Newport Seafood - San Gabriel

Here’s a great restaurant for taking guests. Their private rooms are quieter, spacious, divided by dark Chinese carved lattice mahogony. The very classy table was graced by etched glass lazy susan. This is a white-tablecloth- linen -napkin kind’a place and we were more than comfortable with really good service. How good? They changed our plates at least 4 times. It’s hard to believe this is in the old Marie Calendar’s building. For those of you who wish to return and duplicate our menu, here it is -or of what I can remember. I selected it with the help of Phillip, the manager who speaks very good English. We started with braided crab and fish maw soup. This was a very thick, mild flavored soup. I would have preferred something much spicier. It’s the only item I would not go back for. The house lobster $15.99 lb. was in a delicious spicy sauce. We wanted larger, but we got a 5 ½ pounder and could have eaten more. But we ordered 9 dishes. So much more to come. We used our fingers, and slurped on the delicious shell after the lobster meat was devoured. I would also suggest this dish with crab instead. It’s easier to break open a crabshell. Beef cubes French style was a tasty balance to our menu, since we had so much fish. The filet was tender, in a dark savory sauce served over sliced onions. There was a nice balance going on. The large fried black trout has a most impressive presentation. Big hit – all kept going back for more, searching each nook and cranny for more meat and lucious scallion sauce. Clams in basil sauce were excellent. The clams were on the large side and the basil was added at the last minute so they were fragrant and fresh tasting. We wanted to add a chicken dish and on recommendation we ordered Kung Pao. It was fine Kung Pao, but I think that next time will replace it with something more adventurous. The house vegetable dish was a very mild, Cantonese style of mixed vegetables. Too bland for my taste. We needed to amp up the flavor. The Pork Chop was a dish of crispy fried strips of pork that looked tough but was tender and not in a sauce – kids would love this dish. This was, in fact, a finger-food kind of meal, and more than once I accidentally allowed my fingers to linger on my lips for an extra taste of great sauces. The tab was $260 incl tax, tip, 2 beers $10 corckage party of 10 . On my foodie-driving scale of 0 –10 miles I give this a 20. Because its 20 miles from my house and I would go back again if you invite me.