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BEST THING I EVER ATE
Season 8 | Episode 6
UGLY DELICIOUS
Season 1 | Episode 7 | Fried Rice
MEDIA PUBLICATIONS
“The house-special lobster is the dish to get” at this midpriced Chinese chainlet incorporating Vietnamese, Cambodian and Thai influences into its “excellent” menu; “massive crowds” “are the only downside”, but “service is prompt” once you’re seated and the settings are “tasteful”too; P.S. “bring a large group so you can try as many dishes as possible.”
Certificate of Excellence (2014-2019)
Rated #1 of 152 Restaurants in San Gabriel
TripAdvisor gives a Certificate of Excellence to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travelers.
50 Best Chinese restaurants in the United States
Newport Tan is one of the most acclaimed Chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley, especially known for its house special lobster. It’s smart to come with a large group so you can order a variety of seafood, such as fish with basil-and-walnut shrimp. If you’re craving red meat, the filet mignon cubes are outstanding.
LA’s 23 Most Iconic Restaurant Dishes – Spring 2018
A legendary dish that draws crowds every night, this stir-fried lobster, pulled live from massive tanks in the front of the restaurant, is a classic Cambodian-Chinese showstopper with green onions, ginger, and garlic. Everyone will fight for the tails and claw, but the true aficionados go for the the head, best eaten with some sauteed greens and bowl of fresh rice.
The story behind the spicy lobster at Newport Seafood
In today’s chef-driven culture, significant attention and praise are given to the culinary brains behind the stove, and here that credit belongs to Lam’s husband, Ly Hua, who developed the restaurant’s signature dish, a massive Maine lobster blasted in a wok with green onions, jalapeños, black pepper and clarified butter.
99 Things to Eat in LA Before You Die
Newport Seafood’s Spicy Lobster — There are other things on the menu at Newport Seafood, and some of them are even good, but the Vietnamese-Chinese restaurant, which occupies a remodeled Marie Callender’s, might as well have no menu at all: The throngs, most of which have waited a couple of hours for a table on a Saturday night, are there for the house-special lobster, a mammoth beast fried with chiles, black pepper and scallions, a dish as essential to Newport Seafood as chili dogs are to Pink’s.
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“The lobster of Newport clocks in at 5 pounds or more; it comes out fried and fiery red, showered with black pepper, chiles and scallions and not so much placed as heaped on a plate. Most tables, you’ll notice, also have a spread of clams, shaking beef (bo luc lac), pan-fried pork chops and fried rice, all of which are very, very good and, as it happens, pretty much represent all that is wonderful about eating in the San Gabriel Valley.”
Taste Test: Newport Seafood
“The seafood was good quality, and the lobster looked amazing, so it would be worth another trip to try it. The bill came out to $20 each for the five of us, including tip, with just tea to drink– not bad for very satisfying six course dinner.”
Alive with Pleasure by Jonathan Gold
“First among equals, of course, is the spicy lobster, which is as essential to Newport Seafood as chili dogs are to Pink’s. People take Newport lobsters home to Saigon, Taipei, Tokyo and Phnom Penh, the waiters boast. The lobsters are like the ones at Crustacean in Beverly Hills, they say, only twice as good and half as expensive…Did the lobster live up to the dream? Yes, I confess: It did.”
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At this family-run restaurant, the menu — in English, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai — expresses the cultural blending that is the experience of the Chaozhou Chinese, who migrated to Southeast Asia in the 1850s. There are influences from Cambodia and Thailand, resulting in seafood fare that is refreshingly light.
Newport Seafood is an SGV classic. It’s an upscale restaurant, popular with families out for a nice Sunday lunch. And when you’re out for a nice Sunday lunch here, you should be ordering the whole lobster. It’s covered in spring onions, chilli, and ginger, and the smallest one you’ll be offered will be at least four pounds. That doesn’t mean you should ignore the rest of the menu – the peppery, slightly sweet Beef Lak Lok needs to be ordered too.
YELP
Newport Seafood Restaurant
3209 reviews- The best lobster in the whole North America continent. Service is fast but need a little bit touch of warm welcoming feeling from the staff. Busy environment as always. Would always come back whenever near by the area.
- Bo Luc Lac (French Style Beef) is popular because it is tasty and tender. Salty really, with soy and beef stock taste. It was served to me in literally 3 minutes after ordering.
- This has to be one of the most legendary spots in the 626- You can make reservations ahead to avoid the long line at the restaurant
- House Special Lobster: the famous Chinese style lobster with lots of scallions and lots of flavors! You can also get it with noodles underneath to soak up all the sauce
- Hot and Sour Soup: literally can't go wrong with this, super appetizing and comforting
- Clam with Basil Sauce: perfectly cooked clams drenched in delicious fragrant basil sauce, it's got a tiny kick as well
- Sautéed Pea sprouts: usually prefer pea shoots but these sprouts were yummy as well
- Beef Loc Lac: so so tender, juicy, and peppery!
-Special fried rice: off the menu item but MUST ORDER! It's got dried scallops, masago, and big chunks of shrimps
Overall an amazing spot and a great place to celebrate any kind of occasion! I would recommend going with a big group so you can try more things - Favorite place to come for special celebration because it's not cheap
Free valet parking just need to tip or find street parking
They have regular dining area or private rooms
Staff speaks mandarin English or Cantonese
Everything is delicious
Obviously the Newport house lobster!
Get here before 5:30 no wait
They take reservations or Yelp waitlist
Trust me it's so good you have zero regrets - Delicious and then some!
Service is fast and efficient...don't come in with the expectation of the warm and fuzzies as you won't get that here, lol. I recommend you have an idea of what you want to order in advance as they get very busy here and for good reason. We barely sat down and they wanted us to place our order right away...typical at most restaurants like this though so all good. The restaurant itself is a bit older in decor but still very spacious and clean.
Now that that's out of the way, I highly recommend you come with a large group if you want to try several dishes as portions are very generous. It was just the co-habby and I and so we barely made a dent.
Let's get to the food, shall we? We ordered:
Off the menu House Special Fried Rice: Perfectly cooked fried rice with dried scallops, masago and tons of shrimp. It is $50 and worth every penny. It could've easily fed an entire family and we could only finish not even 1/4th of it. Loved how it was chockfull of seafood and they didn't skimp out.
Honey Walnut Shrimp: lightly battered with their traditional honey walnut glaze. Tasty and filling.
Beef Loc Lac: For us, this was the shining star and featured super tender cubes of soy-marinated beef that paired well with our other dishes. I couldn't get enough of this one!
Highly recommend, but with a big group of family/friends! - Superb! You can smell the delicious lobster from the parking lot. This place is packed. I wasn't able to make rsvp because it was too last minute. They have a waitlist you can sign up. The owner was super nice and friendly and was able to squeeze us into the list. Service was phenomenal. We ordered the traditional lobster. It's about $30ish per pound and smallest lobster is about 4 pound. It's fresh lobster and taste amazing. The dish came out hot and pretty huge! Flavor was perfect. Reminds me of a typical Cantonese restaurants. We also ordered clams with black beans and snow pea. Both dishes was delicious. Bill came out to be about $94 per person for two people with the 3 dishes.
- I love this place! 100% earned a new customer.
The service from the waitstaff was awesome. The food came out fresh and hot. Honestly don't think I want to eat crab or lobster differently ever again. Restaurant was clean, toilets were clean.
Love this place! - Ping has always been my best server..
Great service fast and responding!! Great lobster and other seafood
Great service - If we want delicious food for special occasions we go to Newport. They have the best fried squad , walnut shrimp , clams and noodles.
The specialty crab dish is also my favorite.
If you want tasty delicious food go here.
They also give good portions. - Terrific food! Good sized servings and decent price, well worth the quality and quantity of food. Nice atmosphere as well. Odd that we had to pay for each cup of tea, but that is super minor.
I would eat here again! - Excellent food, great service, and wasn't packed.
Top dishes were the Newport lobster, beef loc, string beans, shrimp fried rice, fried tofu, and squid. The braided crab meat and fish maw soup and house special noodles were pretty good but nothing amazing. Next time I will try the clams and crab. - Delicious Chinese and Vietnamese food!
Came here with my friends at opening on a Saturday morning. The place has free (but they expect tip) valet parking. There's also some street parking, but their lot is pretty decent sized. The restaurant is pretty big with tons of table. If you go later than noon, expect the place to be packed. Luckily there is a Yelp Waitlist to help out.
Eats:
- Bo Luc Lac (Shaken Beef): So tender and juicy. Great flavor with lots of garlic. Just how I like it.
- Salt and Pepper Prawns: One of their top dishes for a reason. You can eat the entire thing. Not too breaded and not too salty.
- Salt and Pepper Pork Chops: Similar to the prawns. Compared to other places, Newport gives mostly just the meat and not a lot of bone. There's a TON of jalapenos and green onion on this which is great.
Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli with oyster sauce): Not much to say about this one other than it was great.
Overall, an amazing place for Chinese/Vietnamese cuisine. There's a reason why it's so popular on Yelp. Would highly recommend! - This place has the best lobster dish in Alhambra for sure. It's not the only great dish to be found either. We go here for at least one family birthday dinner a year and any other special occasion we can think of.
The HOUSE LOBSTER with green onion and jalapeños is perfection. The price is steep but this dish does not disappoint. Lots of succulent lobster!
The CLAMS WITH BASIL are another must for my family. I didn't think I would like this as much as
I did. So bomb!
The BEEF LOC LAC is a great dish. Every time we've gotten it is perfectly seasoned and super tender.
You can't go wrong here! Loooove it!
There is some street parking and valet parking in
the lot. - Not sure why people rate this branch lower than the one in San Gabriel.... I've been to both many times and I think the quality is same.
Newport style crab, beef, clam with basil, salt and pepper squid, crab fried rice are my favorites here. Service is not necessarily friendly but efficient and attentive.
I'd highly recommend this place for people looking fir good Asian style seafood. - This place is great for fmaily gathering as the portions are very big
We ordered the lobster special it was very flavorful and perfectly cooked. We ordered a small one to share for 2 and it was more than enough it could easily feed 3 to 4
Fried rice was good with variety of meat and seafood in it perfect pairing with the lobster
The service was slow but besides that i will def. Come back for fresh seafood - Dinner in San Gabriel, Los Angeles, California...
Originally, my friends and I met at another place for dinner. Sensing their hesitancy about ordering their meals, I said,
"It's National Lobster Day!"
We discussed nearby options for lobster and decided to carpool (in my rental car) to Newport Seafood Restaurant.
I had been here before, but I slacked off and didn't post photos nor finish my review.
My bad. I like this place because of the free street parking, convenient restroom, and efficient service.
On this visit, we had a feast of Lobster, crab, squid, and Snow Pea Leaves (because we can't get it in Honolulu). I was so happy! (And I'm so glad that I had gloves with me because crab and lobster have lots of shells gravy and is slippery!)
The best food with some of my best Yelp foodie friends! Portions were generous - we took delicious leftovers home!
Thanks to Tim, Gloria, and Ran for making my return to LA such a fun one... As always! - Enjoyed my meal here very much. It was our second stop on a multi-stop food crawl. Definitely took the longest of all the places we went, but the food was worth the wait.
Ordered the beef luc lac, fried noodles with seafood, and the chicken and Chinese broccoli. Didn't get the lobster because we were all trying to pace ourselves, but I must say they looked delicious. The luc lac was amazing as well, wonderful gingery-hoisin flavoring. The fried noodles with seafood were great too -- loved the noodles and the octopus, just didn't love the crab stick.
Food was pretty affordable, but again we didn't get the lobster. - Overall rating: 5/5
Wait: 5/5
Arrival time: Saturday 11am
Food: 5/5
Order: House special lobster, walnut shrimp, pea sprouts, beef lok lak, yang chow fried rice, black bean clams, seafood soup special
Service: 4.5/5
Price: 4/5
Definitely coming back - Must order (forget what everyone else says, you have to get these 3 things and then whatever else you want lol):
The lobster (expect minimum $140 for their smallest which feeds two hungry af adults with a little left over)
Pea sprouts (unfkn believable like how is this so addicting!)
Off the menu: dried scallop fried rice (the best fkn fried rice in your life if I'm wrong come get me! Juicy shrimp bright green chopped veggies I think it was asparagus? I dunno it was fkn delish) - I came here upon recommendation from a Facebook group for the BEST Chinese food in the 626 area code and this place came up more than once. It's still a bit of a drive from the San Fernando Valley, but when you taste the food, you will see what all the fuss is about.
Sure there's always a wait, but don't let that scare you. This place is very efficient when it comes to serving customers, and everything is run like a well oiled machine.
I heard the garlic lobster (or "special lobster") was the reason to come. And you can smell the garlic from across the street and makes you want to run into the front door.
We put our name on the Yelp waiting list on a tablet, and we didn't wait very long for a dinner rush on a Sunday evening,.
Our server's name was Ray, and he was very honest about the pricing of the special lobster (ok, it's a nice chunk of change, but when you bite into it, you WILL KNOW where that money went!). It also has a bit of a kick to it with spices and jalapeños, but we asked for not spicy, without regret!
The food came out VERY efficiently, and we NEVER had to ask for water refills. Seriously, they're on it like Blue Bonnet!
One bite of this lobster, and my eyes rolled to the back of my head. The sauce is a nice compliment to the incredibly fresh lobster! I think that's what sets this place apart from the rest and WELL worth the 50 min drive.
Ray was a superb server, and we very much look forward to coming back HUNGRY for more!! - See More
