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Archive for Bistro 1968

Bistro 1968 at Night

Jul11

Restaurant: Bistro 1968 [1, 2]

Location: 402 S San Gabriel Blvd Ste A, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 766-1968

Date: January 4, 2024

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: One of the current best

_

Bistro 1968 opened with considerable fanfare (for the SGV) at the tail end of 2022. It serves up a large but focused menu of Cantonese dim sum and unusually is not two restaurants in one like most of the Cantonese places. Instead they have the same (dim sum focused) menu for both lunch and dinner.

This visit involves a Foodie Club Sunday Chinese dinner with combined dim sum and other.

1A4A1296
1A4A1295
The underground parking lot here sucks. Upper level was full and the lower level had this mechanical gated “resident only tow zone” that was poorly labeled and easy to get trapped in.
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Escaping the parking lot involved this endless corridor.

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Peanuts and Candied Walnuts.
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The menu.
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They have moderately fancy tea service.
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Chili paste and mustard.
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Egg Tofu with Abalone Sauce. I love this soft silky tofu. Although we got it more or less twice.
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Seafood Dumpling with pumpkin.
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Shrimp Har-gow.
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Seaweed and Shrimp Paste Cake.
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Chili Oil.
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XO Sauce.
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Pork & Shrimp Siu-Mai.
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Selections.
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Shrimp Rice Noodle.
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Supreme Beef Balls.
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Jumbo Sticky Rice Wrap.
1A4A1116
Seafood Chow-mein w/ Crispy Noodle. Solid version of the classic with nice noodles and sily seafood.
1A4A1121
Pan Fried Seme Cicoria w/ Duck Meat. This “orzo” with bits of duck was awesome. Very much like a fried rice.
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Barbecued Iberian Pork w/ Honey. Too lean and too sweet, so while it had good flavor it was a bit chewy.
1A4A1132
Egg Tofu with Mushrooms and Vegetables. Delicious dish. This is my kind of “veggie.”

1A4A1143
Peking Duck. This was a rather lame Pseudo Peking Duck. Kinda dry and the cleavered style of Cantonese roast duck with the buns.
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No cucumbers but there were scallions.
1A4A1147
They served both the more “real” hoisin and the standard thin Cantonese type that usually goes with PPD.
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Poached Tofu Skin w/ Pork Bone Broth.. Soup was a pork bone broth and pretty delicious. Rest of the dish was meh.
1A4A1151
Pan Fried Mix Mushrooms with Egg White. Kinda boring dry version of this dish. It was much better at Colette.
1A4A1161
Curry Rice with Baked Eel. The eel was really good. The curry rice was a touch dry and very much that English yellow curry.
1A4A1162
Poached Watercress with Fish Ball. Bland this time around.
1A4A1178
Strawberry Jam Gelato — an awesome dairy Strawberry base swirled with Strawberry Jam — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — sugar time! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #strawberry #jam
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To the right was an Almond Zab blend. It was pretty old. Tasted great but had some ice cystal formation. Could easily have been almost 2 years old from the label.
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Flavorless sweat bean puffs.
1A4A1189
Mango “soup” was actually pretty good.
1A4A1169
1A4A1173-Pano
Overall, Bistro 1968 was interesting at night. It was a Sunday night and deserted. The kitchen didn’t feel particularly on point but the dim sum was still great and most of the dishes very enjoyable. They seem to be floundering, as more recently (early summer 2024) they have switched to $20/pp AYCE dim sum — which will doom them. No way they make money on that.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. DimSumQuest – Bistro 1968
  2. Big at Bistro Na
  3. Fancy Feast – Bistro Na
  4. Late Night Longo
  5. Bistro Na Birthday
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bistro 1968, BYOG, Foodie Club, Gelato, Wine

DimSumQuest – Bistro 1968

Aug01

Restaurant: Bistro 1968

Location: 402 S San Gabriel Blvd Ste A, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 766-1968

Date: December 30, 2022 & January 4, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: One of the current best

_

Bistro 1968 opened with considerable fanfare (for the SGV) at the tail end of 2022. It serves up a large but focused menu of Cantonese dim sum and unusually is not two restaurants in one like most of the Cantonese places. Instead they have the same (dim sum focused) menu for both lunch and dinner.

1A4A1296
1A4A1295
The underground parking lot here sucks. Upper level was full and the lower level had this mechanical gated “resident only tow zone” that was poorly labeled and easy to get trapped in.
1A4A1297
Escaping the parking lot involved this endless corridor.
1A4A1298
Brand new!
1A4A1299

1A4A1779

Double-sided order sheet
1A4A1301
1A4A1302
1A4A1303
1A4A1304
1A4A1305
1A4A1306
The long form menu.
1A4A1313-Pano
The main dining room. Several private rooms spawn off the sides.
1A4A1307-Pano
At first we were in this claustraphobic interior room, but then we moved.
1A4A1318
Into this much nicer (and larger) room. It had a window!
1A4A1319-Pano
Holds a good sized group.
1A4A1327

1A4A1794
Jasmine Tea.
1A4A1328
Basic sauces. They put several on the table, plus some chili oil.

1A4A1819
Black and Red Vinegar.

1A4A1804
XO Sauce was an extra $4, but totally worth it.

1A4A1808
Chili oil is always better than paste.
1A4A1337
Bean Curd Skin Roll in Soup. Great texture but very mild in flavor.
1A4A1358
Shrimp Har-Gow. Fairly perfect textbook har-gow. Shrimp was delicious and skin was light.
1A4A1355
Golden Har-Gow. I think these had a little bit of truffle inside plus the dark (squid ink?) skin. Normally I don’t like these “amplified” classics but these were excellent.
1A4A1361
Pork Siu-Mai. Awesome version. Light, meaty, tasty. We had 5-6 orders.
1A4A1373
1A4A1375

1A4A1853
Abalone Tart. A “lard short crust” pastry with shredded pork and abalone. Gorgeous. The tart was very crumbly. The pork itself was sweet and very nice, the abalone was great, not at all chewy — well it was abalone but it wasn’t too chewy.
1A4A1397
Pumkpin Dumplings. Seasonal. Very mild and pleasant.
1A4A1398
Leeks and Shrimp Dumpling. I really liked these. I’m not sure the wrapper tasted different, but the interior had a nice leek and shrimp (big surprise) vibe.

1A4A1867
Shanghai XLB. Usually at dimsum houses the XLB are heavy and just “kinda nice.” These were delicate with fabulous pork soup flavor inside, arguably better than at specialty places like DTF. Really great.
1A4A1418
Spicy Minced Pork Dumpling. Chewy and a bit sweet with that sweet porky filling. I’m not sure what was spicy about it but it was good. Sometimes this dumpling type, which is normally light brown, is underfilled. These were generous.

1A4A1864
Stuffed Morchella Elata Fungus. They spelled it Fungas. Lol. This was one of the best dishes. It was a nice shrimp paste ball with a “fungas” wrapper” and a sweet soy sauce. Delicious.
1A4A1388
Shrimp Noodle. The shrimp were large and succulent and the chow fun texture was excellent. The sauce could have used slightly more punch.
1A4A1391
Wagyu Beef Noodle. I’ve never had chow fun with wagyu. It was silky soft, a touch sweet, and did pack quite a bit of flavor.

1A4A1845
BBQ Pork & Mixed Fungus Noodle. Again they spelled it “Fungas.” Lol again. These were actually some great Chow Fun with nice Sweet BBQ Porky filling and a hint of mushroom.

1A4A1351
House Special Seafood Congee. I didn’t try because of the carb factor — hey it’s all carbs — but some of my friends complained that it wasn’t jammed with enough goodies.
1A4A1369
Close up.

1A4A1798

1A4A1881

Sticky Rice Wrap. This is the usual lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice. It was fabulous though with all sorts of flavor goodness and perfectly sticky rice.

1A4A1383
Sticky Rice. These were mild, a bit sweet, and filled with Chinese sausage, ginkos, egg yolks, etc. Not nearly as good as the lotus leaf sticky rice.

1A4A1380
Pan-fried Turnip Cake. I didn’t try because of the carbs.
1A4A1404
Crabmeat Egg-Roll. I didn’t try but everyone else toasted them in two seconds.
1A4A1429
Seaweed and Shrimp paste cake. Nice firm shrimp cake with an interesting spongy texture and a bit of crispiness from the seaweed. The mayo complemented.
1A4A1435
House Special Crispy Lobster Roll. Very fluffy and crunchy texture stuffed with noodles and tiny bits of lobster. Interesting.

1A4A1801

1A4A1818

Steamed BBQ Pork Bao. The bun was a bit soggy and the filling overly sweet.

1A4A1875
1A4A1884

Snow Capped BBQ Pork Bun. This version was leagues better than the steamed version. Great slightly cirspy donut style bun with nice pork filling.
1A4A1787

1A4A1789

Deep Fried Taro Puff. Pretty but carb on carb — plus I hate taro. Anyway there were some little bits of pork in there too.

1A4A1430
Supreme Beef Balls. Great spongy texture. I ate a ton of these.

1A4A1917
1A4A1928

Ground Minced Pork. Not a very descriptive label but these were delicious pan-fried pork patties. Nice and greasy.

1A4A1906
Wonton w/ Chili Oil Sauce. This was one of the weakest dishes. The wrapper was soft and pillowy, but the chili sauce was weak, and the filling was shrimp (would have been better as pork). Mostly it just didn’t have the chili oil punch this dish deserves.

1A4A1422
Lobster with Ginger and Scallions. Pretty nice lobster in the “wet” style.
1A4A1408
Soy Sauce Chicken. A bit sweet, but very aromatic and juicy so a lovely chicken.
1A4A1333
Hongkong Style Roast Duck. This was probably the best Hongkong style roast duck I’ve had. It was extremely juicy with fabulous skin and lots of great flavor.

1A4A1911

Smaller sized portion of the same dish.

1A4A1335
Slightly Sweet Sauce for the duck.

1A4A1893
Sichuan Sauce Hen Chicken. Cold chopped Hainan Chicken style chicken with nice numbing sauce. Really good.

1A4A1896

Sauce for that.

1A4A1887
Barbecued Iberian Pork w/ Honey. Classic sweet red Chinese BBQ pork. Very sweet sauce but pretty damn tasty!
1A4A1365
Deep Fried Quail with Spicy Salt. Yummy, but extremly salty and mostly bones with little bits of meat on them.
1A4A1412
Roasted Squab. Leave it to Yarom to order every bird on the menu. These were solid, but not in the top tier.

1A4A1345
Crispy German Pork Knuckle. Very piggy, nice crispy skin, succulent meat. I enjoyed these.
1A4A1426
Oxtail Stew with Wine Sauce Clay Pot. There was the oxtail bone factor, but this did taste great. Moderate amounts of tasty meat clung to the tail bones and the whole thing was drowned in some sort of gravy.

1A4A1898
1A4A1905

Poached Watercress w/ Fish Ball. Basically a nice light broth with lots of greens and fish/shrimp balls. I actually really liked this dish, particularly given the nasty rainy weather. It was very soothing and provided needed carbs.
1A4A1349
Creamy Egg-Yolk Bao. Tasty and the yolk inside almost exploded out. I just nibbled for dietary reasons.

1A4A1401
Macau Egg Tart. A classic. Nice and eggy.
1A4A1438
I love this flavor — Peppermint Bark Gelato — Base is pure peppermint milk (subbed the sugar with crushed peppermint candies) and it’s laced with house-made double-sided peppermint bark, Valrhona Dark Chocolate and Ivoire White! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — The Peppermint Bark recipe was developed by a famous pastry chef and author, the mum of a Naughty Dog Alum @nancy_baggett — this year I added the two layer thing which is awesome — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peppermint #bark #Valrhona #chocolate
1A4A1440
The wines.
1A4A1437
Yarom and the owner and the manager.
1A4A1443-Pano
The whole gang.
1A4A1442
They collect all the steamer trays in rolling huskee’s!

Overall, I thought Bistro 1968 is currently one of the best dim sum places in the SGV — and therefore in SoCal. Not every dish is perfect but they have a big menu, many interesting dishes, and an overall standard of execution that is just higher than most of the older places. Sure, there are a lot of good (and even great) options in the SGV but you totally can’t go wrong with this one!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. DimSumQuest – Blooming VIP
  2. Big at Bistro Na
  3. Bistro Na Birthday
  4. Fancy Feast – Bistro Na
  5. Lunasia Dim Sum
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bistro 1968, BYOG, Cantonese, Cantonese Chinese, Chinese cuisine, dimsum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, Gelato, SGV
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