New Orange County Chinese Restaurant Met With Great Suspicion By Locals

Fantacy Lobster House in Foothill Ranch is likely the most opulent Chinese restaurant in the United States.  While Golden Palace had historically been one of the more common Chinese restaurant names, Fantacy Lobster House is the real golden palace. From the golden bathrooms to the golden decorations to the golden video loop this place is absolutely over the top. People who have viewed the website photos thought the images were AI but it’s the real deal.   And indeed it has drawn suspicion from people who believe that the restaurant isn't for real, but rather is some kind of front, most likely for money laundering, but if not that, something equally nefarious.  However, these suspicions, none made by anyone from the Chinese community, appear baseless to me, and are rather made out of ignorance.

Certainly, the restaurant premises are attention grabbing.  The transformation of what used to be a branch of Denny's is astonishing which looks like cost millions of dollars, and which took over two years to complete, in itself raised suspicions.  At a distance, the restaurant actually is not terribly conspicuous.

 

Approaching the entrance the opulence starts to become visible.

But once you step in it’s a different world.

 

But the real highlight is the rest room.

  

An incredible video display.  It actually went on longer but I got tired of holding the camera.

 

 

One last look around the room.

 

 

Crab roe tofu was great.

 

 

Here's the lobster chow mein.

 

 

According to comment on both Reddit and YouTube there is something highly fishy about Fantacy Lobster House.  One Reddit thread described the restaurant as a scam. (Indeed the caption is Has anyone else seen this absolute scam that opened in Foothill Ranch? ) A YouTube video questioned every little thing about the restaurant, such as the apparently wildly inaccurate calorie counts shown on the menu and health department violations.  Indeed, before visiting the restaurant I was largely convinced that there was something fishy going on here.

 

However after looking around the premises the restaurant seems fine to me.  Importantly, as I have written in the past, Irvine has the greatest concentration of Chinese American wealth in the country.  On top of this, Chinese aesthetic tastes are not necessarily consistent with what other people appreciate, with nothing being wrong with being gaudy or ostentatious.  Taking that in mind, to me it's quite reasonable that a restaurant aiming to grab wealthy Chinese customers would create these premises. 

 

In speaking with the restaurant manager, who is an experienced industry professional, it's highly likely that there's nothing fishy going on here.  This venture is the first US business operated by its owners, who just aren't familiar with how business is done in the United States, and have to unlearn what they may have known about running a Chinese restaurant.  Indeed this is consistent with one of the few comments in the Reddit thread that did not agree with the conclusion that there was monkey business going on, which came from a building contractor who explained the length of time taken to renovate the property by the fact that the co-owners kept quibbling with each other over the improvements. 

 

Given that the ownership group is on a steep learning curve, this would explain some of the other criticisms such as the obviously false calorie counts (3100 calories for a lobster dish?), and gross violations in processing live seafood.

 

 

Indeed, the menu is full of dishes that a Chinese gourmet would love, and the pricing isn't that bad (lobster ran about $45 a pound), and the manager is strategizing to improve foot traffic.  I think Fantacy Lobster House is just getting a bad rap from people unfamiliar with the Chinese community.  

A (Hollywood) Sign of the Times

Many decades ago a family member purchased a home in the newly developed Lake Hollywood Estates, adjacent to the picturesque Lake Hollywood Reservoir, and covering a largely flat or gently rising area below the Hollywood Sign.  It was also up the hill from the hill and canyon neighborhoods of the Hollywood Hills that had developed earlier in the 20th Century.  But it was a very isolated area because one had to first drive up from Beachwood Canyon, through the narrow, twisting roads of the Hollywood Hills to the top and Mulholland Highway to get to Lake Hollywood Estates.  You can see the proximity from the Hollywood sign from the houses in this neighborhood.

 

As you enter the area from Mulholland Highway, before you get to the residential neighborhood you will pass a beautiful neighborhood park, Lake Hollywood Park.   Driving past here dozens of times over the years I know it was underutilized, with only local residents even aware of the park despite the clear view of the Hollywood sign, since it was impossible for anyone unfamiliar with the area to conquer the maze of narrow and winding hillside streets. 

 

 

 

Indeed some 35 years ago when searching for a new house to house our growing family, Lake Hollywood Estates was initially at the very top of places that we househunted in.  However, we eventually decided not to buy here, with a major factor being the fear that our friends and family unfamiliar with the neighborhood would never be able to find our new house.  Consequently, we ended up the next hill over to the east from Beachwood Canyon, the entry point for an eventual drive to Lake Hollywood Estates.  Our new house was in a neighborhood called the Oaks, a little less than a mile in front of the Hollywood sign.  As this stunning picture taken from Downtown Los Angeles when the Space Shuttle was flown to Los Angeles to its museum location shows, you can see our house at the bottom of the picture below the HOLL in the sign.  Interestingly even though our house was only about a mile away from Lake Hollywood as the crow flies, it's probably a four mile, 15 minute drive, having to drive down our hill to the flatlands and then up the next hill.

 

I did not realize that being sort of close to the Hollywood sign, though not as close as Lake Hollywood, would cause us a bit of an inconvenience for over three decades.   You see, tourists looking for the Hollywood sign figured that as long as they kept driving north and headed uphill, they would reach the Hollywood sign.    Unfortunately our house was in one of the high points of our neighborhood, and was the last house at the end of a dead end street.  So tourists got as far as our house and had to turn around and go back.  Problem is that our garage is just a few feet from the street, and some cars turning around would back into our garage door.  One car once backed up so far that it wedged our garage door shut.  I was fortunate to be able to unjam the door, as luckily I had a car parked in the garage and I slowly backed my car into the inside of the garage door, pushing it back enough for it to be opened.  

Now, standing in the street in front of my house, you could not see the Hollywood sign.  That did not stop one tourist from stopping his car in front of our house, then climbing onto the roof of his car, where he could get a view of the sign.

 

In the past three or four years our problem went away as GPS became ubiquitous and it became clear to tourists that the road to my house did not lead to the Hollywood sign.  However it created an unimaginable problem for our Lake Hollywood relatives, as it now led every tourist straight to Lake Hollywood Park as the absolute best viewing spot for the Hollywood sign.  Indeed, one a recent airplane flight I decided to check out the inflight entertainment's tour of Los Angeles as was shocked to see that besides highlighting Lake Hollywood Park as the top vantage point for the Hollywood sign, it also conveniently gave the street address of the park (actually before that I never thought about parks having a street address) so tourists could punch that address into their navigators.   

The result is absolute chaos at Lake Hollywood Park and the adjoining Lake Hollywood Estates neighborhood.  The narrow street leading to the residential area shows parked cars jamming both sides of the road.  I have been at times stuck in traffic for several minutes as one or both directions of traffic are blocked.

 

Even though I came through on a reasonably calm day crowd wise, you can see six food and drink carts spread out.

 

 A couple of souvenir trucks.

 

 

It wasn't wall to wall cars and people this day like it often is, so there wasn't the dedicated parking enforcement vehicle that is usually there.  But even on a relatively quiet day things are problematical.  There are no bathroom facilities for the tourists or the vendors.  Apparently most of the personnel manning the carts are paid a flat $50 day to work, so no facilities for them.  On the other hand, any mention of adding restrooms would probably cause an uproar in the neighborhood.  In any event, there is clearly a lack of oversight by the city of Los Angeles.  

The Hollywood sign is the single most iconic representative of Los Angeles, as indicated by the sign being the centerpiece of the city's Y2K countdown by being lit up for the stroke of midnight.

 

 

The Hollywood sign is to Los Angeles as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris.  It was fine to be left without any city stewardship while the Hollywood sign was effectively inaccessible to the public until the onset of Google Maps.  But since then, without any stewardship, the area is an uncontrolled madhouse.  I mean, Paris wouldn't let the Eiffel Tower to fend for itself without some civic structure, but that is what Lake Hollywood Park has become.  The problem is that the establishment of any kind of tourist infrastructure itself likely to multiply tourism in an area which is not equipped to handle it.   One potentially practical solution that has been suggested is an aerial tramway to the Hollywood sign from Warner Bros. studios or Griffith Observatory, but both have met with howls of protests.  But with the conundrum of something so simple as on site restroom facilities, one can imagine the thicket that would arise from more substantial ideas.

A Tale of Two Cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Seldom Does The Chinese Restaurant Twain Meet

With booming Chinese populations for over 50 years triggered by the end of the United States' restrictions on Chinese operations, one might expect many Chinese restaurants to have operations in both cities.  But indeed, independently operated Chinese eateries with locations in both San Francisco and Los Angeles have been a real rarity over the years.  

As a result, as the locus of better Chinese food has shifted over the years from San Francisco to Los Angeles, the directional travel of citizens of one city seeking better Chinese food in their home areas has shifted.  Not surprisingly, with San Francisco being the initial and dominant port of entry for Chinese migrants for over a century, was the unchallenged center of Chinese dining in America for almost 150 years.  Indeed, many people still presume that San Francisco is still the Chinese food capital of the United States.  Whereas Los Angeles residents used to fly or drive north to the Bay Area for the better food in the last century, like my wife and I did in 1980 when we flew to San Francisco one morning and had lunch and dinner at the Chinese restaurant du jour Kam Wah in Chinatown and then flew back, it's now NorCal folks now flying or driving south on Chinese culinary expeditions.

Kam Lok, San Francisco

My first recollection of a dual Chinatown operation was 40 years ago, when Chiu Chow Restaurant had locations in both Los Angeles and San Francisco Chinatown.  But that didn't last for long. And 25 years ago, Pacific Heights’ Gourmet Carousel also had a large Los Angeles Chinatown location for a short while. I also remember both Chinatowns having a Kim Tar Restaurant, as well as more recently suburban branches and I vaguely remember San Francisco’s Golden Dragon having an affiliate down in Los Angeles with a different name. (It could have been Golden Palace, but at this stage my memory has failed me.)

In the 1990s, there was a restaurant called Silver Wing in Alhambra which shut down and moved to  Cupertino.  More recently Liang’s Kitchen opened up in Cupertino after operating a number of branches throughout the Los Angeles area (and even Flushing, New York) but all of those branches have closed--except the one in Cupertino.  And Michelle’s Pancake House operated in Cupertino, San Gabriel and Industry, of which have also since faded into the night. 

Currently there is a new crop of dual metro Chinese eateries.  In 2017, Alhambra's Little Swan Cafe opened up a branch on Stockton Street in San Francisco Chinatown, with both still in operation.  Meanwhile, San Francisco Chinatown's Fancy Wheat Field opened up its Green Wheat Field branch in 2018.  Industry's Xian Kitchen opened up a branch in Milpitas in 2017 and another one in San Jose in 2021, though the latter has shut down.  (There is also a Xian Kitchen in Louisville, but it serves Filipino food!!)

And just a few months ago, Rowland Ping's Bistro Together opened up in Hacienda Heights as the new San Gabriel Valley branch of the Ping's Bistro chain with locations in San Mateo, Cupertino and Fremont.  (Rowland refers to the fact that they call this their Rowland Heights branch, even though it is not actually located in Rowland Heights.  But what do you expect from NorCal folks?) 

In the past few years though, with the advent of Chinese restaurant chains, operated by large overseas owned companies, there is a lot more shared dining operations between Northern and Southern California.   But with probably over a thousand authentic Chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley, and perhaps a comparable number in the Bay Area, the commonality of Chinese restaurant operations in the two regions do not overlap in any meaningful degree, making the Chinese restaurant maps quite distinctive.  And because of this, it makes prospects of living in San Francisco or Los Angeles and visiting the other more intriguing.

 

  

Return To The Bonaventure

 

If you remember my previous posting a few years ago on the Chinese banquet food at the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown LA, which was the awfulest meal I ever had, you might be interested in this update. Things have changed as most of the food was quite edible, but this was still not a typical banquet. For one, when the doors opened the appetizer plates were already on the table, and white rice was served on a dish like an entree. 

 

 

This was the annual dinner of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association.  I actually was a member of the group over 40 years ago, but dropped out when my job duties took on a National Office focus.  Festivities started with an extended lion dance presentation.

 

As noted in the 2022 article, almost all the food was inedible.  However I had heard that the food had improved in subsequent years, and indeed this food was quite edible.  But while the food also looked Chinese, the taste and feel of the food wasn't. The shrimp in the walnut shrimp was not crunchy, though not soggy, it was meaty.

 

While the soup looked the part, it turned out to be tofu mushroom soup in a dark broth, something I have never ever seen in a Chinese restaurant.  And the waiter did not put a big tureen of soup on the table and spoon it into the individual bowls.  Rather, he carried a relatively small tureen that only contained enough soup for five bowls.  After dishing that out, he disappeared and we thought that it was it.  Only five or ten minutes later did he come back without another tureen to fill the rest of the bowls.

 

 

 
Meanwhile, the beef was not the customary filet, and while not tough came in hard chunks--sort of like brisket meat, but not tender. 

 

The giant scallops had an undistinctive flavor.

 

 

Worst of all was the fried rice.  It wasn't even fried.  Looks like Uncle Ben's and tasted like it too.  Dish wasn't touched by anyone at our table.

 

 On the good side, the jellyfish and the seaweed in the appetizer plate were very good.

 

And the mango pudding was as good as it gets, very naturally flavored.

 

And afterwards I found out that two of the entrees missed our table completely. Outrageous!  While I didn't go hungry this time, certainly nobody for whom the quality of the food is a major consideration should have their Chinese banquet at the Bonaventure.

No complaints for the event as a whole, though, as I got to visit with Dolly Gee, Chief Judge of the Central California US District Court, pioneering Chinese-American attorney Nowland Hong and Congresswoman Judy Chu. Also got to see my grandson Eli on stage banging a gong held by my son Eric.

 

New England Style Chinese Food Delivered Directly To Your Door

In one of the first articles on Chinese food I wrote for the old Menuism website, I described how certain regional Chinese American specialties were unique to a particular geographic area in the United States, such as the chow mein sandwich in Fall River, Massachusetts and fried breaded cashew chicken in Springfield, Missouri.  In the same vein, there were general styles of regional Chinese food identified with a certain locality, such as New York Chinese food (though the specific characteristics might not be entirely precisely understood.)   In any event, these dishes could only be experienced by visiting the specific locality involved, and while interesting, not interesting enough to justify a long trip by itself.

Strangely, while by far the greatest number of online requests come from former New Yorkers looking for New York style Chinese food in their current place of residence, of all the restaurant food that gets shipped cross country via UPS wrapped in dry ice, the only Chinese food  available that way is New England style Chinese food.  It is provided by a company called Bamboos Nation Interstate.    It took me a while, but I think I figured out why you can buy New England style Chinese food online for home delivery, but not New York style.  The answer is dual.  First of all, the concept of New England style Chinese food is well defined.  It is marked by dark fried rice, fried chicken fingers, boneless breaded fried chicken with almonds, shrimp in dark lobster sauce, boneless spare ribs, often served at restaurants with a Polynesian motif that serve pupu platters.  (The "dark" factor attributable to the fact that these items are cooked with molasses, a recipe not used anywhere else in the country.)  And secondly, there are a substantial number of Chinese restaurants in New England that check all the boxes and are still operating.  Consequently, Bamboos National Interstate has a core group of restaurants that they work with regularly, which is supplemented by other restaurants on a rotating basis.

Actually when I first found out about Bamboos Nation, I hesitated about ordering.  For a full meal the cost was about $150 for the food and a similar additional amount for shipping, all for Americanized Chinese food which I wouldn't find particularly tasty.  The thought of eating New England style Chinese chicken fingers was tempting, but the rest of the menu with chop suey, fried rice and chow mein dishes was totally unappealing.  But then I saw that one of the participating restaurants also had hung su gai, a form of almond boneless chicken that never showed up in California, and that I could do double orders of both dishes instead of single orders of unappealing dishes, then it was a no brainer, and I sent in my order.  

Since Bamboos Nation only ships out once every week or two, with shipping it took almost three weeks for my shipment to arrive.  How exciting when my package came from Tahiti Restaurant in suburban Boston!

 

 

 

Loose items in the box.  Teabags.

  

 

A can of Dole pineapple chunks? 

 

 

And a flyer.

 

Condiments.

All the cooked food wrapped up and kept cold.

Inside the insulated bag were all the containers of food.

Oyster pail of rice--with a metal handle.  Haven't seen one of these with a handle in a long time, but apparently they are still commonly in use on the East Coast.  We ditched the handle in California a long time ago.

Hung su gai sauce.

At last!   Full version of hung su gai!

Seperate order of chicken fingers.

Lastly, giant egg rolls.

Even though it's been quite a few months, I still have a few frozen chicken fingers that I haven't eaten yet.