Not too long ago I had a chance to meet Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer award winning food writer for the LA Weekly. I know what you're thinking, did I ask him for a recommendation? Of course I did! This is one of two places he recommended to me personally, and I'm so excited to finally come visit this place.

Mon Land is a Mongolian hotpot place with some Northern Chinese cuisine tossed in for good measure. I really can't vouch for whether real Mongolians eat this, as far as I know they have a lot of Yak and not a lot of squid or tofu, but it's marketed as such and I hear it's quite popular in China. Hot pot is almost the Chinese equivalent to a roasted turkey, as it's often served for large family parties for holidays and festivals.

When you sit down you are asked which broth you'd like. There's a spicy and a non-spicy version and you can get the best of broth worlds (wink) by asking for both. How do you get two broths when there's only one stove at your table? Presenting the greatest Chinese invention since paper: The Yuan Yang pot.

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The food is great. The broth is magnificently flavored and if you don't go too crazy with the meats it'll be a fairly inexpensive meal. Service is quick and efficient but their English is obviously not the greatest, the bilingual menu is very helpful. The dumplings and pancakes were surprisingly good, and this place is especially good for you to try new and different things in a hotpot, since each plate is between $2-$4, it's never an expensive experiment. Special thanks to Jonathan Gold for the recommendation.

Photos by Kevin Cheng for LAist

Mon Land Hot Pot City
251 W. Bencamp St
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 289-4889