Stan and Jovie Rosenblatt are close friends. They both are doctors,she retired several years ago and Stan has cut down his cardiology practice to two days a week, which makes it all the more convenient for us to have lunches out with them.
They’ve traveled to Asia and Europe with us to visit chefs and immerse ourselves in those cultures. We enjoy their adventurous spirit, always ready to try something new and to travel an hour or so at the spur of the moment to have a meal at a place that sounds extra interesting.
Such was the case a few weeks ago when we designated my husband Patrick as the driver and the four of us headed off to San Gabriel to try Mission 261.
The restaurant is a 45-minute drive if you go for lunch, a good time to avoid the peak traffic in both directions. And if you happen to be in the San Gabriel/Alhambra/Monterey Park area, it’s a place I highly recommend.
We are so glad that we made the decision to see what this restaurant had to offer. We certainly will be going back soon to introduce several other family members and friends to this attractive place with such interesting Cantonese food.
The Spanish-inspired building is big, impressive and historic. Dating to 1771, it represents the beginning of Los Angeles as a metropolitan area. In fact, it was San Gabriel’s City Hall at one point.
Some 18 months ago, an architectural and designer group turned the building into a glamorous montage of rooms and patios where inspired Cantonese cuisine is served.
Since Mission 261 is a historic landmark, the restoration required that the original tile floors in the lobby and hallways remain. The layout of the rooms couldn’t be tampered with either. The warmth of those elements blends seamlessly with new interior design elements.
Some wall sections are covered in a serene light-blue Asian print. The main dining room floor is covered in a red and turquoise Axminster-style carpet. Linen tablecloths are provided at lunch, too.
There’s a large stage at the front of that dining room with beautiful 12-panel gold-leaf Asian screens forming the back and sides of the area. In the middle of the stage is a zheng (a harp-like string instrument). We were delighted to discover that lunch and dinner guests are treated to a musical performance.
Although Mission 261 offers 152 main dishes, we chose only one of those and opted for the restaurant’s unique dim sum dishes to fill out the rest of our meal. Dim sum is offered daily from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with Sunday servings from 9 a.m. It will take a few more multi-course dinners to glean highlights of the full menu.
Mission 261 presents diners with a dim sum sheet that has pictures of the authentic lunch dishes, a nice touch. So much looks so good.
We ordered nine dim sum dishes and, from the chef’s special menu of a dozen enticements, the long-simmered pork roast. Had we more tummy room, I would have tried the pan-fried squares of gelatinous lotus seed and pearl barley cakes. These offer fantastic textural diversity and, most importantly, captivating tastes.
We tried small, baked mini-buns filled with coconut, minced seafood bars with bits of salty egg in the mix (called bees because they look like very large bees on the plate) and crispy little smelts with spiced salt and steamed buns with creamy lotus paste interiors.
Vegetables are superb. We first ordered choy sum, a green leafy vegetable similar in taste to mild spinach, but with broader stems that add an al dente element.
The pork roast took time to cook and was worth the wait. This style of roast is well-known in both Cantonese and Shanghainese cuisine. It’s a chunk of rump roast that is cooked with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, star anise and a bit of sugar.
After hours of cooking, the roast is fork tender and has rendered a rich sauce, which always is served over a green vegetable. Mission 261’s version had the pork already cut into small chunks for us, surrounded by meltingly tender miniature bok choy.
Dim sum always features small egg tarts, no matter where you dine. Here egg tarts are the size of silver dollars and come with a very creamy filling inside a feathery puff pastry crust.
We also were treated to the delicate taste of sago pudding studded with tapioca pearls and rectangles of gelatin in which miniature pieces of chrysanthemum were embedded. A layer of sweet red beans was in the center. Such light desserts are quite the delightful encounter.
Other dishes that looked good were sausage rolls in rice flour wrappers, steamed shrimp dumplings, chunky shiu mai, gingered chicken, honey barbecued pork, steamed chicken with dried scallops, barbecued duck with crispy skin, pan-fried shrimp with chive cakes, baked cheese and chicken turnovers and steamed sponge cake.
That’s just about enough dishes for another quartet of hearty diners.
If you go to Mission 261 for dinner, you’ll find a long list of seafood, poultry, red meat and casserole dishes. We can tell from the excellent quality at lunch and the more elegant style of dim sum,all of which is served from the kitchen, rather than from carts,and a look at the menu that Mission 261 represents the best of Cantonese and Hong Kong cuisine.
Dim Sum plates have three or four portions, with a few heftier dishes such as chicken and duck that can serve more. Dim sum dishes are $1.98 to $6.98.
Mission 261 is definitely a destination restaurant.
To get there, make your way up the Pasadena (I-710) Freeway to the Santa Monica (I-10) Freeway heading east. Exit at Del Mar, go north a few blocks to Broadway, turn left and you come to Mission Drive and the restaurant. Call (626) 588-1666 for more information.
Sushi Fix
Goro is a Japanese restaurant in an Irvine mall. It’s not glamorous, but is very friendly. We often go there when the sushi urge hits, especially later in the evening,it serves until 10 p.m.
While certainly low key in decor, Goro is inexpensive, generous on the plate and good quality.
We really appreciate the warmth and friendliness that the owner and his staff impart from arrival to the last good-bye. They usher you in, past the small front desk and a board of daily specials. You should make note of the latter,there are up to half a dozen interesting items,as these dishes represent some of the best things from the kitchen.
There are only a few tables in one end of the dining room and a substantial sushi bar at the back. The focus is definitely on the food.
The menu has one page of combo dishes from which to choose your trio of beef, tempura items, chicken, salad and such that are common to most Japanese restaurants. Prices are $9.50 to $12.25. All come with a delicious miso soup and rice.
A separate sushi list and some additional sushi rolls on the menu cover just about anything. If there’s something you like that isn’t on the menu, request it and the sushi chefs will accommodate.
On a recent visit, the daily specials included baked halibut cheeks,the meaty portion on the side of the head, considered the sweetest part of any fish. We often order them or salmon cheeks when at sushi bars, so that was an easy choice.
Clams baked in a redolent sauce also were featured. Other temptations on various visits were a calamari salad and Japanese hot pot.
A few kinds of hot and cold noodle bowls, with your choice of either udon (wheat flour noodles) or soba (buckwheat noodles, my favorite), satisfy those of us who find real comfort in such deep-dish fare. These pasta ribbons draw personality from the broth that surrounds them and what tops them.
Tempura shrimp, vegetable fritters and various seasonings like curry finalize the dish. For those who love fried noodle dishes such as chow mein, the yaki udon stir-fried noodles should be ordered. These are $6.50 to $9.50.
Rice bowls are popular with Asians, but Americans often miss the satisfying simplicity of these one-dish meals. Atop my rice, I like the stir-fried chicken-onion-egg combo and the pork cutlet with eggs and onions.
A full filet of eel, broiled and swathed in a sweet soy coating is a great treat on top of the hot rice. This is the same, savory eel as the small filets found on top of sushi.
Finally, we always appreciate the list of appetizers that also can be turned into full entrees. Amazing that at $2.75 to $6.50 there are all these choices. Add $3 to have them served with rice, that good miso soup and Japanese pickles.
Mainstays in this section are seared beef with ginger, shrimp fries, pork cutlet, stewed potato with pork, skewered chicken, baked clams and scallops, and those salmon cheeks that I already mentioned.
Unlike Mission 261, Goro isn’t a special destination restaurant. But it is a friendly little place that’s definitely worth a try.
Goro: 3831 Alton Parkway, (949) 252-1872. Open for lunch and dinner.
