Tai T.
Yelp
This is yet another update for the restaurant in light of the lifting of indoor restrictions and for the lifting of the indoor mask mandates in Los Angeles County and at the city level and the tables and chairs are back in place so you can go dine in, if you really want to dine in. Otherwise, the lady owner, her chef husband and her kids that are usually there still wear masks even while indoors. The patrons that frequent the spot also tend to wear face masks even though the restrictions have since been lifted. Not all but most do still just wear the masks anyway.
Prices have jumped up a bit again since my last review and the Combo A (1 Item and 1 side) and Combo B (2 item and 1 side) are now at, I believe $7.25 and $8.25 respectively. There is sales tax so keep that in mind. Ever since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, prices of just about everything has been rising, and keeps jumping up every 1-2 weeks. The menu priced items have also jumped into the double-digit range, namely, $10.99 and up. The best bang for your buck has and will probably still remain to be the takeout options, not the menu items.
To be fair, the menu items pre-COVID were okay--if you were feeling lazy and didn't want to drive out to the SGV to get the quality stuff for about the same price so again, the convenience factor made Five Start Chinese Food menu items palatable enough but now, everywhere in the SGV, there are no longer any sub-$10 menu items and every restaurant over there has pretty much hiked their prices to the $12.99 to $15.99 price range for the 'typical popular stuff' that you would have gotten pre-COVID that were $5.99 to $9.99. And then for those items that were in the double-digit range to start with, they all got hiked up to nearly $20 and up. It's crazy right now and all the formerly affordable restaurant in the SGV are priced so high that ordering takeout at a Americanized Chinese restaurant or a typical Chinese takeout spot are really the only affordable options left.
Granted, I'm sure if you went in during certain hours of the day for many restaurants in the SGV, like during the lunch hour rush, 11AM-2PM or 11AM-3AM, depending on the spot, I'm sure you'll be able to find some sub-$10 dishes but you can't really find that sort of thing anymore at normal retail price.
Thankfully, the portions haven't been scaled back, at least for all the times that I've been there to order some takeout. I usually go in like 1-2 hours before closing time. For me, I'm not too picky and am A-OK with taking any leftovers from the trays that couldn't make up a full 1 item, which the lady owner has been kind enough to offer to add in some other leftovers from another tray that also, by itself, wasn't enough to make up a full 1 item but by combining the two leftovers, you get 1 full entree item kind of thing. It's a nice gesture and frankly would hate to see those other leftovers go to waste when they close down for the night.
They still take credit cards so that's good. Oh, and I think they started to offer these takeout boba drinks lately. Maybe that has always been there but I've never personally noticed it until my very last visit. In any case, I haven't tried any of it so I can't really speak on that but maybe on my next visit, I'll give it a shot and report back in yet another update review.