Best Restaurant In Town

Chengdu Taste is my new favorite restaurant when factoring in taste, affordability, variety, and volume.  I could eat here every night.  Order $35 worth of food and it will serve two people for lunch and dinner, ie four meals.

The drawbacks are location (Alhambra, although pretty easy to get there and park, just the distance), bad service (partly because they are always super busy), and the questionable healthy quality of the food.  It is very tough to get a table.  They don't take reservations.  There will always be a line.  I order takeout to get around this.  A smart thing to do is call ahead before you leave and place your order or go at a non-peak time.

When I think of my favorite dishes in LA, these things come to mind:

Father's Office Burger
The turkey sandwich w/ the works at Bay Cities
Chicken parm at Dan Tana
Steak plate at Tender Greens with spinach salad
Hainan chicken rice at Savoy Kitchen
2x2x2 Salt's Cure breakfast
Langers #19
Hard Asada tacos at Tacos Por Favor
Spicy Pork at Soot Bull Jeep
English breakfast at Ye Old Kings Head

And now, the fish boiled in red chili sauce at Chengdu Taste.

If Chengdu Taste only had this one signature dish, I'd go there just like Father's Office or Hainan Chicken.  But here's the thing:  the menu has literally 10-15 other dishes I really want to try.

The toothpick mutton is great.  The dam dam mien is great.  Kung Pao chicken is okay.  Here's my point:  there are a few restaurants around town I love, but they don't have a signature dish.  I love Cora's.  I love Little Doms.  I love Larchmont Wine and Cheese.  I love Joe's in venice.  And none of these places I love for one single dish...Chengdu Taste is like having an all-around restaurant you love with an awesome signature dish.  I will note, I don't think anyone considers this particular dish the signature dish -- just me.

Anyhow, I'm sure there are fine dining establishments, etc that are better objectively, but when I talk about food, I'm talking about places normal people actually go.  The steak at the Palm was great, but what kind of insane person would eat there more than once or twice a year.  Not just because of the cost, but the indulgence.  You'd have to be 250 lbs.