Holiday Inn Express & Suites Pasadena - Los Angeles by IHG

It’s hard to order poorly at this delightful retreat. The menu is concise, with half of the items dedicated to the eponymous specialty. Indeed, this narrow hot spot has been a city-wide favorite since it opened in 2001 and continues to draw lines so long that servers leave a sign-in sheet outside. The secret to their success? Discipline. While many spots make dumplings ahead of time and freeze them, this kitchen starts fresh every morning.It’s best to begin slowly with a tray of boiled pork and celery jiaozi—the wrapping smooth to the touch and boasting just the right amount of bite. Anything

Carb-loading has never been more gratifying. In Old Pasadena, this chef-driven restaurant continues to thrive with locally sourced ingredients and a dazzling selection of boldly prepared pastas, all of which are made in house. For sure, there is nothing timid about this cooking – and many dishes should probably be shared. Consider the stack of roasted market carrots set on smooth labneh and blanketed in Aleppo and honey or the fan favorite, platter-sized spaghetti and meatballs, which comes with garlic bread. Best of all might be the torchetti, a tangle of twisted noodles coated in a rich pork

The beauty of dining at this noodle house is that you don’t have to guess what they’re good at — the menu is brief, and everything you really need to know is in the name. This kitchen focuses entirely on slinging noodles inspired by the cuisine of China’s famed Shanxi Province. Start with pork and cilantro dumplings before digging into the “wife special” noodles, with their springy, toothsome texture mixing with bits of crisped pork belly and fermented soy sauce. House special fried noodles, as well as noodles with lamb, also deliver in spades.

This beloved Cantonese restaurant could easily glide solely on its reputation, and yet, its devoted chefs meet the moment again and again. One of the first of its kind to offer dim sum à la carte, rather than by an actual cart, items arrive piping hot, fresh from the steamer. You really can’t go wrong, with each course seasoned and cooked to exacting standards. Bigger plates are all the rage at night — including sweet and sour pork, which finds elevation in this trusty kitchen's hands. Anything with seafood is a sure bet, but don’t miss the preserved salty egg bun with molten yolk. Families ca

Sushi restaurants can be as expensive as a mortgage and as quiet as a library, but this casual Arcadia hotspot is a wonderfully refreshing change of pace. The setting is more like Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing, a frenetic intersection of customers lined up at the door, servers scurrying about, and chefs working like they are on a tight deadline. Counter seating or a table farther back? Omakase or a la carte? It doesn’t matter. The rice for the nigiri is reliably generous and lush in texture, and fish flies in from Japan on Monday and on Thursday. For this reason, Friday is often packed, as regulars

Tony He may not be a household name, but dim sum enthusiasts know him from his work at Sea Harbour, which he opened in Vancouver in 1999, and then later in Rosemead. Just a few miles down the road in Arcadia, he offers a similar experience in a more casual setting with nary a fish tank in sight and a large window offering views into the kitchen. Steam rises at all hours as chefs prepare delicate bites, like steamed shrimp and scallop dumplings crowned with roe, or sticky rice wrapped in lotus root. Everything is ordered à la carte, so those hoping for roving carts should look elsewhere.

Long hailed as one of the top tables in the area, this Sichuan stalwart is settling into its new home just two miles away from its previous address in Alhambra. All of the usual hits are still in play—tea-smoked duck, big mouth ginger frog, mapo tofu—and the kitchen is still armed with its usual scarlet-red numbing oils and fiery, chopped chilis. One recent highlight was a cauldron of fish and rattan pepper boiled in a thrillingly complex broth rippling with numbing, spicy tones. A private room will serve large parties particularly well. All to say, the airy space, with its big windows and bri