Top Asian Restaurant in Van Nuys
Kinnara Thai
15355 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91406, United States
BEWARE: THIS RESTAURANT CHARGES 18% GRATUITY REGARDLESS OF PARTY SIZE OR POOR SERVICEIve been to this restaurant a few times previously on week days and the hostess/waitress, food and service were always exceptional.The owner/mgr tainted my recent experience to the point that I am giving a one-star rating. This last visit left a bad taste in my mouth as the owner/mgr appears to have a bias toward none-asian patrons.We arrived @ 1:40pm and before we could get comfortable at our table, the owner/mgr told us that they close at 3pm. We never felt welcomed after that point. We ordered side salads to start, but they were served after we received our entrees which defeated the purpose.The restaurant is small and it was easy to see that the owner/mgr was devoting her time to the other two tables as she frequently hovered over the other tables, but not ours. We had to inquire about our salads twice. After all the food had been served, the mgr never came back to check on us. My lunch date had finished her water and the owner/mgr came to refill her glass, but we had already finished eating and had asked for the check by this time.Since I had never paid the checks previously, I didnt know that the restaurant automatically adds an 18% gratuity to the check regardless of party size or quality of service and food.Based on the service, I informed the owner/mgr that if they are going to automatically add an 18% gratuity to all checks, then at least provide good service. I told her that the service she provided to our party of two was bad as I witnessed her hovering and catering to the two other tables that had parties of four and six respectively.The mgr became loud, defensive, and started over talking me. I asked her to lower her voice--she did not. She kept stating that the the gratuity is listed on the menu. I told her that I was not disputing that information--I was disputing the poor service. She went on and on and then inferred that we were rude in how we asked for things. I asked her at what point were we rude? She just walked away. First of all, other than our food, the only things I asked for were extra napkins and the check. Other than that, we didnt see her which is the point that needed to be made.She came back and said that if I didnt want to pay the gratuity she would remove it. Since she offered, I told her to remove it--she didnt deserve it.I was going to pay the entire check, including the $11 gratuity. However, my point to management is if they are going to automatically charge patrons an 18% gratuity, they have a duty to at least provide good service--notice that I didnt even say excellent service.Finally, the owner/mgr needs to be respectful. She also needs to tighten up and at least pretend to like all patrons who visit her establishment. Her biased behavior was beyond obvious.Needless to say, we wont return to this establishment.
Asia Buffet
8220 Van Nuys Blvd, Panorama City, CA 91402, United States
I’m writing their 1,000 review like a boss? I’ve been coming here since they opened! The best affordable Asian Buffet in the valley! They have a variety of foods from sushi/tons of seafood to all styles of chicken, rice, chow mein, salads, fruit, etc... Anything you can name they practically have. The restaurant is huge and there are always lots of seats available. It can get busy during the holidays, which is normal. Plus they give you a 2 hr minimum to eat! I eat everything when I go lol. It’s all so yummy! The staff is very nice and the environment is clean! Love this place and going back soon?
Panda Express
17276 Saticoy St, Van Nuys, CA 91406, United States
**Do not bother online ordering here**As someone who has worked in food, and retail, I am more than understanding when a business is busy, especially in rush hours. HOWEVER, the service I received tonight here was horrible. I placed an order, and my receipt said it would be ready in 20 minutes. When I showed up at the restaurant, it was reasonably busy, which is understandable. When I notified the cashier I was here for a pickup, she let me know it wasnt quite ready yet. I took a seat, and waited almost 15 minutes without another word from her, while watching my order being placed on the counter behind her. Not once did she bother to check the progress of my order. When I got up to ask if it was ready (as I could clearly see it was), she very rudely told me it wasnt, and if it was placed on the counter behind her, it was missing something. The only reason I didnt absoluely lose it was because of a very sweet employee who overheard my frustration. She offered to go check my order, even though she was on her meal break! Im sorry I didnt get your name, but thank you for taking the time out of your break to offer. The cashier then bagged up my order, not even 30 seconds later (and with nothing added to it, might it add). Poor customer service, and definitely not worth me ordering ahead. Could have just stood in line and gotten my order in the same amount of time.
Little Ocha of the Valley
13724 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91405, United States
I had always been under the assumption that if you go out to an Asian restaurant and get noodles, that those noodles would be something a little better than those famous instant ones you make at home. Well turns out I was wrong! If you go to Little Ocha of the Valley, you get instant noodles for 20x the price. In fairness theyll add one shrimp and some fresh slices of bok choy.
Panda Express
14445 Burbank Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91401, United States
If I can rate this a negative star I would. The manager is so rude. Twice I've had an issue with the manager never returning here. I placed an order online for the help group school for thanksgiving lunch had to wait 15 mins for my food to be ready on top of me giving them extra time while I parked. Second time I placed another order for the school for their Christmas lunch I called when I was on my way to pick up the food and they said it would be ready for me to just pick it up when I get there unfortunately I get there and the food isn't even cooked I asked to speak to the manager as I was already 5 mins late to pick up the food from the time I had scheduled to pick it up, I told the manager that this is the second time I have this issue that I have to wait for my food to be ready when I order online and her response was “ well we didn't see the order what do you want me to do” i asked her for her name very rude about it the staff there are always nice but that manager is always beyond rude !
WaBa Grill
16923 Vanowen St, Van Nuys, CA 91406, United States
Food is good, not great, but the atmosphere is really bad because of the horrible choice of music. Obviously they are playing it for themselves and not for the customers because no one would choose music like that for customers. It seems like the same bad song over and over, pounding drums and somebody yelling (not singing) off key. I just wanted to finish my food quickly and get out of there.Service was OK but they cant seem to bother to utter a single smile, and they made me feel like I was bothering them.The worst part was that they didnt know their own exterior sineage and they ended up charging me for something that was supposed to be free with an order of a bowl. I asked for the healthy option on the go that was painted outside on the glass by the front door, and they had no clue what I meant. Then I pointed out that per Google search result which I showed them, with the bowl I was supposed to get 5 free dumplings but I didnt, and they ended up charging me a small fee for them because they didnt know how the coupon worked.The place was pretty clean though the missing ceiling tile and some stained ceiling tiles didnt really look good.Too many things adding up to a bad enough experience that I wont be back there anymore. No wonder the place was pretty much empty.
Grandmas Thai Kitchen
13230 Burbank Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91401, United States
Ordered from them last night and it has to be the worst Thai food weve ever had in our life. The Tom Yum soup was so insanely spicy it was inedible. And we like spicy foods but this was just off the charts. Like literally burning your mouth and throat.The Udon noodle dish tasted like mop water, awful and smelled a little funny. We couldnt have more than one taste of the noodles and that was enough. The yellow curry was ok, chicken was a like stringy and still pretty bland in flavor compared to other yellow curries weve had but at least somewhat edible. The white rice was good and thats about it.Worst part is that they wont even refund our money. Uber eats just ignores us so they should take it upon themselves to refund people on inedible orders of over spiced food and mop water noodles that they serve to people. They should stand by their food and help dissatisfied customers to avoid bad reviews.And as you can see from my pics that I took today the food was not eaten. Not even a little bit.Never ordering from them again and if you were wise neither would you. Theres tons of better Thai restaurants in Burbank. Too bad we decided to give them a chance. We ended up eating frozen chicken tenders from Trader Joes.
WaBa Grill
7135 Sepulveda Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91405, United States
They forgot to put my avocado on my order and when I called about it she said she would accommodate me by giving me free avocado the next time I come in. I had to explain that it wouldnt be free because I paid for it but didnt receive it. After going around in circles trying to tell her that would only be giving me what I paid for she said she would get a manager on the phone and placed me on hold and never came back to the phone.
TJ Korean BBQ
17623 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91406, United States
Theres something about using English on a menu that makes me initially feel like the restaurant isnt authentic and I will admit that when they advertise having confit, ribeye, NY steak, etc. I question the quality of it all. Still, I went with friends because the pricing was way better with the meat assortment than others in the area and I will say it did not disappoint!On a Thursday evening at 6pm, the restaurant only had 2 parties before us and I was pleasantly surprised at not having to wait.We ordered menu B for $34.99 as of writing this review and boy did we get full really quickly! We ordered the ribeye to start and if you read the fine print you can only order 1 steak per 2 people. You can order 4 meats at a time so we got kalbi, bulgogi, and brisket as well. The bulgogi was very lightly marinated but still packed a ton of flavor and of course the brisket and kalbi were delicious.I was surprised that the ribeye and New York steaks came out cooked at medium rare temperature, but I like that it saved us so much time from having to cook it ourselves as it is a 90 minute time limit.I dont like wasting food so I appreciated that the banchan was brought out upon request. The japchae, fish cakes, cucumber, and steamed egg were great.For drinks, we ordered yogurt soju and kloud beer. Everything was priced as youd expect in a restaurant, which is of course at a higher mark up. I do hope in the future they can consider adding Beatboxes because theyre inexpensive and fun to drink.The service was great. I was so full that I never really needed to call on the server for anything. One thing I wish they would do was play Korean music. It just adds a bit more authenticity to it than playing top 40 pop music. Other than that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and look forward to returning for menu A in the future.(1/50--2024)
Dans Kitchen
15333 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91406, United States
I found Dans on Yelp when I was looking for a replacement for another Chinese food restaurant that had recently closed. I had driven past it a few times, but hadnt ever noticed it tucked into a shopping center off of Sherman and Sepulveda.Dans is excellent. I went during the winter holiday break and there were two other groups in the place. It appears to be a family run joint, and the wait staff spent quite a bit of time interacting with an older gentleman who was a regular. The food came out quickly and was really well cooked. Flavors were on point. I wasnt rushed to leave, and even though the restaurant was pretty dead staff came by regularly and checked to make sure everything was okay.Dans apparently does delivery and was doing brisk business when I was there. Parking is a little tight. I will definitely be back and would recommend Dans to others.