SinBala Taiwanese Restaurant

SinBala Taiwanese Restaurant


651 W. Duarte Rd, Suite #F
Arcadia, Ca 91007
(626) 446-0886

So, Sunday, May 31, 2009, my sister was craving food from SinBala in Arcadia, so my mom and I agreed to go after walking about in the mall. (I was feeling hungry, so I would have agreed to almost anything).

Parking: This shopping center has a lot of happening eateries, shops, and an Asian market, so with that, you can assume, depending on the time that you go, that parking is horrendous and horrible. When we went, it was about 5:00 PM, so parking was really easy and simple.

Restaurant: If you have never been here, the place is pretty small, but the turnover is pretty fast. there are a few seats outside (I will say about 8) and they probably can seat about 20 people inside?

Though it was 5:00 PM, SinBala was still really busy. Why? I am not sure, but a lot of people were chilling out and eating Taiwanese shaved ice, so it was probably not the dinner crowd. We put our name on the list and waited to be seated.

Service: Fast and when they are not too busy, they are pretty nice, but at other times I have gone, the service was not so great. This time, it was good.

Food:

Spicy Beef Noodle Soup
Stewed beef chunks (tendon included) with noodles in soup. Topped with green onions, veggies, and pickled veggies.

The taste: The beef is moist and usually falls apart, but there are the few days when it is soft, but not as soft as it could be. This was one of those times. The flavor was really delicious though and despite the fact that it was a spicy soup, that chili flavor did not mask the flavor of the beef soup, which I like. I always think it is funny though when you get to the bottom of the bowl and all you see are the chili seeds. The noodles look kind of home made, but not the really long flat ones, and were not mushy. Nothing worse than mushy noodles.

Chicken Cold Noodles

Noodles, cucumbers, dark meat chicken, 7 strands of carrots, sesame sauce, chili oil, and garlic and vinegar mix.

Taste: This was just okay. Nothing fantastic. First of all, it is packaged in a to go take out box, so I questioned how long it was sitting there. The flavor of the sauce was definitely not really strong even though it completely covered all of the ingredients and you could not tell what each thing was. I do not think I would order this again, but if I forget, then maybe I will.

Chicken Cold Noodles - mixed

Spicy Wontons

Taste: Literally translated to "red oil stir fried hands," these little wontons are tasty morsels of meat and shrimp. It is the sauce that usually makes of breaks it. I usually like the sauce, but others disagree. My sister did not care of the sauce for this because (1) it was not that spicy and (2) there was a lot of garlic in it. I like garlic, so I was okay with it and the sauce was good mixed into the cold noodles as well. I like the celery pieces they put in to add a little crunch to it.

Spicy Wontons - It looks like there is a lot of sauce on it, but here you can see the little minced garlic.

Small Steamed Pork Buns

Taste: Juicy meat dumplings. Personally, I think these are better than the ones at Din Tai Fung and they are a lot cheaper. Thin skin, juicy pork, but I wish there was a little more of the soupy goodness inside the package XD

Pork chop Rice Plate
Crispy Pork chops with veggies, egg, and rice.

Taste: I think that Taiwanese food has a bit of a sweet taste to everything even though it should be salty (not that it is not, but sweet is not what you would think of for a rice dish). The pork chops were lightly battered and fried to a crisp. The batter has a sweet and salty taste to it and it just really works with the rice. The eggs are scrambled. The corn mix has carrots and peas and is probably a frozen vegetable mix, also with a sweet taste. The broccoli was nice and green and crisp and again...sweet. If this sounds strange to you, you have to try it. It just really works. I don't really know how to explain it, but this is a very delicious dish, minus the peas. XD

Overall, this place is really good if you are craving Taiwanese food with quick service, but keep in mind, if you go at prime times, prepare for a wait.