One of the things I love most about LA is the depth of its cultural diversity. I don’t love the fact that it’s so segregated, but I appreciate the fact that in contrast to the outsider view that LA is simply a vapid, endless string of cookie-cutter communities, every neighborhood has its own character and identity (witness our Neighborhood Projects). Which means that no matter what you’re into, you can find a place that fits your personality and style.
As anyone that knows anything about LA knows, the San Gabriel Valley is where a good portion of the more than 400,000 LA County Chinese residents live. Though bordering on East LA and Pasadena, it feels a world apart, from all of the Chinese businesses and signage to the overwhelming amount of Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese spoken (depending on where you are). While the cities in the San Gabriel Valley are much closer to suburban than urban, and thus lacking in many bars and late night entertainment, there still exists a wealth of after-hour locations to eat. Regent Cafe in Alhambra is just one of these options.
Regent is a Hong Kong-style café, which can best described in American terms as a Chinese diner. Like an American diner, these cafés are open almost around the clock and have a wide variety of foods to choose from. The roots of Hong Kong cafés originate from the Western influence of the British, serving a combination of Cantonese imitations of Western dishes and traditional Chinese food and beverages. There are over 150 items on Regent’s menu, including pastas, curries, noodles, rice dishes, and even steaks and seafood, so it’s almost guaranteed that you can find something that you want to eat on the menu. You can opt for old stodgy classics like Chicken a la King or more exotic fare like baked ox tongue. Additionally, desserts like soufflé, crepes, and cakes are available, along with specialty drinks like boba tea.
Besides the hours and variety, Hong Kong-style cafes also tend to be similar to classic diners in that you get what you pay for. That is, the food is nothing to write home about, but is very reasonably priced. At Regent, most of the dishes are between $5 and $8, so you can get a good-portioned late-night snack without having to hit up the ATM.
If you’ve spent much time in the SGV, you know that if you’re only an English speaker, it can be pretty difficult to get much help of any kind, particularly at many restaurants. The wait staff at Regent is proficient enough in English, though having a Cantonese speaker with you generally means you’ll get more attentive service (not that it’s very good in the first place). The crowd is almost all Chinese, not surprisingly, and quiets down pretty significantly later on in the evening. Like all the other cafes in the area, people tend to go to Regent simply to grease their stomach and just loiter with friends. The atmosphere is much more welcoming than a lot of Chinese restaurants, with American soft rock music over the loudspeaker, high airy ceilings, an abundance of green plants, and light pastel colors, making it a pleasant place to simply hang out.
As I mentioned before, one does not go to cafes for the food, one goes to eat. On this particular night, I opted for the tan chai porridge, fish fillet on rice satay, and a red bean milkshake. The porridge was primarily a seafood congee, with shrimp, squid, and jellyfish, but topped with sliced peanuts, fried wontons, and scallions, sort of a strange combination of flavors and textures. It’s a huge bowl, and I really wasn’t in the mood to eat that much, especially given how bland congee tends to be. On the other hand, the fish fillet had a lot more flavor, served with sliced onions in a not-too-spicy brown sauce. Served on a bed of rice, it was simple, but easy on the stomach after a long night. This would be a dish that I would be OK with ordering for dinner as well. And of course I had to balance the sweet and the savory, made all the easier since I’m a sucker for milkshakes. The red bean milkshake was essentially a surprisingly good vanilla milkshake with scoops of red beans mixed in (not completely blended). Adding the red bean diluted some of the sweetness while adding some textural contrast, but not so much that it stopped being a beverage. Definitely yummy.
Regent Cafe is not the most well-known or the most popular café in the area, but it just happens to be the one that I end up at most frequently because of its convenient location at Garfield and Valley. So if you’re not satisfied with your food or your service, you can always drive down Valley to another café. Or, ironically, you can pop across the street to the original location of The Hat for their bomb pastrami dip sandwich. Ain’t diversity grand?
Regent Cafe
1411 S. Garfield Ave.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 289-9398
Sun-Thu: 10 am-1 am
Fri-Sat: 10 am-3 am
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