Stability is and isn’t a strong suit at House of Mandarin Noodle. The restaurant from Janin Chung Wang and her family has been in business for over three decades, but in four different locations. They started with two years in Chinatown, spent 23 years in Monterey Park, lasted six years nearby on Las Tunas Drive in Temple City, and the past two years in the bustling green walled space we visited on a strip that has minimal retail development.

It gets blazing hot in the San Gabriel Valley in the summer, with sun beating down on the sea of blacktop, so it was a relief to find what might be the definitive “Chinese chicken salad” in town. Their San Tung Chicken Salad (9.75), named for a region of China close to the Korean border, featured crunchy cubed cucumber, juicy white meat chicken, a thatch of cilantro, crispy onion strands, and a tangy dressing rife with garlic.

When ordering Beef Stew/Tendon Noodle Soup ($7.75), make sure to specify home made noodles, which have good bite and work well with the savory cow broth. Collagen rich tendon, alternately chewy and meltingly tender, paired well with the chunks of broth-braised beef. This wasn’t as complex or medicinal as a good Taiwanese beef noodle soup, but still tasted hearty.

Thin Onion Pancake ($3.65) is probably the best version in the whole San Gabriel Valley, scallion flecked, with crisp edges and flaky, pull apart layers.

Pan Fried Meat Dumpling ($6.40) featured fairly thick, chewy wrappers, crisp griddled bases and fairly juicy pork cores. They were more than serviceable, but not spectacular.

Mandarin Style Noodle with Chili ($6.90) was basically a second salad, with basic spaghetti-like noodles a sweet-spicy chile sauce base, squiggles of pork, crunchy julienne cucumbers and bean sprouts, and crisp, slightly bitter greens.

We enjoyed the seeming simplicity of House of Mandarin Noodle. The food was rustic, but they had a time-tested concept, and good food doesn’t get much cheaper in Los Angeles.