"A Sichuanese spot serving some of our favorite food in all of the San Gabriel Valley, Chengdu Taste is ideal for a Chinese takeout feast. The key here is balancing the fantastic spicy dishes with the equally fantastic not-spicy dishes. So make sure that for every plate of mung bean jelly noodles with chili sauce, you get some of the comparatively mild couple’s sliced beef, which also comes in a chili sauce, but is more garlicky than anything else. Either way, don’t forget to order the mapo tofu or toothpick lamb with cumin, too." - brett keating