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Lunch Quest – Lotus

Apr14

Restaurant: Lotus Dim Sum Dumpling House

Location: 326 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (424) 380-5500

Date: September 9, 2022

Cuisine: Bad Dim Sum

Rating: Blech. Sad. Almost a disaster.

_

I was actually excited to see that the PF Changs in Santa Monica had “rebooted” as a theoretically real Chinese restaurant, a dim sum house even.
IMG_5847
IMG_5846

And why the hell is there sushi on the menu?
IMG_5848
IMG_5849
As is typical for independent Chinese operators they didn’t spend much at all on remodeling, it still looks like a PF Changs. The menu is a mix of typical dim sum and random other Chinese dishes.

Oh yes, let’s not forget the SUSHI! Why is there sushi? This is an immediate sign of a terrible restaurant as no self respecting Chinese establishment can make good sushi, they make good Chinese food.
IMG_5850
Smashed cucumbers. Decent, but under marinated and under sauced.
IMG_5851
Crispy Bun with Minced Pork. Actually not a bad version of this chewy/sweet thing (often called Fried Glutinous Meat Dumplings).
IMG_5853
Shrimp Chow Fun. Decent version. The sauce wasn’t quite sweet enough and the shrimp had a slightly “fishy” taste but was still a 7/10.
IMG_5854
Har Gow. Wrapper ok and the shrimp a little “fishy.”
IMG_5855
Chicken Chow Fun. The soft kind of noodles. They don’t have the crispy ones. But it was pretty tasty in a cheapy Chinese sort of way.
IMG_5857
XLB. The filling was ok but there was no juice and the wrapper was pathetic and soggy and solid. Had to eat the meat out of the middle.
IMG_5860
Shu Mai. Smelled a bit odd. Pork tasted okay, wrapper a bit soggy. 3/10.
IMG_5862
Black Pepper and Black Bean Beef. Basically “French Style” beef. Really tender and smoothered in “flavor” (aka MSG). Pretty tasty actually.
IMG_5864
Szechuan Fish Filets boiled in Chili Sauce. It’s not by any means the best version of this generally awesome dish, but it was actually pretty tasty. Probably a 5/10 but with some numbing. Fish was tender. The biggest problem was that they put corn starch in the sauce so it was too thick (for this dish).

Overall, dim sum was TERRIBLE, some of the worst I have ever had. They are sort of trying, but it’s just bad. The non dim sum dishes were tolerable. Not good. Certainly not great. But okay in that way that Panda Express is sort of okay. And this is much better than Panda, if that’s a 1/10 this is like a 3/10. But it’s certainly not going to compete with the best dim sum west of the 405, the Palace, which isn’t itself even that good (maybe 5/10). But as bad as Lotus is, it’s still better than PF Changs (2/10).

It should be noted that Jeffrey actually half likes the non dim sum dishes here. He’s been a number of times. I think it’s just because it was a block or two from his house and work and that the non dim sum dishes aren’t TERRIBLE, only very very meh.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Lunch Quest – Da Long Yi
  2. Lunch Quest — Xiang La Hui
  3. Lunch Quest – Dai Ho
  4. Lunch Quest – Simpang Asia
  5. Lunch Quest – Happy Valley Village
By: agavin
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Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dumplings, Lunch Quest, Santa Monica
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