Neighbor complaints get a classic ‘stinky’ dish booted from local restaurant
Stinky tofu is no longer on the menu at Golden Leaf restaurant in San Gabriel after the city received complaints about the dish’s aroma. But the family behind the restaurant is fighting to bring back the popular Taiwanese street food, prized for its distinct, potent stench.
“The scene of stinky tofu in Taiwanese night markets is an invitation to community and tradition,” said David Liao. He owns Golden Leaf, located in a strip mall at the corner of North Mission Drive and West Las Tunas Drive in San Gabriel.
The dish, known as chou doufu in Chinese, is “a cherished taste of home and a source of cultural pride,” he said.
There are several restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley that offer the dish, with most deep-frying squares of the tofu, resulting in a crisp exterior and a porous, sponge-like center. The flavor and smell can range from mild to eye-wateringly stinky, like an extra funky blue cheese or excellent kimchi.
For three years, it was the signature dish at Golden Leaf, until a neighbor decided they didn’t like the smell. In the fall of 2017, a neighbor who lives in one of the properties north of the restaurant began calling.
“She said she could smell the stinky tofu, but we and other customers couldn’t smell it,” said Liao, whose parents opened Golden Leaf in 2014. The initial complaining neighbor is not in the home directly behind their business, Liao said. “We know that customer and he comes in, and he’s never brought it to our attention.”
Confused, the family walked up and down the residential streets behind them, trying to detect any hint of stinky tofu. They wandered around the plaza, asking the beauty salon and the other businesses if they could smell it.
“If our commercial neighbors complained to us that it’s affecting their business, then we would understand,” said Liao. “But no one ever has.”
Still, after visits from the health department, the fire department and a city official, Liao said he was verbally told by the official to either mitigate the smell or cease selling the stinky tofu.
Though the menu at Golden Leaf spans a range of classic Taiwanese dishes, the stinky tofu accounted for 10% to 20% of the restaurant’s total revenue. It wasn’t a dish that the family could afford to stop preparing.
The restaurant continued to sell stinky tofu, and the neighbor kept calling.
In September 2017, the restaurant received a notice from the city, informing the owners that they were violating a municipal code, which reads: “A person shall not discharge from any source whatsoever quantities of air contaminants or other material that cause injury, detriment, nuisance, or annoyance to any considerable number of persons or to the public, or that endanger the comfort, repose, health, or safety of any of those persons or the public, or that cause, or have a natural tendency to cause, inure or damage to business or property.”
It was accompanied by the threat of fines that could reach up to $1,000. Liao’s parents decided to take the stinky tofu off the menu.
But the decision never sat right with Liao. In addition to the blow to the restaurant’s bottom line, the absence of stinky tofu in his parents’ kitchen signaled broader cultural ramifications for both Liao’s family and the greater Taiwanese community in Southern California.
It is difficult to convey the specific stink of stinky tofu. It’s the kind of smell that causes involuntary nose scrunching and tingling nostrils. Imagine gym socks soaked in pickle brine left out in the sun for a week or two. For its potent odor and texture, many people, including this writer, find it delicious.
The dish typically is made by fermenting tofu for several days, weeks or months in a brine with vegetables such as amaranth greens. It is one of the most pervasive street foods in Taiwan, found in night markets throughout the island.
Los Angeles County is home to the largest Taiwanese population in the United States. In fact, of the 14 communities nationally with more than 10,000 people, and 30% or more of its residents identifying as Chinese or Taiwanese, 11 are in the San Gabriel Valley, according to census data.
San Gabriel’s share of Chinese or Taiwanese residents is 41%.
“Keeping this unofficial national dish alive is crucial,” Liao said. “For our customers, this isn’t just another menu item, it’s a connection to their roots.”
In 2025, Liao decided to bring it back.
He launched a stinky tofu newsletter that alerted customers to random weekly drops at the restaurant. But the neighbor found out, and started calling again. Liao said that she called so often, the neighbor managed to block the restaurant’s phone line, preventing customers from calling in orders.
Three months after the first newsletter, the restaurant received its second formal notice of violation. Once again, the notice informed the restaurant that it had violated an “odors” code regarding “obnoxious or adverse odor that can be detected beyond the boundary of the lot occupied by that use.”
The Times reached out to the city for clarification regarding what metric is used to deem odors obnoxious or adverse.
“The city’s municipal code includes provisions related to odor impacts,” wrote David Sanchez, San Gabriel’s community development director, in an email. “When an odor extends beyond a property and creates discomfort for others, it may be considered a violation and addressed accordingly.”
But if you grew up eating stinky tofu, would you consider the odor a discomfort?
This is nothing to do with any cultural things, but it’s more like a food smell control issue.
— John Wu, San Gabriel city councilmember
“Internationally, and for outsiders, stinky tofu often gets framed as a novelty or even a dare,” said L.A. native and author Clarissa Wei, from her base in Taiwan. Her book “Made in Taiwan” celebrates Taiwanese culture and recipes. “But in Taiwan, and across many parts of Asia, it’s just another comfort food.”
Liao’s family continued to serve stinky tofu at the restaurant until November 2025, and received multiple violation notices and citations. Liao said he’s already paid the city more than $1,000 in fines.
Last summer, he created a Change.org petition to “support cooking stinky tofu in San Gabriel, California,” calling on supporters to urge the San Gabriel City Council to help. It garnered more than a thousand signatures and comments of support from all over Southern California.
“This ban isn’t about public health or quality of life — it’s about whose culture is allowed to exist in public,” reads one comment.
For Wei, who includes a recipe for stinky tofu in her cookbook, the dish is similar to a host of other pungent-smelling foods significant to different cultures around the world, including natto, kimchi and aged fish.
“When foods are labeled obnoxious or adverse, it risks flattening that diversity,” she writes. “Stinky tofu gets a bad rap largely because people, both abroad and even within Taiwan, don’t fully understand how it’s made.”
San Gabriel city councilmember John Wu, who has met with Liao at his restaurant and spoken with him regarding the violation notices, said the issue is less about cultural differences and purely about the need for a better filtration system at the restaurant. He also confirmed that the city received multiple complaints about the smell.
“We don’t stop people from selling dishes because they are smelly, but they should keep the smells inside the unit,” Wu said. “It’s subjective, and people feel differently about different smells. We can check noise levels at a business, but we don’t have a device that detects how much something smells.”
Wu shared the experience of a nearby coffee shop that had received complaints from residents regarding coffee odors around the business. A new filtration system was installed, and Wu says the city hasn’t received a complaint since.
“This is nothing to do with any cultural things, but it’s more like a food smell control issue,” Wu said. “We have many restaurants selling stinky tofu, but this is so far the only restaurant where we have those complaints from residents. Some people like it. Some may feel differently. I respect both and I asked David if he wants to talk to us. But we need to take action if there is any complaints. The city cannot do nothing. This is our job.”
Stinky tofu is featured in multiple dishes at Dong Ting Xian, a restaurant in a strip mall about 2.5 miles south of Golden Leaf in San Gabriel. And at another San Gabriel restaurant called Yung Ho Cafe, located in another strip mall along Valley Boulevard.
“Golden Leaf is closer to a residential area than some of the restaurants located on Valley Boulevard,” Wu said.
Relocating isn’t an option for Golden Leaf, and Liao has looked into the city’s corrective suggestions of installing a specific filter in the kitchen, or a ventless fryer. He estimates the fryer could cost between $20,000 to $50,000, depending on any required electrical changes. A quote he received for the filter was $100,000. Both options would require additional permits for the restaurant, resulting in more of an investment.
“With all these options, I was looking for a guarantee,” said Liao. “We were willing to work with the city, but they couldn’t put anything in writing, and we don’t have the money to just invest and see if it works.”
Wu says the city is unable to offer any sort of guarantee that the restaurant can serve stinky tofu without residential complaints if a new filtration system is installed.
“I truly hope he can start selling the dish again,” the city official said. “We hope the money he spends on a filtration machine will be worth it for him, but we can only offer that this might be a good solution and hope he gets a good result.”
For now, stinky tofu remains off the menu at Golden Leaf.