If you're willing to travel to the SGV, I've specifically seen this at Ji Rong in Rosemead.

Happy Garden in Alhambra changed hands a few months ago. It's quite possible dishes have changed or removed.

I actually tried their hot sour soup this weekend and it wasn't bad. Not remarkable but definitely solid. They even allowed us to bring our own pot when we ordered it to go.

When I steam the frozen ones from Dean Sin World I typically don't layer the Napa cabbage so that it covers the bottom so much in order to let more steam in. I also only steam them with the water at a simmer rather than a rolling boil. The XLB are usually done in 15 mins or less for me.

Jimenez Family Farms at the Santa Monica farmer's market occasionally has smoked and/or raw ham hocks.

I got a sandwich here while I was waiting for my smog check to be completed across the street and found it to be simple yet satisfying.

I tried their calzone when Sotto had a Blackboard eats code. I can see why it gets positive reviews. The greens are wonderfully bitter sweet and meld well with the cheese. I prefer the pizzas but the calzone is quite good.

I'm not discriminatory :). There is just something about the pizza at Sotto that really gets to me, more so than the one I had at Motorino. I had the brussell sprouts and pancetta pizza at Motorino and everything really was fantastic (the salty pancetta, the slightly charred sprouts, the cheese, and the crispy crust). Despite all that, I keep wanting to go back to Sotto to have another pizza along with everything else on their menu for some reason.

Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Sotto. I've been there twice now and have loved all the food, especially the pizza.

Big fan of 800 Degrees.

As for Neapolitan pizza in Manhattan, I tried Motorino this past summer and it was indeed fantastic.

On a cost/benefit ratio, 800 Degrees in Westwood.

Overall, my current favorite is at Sotto.

There are tons of things I am looking forward to trying.

Noise-wise, the dining room was about 3/4 full and while there's a good amount of noise, I never had to shout or was hard of hearing. It was a very comfortable place to have dinner.

Had an anniversary dinner last night and I have to say wow, great dinner. Based on what Porthos had, we shared:

Blistered little gems - Perfect starter. Smoky, sweet, not overly salty, with a great touch of acid.

Tomato-braised octopus - Probably our favorite dish of the night. While the last inch or so of the octopus tentacle was too charred, the rest of it was amazingly tender, and despite being braised, had a bit of a crisped skin. The chickpeas were creamy and the tomato sauce was so flavorful. Must order IMO.

Casarecce - Great pasta. The texture was amazing. The lamb ragu rich and flavorful; could've used a bit more lamb "funk" but that's a small gripe.

Guanciale pizza - Amazing pizza. Crust was evenly cooked with a great char; chewy yet tender. The salty pork paired very well with the crumbly, mild cheese. Easily one of the best Neapolitan pizzas I've had anywhere.

Cannoli - Very solid cannoli. The orange marmalade with pistachio worked really well. The shell while crispy, had picked up a bit too much of the flavor of the cooking oil.

Sotto is a fantastic restaurant; I will 100% be back.

I gave them a try when I visited NYC. While good, I thought it was a bit overrated.

I swung by for dinner today with the GF; sorry no pics. It was fairly full with only a few tables empty at any one time at about 730PM. We got an order of the regular pork XLB, the rice cake and some sugar snap peas with maitake mushrooms. The XLB were pretty good and come 8 to an order. You can watch the guys make them in the open kitchen. There was a decent amount of soup inside. As reference, I typically get frozen XLB from Dean Sin World. These were smaller, with a thinner skin reminiscent of Din Tai Fung. I thought they were fairly tasty but they lacked an edge I can't put into words and prefer the XLB from DSW. The rice cake was decent; chewy without being dry although the flavor was mostly dominated by soy sauce. The snap peas were sweet and fresh although the maitake were just a tad salty. Service was a little inconsistent but that's to be expected given the state of things. I'll wait and see what the full menu is like but given what I tried today, this isn't a destination type place but a good option for those looking to get a fix.

A note beyond the food. I spoke with someone as I left and he said their grand opening would be November 10. The full menu is also apparently going to be fairly consistent with pictures posted by PeterCC but with a dish or two coming and going as the seasons change or what not.

Thanks for all the info. I guess we got sucked in by the myriad of options. I personally like a simpler pie but thought I'd give their "specials" a try. It was much easier at Santarpio's due to their limited selection compared to Regina. We'll give it another shot if we visit again. Lots of good eating still to be had!

They're gone already unfortunately.

What pizza do you usually get at Regina?

The change was made a little while back. I noticed it when I walked to 99 Ranch with my family one night. My father said he didn't even notice since the Chinese name for the restaurant remained the same.

My girlfriend and I just came back from a trip to Boston and I wanted to just share some of our experiences.

Rino's Place - Rino's was down the street from where we were staying via AirBNB. We had the fried calamari for an appetizer which was fantastic; light, crispy and well paired with sliced banana peppers/pepperoncinis instead of the ubiquitous marinara. My GF's lobster ravioli was better than my vongole, but both were delicious. Huge portions of tasty Italian-American food with some regional specialties. I'd say for all visitors to pick stuff off the "Lunch Specials" menu since they were typically more interesting than the dinner menu. We only waited an hour or so before being seated at 7PM on a Thursday night.

Neptune Oyster - Our wait was about 45mins-1 hour when we arrived around 1230PM. We sat at the bar and the bartender was nice enough to give a few raw oyster recommendations and we shared a hot lobster roll. While I've read reports on here about poor service, we had no problems. The oyster was fresh, sweet and briny in the way that great oysters are. The lobster roll was massive although the roll itself started to lose structural integrity towards the end; likely due to the massive amount of melted butter. Really good regardless.

Pizzeria Regina - Dinner was at the original North End branch of the chain. We showed up right around 630PM and luckily grabbed one of the last few open tables. Ordered a 10" Giambotta and 10" Puttanesca to share, both well-done. Unfortunately, the pizzas were a bit of a miss in our opinion. The crust was unevenly cooked with some parts charred black with others well-crisped. The crust lacked flavor and the toppings seemed to overwhelm the cheese, sauce and crust. Perhaps it was our fault for picking the wrong toppings but the pizzas weren't balanced and the cheese couldn't hold the pizza together nor did it impart any real flavor. The atmosphere was fun though.

Ned Devine's - We did the Freedom Trail the next day and ended up eating at Quincy Market. While the food court itself was jam packed with throngs of people, a staircase led up to much more subdued atmosphere at Ned Devine's. The clam chowder here was suppose to have won some awards and we could see why. The chowder was rich, creamy with a good clam flavor. The diced clams were plentiful and the potatoes perfectly cooked. At no point was the chowder gloppy but seemed to just coat our mouths with rich flavor and then finish pretty cleanly. We also shared a cobb salad. At $7 a bowl, the clam chowder was easily on par with the prices downstairs but in a much more organized and calm setting.

Myers+Chang - We had reservations at 715PM for this Chowhound favorite. Unfortunately, our experience was sub-par. Not being terribly hungry, we decided to share just a few items. We ordered the roasted shiitake mushroom omelette, the shiitake/chinese greens potstickers, and the wok charred udon noodles. The omelette itself was overcooked and the shiitake weren't well integrated into the flavor of the omelettle. It tasted exactly like it looked, omelette folded over the mushrooms; the mushrooms themselves lacked any "roasted" flavor. The potsticker filling was way over-processed into a paste and devoid of texture. It was just a mush and if I hadn't known what was in them, I wouldn't have been able to really taste what was in them. The dumplings skins were also a bit tough. The udon noodles were pretty good. The noodles carried a great wok-cooked flavor without being burnt at all. My gripe about this dish was that it lacked complexity. It just tasted like a slightly spicy oyster sauce. I was looking for something that would give it life but nothing was there. Service was fine. If we visit Boston again, we'd like to give this place another try but for now, it's a miss for us.

Mike's City Diner - Great little diner serving huge portions. There was a line at about noon on a Sunday, but it moved fairly quickly. I had eggs benedict with home fries and my GF had the turkey hash with grits. While the eggs benedict were definitely competent, I really enjoyed the turkey hash. Great crisp/sear with a rich turkey flavor. Definitely not mushy. Service was kind and attentive. We were stuffed when we left.

Santarpio's Pizza - After our sub-par experience at Regina, we decided to try this pizza place that our AirBNB host recommended. We shared a single mushroom, sausage, and peppers pizza. This was a much better pizza experience. The crust was evenly cooked, crisp, and with a good, not overly bready chew. The cheese was flavorful and was even. The toppings were loaded more judiciously which served to present the individual ingredients better. I could taste the peppery sausage and fresh green peppers. The atmosphere was great and even though we weren't locals, the staff made us feel welcome. My vote for pizza in Boston goes to Santarpio's.

Cannoli showdown - Not to incite another flame war, but we did a comparison. We're admittedly not cannoli connoisseurs just FYI. In the epic battle of Mike's vs Modern Pastry, our vote went to...Caffe Paradiso. Right next door to Modern, this coffee shop was comfortable and made our cannoli to order. The shell was light and flaky and the ricotta maintained its integrity with a nice hint of sweetness. If we were to choose between the two heavyweights, our vote goes to Mike's. Despite the throngs of people and warnings on this board, we really enjoyed the cannoli from Mike's. The shell was crispy although a bit "heavier" than the one at Modern. The major issue we had was that the ricotta filling at Modern was overly processed. It was so smooth that it was denser than the cream at Mike's and also sweeter which covered up the ricotta flavor. I was also interested in trying Maria's Pastry over the weekend but we were cannoli-ed out.

Thanks for all the great eats Boston! Hope this helps future visitors to Boston.

Not to sound like a super fan of Bella Pita, which I'm not, but they always seem to make the falafel to order.

For falafel and the like give Bella Pita a try.

It's between Tsujita and Sushi Stop.

Same here. I am loving all this action on Sawtelle.

Or Blockheads around the corner.

I've been to Nong La many times already due to its proximity to me. I've tried their beef pho, bun bo hue, cold bun, and banh mi. Each was surprisingly good. I find their pho to be light (not oily) but with a good beefy flavor. Some would consider it bland, but I find it to have an edge that makes it feel like pho I would eat at home if my parents made pho. They use a different type of noodle that is fresh and wider than the standard pho noodle. It's been decried as being "inauthentic" but from what I understand, it's commonly used in Northern-style pho.

Bun bo hue is not something I usually order but I tried my dining companion's and it definitely lives up to the moniker of being pho's wild cousin. It lacks the common addition of pork blood, but it was tasty nonethless.

The cold bun dishes also use fresh noodles which I think is great. They don't clump as easily and the meats are well flavored. The nuoc mam is good.

The banh mi use fresh bread that they get daily. The bread is probably the best part of the sandwich. The crust is thin and crackly and the interior is light but with a decent chew. There could be more filling but that's a minor complaint. The problem I find with their sandwich is the lack of a good pate and their pickled daikon/carrot combo lacks the sweet tang I look for.

Also, I have not tried their cafe sua da (iced coffee w/ condensed milk) but their passionfruit iced tea is really good albeit a tad sweet.

I want to thank you both for the write-up on the corned beef hash at Nick's on Pico. The hash had a great crust from the flat-top and was very well seasoned. The poached eggs were perfectly done and the "side" of hash browns were fantastic although they needed some salt. My girlfriend and I are now fans.

What was wrong with Elite? Give Sea Harbour or King Hua a try. Of the two, I definitely prefer Sea Harbour.

There are a few tables outside but it's largely for takeout.

It's also on Netflix Streaming, thankfully in HD.

If you mean Motorino in NYC, I was there in July and while it was "drier" than other Neopolitan pizzas, when my pizza arrived, the very center was starting to become moist and soft. As the meal progressed, I switched from picking up slices to using a knife and fork in order to finish the pizza which was fantastic by the way.