Sands Chinese Restaurant

A family run restaurant.Though I'm familiar with Cantonese food, they had many different dishes available that I had never heard of previously.I had wanted to get the stuffed wings with glutenous rice, but they were out of it for the evening, but I was able to get the tofu special which was delicious .We also enjoyed the hot and sour soup as well as the salt and pepper chicken wings, which we substituted for the stuffed wings.We wish that we had come with more people so we could've tried more of the dishes.The family wait staff is very helpful and friendly.

Unique Chinese/HK style cooking. Make sure you make reservations and try out their various dishes. Might need to reserve for seasonal stuff.I have heard of them "forgetting" reserved dishes though from multiple people which is not cool.Otherwise, it's a good adventurous eating. You can tell the chef is sincere in cooking savory, unique dishes

Food was ok/good but the timing of all the dishes was just awful. I ate faster than the dishes were rolling out. If you know me, you know I eat at a snail's pace.-Fried Chicken: The chicken was delicious and perfectly crisp. They use a good quality chicken for this dish.-Stuffed Duck: The duck was gamier than most ducks I've had. Everything was very squishy and soft but pretty tasty. I do wish there was a different texture in there. Everything was just mush.-Stuffed Lotus Leaf: Taste was good but everything was mush, except for the shrimp...which were hard rocks because they were overcooked. My cousin said there's no leaf flavor in the rice.-Crispy Bone Fish: The snap peas were delicious but the fish was slimier than I thought it'd be. I thought it would be fried crisp and topped with a sauce but it was mostly just a slimy goo.-Sauteed String Beans: A bit on the salty side and extremely soft. I was surprised, I'm used to this dish being snappy.-Garlic Shell-on Shrimp: The shrimp was not fresh. It was mushy and missing the snap of fresh shrimp.-Melon Milk Rolls: I think this could be a bit crisper. Not really a fan of the melon flavor and the milk is a bit more firm than I'd like. I've had a more delicate roll.-Almond Milk: Not really sure why this is a reservation required dish. Good almond flavor but also kind of gritty with pulp.The only thing I'd order again from here is the chicken but with the wait, I wouldn't come back unless someone else plans it...but I might try to convince them to go elsewhere.

Dont know why, but the place was dead. Food was really good though. Had eggplant and beef, mapo tofu, soy sauce chow mein, broccoli and garlic. The restaurant is clean and vibe was pretty chill. Im not an expert in chinese food but i like what i like. Will come back again to try out the rest of the menu.

Family-owned unassuming storefront Sands Chinese Restaurant brings exquisite modern Cantonese cuisine to a new level in the small rock quarry mining town of Irwindale, CA, in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley. The expert culinary skilled Sands owner/chef creates and serves delicious and well presented specialty Cantonese dishes that you will be hard pressed to find elsewhere in Southern California. Sands is a perfect venue for any casual family gathering or special occasion celebration. It is a smaller restaurant so reservations are highly recommended especially for large parties. We opted to pre-order many of their specialty items that needs 2-3 days to prepare and created our own banquet menu for a party of 9. We were not disappointed!!1. Cucumber and Black Fungus Salad (4/5) - A nice refreshing unique starter with a bit of heat2. Sweet and Sour Fried Wonton (5/5) - Perfectly fried tasty Wontons served with a seafood sweet and sour sauce 3. Whole Steamed Spicy Chicken (5/5) - Tender cold chicken dish with a pleasantly mild spicy sauce4. Braised Stuffed Duck (5/5) - A specialty of Sands that is executed well and full of varying "eight treasure" flavors that blend together nicely to excite the palate5. Braised Pork Belly (5/5) - Extremely tender and flavorful that could be one of the best served by any restaurant6. Dry Sauteed Green Beans (3/5) - Nothing special but still good7. Steamed Mushroom with Shrimp (4/5) - Nice blend of shitake mushroom and shrimp in white sauce that represents typical Cantonese cuisine8. Stuffed Cabbage Roll (2/5) - Vegetarian dish that lacked flavor despite the pumpkin sauce and was the least favorite9. Fried Tofu Box (4/5) - Unique way to serve tofu that was tasty10.Lotus Leaf Rice (5/5) - Nicely infused lotus leaf flavor steamed into the rice with seafood and dried shrimp11.Beef Chow Fun (4/5) - Good chow fun with extremely tender slices of beefService was very good. Dishes came out at a good and not at too fast of a pace. Dishes were changed out often. Prices are reasonable for a small business serving unique specialty items in good size portions. For exceptional and contemporary Cantonese cuisine, Sands is a dining destination you should definitely not miss out on.

Heard about this place from a friend. Was very interested in their unique special order items. So when it was my Finance's birthday, I had an excuse and suggested this place. For the special items you have to call in 3 days in advance to pre-order. For this meal, we pre-ordered the following items:1. Stuff chicken wings (stuffed with sticky rice) 5/5 - Delicious, crunchy and unique. Took a lot of skills to make this dish. 2. Rice wine egg white Dungeness Crab 5/5 - Had a very lite rice wine flavor but the egg whites took in all the Dungeness crab flavor. Mixed it with rice and was delicious. Crab was fresh and yummy.3. Shrimp paste wrapped in napa cabbage 3/5 - Not special. Flavor was good4. 8 treasured stuff duck 3/5 - really enjoyed the sticky rice inside. Lots of flavor but the duck itself was very mushy. It was overcooked.5. Rolled Steamed Tilapia 5/5 - The fish was fresh and flavorful. They filet the fish and wrapped each individual with veggies (either asparagus, shitake mushrooms or carrots) then steamed it. Took a lot of skills to make this dish.6. Winter Melon Soup 4/5 - Entire soup was cooked in the winter melon. Flavor was the soup was bland though. Had lots of ingredients such as mushrooms, winter melon, and meat. 7. Thousand Layered Tofu 5/5 - Absolutely amazing. The tofu was sliced so thinly and neatly. Not a tear anywhere. The tofu some how soaked in all the flavor from the sauce. Definitely recommend. 8. Lotus Rice 3/5 - the lotus rice has a bunch of dried seafood ingredients mixed in but the flavor was lacking. 9. Fried Melon flavored Milk 5/5 - It was fried to perfection with a lite taste of honeydew melon. YummyWe also 2 additional items from their regular menu. 1. Soy sauce Chow Mein 4/5 - Had a lot of wok hey - Needed a little more salt2. Garlic Ong Choy 3/5 - Lacked flavorIt's a very small mom and pop restaurant. Only 2 large tables and 4 small tables. When we went on a Friday night at 7:15pm we were the only ones there. Only 2 other customers came in after for to go orders. They also close at 8pm. Located in a plaza so plenty of parking. The location is in a remote location, industrial area. Service was ok. She served the soap to us and packed our leftovers. We had to ask for water refills. Prices were expensive as you can see a lot of the items require a unique skillset to make and a lot of time to prepare. But definitely worth it. I will definitely want to come back for the rice wine egg crab, rolled steamed tilapia, thousand layered tofu and the fried melon flavored milk!! There were a lot of other items in the pre-order menu that we didn't get to try.

Came here for lunch and it was a decent experience. The mashed garlic mixed vegetables was amazing -- couldn't have asked for a more flavorful dish. The beef did fall short a bit, unfortunately, as it was a little tough to eat. The sauce was also spicy and sweet instead of savory, which was a little confusing. Though, I would say it has one of the nicest presentations I've seen for this item. The lady who ran the store was professional and responsive but not too overly welcoming/friendly. The place was clean, and there was a wall of posters featuring their dishes (many of which require reservation). Overall, not a bad choice.

It was a pleasant experience having dinner in Sands Chinese restaurant; food was delicious and the presentation was awesome! Most dishes required a lot of skills and craftsmanship which are deeply appreciated! Service is attentive! The only complaint would be the almond soup ( dessert) which was too sweet to my taste bud!

Probably had the most awkward low tier dining experience in a long time - for a 3-4 year old restaurant you figure Sands had enough time to fine tune their service and timing. Ive heard a lot of good things about this place so I booked a 8 treasure duck and a couple items 4 days in advance expecting greatness. When I got there with my family on time, there were 2 other booked families eating there which for most restaurants isn't that booked up. There were two other walk in small families and couples. We were told by the waitress they are packed.We waited 20-30 mins for the first dish to come out which was a soup, then another 10 mins for the duck. Then 20-30mins later the appetizers and the other main item came out and lastly when we were getting close to 2 hrs , we decided to cancel some dishes to keep the chef sane. Ridicules timing considering we preordered the main items. Later we learn the reason why the service was so slow - the restaurant has one person doing service and one person doing cooking. Maybe one more person doing prep and it's like this normally - it's on a. skeleton crew - mom and pop all the time. They could've limit the amount of reservation, not allow walk-in for fully booked nights or have extra help on busy days, but instead they decide to take all business and give subpar service and for everyone. All the customers were all hangry that night from waiting for their food.So if you want to try this restaurant you better reserve a slow day, slow time or else you will get a really bad experience. . probably best to prebook everything even the little dishes (they told us no scallion chicken we try to tack on) How's the food? Looks and taste good but when you wait for a long time and hungry at the same time, everything will taste good even if subpar so I can't really comment on the their food objectively. It at least looks good It's a shame i really want to like this place - was craving for some top tier canto food.I might try again in the future will see but I'm hangry just thinking about it right now.

Very nice restaurant, clean place, fresh food, worth my first review in yelp!You can feel the food is just cooked but not semi-finished food.