Colette

The upscale Cantonese dishes at this strip mall dinner destination right on the Pasadena/Arcadia border somehow feel familiar and new all at once. There’s crackly chicken skin stuffed with spongy shrimp paste, saucy beef bits under a crispy vermicelli noodle pancake, and stir-fried chayote tossed with minced pork and pickled olives. After serving American brunch classics for years, the team brought on a new chef to run dinner service in 2022. Colette 2.0 is a huge upgrade—you can still order eggs benedict from the daytime menu, but dinner is the real highlight. Bring a group and cover your big round table in creative Cantonese dishes.

photo credit: Nikko Duren