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BEST THING I EVER ATE
Season 8 | Episode 6
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Season 1 | Episode 7 | Fried Rice
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“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.
99 Essential Restaurants
“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.”
Best Los Angeles Seafood Restaurants
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
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Newport Seafood Restaurant
2851 reviews -
The lobster was still the best! The black pepper beef and the fried noodle were good too. The fish was very soft but the Thai sauce was not as good as I remember.
There was not that long of a waiting line anymore at the restaurant. It was still full but you didn't have to wait for a long time to be seated which was nice.
Service was pretty good for a Chinese restaurant in San Gabriel area. -
This is my go to restaurant for house special lobster and garlic noodles!
Food: the price is super affordable and the food tastes great. Go for lunch - the prices are even cheaper! We highly recommend the basil clams, fried salt and pepper shrimp, sautéed pea sprouts, and of course the lobster with garlic noodles. A small lobster will feed around 4 people. The meal starts out with complimentary hot and and sour soup and ends with a plate of fresh oranges.
Service: amazing! Every server is super cognizant of your needs - from refills on beverages and napkins to a constant change of dirty plates filled with seafood shells, everything you need will be met in a timely manner. -
This place is amazing place that I've been visiting for over 15 years. Few tips that has been my go to for enjoying this place. They only accept visa, master or cash, as an avid american express user, I always have to make sure I carry the right form of payment.
Second parking can be a pain, its valet if you are lucky to get a spot or else around the block there is plenty of street parking. If you get to go, there are a few spots regulated by valet for to go orders at least during the week day.
Food... I always order the Newport style lobster. You can add noodles for $10 which is one of my fav becuase it soaks up the sauce and makes it a hardy meal for sure.
Everything on the menu is great so you can't go wrong. My go to are Kung Pao chicken, sweet shrimp, geoduck with two style, basil clams, Newport crab, French style beef cubes.
They also do cheap lunch specials.
One last thing is the wait, if you plan to come on the weekends make sure you have plenty of time, I always try to get there when they open or plan for about 1 hr wait. But it's worth it:) -
Absolutely luxurious dining experience! The restaurant has beautiful interior design, very brightly lit with friendly and busy staff. We ordered the house special lobster - which was extremely delicious and decadent. We also had the fried whole trout - it is sweet and sour with a mild kick. The flavor and texture were both sublime! Lastly, we had the Thai sweet and sour soup. The flavor was right on spot, and there were a ton of vegetables and fruit that creates the unique flavor. Overall, we loved the dinner experience all around. Try to make a res to avoid long wait, but next best thing is try waitlist on yelp, but we waited quite a bit longer than the predicted wait time even after checkin. They have many large tables for big family groups. Smaller tables are harder to come by 🙂
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I was able to make a reservation for a party of 13 at 2PM the same day on a Sunday. They seated us in the one of the private table in the back. It was surprisingly not busy at all and the service was great! We ordered 2 medium lobsters, crab fried rice, shrimp fried rice, Kong pao beef & chicken, 2 orders of fried squid, 2 orders of walnut shrimp, 2 orders Chinese broccoli, fried noodle with seafood, pea sprouts, and basil fish. Everything tasted delicious as usual. I was actually afraid we ordered too much since we ordered the dinner size, but it was the perfect amount!
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Family comes here for special occasions and it's a great place if you're trying to get silly amounts of seafood. Crab is good, lobster is good, other types of seafood are all good at reasonable prices overall.
Nothing else I can say that the other reviewers haven't said already. Generally, I appreciate what a staple this restaurant is in San Gabriel. Parking and wait times can be a little fickle, but overall it's a nice place to have family dinner.
Portion sizes are great - a little excessive, which seems to please the grandparents a lot. I hope this place continues to do well. The owners are so nice, and they do such a great job of presenting Chinese food as an approachable meal for all people. -
Excellent Chinese seafood restaurant!!!!! Everyone comes here for the house special lobster, minimum 4 lbs of lobster per order. The secret sauce has a sweet savory garlic black beans taste with lots of garlic and chives. It was super sumptuous and makes you grave for more.
There's always a wait, so Use the Yelp app. to put your name in line, the business owner strictly follows the order from the app. -
Wow. That is all that I can say about this restaurant. My bf's friend is a foodie and knows all of the go to "spots" in LA and the surrounding areas and this place was highly recommended. We checked it out and were not disappointed. Apparently this place gets packed by 5 pm so make sure to go early, unless you want to wait a few hours to get a table. As soon as you walk in, you see tanks filled with massive and I mean, HUGE crab and other seafood ready to be cooked.
We let our friend order as he's a frequent diner. He ordered the LARGEST and I mean largest Lobster they had and green beans, steak cubes, bok choy, pickled cucumber, shrimp fried rice and this fish dish and WOW, I definitely ate a few days worth of dishes in this seating. The place started getting packed and as I walked around to the restroom, I noticed that most if not all tables ordered the lobster. It's so well made an highly recommended to go. The parking lot gets packed and they do Valet only. -
We love Newport seafood! This is our favorite place when we're craving for some yummy lobsters!!! We've been coming here for years, and it never disappoints! It's definitely one of the best seafood restaurants in the area. We usually opted for their lobsters, crabs, clams and steamed fish, oh and mapo tofu too, all super delish! Simply incredible! This place is clean and spacious. Servers have no problem communicating in both English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
(Lobsters)
Hands down to their lobsters! Compared to crabs, it def has a sweeter taste, chewier, a bit spongy in texture. Thumbs up! It's heavenly! But note to yourself, be clear to the server when you order! Always double check. I remembered a time we came as a party of 4, and opted for one lobster, however, it ended up coming with 4.5 lb, which means (almost) two lobsters!! We ended up taking lots of leftovers home, luckily, the leftover lobster was still fresh and delicious the other day. Honestly, it doesn't really change how much we love this place, just wish the server could give us exactly what we ordered though. (You know, lobsters are not cheap! )We'll appreciate this tiny chance a lot. (Note: $21.95 per lbs, for you to do the roughly math! )
(Crabs)
We love their crabs too! It has a delicate, sweet flavor, and a sweet aroma. You def can taste the freshness! Very satisfying!
All in all, Newport seafood is a must for seafood lovers when you are in the area. Their seafood is absolutely divine. We'll definitely be back for king crabs someday sometime! Highly recommend this place! -
There's three location and all three is amazing good. This restaurant is a lot more high end than the one in Santa Ana. The portion is also a lot bigger but it's also priced a bit higher as well. Don't expect the service to be like other restaurants. They did the best they can but it takes a while to get your water filled, plates changed, etc. Now, let's review the food. I'll compare it with other Chinese restaurants as well as the two other locations.
Canh chua. This is not their strength. The Santa Ana location makes it better. I'd order other types of soup here.
Salt and peppered Calamari. It's excellent here. Definitely order it here.
Lobster. Very good. Very fresh. The stir fried scallions and chili peppers are so good that we even pack the leftovers for home. Add to white rice and you'll have another yummy meal at home.
Clams. I think their clams are cooked way better here compared to the other two locations.
Deep fried tofu. Excellent.
Shaken beef. Not so good. The marination is too much. Salty and sweet.
Chinese broccoli. Wow. The best I've eaten. They added fried squid to enhance the taste even more.
Ong Choi. Sauté with garlic. So so good. It was the first dish to be devoured completely.
Fried rice. Very good but we typically don't order fried rice so it's hard to compare.
Oranges. This is their signature complimentary dessert.
Overall, I'd definitely drive up here to eat. It's a bit far and the wait is particularly long. They don't take reservations so if you have a big party and you don't want to wait, eat very little for lunch and get here between 4:30pm to 5pm, you will not have to wait.
For Thinsulin fans, you can make it work by choosing certain foods to make it green light. - See More
