
"The little fried garlic topping is amazing on rice."
(in 21 reviews)
Loading...
180 reviews in English
-
Review from Duke F.
Alhambra, CA
This place is known for the crab special. The other dish on the menu are very good. The slow cooking chinese soup is delicious; the tofu with vegetables is yummy as well. They have mostly big round table but if you have a party for two; they have some small table for you as well.
Service is ok but the crab is awesome. It is made differently compared to the american restaurant; but I enjoy the chinese way better. Something about the ingredients mixed and the taste that make me say yum yum.
Place is smaller compared to top island, newport ect...but they are fast at getting the tables ready and see as many people as they can.
Great place for you some yummy chinese food in monterey park:) -
Review from katie t.
Anaheim, CA
12/29/2011 1 Check-in Here
The food here seems to be light and less salty than other Chinese spots. Maybe because it's Chiu Chiu cuisine??
I love my clams and mushroom hotpot. There were many types of mushrooms in there. Great for mushroom lovers!!!
My friend loves her kung pao chicken. It was sauteed instead of fried.
The french beef dish never fails.
Did not get to try the crab :( but it looks really good. I would come back to try the crab. -
Review from Emily L.
Seattle, WA
12/26/2011
You don't know what crab is until you've had it buried in a mountain of fried garlic. Enough said.
My family's been coming here for so long, we don't even call this restaurant by its name anymore. In Monterey Park, there's just the "Old Place" (LYL Garden Seafood Restaurant) or the "New Place" (Seafood Village). We're loyal customers! -
Review from kat m.
11/23/2011
I love Chinese food.
So many things to pick from, so many tasty things...
Salty, sweet, spicy, sour....the list goes on...
Anyway back tot he point at hand.
I went to Seafood Village yesterday for lunch. I arrived shortly after 11 as I was starving. After reading other reviews decided that I must try the House Special crab...ofcourse they were out of crab so I had to upgrade to the Crystal Crab for $16.99 a pound...OK but I came here for crab, so F-- IT, I'm going all in.
This place has a very interesting menu, and though I have had frog legs before , I wasn't quite ready to try out turtle.
My waiter was awesome...he answered every question I had. Decribed how turtle tastes and says I should defitnitly try it, I still passed on it...
I ordered the House Special ( now turned Crystal ) crab. I had always wanted to try Crystal crab anyway so the price upgrade didn't bother me much, but decided to just add one lunch special in addition because still want $100 lunch bill...
I enjoyed some great people watching, I was totally fascinated by watching the monk on the other side of the restuarant sit at a table by himself, while the people he arrived with sat in a separate table next to him. I'm not sure about the custom there, so I just kind of tuned in a watched..he never spoke, and never touched the food or anything on his friends table. The waiter dished out his stuff then moved the plates to the other table...anyway fascinating to me...
So I ordered a lunch plate of Pork chops...they were delicious, no one does pork better than the chinese in my opinion. I wasn't a fan of the chicken soup they sent out, seemed abit greasy.
Wow, then the star arrived. My Crystal crab. It was covered in a delicious light crispy batter and had tons of garlic that was fried to just that perfect point before burnt....I really really enjoyed it and it was worth the $50....Yum. I will defitnitly be going back here, and look forward to trying many more dishes.. -
Review from Winnie H.
9/28/2011 1 Check-in Here
Lunch menu offered till 5 pm from Tues to Sun, and till 3 pm on Monday. Why am I telling you this?
Ahh, patience, my friend...
After leaving the Getty Villa late Saturday afternoon, we were hankering for some hearty food in our tummy. I did my homework earlier that day and found Seafood Village. With stellar reviews from Yelp pals Jocelyn V and Michael S, I knew this is the place for some good Chinese food. Throw in the magic words "garlic crab" mentioned in every review and I'm there!
We arrived around 4 pm. There were plenty of parking in the lot and even more seating in the restaurant. Usually this worries me but I knew this is a popular dinner spot since I've passed by many times and always see tons of people waiting outside.
The waiter warmly greeted us and provided hot tea right away. We started perusing the menu and noticed the inclusion of the lunch menu. The lunch menu had most of the dishes we wanted at a great price. I'm talking about $5 to $8 per dish plus house soup and rice. Score! The only other item we wanted that was not on the lunch menu was the garlic crab at $14.99/lb which is not bad for live crab.
We got five full-size dishes that stuffed four people silly for $59 pre-tip. Minus the crab, it would have cost about $26 pre-tip. That's insane for feeding four. Here's a summary of the feast:
Complimentary House Soup (3/5) - Soup of the day was pork with barley. I enjoyed eating the barley and haven't had this soup in ages. One strange observation is that the soup was steaming from the big serving bowl but it was lukewarm once it hit the individual bowls.
Gai-lan aka Chinese broccoli (4/5) - Simple dish of steamed broccoli with hoisin sauce. They cooked it just right to give the stem some snap. Good ratio of leafy parts vs stems.
Whole Steamed Fish (4/5) - Good size tilapia steamed in soy sauce and scallions.
Pork Belly and Mustard Greens (2/5) - The pork belly could have been cooked longer to make it more tender.
Fried Tofu (4/5) - Lightly fried pieces of soft tofu that was not oily at all.
Garlic Crab (5/5) - Delicious!! I love this dish and had it many times at the Seafood Village in Rowland Heights. I dream about the crunchy bits of savory fried garlic that they generously heap onto the crab. I could eat the garlic by itself with some Hawaiian sweet bread. *Drool* The crab is served in the shell so it can get messy in the restaurant. I'm sure I'm breaking some Asian rule with the chopstick when I use it to pick the meat out of the shell. Some Asian grandma is probably ready to smack me with her chopsticks. LOL
Complimentary Red Bean Dessert (3/5) - Sweet red bean soup served hot. It was a-ok.
Service was good. Our waiter was attentive and friendly. He even chit chatted with us a bit. The tea pot was kept full and individual plates cleared. He brought out our live crab in a pink bucket to get our approval. When we needed an extra dessert, he gladly brought it. I have a feeling service is better during off hours but might suffer a bit during busy times. That's totally understandable. -
Review from Janice T.
Santa Clara, CA
12/24/2011
I have no idea what I ate. But it was fried. And it was crab. And it was damn good.
-
Review from Mike S.
Los Angeles, CA
Updated - 1/3/2012
My gf and I went again. This place is quickly becoming my favorite Chinese restaurant! Amazing food and service!
We had:
- House prawns (the garlic shrimp I described before): Delicious, of course.
- House pork ribs - These are really, really good! They come with these little pickled green onion bulbs (I think that's what they are). They say the sauce is standard sweet and sour, but it tasted more along the lines of a bbq sauce. Absolutely delicious.
- Steamed tofu w/stuffed shrimp - Not my favorite steamed tofu dish. It was okay, but I probably wouldn't order it again. It's steamed tofu with a very mild sauce and virtually raw shrimp in the middle.
With tax and tip, our bill came out to be about $43, and we had enough leftovers for another full meal for the both of us. Once again, the service was on point, and this time, we got a waiter who spoke decent english so we could understand the descriptions.
They have so many great sounding menu items, I can see us coming back here time and time again to try new dishes.
(note: the house special crab is now $9/lbs. Perhaps the price we got before was some sort of holiday special. We asked the waiter how much the crabs weigh, and he said they're roughly 3 lbs. each)1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
12/19/2011
Mmmm....great authentic Chinese food!!
I came here with my family and gf for a pre-Christmas dinner.… Read more »
-
-
Review from Sandy K.
9/21/2011
I brought a lady client here who's a vegetarian since this is not far from my corporate office. The parking lot is usually full but I managed to get lucky and find a spot. Many Asians were dinning here and my client said that was a good sign.
We ordered stir fried fish with greens, mapo tofu and chow fun dry vegetarian style. The lunch special portions were large and the quality of food was tasty. My customer and I had leftovers so we even took the balance to go.
I'm looking forward to coming back and trying some of their other dishes. -
Review from John L.
San Jose, CA
12/28/2011
Pretty dang good crab. I have yet to have crab as tasty and crunchy as they serve.
-
Review from urasso u.
Oakland, CA
1/21/2012
I won't spend much time on this review. Had the garic crab, was good at all. It was super dry and the crab was nuked to death. Usually when I order this, all I want is the fried garlic and onions and eat them with rice and Im golden. Can't even do that. other three dishes are just average. It's not a restaurant ill come back too. This is just an average restaurant but since its a dime a million of this kind of restaurant, its below average. Have no idea why all the good review, they're fricken Asian too.
-
Review from Storm C.
Alhambra, CA
12/16/2011 2 Check-ins Here
Never fails. Everything we order is always good.
-
Review from Christina L.
Fullerton, CA
11/11/2011
House Special Crab.... Every single table in here orders this, it means you should too. Ive never had crab this way, its lightly coated with something and then fried. Yummy and garlicky. And seriously, all you see are waiters passing by with house special crab almost every minute. The frying makes the shell easier to crack, too. The little fried garlic topping is amazing on rice....
-
Review from Melinda A.
Diamond Bar, CA
7/22/2011
Everytime I go out of my way just to drive here, the food is always mediocre. It seems that they don't understand me when I tell them to put less oil, less salt, and no msg into my food.
Usually it's not very crowded and is good for big groups of people. The outside and inside both seemed filthy to me. Even the food looked greasy and gross.
Unlike the Seafood Village in Rowland Heights, this one doesn't serve dim sum during lunch. It basically serves the dinner menu of the Rowland Heights' Seafood Village all day long.
Dishes that are tolerable:
1. Steamed Fish- I have to admit this the soup of this steamed fish is very tasty. It's a black fish served in a metal tray over a fire.
2. Walnut Shrimp- This is pretty much standard quality.
3. Salt & Pepper Shrimp- It's fried and very standard as well.
4. Pan Fried String Beans with Minced Pork
5. Egg & Shrimp Scramble
Don't be surprised when your food comes out drenched in oil.
Dishes that stood out:
1. Taro Dessert- It's kind of like smashed taro in this clear goo and the waiter distributes them into little bowls for you. This is my favorite thing at this restaurant and I'm not sure if they give it to you for free or not after the meal. It's sweet and a refreshing way to end your meal.Listed in: Chinese
-
Review from Andy O.
11/13/2011
LOUD atmosphere, decent food, surprisingly decent prices. Definitely a mid-sized group kind of environment. Don't show up with a date. Bring your mom and the rest of your family instead. Unless they don't like seeing sad fishes. Because all the fish in the tank on the way to the restroom look really sad. I wish I could have turned their frowns upside down before I ate them.
-
Review from Kalli L.
Los Angeles, CA
9/25/2011
Someone happened to mention garlic crab on FB so then I started craving it...never had it before so started digging around here and was thrilled to discover all the hype about the garlic crab was true! I've been back several times since that first encounter and I thought I'd finally write about it...
Fried, moist, garlicky goodness...
The house special clams tonight were also quite good.
Finally, the Taro dessert is always a family pleaser...
CONS: parking was AWFUL and the crabs tonight were 14.99/lb! but worth every penny... -
Review from Homer H.
Alhambra, CA
9/22/2011 1 Check-in Here
I bring my friends here for lunch. We ordered 4 dishes the food was tasty had the stir fried smell, that tells you there is a good cook. The only one think I don't like is that the parking lot not that big. The price is reasonable.
Last weekend, I come back here for dinner every dishes are very oily. The house special fish ball with vegetables pot taste old. There is an odor smell from the fish balls and at lease a cup of oil in the pot. For that I have to remove two stars. -
Review from Yuedong L.
Irvine, CA
9/12/2011
Family and I had the salt and pepper crab, house special beef, house special clams, some veggie dish that was recommended by the waiter, and the seafood soup. Please note that I am Chinese and have ate all the chinese dishes, both exotic and common, both authentic (actually in China) and Americanized. With that note, I can honestly say the food was decent. Nothing special, just decent. The price for the crabs was a big plus. I believe it was 9.99 a pound, which is great considering the crab was pretty good qu ality. Not the best I've had in the L.A area, but worth it if your around the area.
The only reason why I gave it 2 star down, and this might only be because of the time that we went (7:30 P.M on a Saturday), but the 4-people seats are way too crowded. I was LITERALLY like 6 inches from my left and right to the people sitting on other tables, and this seemed like the norm for all the tables stacked near the walls.
The service was pretty good. This one waiter kept checking up on us. If I could give 3.5 stars I would because the service here really was impressive to me.
Good place to go to if your around the area, but there are plenty of other options around the Monterey Park / Alhambra area. -
Review from Michael S.
Marina del Rey, CA
4/17/2011
Seafood Village near Garvey and Atlantic is a pretty typical Chinese restaurant (for the area) offering a wide selection of fish, shrimp, crab, clam, oyster, and squid dishes as well as a mix of chicken, beef, pork, and vegetable choices. You can also find abalone and sea cucumber. The food is between 3-4 stars, but it gets a bump for the value/$$ although parking can be a pain in the small strip mall lot.
Soup recommendations include these two: Crab Meat with Fish Maw or Diced Winter Melon with Assorted Meat. You can always upgrade to the Shark Fin soup or the Turtle and Chinese Herb soup.
Both the House Special Crab and House Special Clams are tasty, however, I hate the work involved in eating them. Still recommend them. Easy to eat and just as mouthwatering are Pan Fried Squid with Ginger and Green Onion, Eggplant with Ground Pork, and Pan Fried String Beans with Minced Meat.
The best deals are the late night menu feature Fried Garlic Crab or Peel-n-Eat Shrimp. Both are charged by the lb. at very reasonable rates.
Seafood Village may not be the cleanest or nicest Chinese joint on Garvery, but is a good choice for small or large groups wanting traditional favorites at reasonable prices.Listed in: Asian in L.A., Chinese Cuisine in L.A., Seafood: Fishy or not?
-
Review from Wan L.
Three words: House Special Crab!!! Yummylicious! It's a must order! A popular dish because you see it on all the tables. I love eating the fried garlic with rice...MmmmmYum! All the dishes here are good, you can't go wrong. Complimentary peanuts & pickled vegetables appetizer and dessert! Service is great and the servers are nice.
-
Review from Linda T.
Monterey Park, CA
11/6/2011
chiu chow food!! food of my people.
i was very happy to find a chinese restaurant with lots of chiu chow option. love how they bring a small plate of boiled peanuts and pickled mustard greens.
we got chiu chow marinated chicken which was very flavorful and didnt seem greasy at all. also got seafood/tofu pot and scallops with sweet peas. food was quite good.
dessert was red beans w tapioca.
only negative was that there was a strand of hair in the rice they gave us.
will still go back though -
Review from Kevin L.
5/5/2011 1 photo
Three words - house special crab.
This is definitely one of the best places, for crab, that I've been to in LA. It's prepared hong kong style and the flavor is just incredible. We walked in at around 8pm on a busy night - parking is limited. The rest of the dishes were mediocre - nothing too special or unique, but service was fast and pleasant. The waiters were nice enough to bring the live crab all the way to our table to get it approved. -
Review from Cindy P.
4/3/2011
This is a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place if I have ever seen one. My parents have been in a love with Seafood Village for a long time! Whether it is because of the fresh seafood, cheap prices, attentive service, or simply, the Garlic Crab - today was my first time here with my sister!
The Garlic Crab really is something that you need to write home about because it has the right amount of crispiness on the outside full of flavor and loads of fresh crab meat on the inside. Thumbs up and four solid stars to the Garlic Crab. At $7.99 a pound, you really can't go wrong. They have a number of dishes that are really cheap~
My sister really enjoyed their seafood and tofu concoction. mMmMm. Did I mention that my dad loves their steamed chicken? I mean, it is just steamed chicken - anyone can steam chicken right? I have no idea. There is somethin' about their steamed chicken that gives it a lasting fatty sweet flavor. Even though I do eat fish, my parents have also noted that their fish dishes are extra savory and fresh!
I really don't go out to eat Chinese food on a regular basis, but if I were to have the option of doing so - Seafood Village would definitely be on the top of my list! mmmMmMmm, oh Garlic Crab, so tasty! =)Listed in: Ching-Chong Chinese!
-
Review from Raymond O.
Pasadena, CA
5/18/2011
Iron Chef Japan. Battle Carp - Chen Kenichi vs. Kaoru Miyazawa.
This was the first time I ever heard anything about Chiu Chow Chinese cuisine (aka Chaozhou or Teochew cuisine, whatever you want to call it).
It was a pretty cool episode; though, like a lot of Iron Chef Japan shows, PETA probably wouldn't have approved of it. In the end, the judging panel was split, with Iron Chef Chen winning based on points -- he won by one point.
Anyway, I didn't really pay much attention to the intricacies of Chiu Chow cuisine when I first watched this episode years ago during the heyday of its initial run on the Food Network. I did remember that this style of Chinese cuisine had a heavy seafood bent and seemed to be a bit, um, healthier-looking than the typical Cantonese style fare seen at most Chinese restaurants I went to as I was growing up.
So I remembered this episode when I first went to Seafood Village, which to my knowledge is one of the few places that specialize in Chiu Chow cuisine in the Los Angeles area.
This place is a revelation.
OK, let me get this out of the way first. Parking does suck, but if you don't come during peak hours, you should be able to nab a parking spot in the small lot out front. Otherwise, it's street parking or bust.
Here's my advice if you want to have a great Chiu Chow culinary experience here, and I'm sure others would agree:
1. Order the house special crab.
2. Order any dish pictured on the walls that you would like to eat.
First, the crab. Others have already expounded on how great the crab is here, and yes, they speak the truth. These are perfectly fried 3-pounders with a very generous dose of fried garlic and scallions. Perhaps a bit too generous sometimes, but that's fine with me -- I usually box the remaining garlic and use it at home whenever I feel like making garlic fried rice. (I know, so Filipino of me to do that.) Prices for the crab fluctuate depending on the season and time of day you come, but I've had this crab as low as $4.99/lb. They almost always use 3-pounders, so that's $15 total. That's a bonafide steal considering how good the crab is and how it can cost $60+ in comparable Chinese restaurants to order a single crab or lobster.
Now, I sure haven't tried all the dishes pictured on the walls, but apparently they're all the Chiu Chow dishes they offer there. The house special chow mein Chiu Chow style is really good, though it'll be a bit different than the chow mein you're used to (fatter noodles for one). I also like the Chiu Chow style Chinese cabbage offered here.
Seafood Village also offers the typical Chinese food that you'll see in most other places around here (you know, kung pao chicken, hot & sour soup, and x protein with spicy salt etc.) and they're all pretty good here too. I really haven't had a bad dish in this place yet to be honest.
Last, this place runs lunch specials every day (including weekends) that go until 5pm (!). They apparently even have midnight specials.
Because of the overall quality and "bang for your buck" so to speak, this is currently my standard for Chinese cuisine. Now, I don't think they serve carp here, though I may have to look at the menu again.... -
Review from Oak M.
Cerritos, CA
5/15/2011
I just came back from this place with family and relatives. Usually I don't dig Chinese food because its littered with msg and salt/grease, but this place rocks. I had the famous drunken steam cold chicken, the garlic fried shrimp, fish maw soup, house special fried crab, fried fish, clam in black bean sauce, lettuce wraps, and chow fun. Hands down, they are all good, especially the crab, they made the crab very crispy with thin batter to the point you can crack the shell so easily. The meat is very fresh, not like those cheap dead crabs other places use where the mean is all mushed up.
To finish it off, they had the specialty ground taro, ginko beans, jujube, and white fungus over sweet gravy...SERIOUS OMG, this is the best one I ever had and the flavor was not too heavy and too sweet, it was perfect just right. To think about it now, I wish I asked my mom to order some take out for the house. ARgh! This place rocks, get a crowd and it's worth the drive! -
Review from Eric C.
5/30/2011
Seafood. Crab. Garlic. Not regular garlic, but roasted garlic. Sooooo good! Even after we had devoured the crab, we kept on eating the garlic with rice. Yum!
(We ordered one of the banquet meals!) -
Review from C K.
Long Beach, CA
7/30/2011
Went there & had the house crab, fresh prawns, half house chicken, & the watercress fish ball dish. I won't go on about how great the chicken or crab was cause everyone has already talked about it. The prawns were nice - very big & fresh (market price of $24/lb) - and cooked just right. The only thing that was not so great was the watercress dish. It had six fish balls & tasted a bit bland but the watercress was nice & crunchy.
Overall, a very good dinner & made better by the fact that Half & Half Tea House is down the street to get their great boba tea for dessert. This place is a definite recommend for a good & well priced meal relative to the quality of food served. -
Review from Ralph G.
Anaheim, CA
7/25/2011 1 Check-in Here
Out of this world Shrimp and Crap. I am usually the odd duck non-asian there, but the waiters make sure I get what I want, and a Tsingtao!
Keep trying different things, this is real chinese/taiwanese food. -
Review from Riceley Y.
Los Angeles, CA
5/12/2011 3 Check-ins Here
I've eaten here SO many times and have yet to be disappointed.
My grandparents are picky, and for SOME reason, my grandfather can't eat anywhere else. So when we go to monterey park, lo and behold, Seafood Village here we come!
Since I always go with the family, we usually get the lunch special, but we eat it for early dinner, like 4pm... (they're old.. they eat early..)
Anyways, their lunch menu is awesome. Fairly priced and all very tasty. We usually get the House Special Crab (fried crab with LOTS of garlic), basil with clam, black bean and squid, fried green beans, and the occasional random dish. The service is also really good, but that could be because we go there ALL the time, and they know us. hahahaa
As for parking, it's a bit tough if you come when it's busy. My recommendation, try to avoid the high traffic times. If not, you'll have to find parking down a residential street.
PS. if you're not grossed out by this kind of stuff, i recommend the Sour vegetable and stomach (on the lunch menu) and the Asparagus with jelly fish (specialty item). SOOO GOOOOD. -
Review from Nick H.
Los Angeles, CA
7/7/2011
I don't care if this place has a "B" rating. It has great house special crab, seafood with bean curd in a clay pot is to die for, and I always get the clams every time I'm there. So that's about 10 dishes of clams in the last year...what can I say? I love everything seafood.
But the parking there during the busy dinner hours and during saturday night is awful. If it's a holiday, e.g., Father's Day or Mother's Day, good luck with the parking fairy! -
Review from Kevin T.
4/10/2011 1 Check-in Here
I'm just going to say it: The hype was much greater than the actual delivered product.
For dinner, 3 of us ordered 3 dishes. The House special garlic crab, a seafood stew, and some clams in black bean sauce. Clams are one of my favorite dishes, so I always try them out at Chinese restaurants. Here, they tasted alright, but they weren't that flavorful; definitely ranks in the middle compared to other places I've eaten.
The best of the 3, IMO, was the seafood stew. A lot of tasty veggies and seafood all stewed together with big chunks of tofu. Delicious over rice!
And as for the crab - It was good, but it wasn't the best thing since sliced bread.
I really love straight up steamed crab - crab meat is delicious, and it's fun having to dig for it. But here, they breaded and deep fried chunks of crab. Normally, I'd enjoy it if I could just chew through the shell, but it wasn't deep fried enough to really do that. I was super tired after eating through some of the legs, so I resigned to throwing out the shell and digging for meat. The garlic was amazing, and the breading tasted good too, but as a dish, I find it a little weird. It's like taking an orange and covering the outside in awesome spices and flavors; you still need to peel the orange to eat it, and those spices do nothing if you can't eat the skin.
In the end, $60 for 3 dishes split among 3 people... i'm not sure how that price compares with other places that serve crab. -
Review from Jill and Ying J.
Los Angeles, CA
3/6/2011
This is one of the asian restaurants where I would not mind coming week after week. First off, the house special garlic crab is TO DIE FOR. I'm not exaggerating. All you have to do is walk in the restaurant and you see EVERY table with an order. You pay by the pound, and sometimes, it's pretty impressive how much crab a table of asians can handle. You simply can't go wrong with this garlic crab. Their other dishes are just as amazing, including the salt and pepper pork chops, salt and pepper octupus, their sauteed veggies, clams, it goes on and on.
A caveat, this place does require someone who reads and at least speaks chinese. So do yourself a favor, befriend some chinese people, who can read chinese....unlike the chinese transplants in the US who lost their reading and writing skills =(, and hit up this place. you will not regret it. -
Review from Anna W.
Really good Chinese food. I have ate here a couple of times. First with a bunch of friends (around 26 - 29) then with my grandparents (71+) and both parties seem to really like it.
They have really good seafood dishes. When crab is in season it's crazy cheap here. I really like there Shrimp with scramble eggs, the sir fry mussels, the seafood tofu, there sir fry spicy green bean, and for dessert I love the Taro with Gingko. Its a warm soupy dessert and it's sooo yummy, especially if you like taro. It's not too sweet so it's good for older people too. It's a pretty big dish too, so it feeds a lot of people, but it's pretty good at leftover too (after you heat it up in the microwave.)
Also this place is really cheap. I went there for lunch 3 times and dinner twice. -
Review from Juan F.
1/3/2011 9 photos
If I want crab, I come here. Their house special crab is soo good and so worth the price. It is like a garlic fried crab. It is flavorful and meaty. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. I also like their chicken! It is basically a steamed chicken and they serve it cold. I just really like it haha. Another of my favorites is a whole fish in a pot! It is soo good. The fish is fresh and the meat is nice and firm and flaky.
As for the restaurant itself. It is medium size I guess. However, parking sucks. There is almost no parking so get there early. And on weekends there will most likely be a wait.Listed in: SoCal, Best Chinese Food
-
Review from Danny N.
West Covina, CA
8/10/2011
Their special are their crabs, but everything else kind of sucks...
-
Review from John H.
Hacienda Heights, CA
12/22/2010
One of the best Chinese seafood restaurants in the area and anyone who lives around here is doing themselves a disservice for not eating here.
There are two dishes here that make it stand heads and shoulders above the rest.
1) House Crab with Garlic and Scallions - You haven't had crab until you've had it prepared deep fried with a light batter and loads of garlic. I love taking the the crispy garlic bits and putting it on my rice.
2) Taro with Gingko - For a specialty dessert, it's awfully cheap at seven bucks. It feeds a table of eight. It's the perfect warm dessert for a cold winter day.
Honorable Mentions: The house chicken (more of an acquired taste; the chicken is cold) and french-style filet mignon cubes (more western in flavor but so good).
This place has an unbelievably inexpensive lunch menu and it comes with soup. BUT they don't do this for special days (i.e. Mother's Day) -
Review from Kevin S.
Los Angeles, CA
I came here with my parents. Big plus for me. Not only do I benefit from their superior Chinese food ordering skills, but today I learned a bit of the "geoculinary" basis of my dining experience. Yes I just made that word up.
So Seafood Village is based off of Chiu Chow cuisine (or chaozhou). Chiu Chow city is in the Guangdong province. Chiu chow is a type of Cantonese cuisine, so it relies heavily on fresh seafood ingredients.
To start our meal right, we ordered duck and tofu over peanuts all braised with "lo soy" (meaning old water.. haha yeah appetizing?) Lo soy is apparently common in this cuisine. The tofu was amazing. And only $5! How can you disagree with that taste to cost ratio? You can't, sorry.
We also ordered crispy fish. Very fresh. I recommend asking for spicy sauce to dip in instead of their sweet and sour.
Next up we had Chiu chow scallops. Highly recommended. I'm still trying to figure out what the weird green flaky vegetable was though. Anyway the scallops were good and seasoned perfectly!
The highlight of the meal was the house style crab. They give you 3lbs of crab. It's fried and covered in loads of fried garlic, chili peppers and green onions. Only $21! A great deal once again. That's how much you'd pay for 3 pounds of fresh crab anyway!
Come here, you wont regret it. I for one am excited to dig into my leftovers when I get home. I'm just waiting for some more room in my belly! -
Review from Clayton J.
Monterey Park, CA
8/19/2010 3 Check-ins Here
Straight out Chinese Comfort Food Restaurant! In Chinese, it reads "Bi Feng Tang" A legend in HK Culinary History. Now, that's for someone else to comment on! I have gone to that chain of Dim Sum restaurants in Shanghai... that's another tale of Dim Sum lore!
This is NOT a dim sum restaurant. As the name implies, they serve Seafood, as a specialty among other culinary delights! They seem to have specials plastered with pictures all around the dining room, with prices clearly labeled. This seems to be the main draw in this small strip mall in Monterey Park, corner of Garvey and Emerson. In the same plaza, as the infamous Sam Woo, that refused to close, despite it's recent closure due to RATS! And to the hole-in-the-wall Pearl Restaurant.
They have lunch specials and that was what we came for. I was lucky enough to come with someone who had gone before and he spoke Chinese which was an added plus! We Sampled an steamed pork with salted egg dish, which was gonna take a while, read.. Cooked to order. And a Whole Fish Deep Fried, like we saw being served to the table next to us.
Lunch was solid, dead on, just like Mom would cook, if she wasn't as preoccupied with other stuff these days! Without the hassle of kissing up to her to get the food! Endless bowl of rice, well, we asked for a refill, cuz of the salty pork and egg dish... Good stuff, if you've been raised on it; but, a bit of a stretch for the Western palate. If you order this, it's touch and go... DON'T blame me, I warned you!
This place is usually packed with people filling the front, parking lot and surrounding area, just to get in! The nights and weekends are MURDER! Parking in this tiny parking lot is suicide, if you have a car, you treasure! Better to park about a block away, or in a handy parking lot of a financial institution nearby.... or even of a nearby plaza, where the parking spaces are plenty and BIGGER!
REPEAT! Stay AWAY from this parking lot if you treasure your sanity, car or time! Just park farther away and walk on in, smooth as silk!
Reasonable prices for Good Eats! Try this if the crowds are away and you are in the area. If the crowds are there, you can also try, but be prepared to wait... -
Review from Burrito M.
San Francisco, CA
2/24/2011
I think this is consistently the best Chinese restaurant in SGV...I've tried the rest, but seriously, Seafood Village is the best.
No matter what you order, every dish comes out tasting really good. Service is fast and efficient and they have some pretty good deals on the lunch menu.
My favorite dishes are - the sweet and sour spareribs, the gai lan with fried salty dried fish, ma po tofu, lotus with duck feet and wings, braised duck with tofu...Yum!
Now the cleanliness of the place - that's a whole other matter, but it's relatively clean in comparison to other restaurants in SGV so I can't really complain that much. -
Review from Spencer K.
Los Angeles, CA
8/5/2011 1 Check-in Here
They've got this special for garlic crab. It's super cheap and usually pretty good. When I get crab here, I'm not shy at all about just picking it up with my hands and eating it. Every other table is doing the same, so you'll probably feel a bit awkward if you didn't. The crab isn't that great when you take it home and reheat it. You've got to eat it there. The prices of the dishes are very reasonable. It's not fancy by any means, but I like the food here.
-
Review from Jack C.
Monterey Park, CA
8/23/2011 7 Check-ins Here
Their house crabs are.... (running out of adjectives) = drools! Seasoning, texture.. perfection!
