Top Asian Restaurant in Pasadena
President Thai Restaurant
498 S Rosemead Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107, United States
Well established fine dining restaurant. Delicious selection of all things Thai and Asian. Currys are flavorful without being uber-spicy. Crab wontons, excellent.
Kabuki Japanese Restaurant
2675 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107, United States
During 3 and 6pm the value, you get, is VERY high. The service is really good, food also and looking at the high anount of asian customers, you can be sure: this restaurant is concentrated on the happyness of their guests and not on their benefit.We (3 adults, 1 sushi enthisiastic child) had a really intense feasting and ended up with a bill of little above 100$.Come here and enjoy the service as well as the food for very fair prices!!!
Go China Restaurant
136 N Lake Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101, United States
Pretty much got inspired to go here because I saw someone eating orange chicken in a YouTube video the night before. Also been somewhat meaning to try out their lunch specials & it seemed like a good choice for the usual work lunch with the gf this week.ITEMS ORDERED:Well I obviously went with the Orange Chicken & the gf decided on the Aromatic Shrimp.This may be the most lunch special options Ive ever seen. So if youre the type who has a hard time choosing....well good luck. Also, one thing I wish was included in the menu was descriptions of some of the lesser known items (like what is house chicken, or dynamite chicken...?)Lunch specials come with rice (fried or steamed), a veggie egg roll & soup (hot & sour or egg flower).I went with steamed rice while the gf got fried. We both got the egg flower soup.TASTE:They brought the egg flower soup first which had little pieces of corn inside. Havent had this soup in quite awhile, but dont think Ive ever seen corn in it. Soup was nice & hot & I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. Just had that nice eggy, not too salty flavor with that thicker texture youll recognize if youve had this before.The Orange Chicken was fried well but maybe just a little over fried since the meat was just a little dry. Nothing too bad though. Before I even tried it I thought it might be too tart & vinegary because I could smell it so strong when they brought it to the table. I was wrong though as the tart, tangy usual orange chicken flavor was not overbearing. It worked well with the sweetness & very subtle spiciness.The Aromatic Chicken had a nice fry as well. The gf seemed to think it needed a little more crisp though. It basically tasted like a sweet & sour sauce but with more garlic flavor among other things. It definitely was aromatic & smelled really inviting to eat.Both entrees come with a fair amount of sauce which worked out well since you can eat it together with your rice.Because both our entrees had a distinctive sweetness I feel dipping it in hot mustard & Sriracha made them that much better.The veggie egg rolls were pretty good & maybe just a little bit greasy. Also it seemed like the wrapping was kinda breaking off to much when I ate it.The steamed rice was just the usual white rice. Im just glad it was not mushy. The fried rice pretty much tasted like the white rice since it had no real extra flavor & they dont add any additional ingredients to it. It kind of makes sense though since there is no upcharge for it which places often do.Everything was nice & hot & we could tell was prepared to order & not sitting under a heat lamp.SERVICE & PARKING:Service was actually pretty good. Staff was friendly & attentive. They gave my gf the wrong rice (steamed) & immediately brought the correct one (fried).Parking is very easy here. This place is off Lake which can make it look like there is nowhere to park. But right at the back (off Mentor Ave), there is a nicely sized parking lot youll be able to find a spot in. If you turn into the Ralphs parking lot off Lake you can go through it, exit to Mentor Ave & youll find this lot.For the value, flavor & freshness Id return back here for another lunch special.
Yang Chow Restaurant
3777 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107, United States
ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE.Terrible food.Terrible serve.Unsanitary conditions.And a dash of racism.I have been looking for a good old-school Chinese American spot for a while and had hoped Yang Chow would be a new favorite. I was wrong. So wrong.First, we arrived yesterday, Friday at around 2:30. There was not a single other soul here, red flag #1. Okay, well its mid-day, no biggie I thought.I walk in and we are greeted and told Sit anywhere Okay, no problem. My daughter and I take a seat and we are offered tea which I accept. The tea was bland even after a long brew time. Okay, no biggie.I tried asking some questions about the food but the lady had very limited English and didnt seem to understand or care and just barked back the names of the dishes. We ordered sweet and sour pork, Schezuan chicken, pork fried rice, and to-go wonton soup, pepper beef, and crispy pan-fried noodle.Here is the overview:(1/5 Stars) Sweet and Sour Pork: Very tough gristle-filled meat. Most of the meat was inedible. I spit most of it out because it was so chewy.(2/5 Stars) Szechuan Chicken: Better than the pork but surprisingly one note and nothing particularly memorable.(2.5/5 Stars) Pork Fried Rice: The rice itself was okay but the pork strips were very chewy and inedible.(1/5 Stars) (Wonton Soup: Incredibly bland. No flavor, not even any broth richness. Pork inside the wontons was flavorless. The whole soup was really terrible.(2.5/5 Stars) Pepper Beef: Less bad, the meat was actually tender, with some flavor but sauce was thin and runny).(1/5 Stars) Crispy Pan Fried Noodle: The worst of the already bad bunch. The majority of the noodles looked like they had been boiled and just thrown into the container totally naked. No sauce, no oil, no frying, nothing. And yet the edge of the noodle block was fried to a black char. I suspect the noodles were cold and thrown into a pan without any seasoning not stirred and put into our to-go containers. It was so bad it was embarrassing.Now for the worst of the experience. Once our order was taken I looked over and saw a waitress sitting at a booth chopping broccoli with her bare hands. No gloves, no hair net, and while sitting at a customer booth. Gross.Then I couldnt help but notice that after the waitress took out the order they started speaking loudly in their language and looking conspicuously back at us, and laughing, big cackling laughs. I heard the woman yell something toward the kitchen and an old Chinese man (cook) came out and literally looked right at us and pointed and they all started talking and laughing.My thirteen-year-old daughter was very disturbed and said, Mom I think they are laughing at us. They sure are honey, they sure f*cking are.Looking at the one-star reviews another gal (clearly non-Chinese) had the same kind of experience. We did nothing to warrant such treatment. No one was rude to them. We werent loud. Nobody was dressed scandalously (not that any of that would warrant the treatment we got). The ONLY thing I can think of is that we are Mexican American. Considering how nice we were I can only assume this was straight-up racism and prejudice.This place deserves to be shut down. They are horrible on every level and I hope they get what they deserve. Judging by how empty the place was I suspect people have already figured out they dont deserve your money.
Kabuki Japanese Restaurant
88 W Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91105, United States
2022:Loved the one in Hollywood and Woodland Hills and went all the time when I lived in the Hills. Then we moved here - and ... things went not so well, a couple of times. So I moved on - found another place I loved (I really love the Japanese cuisine, not only the sushi).Then, friends took us last week - and as I am an early eater, we were surprised to find the happy hour, which was really really an excellent deal. Service and food were immaculate. We will definitely come back.2020: In general, we love the Kabuki restaurants, even though we went less and less after they took some of our favorites (and reasons why we went) off the menu. After some previous not so good experiences in this particular location, friends convinced us to go again yesterday and both qualities of service as sushi and miso black cod were wonderful. Still, they were not able to bring the starter before the entrees, but maybe they will manage and I will give them five stars ;-)Last year:My wife and I used to love Kabuki - particularly the Woodland Hills. It was not overly cozy, but their were friendly and the food was always fingerling good.Then we move to Pasadena - and sadly, we have been disappointed. Management promised to send a coupon after our last rather meh experience - and never did. Three reminders. No coupon.So the little child in me made is skip this one - and found alternatives, which we really like. Alternatives that make us drive 30 mins - so much worth it.Last week. friends asked us to go again. Their treat - so there was little we could do. Sadly they discontinued the two items we came for - the lobster dynamite and the huge sushi mix platter.We love to do family style, so ordered some starters - sushi, sashimi - we had the table filled with quite a variety. Then, we ordered the huge meats and tempura plate as entree to share among the four us.This plate arrived two minutes after our starters. If we wanted to accept the delivery, our table was full with the six starters wer had just been brought. The plate did not fit on the table - so they put it on the side - and served the very same plate 15 mins later. Everything was cold.I can not imageine we would ever go again.
Shogun Restaurant
470 N Halstead St, Pasadena, CA 91107, United States
This is based on 1 male server service and the response of the manager.(First time I've ever given $0.00 as a tip and I tip 15% even if I had below average service and up to 30% if I had a real good service)I went there to relax and have a chill birthday dinner with the family. Everything started well and dandy. He took our drink and food order. Gave us the appetizer and after our teppan grill chef cooked our entree for us, (I tipped him extra for his service and was going to tip more at the end of the meal, the server then delivered the rice. After this point the dinner was still going decent, after eating and talking with the family about what I did over the weekend for my birthday 15 to 20 minutes had already passed. I did keep seeing him serve one more table next to us (thats a total of 2 he was serving). I was like ok, lets wait a bit more. We kept waiting a bit more to see if anyone was gonna come to us for anything, NOTHING. We had to hunt down another server to help us get more water, togo boxes, any updates on the server that was helping us, and the check (at this point I was already frustrated). We finally got some water and the bill from another server. I waited a few more minutes for a box and for someone to pick up the check to process, STILL NO WORD from our server or another. I had to go to the front for someone to process the card and grab the togo boxes. I WAS TILTED. I've never seen or had such a good ghosting session besides how Rihanna ghosting Drake, oof. The only excuse which was the saddest managing response my older sister had gotten was Sorry, cause of covid. WAIT WHAT, how does COVID mess up decent service. I have never been so confused and gotten such abysmal service. Me and my sister have a combination of 10 years of food service working experience from different types of restaurants. This has been my first ever review and it was a rant review (sigh) because I love food and hate to complain about food but this was just sad. Thank you SOOOOO much for making me waste 10 minutes of my life writing this. I really wish there was a negative rating. Please I am begging you, save yourself from frustration and drive 10 to 15 more minutes towards LA to get better service.
Patakan Thai Restaurant
711 Fair Oaks Ave # M, South Pasadena, CA 91030, United States
WOW. It is hard to find really good thai food and this place gets it right! I am so grateful that the noodles in my pad thai were not soggy and sticking together in a lump. They were the perfect al dente. This is honestly the first time Ive had pad thai since I moved to LA and was really impressed by the doneness of the noodles. My boyfriend had the green curry and said it was delicious. He also had their mango green tea and claims it is his new favorite beverage. Haha. I went back to Patakan again and had the beef pad see ew with Chinese broccoli. It was awesome. Everything I expect and want from pad see ew. I am so glad I found this place! Where have you been the last 5 years Patakan???
Red Corner Restaurant
701 N Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena, CA 91103, United States
This place is the one I always prefer. I visit a lot of restaurants but to this restaurant I constantly return again and again. The crew is very amicable and the cuisine they cook is so fresh and tasty. I never decline to have a nice meal here. Highly recommended.
My Vegan Restaurant
633 S Arroyo Pkwy #3, Pasadena, CA 91105, United States
Decent down-to-earth SE Asian cuisine. My curry noodles were on the sweet side, and parking was difficult. Prices were ordinary for a vegan restaurant in Pasadena.
Panda Inn
3488 E Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107, United States
Really nice restaurant with comfortable indoor seating. They are struggling a little with having enough servers to handle the surge of new diners now that they have indoor and outdoor dining. Food quality here rivals any Asian restaurant in San Gabriel valley.