Food Tours in San Gabriel Valley, aka 626

Thought I’d share what I’m finding while researching an informal foodie tour in Southern California, Los Angeles, San Gabriel Valley, where’s there’s many great foods and flavors from many cultures and cuisines.

Before I share my research, here’s my quick foodie hack when I don’t have time to research or I’m travelling to a different city: I do a Yelp search on restaurants and use the filter “Sort By: Most Reviewed,” e.g. most reviewed restaurants in Monterey Park, CA.

Sure, there are formal (pay-to-play) guided tours, 12 Los Angeles food tours listed at TripAdvisor. My search engine results included websites for Melting Pot Food Tours (tours named Original Farmers Market, Old Pasadena, East LA Latin Flavors, and Chef Tila Thai Town) + Six Taste (Hollywood, Santa Monica, DTLA, Little Tokyo, Thai Town, New Chinatown, Koreatown, and more) + Foody Field Trips (tours in Pasadena and Culver City).

Foodie Articles

A 5-Stop Eating Tour of LA’s San Gabriel Valley for Under $40 (seriouseats.com)

• Chengdu Taste, Alhambra and Rosemead
• 101 Noodle Express, Alhambra
• Savoy Kitchen, Alhambra
• Kang Kang Food Court, Alhambra
• Banh Mi My Tho, Alhambra

Midtown Lunch Los Angeles has an excellent map of foodie destinations

A few hours in the SGV: How to devour 5 terrific dishes in a single night (Jenn Harris, 2013, LA Times)

• Hui Tou Xiang, San Gabriel
• Da Qing Hua, San Gabriel
• Golden Deli, San Gabriel
• New Lucky, Monterey Park
• JTYH, Rosemead

The 16 Best Places to Eat in the San Gabriel Valley Every L.A. Foodie Needs to Try Once (welikela.com)

• Union, Pasadena
• Elite Restaurant, Monterey Park
• Sushi Aru, Rowland Heights
• Dai Ho Kitchen, Temple City
• Cook’s Tortas, Monterey Park
• Din Tai Fung
• Golden Deli, San Gabriel
• Newport Seafood, San Gabriel
• Racion
• Tito’s Market
• Hot Pot Hot Pot
• Fosselman’s Ice Cream
• El Taco Man
• Yoma Myanmar
• Euro Pane
• Banh Mi My Tho
• Maison Akira
• Yama Seafood
• Huge Tree Pastry
• Copenhagen Pastry 
• Thien An Bo 7 Mon
• Summer Rolls
• Bhanu Indian Grocery & Cuisine
• Taihei
• Shin-Sen-Gumi Hakata Ramen, Rosemead

Also see, Eater Los Angeles’s The Definitive Guide to San Gabriel Valley Dining, A Dumpling Crawl of LA’s San Gabriel Valley (Lucky Peach), Chowhound suggestions for San Gabriel Valley self-guided food tours (2011) – in comments thread; SGV Chinese Food Tour – a Yelp List by Pickyeater W.