The Best Restaurants In The San Gabriel Valley - Los Angeles - The Infatuation

"Xiang La Hui is the sleeper Sichuan hit of the SGV—the place where you take the friend who’s already explored the menu at Chengdu Taste. The food here is more about fragrance than setting your mouth on fire, with top-notch Chongqing fried chicken and some of the most flavorful, charred-and-chewy toothpick lamb around. XLH is usually lively but not too busy, so you’ll rarely have to wait, but make sure you take a look around when you enter. You’ll see their signature Happy Chicken—fried to a mala-scented crisp and dangling from toothpicks like roast duck in a Chinese barbecue shop—on almost every table. Take the hint and get one too." - cathy park, sylvio martins, brant cox, andrew ryce