The Other Dumpling House

You could stand on a corner and look around until a restaurant sign draws you in. But we've got a better idea. Each week, San Marino Patch picks a great restaurant either in town or nearby that is worth checking out. Here's this week's choice:

-- This isn't the other more famous Taiwanese dumpling house across the street, but it is just as good if not better. Being someone who grew up eating good Chinese food--I grew up in Monterey Park--I can vouch that Dumpling House has some of the best renditions of your "typical Chinese dishes" served up in a very casual setting. I love my hole-in-the-walls.

They have some of the best fried rice I've tasted in the area (i.e., Ham Fried Rice) as I am partial to their "sticky rice" and not the usual long grain rice many Chinese restaurants in the SGV like to use in their cooking that makes the fried rice seem that much more greasy and hard to eat (with chop sticks).

And what do you absolutely have to order when you go? The flavor-packed "Beef Wrap Roll" consisting of minced beef with a tasty sweet sauce and green onions. Be ready to pass out the chewing gum after dinner.

921 S. Baldwin Ave. Ste A, Arcadia, CA 626-445-2755. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Prices: $5 to $9 for entrees.