Kat's 9 Lives

TP and I made a trip up to SGV again since I had a craving and I never disappoint her with good food ^_- and it is cheap here too!We met up with KFP to hang out and chat. We had Ten Ren’s Tea Time for a while and it wa time to move on to a full meal. KFP whipped out his camera to show us his most recent foodings to give us some choices. Being that TP does not eat many types of meat, we were limited in choices. In the end we agreed upon Mama’s Lu Dumpling House. Leave it to Asian’s with their “perfect” Englsih. =9 The parking lot in back was super ghetto where an RV was parked and a whole long table was set up where people were chowing down as if this was their backyard. We all found this quite odd. lol Then KFP ran into some friends of his. What a small world!Their AC was super strong too. TP ordered the Kung Pao Chicken to be on the safe side. Most of the dishes had pork and she didn't want to risk trying something too new. >=P They put a wide selection of chopped Vegetables stir-fried with diced Chicken. Brace yourself, but this was actually very good! At first we were so skeptical and scoffed at the idea, but I am glad to be proven wrong. It's more authentic then I thought it would be. The spicy flavor really pops and the chicken was so tender. This was probably the winner of the night. =9
Since this is a "dumpling house" of course we had to try them all. As always the first thing you should order is the Xiao Long Bao since it takes time to steam the little steamed buns. They came out piping hot. We had to teach TP how to eat a XLB. This shows how good we are, we were able to convince her to try pork out. O=9 I thought the flavors were good and the XLB was very juicy. The skin was nice and thin.
KFP also recommended the Green Onion Pancake and since it had no meat, it was a good idea for sharing. The pancake was very thin and crispy. I thought the flavor was a bit light, which can be easily corrected with Soy Sauce! lol The texture was very good. We all agreed that it was a well made Green Onion Pancake.
Being greedy as always, we ordered a bunch of food. The Fried Pork Bun came out nicely and looked like it had the right amount of crisp outside. Keyword... looked! I didn't like the thickness of the bun and I felt that the meat flavor inside dissipated when combined with a thicker skinned bun. I'm sure the meat inside each of these are the same and the skin is the only thing that changes. It really makes a difference.
We also tried the Potstickers. The skin is thicker and chewier than the XLB, but thinner than the Fried Pork Bun. The flavor was light. It's better than the Fried Pork Bun but I've had better. I'd stick with the XLB for the most flavor and texture.
All in all it is not bad and the prices were good. I would come back for the Kung Pao Chicken for sure. The Green Onion Pancake and XLB is not bad either. We ate a good amount of food for a good price. ^_-

Mama’s Lu Dumpling House
153 E Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755
(626) 307-5700