To celebrate Valentine’s Day, my significant other decided to take me to Mama’s Lu Dumpling House; located on 153 E. Garvey Ave, in Monterey Park. Interesting fact, they have three locations in the same area.
We arrived around 4:45 p. m. and waited a couple of minutes to be seated. While waiting, I took a moment to look around and noticed a common theme. My surroundings were decorated in black and white excluding the wooden tables. There were also four televisions and each T.V. was playing a different program, which I found interesting.
Once we were seated, we were immediately offered sweet cucumbers and tea as we waited for our food.
Our waiter wasn’t the best since it took him a while to take our orders, not to mention he hardly spoke English, which made it harder for us to communicate with him.
Their menu had a good portion of food to choose from, and since it was a dumpling house, we decided to go with the Juicy Pork Dumplings, Green onion fried pancakes, Crispy fried coconut bread, and the beef wraps.
My favorite dishes were the Juicy Pork Dumplings and The Green onion fried pancake.
The dumplings were very delicious. They were tender, brightly flavored and juicy. The dumplings satisfied us both.
The Green onion fried pancakes were satisfying and delicious as well. The Green Onion fried pancakes are basically a flatbread that is folded with oil and minced scallions. It was very savory, especially when soy sauce was added.
The beef wraps were not my favorite. I believe they lacked flavor. The taste was very dry. The beef is thin and well done.
The Crispy fried coconut bread had a nice flavor to it. It was very soft, warm, and tasted like coconut with a buttery taste. It came with a dip that reminded me of pudding. It was very delicious.
There is absolutely no doubt that we would return soon for more things to try. For everything, including 2 cokes, it totaled $22.85. You get a lot for a bit of money, which we found fantastic.
Overall, we rate this a 3 out of 5 only for the slow service. But if you love Dumplings like we do, this is definitely a place to try.
