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China Gourmet – Wednesday 2022

Jul02

Location: 2842 St Vincent St, Philadelphia, PA 19149. (215) 941-1898

Date: November 23, 2022

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Pretty decent Cantonese

As part of the traditional ThanksGavin progression of meals we go out on Wednesday before Thanksgiving and this year we returned to China Gourmet, which we’d visited on Friday night the year before.

Cantonese banquet hall — Philly style.

Fairly typical interior that is pretty much straight out of the SGV. It sure was quiet on this wed night.

The menu. Clearly they do a lot of takeout.
Peanuts on the table.

Vegetarian Spring Rolls. Nice and crispy.

Hot and Sour Soup. Not a bad version with a good texture. A bit goopy (corn starch). Could have used slightly more white pepper and black vinegar. They had red vinegar on the table but that was too sweet.

Shrimp with lobster sauce. The goopy lobster sauce was actually pretty tasty and the shrimp texture was great. There weren’t ENOUGH shrimp, but hey.

Lobster with ginger and scallion. This was two tiny lobsters. The meat was succulent and the sauce very silky so a nice version of the wet lobster type.

Whole flounder steamed with soy and scallions. Very light moist fish with lots of meat. Quite nice.

See all that meat?

“Peking duck.” Cantonese Roast Duck with the buns but still quite nice (and quite fatty). Not that crispy but delicious.

Stir-fried snow pea leaves with garlic. Very solid garlic green.

Steamed broccoli.

Stir fried mushrooms with tofu and snap peas. The tofu was delectably soft and the veggies firm and delicious. Very nice dish.

Sliced Pork with Okra. I haven’t had this exact combo but this was a very nice pork dish with tender and flavorful meat and crunchy veggies.

Cumin lamb. This certainly wan’t the typical cumin lamb — in fact I could barely taste any cumin. The meat was very tender with some good “moutony” flavor.

Plain Lo Mein.

Veggie Fried Rice. A bit too charred for my taste.

Fruit.

Really a pretty good place, on par with a medium level SGV Cantonese. Not the best ever, but not Chinese American either (at least the way I ordered). Everyone enjoyed it too so my “something for everyone” ordering seemed to have worked out.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

To see more ThanksGavin meals check here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, China Gourmet, Chinese cuisine, ThanksGavin, ThanksGavin 2022

Wagyu House by The X Pot

Jun04

Restaurant: Wagyu House by The X Pot

Location: 18558 Gale Ave Suite 122-128, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (866) 610-0609

Date: October 20, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese Hot Pot

Rating: A bit of style over substance, but solid

This was actually just a “Lunch Quest” where we set out to the far SGV to check out this “fancy hot pot” I’d seen online. Turned out it was mobbed! Chinese food in the SGV is never crowded for weekday lunch!

We had to wait about 50 minutes. The wait was weird because the place is huge and was only about 25% full, although tons of people were waiting.

Build out is pretty extensive. Sure, the build quality is “sloppy” and it won’t hold up, but it looks pretty cool right now.

Private rooms.

Sauce Bar. The sauce bar is excellent. Not quite as good as Shancheng Lameizi but very good. There weren’t very many snacks though (like cucumbers etc).

My usual pair of sauces. I tried not to make them very spicy today.

The menu.

And the special “expensive” package menu.

House Special Wagyu Pot (right) and Coconut Chicken Pot (left). Neither of these imparted to obvious a flavor onto the stuff — or at least not enough to survive dipping int he sauces.

Instead of the coconut chicken I really wanted the golden one, which is a specialty of theirs — but alas it was “out.”

House Crispy Pork. Quite yummy, like pork clam strips.

Wagyu Tartare. You mix it up and eat. Pretty good, but the sauce flavor was a little odd.

Braised Lotus Root. I really enjoyed these as I like the texture of lotus roots.

Grilled Wagyu Bone Marrow. Most of the group thought this was the best dish. Just seemed like greasy beef nibblets to me.

Fish Tofu. The usual slight fishiness which I kind of like.

Assorted “meat” balls (beef, pork, and shrimp). The meatballs were good here.

House Special Pork Balls.

House Signature Ham (spam). I love “luncheon meat” at hot pots. This one tasted good, but it became a bit soft in the pot.

Kurabuta Pork Jowl. These were quite good.

Mini Pork Sausage. Not the usual “brand” of sausage and not quite as flavorful.

Each A5 has it’s own presentation. The rib cap (we didn’t order it because Yarom was fighting the A5) comes in a bull!

Japanese Miyazaki A5 Wagyu Silver Side. This was very good but it’s hard to know that one can tell it’s A5 after it’s been boiled and soaked in sauce. I’m a little skeptical if it’s really A5. It might be some more domestic wagyu. Hard to know for sure.

Wagyu Short Rib. Meat was good.

Wagyu Top Blade.

Squid Rolls. Interesting texture.

Imitation Crab Sticks. These almost disolved in the broth, which gave them a slightly offputting mushy texture.

Assorted Vegetables. The cabbage rocked.

Bamboo Shoot. Fiber!

Robo waiters.

This is so SGV.

Overall, Wagyu X was interesting. It was pretty good hot pot, and the decor is great, but we had the annoying wait and a problem with the broth choices/availability. If we got that sorted and were there at dinner and ordered crazy stuff I think it might be a lot of fun.

Fundamentally, if like me, you make your sauce pretty zesty/spicy, then there isn’t that much taste difference between this and any of the other higher end “regular” hot pot chains. Wagyu X is prettier, however, and they do have more wagyu. They also have a lot of expensive live seafood, which I do think would be good with milder broths like the mysteriously unavailable golden broth. After this meal, but before the long delayed write up, I’ve had a couple of delicate seafood hot pots with fabulous non-spicy broths and they were really good. As much as I love a good Chengdu style spicy ox fat broth, it pretty much nukes out seafood subtlety.

This place apparently has the same owners as Niku X — which we shall come to in time on All Things.

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For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

After we went over to a friend’s restaurant to say high.

Got some free Chinese buttered buns which had carbs I didn’t want. They tasted good however.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beef, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, hot pot, Lunch Quest, Niku X, Rowland Heights, SGV, spicy, Wagyū, Wagyu House by The X Pot

Big at Bistro Na

May26

Restaurant: Bistro Na’s [1, 2, 3]

Location: 9055 E Las Tunas Dr #105, Temple City, CA 91780. (626) 286-1999

Date: October 9, 2022 and January 7, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Upscale Chinese, solid kitchen

Chinese Restaurants in the SGV are slowly going more upscale in a way that’s different than the Cantonese palaces of Monterey Park of yesterday. I’ve been here several times before, even celebrating a birthday, but Jeffrey wanted to go, and we figured we’d check it out post pandemic (10/9/22) and then not long after Arnie wanted to try it too, so we went back (1/7/23).

And one of the latest is Bistro Na’s located on Las Tunas near this cool:

Teapot fountain!

The interior is very elegant Chinese, almost traditional but in a new way typical in China today. Ornate wood carvings, lanterns and antique music instruments abound. Technically it bills itself as “Imperial Cuisine”. Maybe there is some of that, but it’s also a bit of Chinese greatest hits. Still, it’s a different cuisine than nearly every other place in the SGV with more ornate plating.

The menu is a hardcover thick paged photo tome!

We reserved the private room again. You basically HAVE to do this at Na if you want a great experience. The regular area is just too cramped and restrictive. Food somehow seems better in here too. But they have annoying policies with the regular room. It has a minimum, which isn’t THAT high, so it’s okay, EXCEPT for the fact that you can only reserve at either 5 or 7:30pm and you only get 2 hours. So if you want a different time, say 6:30pm, you need to PAY for both blocks!

In contrast on 1/7/23 about 10 of us were smushed into this booth out in the main dining room as that was the largest table they had. Yarom hovered as usual.
The menu. A lot of dishes at Na are bland so Jeffrey and I spent hours in advance plotting the best things to order.

Chili Tofu Skin Salad (10/9/22). Very nice texture and a little bit of heat.

Na’s Spicy Chicken (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). The classic Sichuan cold dish. Super tasty with a nice balance of salt, tang, and heat. Some numbing as well. Very tender chicken.

Celtuce Jellyfish Salad (10/9/22). A combo dish of smashed cucumbers and jellyfish. Now while it’s expensive ($42!) it was a fabulous jellyfish (and cucumber) dish with a great tangy/sweet soy.

Jellyfish Salad (1/7/23). Not bad, although not much jellyfish — and it replaces the now discountined Jellyfish with Cucumbers (above) that was amazing. Poor direction to go in.

Chef Su’s Pork Feet Jelly (1/7/23). Kind of bland, although the pork meat part was okay.

Smoked Pork Ribs (1/7/23). Bleh. Kind of like lame ribs at a lamb American BBQ joint.

Beijing Zhajian Noodles (10/9/22). They are served all mixed up. It’s very mild but plesant. The meat and mushrooms add some heartiness. The bean sauce is subdued.

Mixed up.

Alaskan King Crab Typhoon Style (10/9/22). Spectacular version using the crab body. Shell was cooked down to be very tender and the crispy garlic was awesome.

Alaskan King Crab Legs, Steamed. Simple but delicious.

Alaskan King Crab Egg Custard. Pleasant texture and mild flavor.

Crispy Shrimp (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). This is Na’s signature dish and for a reason. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and the shells completely candied and edible. Delicious, if a touch sweet. They remind me somehow of cicadas escaping their shells.

3-4 lb Lobster “Typhoon Style” (1/7/23). Lobster itself was a little over cooked and the Typhoon was oddly soggy without the crisp and stong garlic flavor. A bit meh.

2.5lb Turbo steamed with Ginger and Soy (1/7/23). Okay but a bit bland. Nowhere near as good as the Chang’An version.

Braised Abalone and Sea Cucumber (10/9/21). Pleasant brown sauce. This dish is all about the texture. The Sea Cucumber had a nice mouth feel.

Black Pepper Lamb Chops (1/7/23). We asked for rare and got medium plus. Okay, but a bit too overcooked. These also replace the crispy lamb which was great.

Na’s Braised Pork Belly (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). Great version of this classic Shanghai dish. The pork was super succulent and the sweet brown sauce had a nice depth of star anise.

Crispy Pigeon (10/9/22). Fine, but actually one of the weaker dishes tonight as these were slightly dry.

Stir Fried Angus Beef with Garlic (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). Really interesting. The beef itself was tender and good, even if the piece size felt a little bit thick, but the real killer was the crispy candied chilies. These were incredible! Actually fairly spicy.

Braised Brisket with Quail Egg (1/7/23). Kind of sweet and savory, more or less a beef stew. Not bad though.

Stir Fried Pea Sprouts with Mushrooms (1/7/23). Excellently cooked. Could have used a touch more salt (or “flavor”) but otherwise nice.

Chili Pork with Cauliflower (10/9/22). Very tasty vegetable with nice crunch and a good porky flavor.

Stir Fried Cabbage with Dried Shrimp (10/9/22). The dried shrimp give this version of the dish a quite significant pungency. Weirdly they removed it from the menu by our return in January!

Fried Mixed Mushrooms with Rice Cracker Bites (10/9/22 and 1/7/23). OMG these were like potato-stick crack. They felt “hollow”, crispy, and coated in an almost candied shell. So good!

Shrimp Fried Rice with Bonito (10/9/22). Nice complex fried rice with a distinct bonito flake flavor.

Pan Fried Beef Buns (10/9/22). Very nicely flavored beef and chive filling. Pretty temperature hot at the start and could have used a little vinegar/dumpling sauce to balance the hot fat.

Fruit (10/9/22). I guess you only get this in the private room!

Key Lime Pie Gelato — base is a key lime egg custard, layered with house-made Graham Cracker and covered with house-made Torched Meringue — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #KeyLime #lime #custard #meringue #GrahamCracker #cookie

The emotional damage!

Overall, a complicated place (for the SGV) to review.

Service on 10/9/22 was good, better than before. They brought us wine glasses (not great ones, but they have them). We handled the wine service. There was a good amount of plate changing. Took a while to get going even though we had the pre-ordered menu. They seat all the private rooms in two seatings at 5pm and 7:30pm so all 5 of them were sitting at once (not to mention the limited time thing and the minimums). That doesn’t make it easy on the server. All in all it’s excellent service for SGV Chinese.

On 1/7/23 service was fine, but a bit different as we were smushed in outside. I was also annoyed with them because they had removed several of their best dishes from the menu and replaced them with even blander alternatives.

Food is interesting. Beautiful plating. Not the most flavor forward of the Chinese cuisines. Pretty good if you order very very carefully, but also expensive in a relative fashion. Ended up over $200 a person all in with a good tip because of the King Crab. If you go to a Top Island or the like you can get that much cheaper too. Still a novel and fun experience. Gorgeous room.

While a bit pricey for the SGV, the atmosphere is lovely and the plating much more elegant. Some dishes were excellent, some just pretty good, and some outright bland. I’m not really sure what regionality of Chinese it is. Sort of Beijing/Shanghai maybe? They say “Imperial.” It does feel very contemporary Chinese and is certainly not aimed at white folk. I have a general problem here with their “under-seasoning.” A lot of dishes just seem too sweet or too bland. On Oct 9, 2022 meal we ordered really carefully and leaned toward their more spicy (not actually spicy) dishes. This helped a great deal. On 1/7/23 the meal was considerably inferior. We weren’t in the private room and the “crowd” I was with wanted to order some of their meatier dishes that just fall a bit flat.

Hangry Rider made this excellent video summary of our 10/9/22 meal.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bistro Na, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Foodie Club, Gelato, hedonists, Private Room, SGV, Wine

DimSumQuest – Blooming VIP

May20

Restaurant: Blooming VIP Restaurant

Location: 8118 Garvey Ave A, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 280-2288

Date: October 7, 2022

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: Solid

This was sort of the first of a new series we called DimSumQuest, in which a bunch of us actively hit some of Southern California’s vast array of Dim Sum places in short order (1-2 a week over several months) in order to suss out their relative merits. Technically speaking, at the time of this visit we hadn’t yet conceived the nefarious plan, but it was the same crew and in the same timeframe so this was pretty much visit (ground) zero.

Blooming VIP, horrible name aside, is a recent opening of a typical Cantonese palace. It’s even helmed by our friend Ben who used to be at Grand Harbor.

I’m not sure if it’s brand new or took over a previous Cantonese Palace but it has some serious (overwrought) build-out.

Who doesn’t love a dragon medallion.

And the main room has to be seen to be believed.

The highlight are these video screen Chinese columns! Animated seafood scenes roll around them continuously!

The manager, Ben and Yarom.

Le menu.

Honey BBQ Pork.

Five Spices Beef Shank.

Imperial Cold Chicken.

Roasted Duck Hong Kong Style.

Seafood Pan Fried Noodle.

Chicken Feet with XO Sauce.

Short Rib with Black Pepper Sauce.

Bean Curd Skin Wrap.

Steamed Beef Balls.

Shrimp and Mushroom Sui Mai.

Beef Rice Noodle with Green Onion.

XLB.

Shrimp Chives Dumpling.

Har Gow.

Pan Fried Chives Pastry. I love these when I see them.

Tofu with Thai Sauce. I love these too, kind of a guilty pleasure.

Shrimp Egg Roll.

Deep Fried Shrimp Ball.

BBQ Pork Bun.

Salty Meat Sticky Rice Wrap. A bit of an unusual look to it, with lots of filling.

Overall, I remember that this was solid but not amazing Dim Sum. Now don’t get me wrong, if you aren’t jaded like I am with SGV Dim Sum, it might be the best you ever had, but in that rarified world, it’s just “doing a good job.” They have a great classic “Palace” setting, they have a full menu of all the usuals and a few less usuals, they have the BBQ meats, they allow you to order off the bigger “dinner” Cantonese menu if you like (not so recommended during the day), and they have awesome service. So, yeah, it checks all the boxes. Specific Dim Sum execution was just good, not amazing. Unfortunately, not only was this the zero’th DimSumQuest visit but I didn’t take the ultra-detailed notes that I did on later visits, so not much (almost no) commentary on which dishes were specifically great.

When the rest of the DimSumQuest crew returned (without me) in Jan 2023 (due to their incessant zeal) they thought “Blooming VIP in Rosemead was solid. Everything was good… but nothing stood out as excellent EXCEPT… the fresh live steamed Norwegian Langoustine/Scampi….so sweet & delicious! But off course, fresh Norwegian Scampi is not really considered DimSum!” — for me the biggest standout was the giant column TV screens, never seen that before.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Blooming VIP, Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese Palace, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Dim sum, DimSumQuest, Lunch Quest, SGV

This Location Again?

May16

Restaurant: Lady Yan’s

Location: 203 W Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 872-6677

Date: October 2, 2022

Cuisine: (Mostly) Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Medium level Szechuan

I’ve eaten at this location as at least 5 restaurants.

It’s the familiar spot that once housed Sham Tsem (Alahambra), New Bay, and Happy Table, and GV Yummy. That’s a lot of restaurant churn — probably the most different restaurants I’ve eaten at in a single location in the SGV. The current name seems to be Lady Yan’s, but the old signs are still up there. New Qing Dao seemed to have been the same as GV Yummy. Not totally sure. It was very confusing.

The menu. This time around I think it’s Szechuan, more or less.

Cucumber Salad. The typical smashed cucumber dish, but an excellent version being smashed, very garlic forward, and well sauced.

Jelly in spicy savory sauce. The Chengdu street mung bean jelly. Not a bad version at all. I would have preferred a slight extra bit of tanginess in the sauce, but it was good.

Sliced beef and ox tongue in chili sauce. Nice version of this dish with the appropriate cilatro and peanut vibe. Regular meat and what is probably tripe or lung. Not as good as at GuYi, but very good.

Spicy wonton “soup.” Nice, although as usual for this dish the wonton’s seemed a bit under-seasoned (maybe just overwhelmed by the chili) and the “soup” is slightly watery.

Our one claw 4lb live lobster.

Lobster with ginger scallion. This was by accident as it was supposed to by Tyhoon style. I think the chef just didn’t want to. The lobster meat itself was fine but the prep was meh. Heavy. One of the worst Chinese lobsters I’ve had in a while.

Live fish kung fu style. Very nice fish with plenty of meat, chilis, veggies, tofu, potato etc. Overall lovely.

Tea Smoked Duck. Excellent pastrami duck. Very juice and delicious.

Sichuan spicy chicken nuggets. Very nice salty/numbing version of this iconic dish. Quite enjoyable.

Double cooked pork belly. Twice cooked pork. Awesome version with a really nice smoke and black bean flavor.

Sichuan signature mixed meats in chili sauce. Pretty much the same chili “broth” as the fish etc. Included all sorts of weird parts. The spam and liver/blood type stuff was good. There was also the chewy tripe.

BBQ Lamb Ribs. Served piping hot. Very fatty and full of sizzling flavor. Nice. The sauces didn’t totally work.

Eggplant with spicy garlic sauce. A 7/10 version of this dish. Pretty nice.

Green beans with garlic. Fine but nothing special.

Shredded cabbage. This had the obligatory pork belly and was generally fairly delicious.

Dan dan mein. Pretty typical Chengdu version. No peanut or sesame but a fairly addictive flavor all the same.

Seasoned peanuts. Nice, although not like the crack peanuts at Haige Star.

MaPo Tofu. Surprisingly delicious. Solid 8/10 version of this dish.

Chengdu style fried rice. Not exactly sure what was in here (other than the obvious peas) but it was very tasty.

Free totally weird Chinese dessert. Pretty terrible.

Citron au Courant Sorbetto – Fresh squeezed Lemons blended with French Currants (Cassis) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #lemon #cassis #currents #lemonade #citron

Overall, this place was solid, but slightly “uninspired” SGV Chinese. Now for outside the SGV it would be excellent, as it’s way better than somewhere like Szechuan Place. Lady Yan’s has a wide range of dishes and they do “pretty well” with most of them, very good with a few. The service was nice and MUCH better than at Happy Table or GV Yummy. The build out was identical. It’s fairly low rent and not super crowded. The space must be cursed. There are better Szechuan places, several, but I’d go back to Lady Yans happily enough. And they do have some lingering dishes from other regions (like the BBQ lamb ribs).

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, fish, Gelato, offal, SGV, spicy, Szechuan, Szechuan Chinese

Indian, The Tavern – Confusion

Apr22

Restaurant: Indian, The Tavern

Location: 633 S San Gabriel Blvd #105, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 287-0688

Date: September 11, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Solid, if odd

It’s hard to describe this particular SGV restaurant.

From the outside it looks like most of them.

But then inside it has this weird western saloon theme. Presumably it was some kind of “Indian bar” back in the 50s. The decor has partially stuck, but the menu is almost all Chinese.

We had this rustic table in the “party room.”

Not so PC!

Shrimp Egg Roll. Very hot and crispy, moist interior. The sweet sauce was also a bit spicy which was kinda nice.

Grilled Taiwanese Sausage. Sweet and salty sausage, always great.

Scallop in “lobster sauce” (egg white). Surprisingly good.

Sliced pork belly w/ minced Garlic. Dark garlic sauce on the side. Not bad but not the best dish of the night.

Salty dark garlic sauce.

French Steak medium rare on rare side. Best “Chinese” steak I’ve had. Pretty much a regular steak, medium rare with black pepper.

Tea Smoked Duck. Very nice. Smokey and pretty moist.

Preserved pork belly w/ garlic sprouts. Great dish. Smokey pork with leaks and garlic coated in all that smokey pork fat.

Lobster with XO sauce. Weakest dish of the night perhaps? Slightly over-cooked but still enjoyable.

Smashed Cucumbers. Out of order but a great version of this dish. Lots of garlic flavor.

Fish filet in green vine pepper soup. A bit of numbing flavor but not that hot or numbing. I’ve had better versions of this dish but it was still decent.

Stir Fried Double Fried Eggs W. Napa Cabbage. Excellent cabbage with that awesome greasy/salty flavor.

Tofu with house sauce. Very nice tofu with a lovely deep ginger flavored brown sauce.

Shrimp and Taiwanese Sausage Fried Rice. Excellent fried rice.

Vanilla White Gelato — a very simple and elegant Tahitian Vanilla Bean White Base (no egg) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #vanilla

Cinnamon Caramel Sauce.

Overall, the place was surprisingly excellent. There were long gaps between dishes (particularly at the beginning) and the order was kind of Chinese random, but the dish quality was very good. There were some slightly weird dishes too, but they tasted good, so nothing to complain about. I’m not exactly sure what region of China the kitchen represents. And then there is the unique and peculiar “decor.” Certainly interesting.

Jennifer had a bit of an accident during her recent trip to tour the Chernobyl basement.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, Indian Tavern, SGV, Wine

Pine & Crane – WTF

Apr18

Restaurant: Pine & Crane

Location: 1521 Griffith Park Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026. (323) 668-1128

Date: September 8, 2022

Cuisine: Taiwanese Chinese

Rating: Blech! So bland

PINE & CRANE is a fast-casual Taiwanese restaurant located in the heart of Silver Lake. Their goal is to bring authentic, delicious Taiwanese fare in a comfortable, modern setting. They say they are passionate about what they do, and take pride in preparing their food using simple, fresh ingredients. In addition to Taiwanese staples like Three Cup Chicken 三杯鷄 and Beef Noodle Soup 牛肉麵, they offer a variety of small plates, traditional cold appetizers, and vegetarian/vegan options. Their beverage list includes a “curated” selection of premium loose-leaf teas sourced from Taiwan and a rotating craft beer, wine, and sake list.
I’ve been wanting to try Pine & Crane since it opened, being the Chinese Food fiend that I am. It’s location in annoying (aka far) Silverlake and its casual nature prevented me. It’s not worth driving to the ends of the earth and fighting for parking for something too casual. But when we finished up a dinner at Causita next door I figured we should hit it for Second Dinner.

Outside tables.

A cute enough fast casual interior.

The very short menu.

Chilled Garlic Pork Belly. Salmon creek pork belly, garlic soy sauce, chili crisp. Very soy sauce and garlic forward. No spice. WTF is up with this dish? It looks like Sichuan Garlic Chili cold pork belly, but it tasted like cold raw bacon with soy sauce.

Pork Potstickers. Kurobuta pork, Taiwanese cabbage. One of the better dishes. Very crispy with nice pork center. Just good gyoza.

Basic but important sauce components.

Shrimp Wontons. Filling was good but the sauce was just salty, not much else going on. The stuff that looks like it might be chili oil — no heat.

Dan dan noodles. Sesame-peanut sauce, chili oil, cucumbers, cilantro, crumbled peanuts. Very mild and sesame forward. No spice or vinegar at all. Tasty, but basically sesame noodles. I always find these Taiwanese “watered down” variations on Sichuan dishes to be a total disappointment.

Mapo Tofu. Organic Silken Tofu, Kurobuta Pork, Spicy Doubanjiang. I couldn’t taste ANY spicy or any Doubanjiang (which is spicy). It was basically very nice tofu in salty brown sauce. It looks good. The texture was good. But it’s fake Mapo. No spice, no Ma!

White rice.

Pine & Crane is a waste of space for a Chinese Food fan like myself. I’d just go to the SGV, which is quicker to get to and much better. There are tastier places on the Westside. I guess I have a bit of a problem with Taiwanese versions of mainland Chinese food — I find them bland and unbalanced. They lean heavily on salt without spicy, numbing, or sour. This is my problem with DTF too. But DTF is much better than Pine & Crane. Maybe Pine & Crane is also watered down for the whiteness that is Silverlake. Hard to say.

I also don’t like fast casual unless I’m alone. Annoying and stressful format. I’m very glad I hit this as a Second Dinner (first one is here at Causita). If I had come out here for lunch just for this I would have been really pissed.

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Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Dan Dan Mein, Double Dinner, Foodie Club, mapo tofu, Pine & Crane, Second Dinner, Silverlake, Taiwanese Cuisine

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.

And why the hell is there sushi on the menu?

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.

Smashed cucumbers. Decent, but under marinated and under sauced.

Crispy Bun with Minced Pork. Actually not a bad version of this chewy/sweet thing (often called Fried Glutinous Meat Dumplings).

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.

Har Gow. Wrapper ok and the shrimp a little “fishy.”

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.

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.

Shu Mai. Smelled a bit odd. Pork tasted okay, wrapper a bit soggy. 3/10.

Black Pepper and Black Bean Beef. Basically “French Style” beef. Really tender and smoothered in “flavor” (aka MSG). Pretty tasty actually.

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.

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For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dumplings, Lunch Quest, Santa Monica

Quick Eats – Bafang

Mar06

Restaurant: Bafang Dumpling [Crawl: MK BBQ, Peking, Bafang, Spicy Home, Beijing Tasty ]

Location: 1552 S Azusa Ave Suite B, City of Industry, CA 91748. (626) 778-1958

Date: July 31, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese Dumplings

Rating: Bleh!

For stop 3 of our I’ll fated July far SGV crawl we (more or less me) inserted this dumpling place into the roster.

I’ve been wanting to try this for months as the website and online reviews made it look great. But as a dumpling only specialist I was never going to make a specific trip 40+ miles east just for this.

But boy was I in for some confusion. I hadn’t expected this “fast food” (or slightly “fast casual”) counter order format. Or the incredibly limited menu.

What I didn’t realize about Bafang was that it’s a super simple dumpling place reframed as a fast food chain.
Weird messages about their quality that don’t match the experience.

The menu is microscopic. It’s basically two shapes of dumplings, with 3-4 fillings, and a couple of simple noodles. Then a few extras.

The sauces, so important for dumplings, were just wretched. There was just plain soy sauce, vinegar, some gross packaged chili sauce. No proper dumpling sauce which is a mix of soy, vinegar, sugar etc. This completely ruined the taste for me (later).

They do a have a dumpling making room.

Signature pork dumpling, “potsticker” style. Pretty decent, interesting long shape, but a bit under seasoned.

Kimchi and Pork, boiled. Not too bad, but nothing stunning. A little spicy.

Corn and chicken potsticker. I liked the texture, but it didn’t have a massive amount of flavor.

Just in case you didn’t know.

These had a hint of mala, but looked kind of sad and tasted like the sauce was a mala tomato sauce. Very odd. Super overcooked noodles too.

Very mediocre. Almost any mom and pop dumpling place is better. If one of these was in a very convenient location and I needed a 15 minute solo meal I might consider going again — otherwise no — and certainly not an hour away. The dumplings themselves might be passable on a real plate. It didn’t taste BAD — I mean they are dumplings — but still.

I hate eating at crappy tables. I hate eating out of takeout containers and with plastic wares. I hate dumplings with no good sauce. Yuck. Just nothing to recommend. It wasn’t even that fast.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Bafang, Chinese cuisine, crawl, dumplings, Fast food, SGV

Quick Eats – Peking Restaurant

Mar04

Restaurant: Peking Restaurant [ CLOSED? ] [Crawl: MK BBQ, Peking, Bafang, Spicy Home, Beijing Tasty ]

Location: 19240 Colima Rd Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 363-4961

Date: July 31, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Sloppy and not worth recommending in any way

This particular crawl was not well researched. In fact, it was slapped together mostly from yelp or driving around to include places in the “far SGV” (Rowland and Hacienda Heights). This is our second stop after one tucked in a Supermarket!

I love the look of these dives where they took some old 1950s-70s place and converted it into a Chinese restaurant.

The menu is big — just not good.

At least they let us open wines.

Cucumbers were just plain chopped cucumbers. Not marinated. Not smashed. No garlic. Nothing.

Jellyfish. Very mild flavor like they just dumped some distilled vinegar on them.

Cold appetizer plate with MORE jellyfish, ok cold beef, and shrimp with ketchup and Chinese mustard. The shrimp tasted just like shrimp cocktail Chinese style. Lol.

“Peking” duck. Wasn’t very crispy and the meat was quite dry. Total hack job.

Messy pile of scallions.

Gunky shredded cucumber.

Hoisin was not so great.

Tortillas! Yep, not spring pancakes. Packaged flour tortillas. Way too heavy and ruined the whole vibe.

Fried sweet buns. Fried Chinese dough with a bit of sweetened condensed milk. This was probably the best dish. lol. It was best dipped in a 50/50 soy sauce and vinegar mix.

Oranges.

This place appears to have closed (gone out of business). Not exactly surprised, it was one of the worst SGV Chinese restaurants I’ve ever eaten at. Kinda grungy inside too.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, crawl, hedonists, Peking Duck, Peking Restaurant, Rowland Heights, SGV

Not all Dim Sum are Created Equal

Feb11

Restaurant: Five Star Seafood Restaurant

Location: 140 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 288-1899

Date: July 9, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: Meh

Once or twice a year the hedonists (and Yarom’s family) trek’s out to the SGV for a two part Saturday featuring dim sum and some banquet dinner. Locations vary but several times we’ve been to the awesome Juicy Dumpling.

This is the same maxi-mall with Juicy Dumpling and Spicy City (now sadly closed I think). 5 Star has a comanding position in the corner, high above everything else (you need to take an elevator up above the market).

It’s a giant room with a decent view, classic Cantonese.

And a cart place. I haven’t been to a cart place in a while and 5 Star reminded me why.

Our table.

Pan fried meat and chive patties. Oily and delicious.

Greens. Just were. Not much garlic.

Red bean sesame balls. One of the problems with carts is the totally random order. Actually it’s not random, it’s bad to better.

Fried shrimp paste balls on sugar sticks. Luke warm (or even cool) by the time we got them.

Disgusting pig trotters the way Yarom likes ’em.

Chicken Feet. Same deal as the pig’s feet.

Pork ribblets. Pretty tasty, if boney.

XLB. Doughy version and not very warm at all, but still tasty.

Veggie roll. This is normally a great dish — here a bit meh.

Eggplant stuffed with fried shrimp paste. Not so great. They love the shrimp paste here.

DEEP fried wontons with mayo.

A different deep fried roll, I think with shrimp paste — and more mayo.

Yet another deep fried roll with mayo. Hard to tell the difference, maybe different (fried) wrapper.

Lotus Sticky Rice. They do have all the classics here.

Siu Mai. Took us a long time to get these and even when we did they were luke warm. They were passable.

Scrawny.

Beef ball. Very “processed” and almost sweet like a jewish meatball.

Chive and shrimp dumpling. One of the best dishes. Somehow, despite this being a dim sum place, I basically had to ambush the dumpling carts at the kitchen and rip the steamed dumplings out of their hands — they were very determined to push more over-fried stuff.

Har gow. Very hard to get, surprisingly, and just fine.

Baked pork bun (char siu bao). Ok. You can see from the picture it’s a bit flabby.

Pineapple bun. Excellent actually.

This was some pretty mediocre dim sum for the SGV. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still tasty. Even bad dim sum is pretty good. And this wasn’t terrible, it’s not like some of the horrible ones in downtown or further west, but there are about 10 much better places within a mile or three! And it’s a cart dim sum which basically sucks. It’s hard to get the dishes you want. They’re cold when you do. You get them in the wrong order. Hungry party members insist on loading up on the bad fry they always drive by first. Much better to order from the sheet in waves.

After this I got two different two hour massages (because I couldn’t convince my normal place to do longer than two hours). THEN we went off to Shanghai #1 Seafood for an awesome dinner (way better than lunch).

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cantonese Chinese, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, hedonists, parlay, SGV, Wine

Lunch Quest – Da Long Yi

Dec01

Restaurant: DaLongYi Hot Pot 大龙燚火锅

Location: 250 W Valley Blvd L, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 872-6690

Date: May 20, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese Szechuan Hot Pot

Rating: Very solid spicy hot pot place

Da Long Yi Hot Pot is a relatively new spicy hot pot branch of some Chinese chain, in the Chongking style, but from Chengdu specifically.

It’s located located on the second floor of this classic mall right next door to Shanghai #1 Seafood Village.

The interior has a decent but modern industrial build out.

The “snacks” are extremely minimal.

The sauce bar section is decent, totally workable, but not as good as a few other chains.

I made my usual pair of sesame and vinegar based sauces.

Fried Pork. Super nice fry with juicy pork. Great!

Half spicy, half bone broth. The bone is boring, of course.

Smooth beef. Thick slices coated in egg. Very tender and nice.

Pork meat balls. Great, not those dense packaged ones.

Luncheon Meat. Always one of my favorites.

Fish Balls stuffed with Roe. Great.

Angus Beef.

Beef Tongue.

Lamb Shoulder.

Assorted Tofu.

Assorted Mushrooms.

Lotus root. Love that crunchy texture.

Napa cabbage. Because this is always the favorite veggie, we decided to just order it.

This turned out to be a surprisingly nice spicy hot pot. It’s “almost” as good as Shancheng Lameizi or Chun La Hao, but not quite. Build out isn’t as attractive as either of those. Sauce/snack bar is a bit worse. Actual hot pot food quality was quite good, basically equal. Weirdly, they were completely empty. One employee I think and we were the only customers. Food was great though.

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For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, Da Long Yi, hot pot, Lunch Quest, SGV, spicy, Szechuan cuisine

Shanghai #1 2022

Nov09

Restaurant: Shanghai #1 Seafood Village [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 250 W Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 282-1777

Date: April 17 & July 9, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Very authentic Shanghai style

The San Gabriel Valley is a veritable treasure trove of Asian dining, particularly regional Chinese. Shanghai #1 Seafood Village is the LA branch of a high end Shanghai chain specializing in banquet dining. Here in 2022 we returned for a pair of dinners to see how it was doing post pandemic.

The decor is Stark meets Chinatown. Interestingly, as cheesy as it is, it’s fairly authentic. It is however, some 7 years after I first went here, looking a bit “shabby.” This is typical of Chinese establishments as they don’t seem to do a lot of maintenance. We had the private dining room tonight. Mysteriously, even though it was a Sunday night and the place was EMPTY, at first they gave us a table in the main area. We had to ask for the private room. It’s much better though.

The menu is like a giant full color fashion catalog for food, but I thought I’d show a couple pages by way of example.

Smashed Cucumbers with Garlic. Good with some of the other sauces.

Jellyfish Heads. In a nice sweet and tangy sauce.

Pickled Turnips. Sweet and a tiny bit spicy. I like them a lot but some people don’t.

Black Fungus (cloud ear mushroom). I always like this.

Pork Jelly. Very clean version of this dish.

Cold Chicken. Fine, but a bit boring as always. Simple “hainan-like” chicken. Pretty good except for he bones. The sauce was good.

Oil Poached Crab. Very lovely with clean crab flavor. Not so large though (we ordered 2).

Tofu with shrimp and salty egg yolk. Very strong salty egg flavor, but quite nice.

Two Flavor Shrimp. The one with the shell is sweet.

Yellow Croaker with Green Onion. Brown savory sauce and a very nice oniony flavor.

Fried yellow croaker with tea leaves. Very fried but delicious with the sweet vinegar.

Yellow Croaker with Green Onion. Brown savory sauce and a very nice oniony flavor.

Jiggly Pork Hock. Delicious.

Tea Smoked Duck. Crispy and delicious.

Beef with Scallions. Okay but a bit bland and the beef was chewy.

Cumin lamb. They pretty much forgot the cumin and the peppers.

Peppers with pork. Good, although not that much pork.

XLB. Very good.

Vinegar for the dumplings.

Tofu with pork. Great flavor.

Shanghai Style Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings. Heavy, but yummy.

Shrimp fried rice.

Shanghai Noodles with pork and cabbage. Fabulous noodles actually.

Crispy noodles with seafood. Delicious. Great texture and nice flavor.

Caramel Double Chip Gelato — Base is Salted Caramel made by replacing the sugar with house-made Water Caramel. Laced with Valrhona Chocolate Chunks and Toffee Chunks — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #caramel #SaltedCaramel #valrhona #toffee

Overall, these were both really great meals, but the April one was spectacular and the July one just great. Shanghai #1 severs (on a good night) first rate Chinese and quite authentic and typical of high end banquet meals in China. I’ve been here many times and finally enjoyed getting some “tricked out” dishes like sea cucumber. They were great. Service was good. The place is QUIET these days. Maybe they subsist on daytime dimsum, but it’s a shame as this Shanghai banquet food is delicious.

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They have a Karaoke setup in the private room!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Gelato, hedonists, SGV, Shanghai #1 Seafood Village, Shanghai Cuisine

Little Cambodia – Hak Heang

Oct12

Restaurant: Hak Heang Restaurant

Location: 2041 E Anaheim St, Long Beach, CA 90804. (562) 434-0296

Date: February 23, 2022

Cuisine: Cambodian Chinese

Rating: Cambodian drifting toward Chinese

Yarom and I went down to Long Beach in February 2022 to check out a bunch of Cambodian restaurants in a mini crawl. Alas we couldn’t convince anyone else to come with us on this particular day.

Our third stop was Hak Heang which is a Long Beach Cambodian institution.

The interior is vast, dingy, and typical of Chinese banquet halls. On one side a bunch of older Cambodian guys were playing cards and drinking tea.

The many is VAST with a hybrid of Cambodian, Chinese, and Cambodian Chinese dishes. Presumably the owners are ethnic Chinese from Cambodia.
We tried to order Cambodian dishes and asked the server for recommendations. But because we were two people and this was our third stop could only handle two more dishes.

Curry Fish (073). Mam Bo Hoc Nuoc Dua. TONS of flavor, very spicy, and unusual herbal notes.

Ground chicken, Shrimp, and Lemon Grass (098). Ga Tom Xao Cai Ot. Also very delicious and unusual. As can be found at many Thai restaurants this “meat paste” was served with chunks of veggies as a kind of dip or topping.

Hak Heang also has a huge menu and it would definitely be possible to do a large group dinner here. The two dishes we had were delicious and interesting. However, I can’t say the dingy old Cantonese banquet hall vibe — like a relic of the late 70s or something — is super appearing.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cambodian Cuisine, Chinese cuisine, food crawl, Hak Heang, Long Beach, Lunch Quest

One One Dumplings

Sep08

Restaurant: One One Dumplings

Location: 704 W Las Tunas Dr #4, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 282-8695

Date: December 17, 2021

Cuisine: Northern Chinese

Rating: Solid boiled and fried dumplings

AFF and another Friday trip to the SGV to check out some Asian goodness. We actually intended to go to Hui Tou Xiang next door but they were only open for takeout — and since daddy don’t do takeout, we hit up one one.

Small interior.

Very casual sauce containers.

The menu is smaller than the interior and doubles as an order form. And a third of it is crossed out.

Flavors stewed bean curd. Tastes pretty normal actually. Flavors is mostly soy sauce (and maybe some sugar) and a couple of spices like star anise.

Fried pork dumplings. Great crispy bottom.

Stewed pork noodle in soup.

Flavors stewed beef. Presumably this meat is braised in the same liquid as the tofu.

Cabbage, pork, and shrimp. Straight up delicious boiled dumplings.

Pork with soup, steamed. What they mean here is soup dumplings, ie. that frozen or solidified broth was included in the filling before steaming. Delicious of course.

Chive, pork, egg, and shrimp boiled dumplings.

Fried chive, pork, egg dumplings. These had the most perfect pan fried bottom!

The mess.

One one is a simple place, but if you crave straight up boiled and fried jiaozi dumplings, it’s certainly got ’em.

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This is where we intended to go. When they reopen for sit down, I’ll try again.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: AFF, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, dumplings, Friday, lunch, noodles, One One Dumplings, SGV

Xi’an isn’t Shaanxi

Sep02

Restaurant: Xi’an

Location: N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 275-3345

Date: December 12, 2021

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Better than I thought semi-Americanized Chinese

I’ve seen Xi’an on Canon for years but never even considered going into because it looked so Americanized and kitchy. But Yarom met the owner and she offered to make us a special “Chinese” menu.

The outside patio was mobbed.

But in the wake of the virus most people were scared off the inside.

The normal menu is pretty Chinese American. There are even a bunch of oddball dishes that aren’t Chinese at all like salads, edamame (I guess some Beverly Hills residents confuse China and it’s island neighbor).

They start off with plenty of sauces on the table though.

Drunken chicken. Very nice and moist.

Garlic ginger chili sauce. This is pretty much a traditional hainan chicken sauce.

Sichuan Style Chicken Wontons. Not bad, would be better with pork. No self respecting Chengdu chef would use chicken for this dish. Sauce was a bit sweet.

Tofu with chili and Century Egg. Somewhat bland version of this dish. Needed the sweet/tangy soy sauce.

Scallion pancakes. Could have been crispier.

Friend shrimp dim sum. Excellent. Hot and delicious.

Chicken lo-mein for a wus. For some unexplained reason, our esteemed leader sometimes invites people to Chinese who have no interest in real Chinese food — they order dishes like this because they won’t eat what everyone else does.

Miso cod. What’s this doing on a Chinese menu? Did it hitchhike over from Matsuhisa?
Peking duck. Hoison was excellent. Duck was a touch dry. But they had pancakes and rolled some of them for us.

The pancakes were a tough tortilla-like.

Chinese Broccoli with Chinese Sausage. Very good.

Salty egg fried rice. Nice.

Lamb stew with a bit of anise and black cardamon. Quite good. A touch gamey.

Shanghai Style Dungeness Crab with Shanghai Rice cakes. Great ginger/garlic sauce.

Southern Spicy Prawns. Not my favorite.

Hunan Style braised/steamed pork belly with preserved vegetables. Respectable version of this dish, although I have had better.

String beans. Excellent crunch, a touch under-seasoned.

Sesame Red Bean Buns. Chewy.

Fruit. This was ice cold and kinda nice.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by Xi’an. The meal was quite enjoyable. It’s not even slightly “Xi’an” as in having cuisine even remotely related to the capital of Shaanxi province, for that go here. And I wouldn’t be very interested in the regular menu, but what we had was pretty good. It was kind of hit or miss. I had the feeling the chef is solid, but out of practice seasoning dishes authentically given his Beverly Hills crowd. Some dishes were solid and many were middling — but I love Chinese food and even middling Chinese is quite enjoyable.

And they treated us like royalty. Overall a great time.

I didn’t bother photographing the wines.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Chinese cuisine, hedonists, Wine, Xi'an

Chengdu Impression

Jul21

Restaurant: Chengdu Impression

Location: 21 E Huntington Dr, Arcadia, CA 91006. (626) 462-9999

Date: November 7, 2021 and May 1, 2022

Cuisine: Sichuan Chinese

Rating: Great kitchen, terrible service

I wanted to go here for years but a combination of distance, the pandemic, and the challenge of getting Sichuan groups together made it a bit hard. Finally I got here in late 2021 and the kitchen was so good we swore to go again.

It’s located in the North SGV, more Arcadia, on a busy street.

The interior is modern and deserted. Both times almost no other customers. They have 2 privates rooms as well.

This is the upstairs. The first time we ate up here.

The second time we had the large private room.

This is the menu — however, both times, despite my attempts in advance to pre-order stuff, they were “out” of a mysterious range of items. I think it’s staff shortages in the kitchen honestly.

Cold Tossed Cucumber. The second time we tried to order this (on the second visit) they were “out” supposedly because the chef declared that the sauce was “too complicated.” This has to be some kind of staff shortage.

Hot and Sour Jelly Noodle. Good, but could have used a bit more sour to my taste. Texture was on point. Notice the take out container. They really wanted to service us everything in these crap containers with plastic forks and spoons. I went and had a talk with the manager and only by playing up the blog card managed to get them to use real plates. I think they have returned their rental dishwasher or something.

Sliced Pork Belly with Spicy Garlic Sauce. The sauce in particular was incredible. Really awesome and on the second visit when we tried to reorder, again the chef declared the sauce “too complicated” and wouldn’t serve it. Weird!

Boiled Pork Dumplings. Because they were out of the wontons on the first visit. These were basic.

But on the second visit we managed to get wontons! Numbing Spicy Wonton. Nice soft wrapper, very intense numbing sauce (almost a soup).

Couples Sliced Beef and Tripe. Good sauce, beef was a bit tough.
Chinese bread for the beef.

Pungent and Spicy Chicken. Sauce was full of chilis and quite excellent. I particularly liked the bamboo shoots in here.

Chicken in Chili Sauce. Different, less “oily” variant than I usually find.

Cold Chicken Noodles. Really excellent noodle dish with that sweet and tangy quality.

Pickled garlic!

Sliced Sole Filet and Tofu in Sichuan Peppercorn Sauce. Delicious and perfect rendition of the dish. Super moist and soft fish with lots of numbing. Not as spicy as Sichuan Impression.

Kung Pao Shrimp. Delicate and almost floral. Incredible version. There might be some lychee in here for sweetness.

Spicy Lobster (preorder). Nice tender meat and good flavor. They did charge a LOT for this, however. Pre-ordered and brought too early because they can’t resist bringing the pre-order stuff.

Bullfrog Dry Pot with Sichuan Vegetables. Awesome version of this dish, particularly the crunchy lotus root and soft potato.

Braised Sea Cucumber with Minced Pork. The pork was awesome. The cucumber was a bit chewy (and not so strong on flavor).

Bullfrog Stewed with Spicy Ginger Broth. One of the classic Sichuan Bullfrog variants. Quite nice meat.

Beef Tendon. Very jiggly, but nice.

Shredded Beef with Sour Sauce. Interesting.

Chengdu Style Beef Jerky. Very dry but a lot of flavor.

Honey Roasted Duck (Pre-order). Really excellent, super jucy sweet duck. Polarizing as Yarom and David didn’t like the sweet. The rest of us loved it.

Country Style Sliced Pork with Shisito Peppers. Excellent meat with great salty flavor.

Angus Beef Ribs. Interesting. Very fatty, but quite a lot of flavor.

Crispy Spciy Diced Chicken. Fabulous version of this dish with plenty of aromatic chili vibe and a very darkly 2-3 time fried chicken.

Wok Fried Cabbage with Garlic and Minced Pork. Super delicious with a nice crunch and good pork flavor.

Twice Cooked Pork. Perfect. Leeks were great.

Dan Dan Mein.

Mixed up. The flavor was quite good, if a touch sweet.

Mapo Tofu. Very good version of the dish. Not that hot, but lots of numbing and deep flavor.

Raspberry Sorbetto — French Raspberries, a touch of lime juice, and a splash of Amaro — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — I had to add a bit of Amaro for my “art” otherwise it would have been too simple — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #raspberry #amaro

Hazelnut at the Ritz Gelato — Nocciola (hazelnut) custard base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste then mixed with house-made caramel and crushed Ritz Crackers (for that salty offset) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #hazelnut #nocciola #caramel #caramello #ritz #crackers

My son’s favorite — Triple Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped Oreos! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #oreos #ganache #icing #NestléCrunch

So in summary:

I think the actual Sichuan kitchen here is great, maybe the best I’ve had in the greater LA area. But there are serious problems with the operation.

They are clearly “barely in business.” The restaurant is empty and given how crowded most SGV restaurants are this is hardly a good sign. They tried both times to serve on plastic wares. The front of house staff, while friendly, lounged around a good deal of the time. They didn’t replace plates, clear stuff very often, or bring napkins etc. We had to constantly go out to find them to get things and to order — only to discover them chatting with each other in the hall. The kitchen was out of items both times. Oddly out of stuff. We also had a third “failed” dinner between these two where they canceled it on us because they were “doing renovations.” I suspect they were just short staffed or had some permitting issue. The unavailability of basic dishes like cold cucumbers because the sauce was “too complicated” was laughable. Even in the private room where they will give you real plates they gave us mostly plastic silverware.

Additionally, the second visit was oddly expensive. It seems they priced the pre-order dishes (like the lobster and duck) really high. Maybe $200-300+ for just the lobster!

Anyway, it’s really a shame that they have these logistical issues because the subtlety of the cooking is for the most part very good and they do have a lot of interesting items on the menu (when they are in “stock”).

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Chengdu Impression, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Gelato, hedonists, SGV, Sichuan, Sichuan Cuisine, spicy, Wine

Embassy Kitchen Expedition

Mar29

Restaurant: Embassy Kitchen

Location: 218 S San Gabriel Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 286-8148

Date: August 28 & September 9, 2021

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Very tasty, but lots of MSG

Over the years Embassy Kitchen has been on my radar. I missed a couple dinners there due to scheduling conflicts and we even showed up once years ago and when they declined to allow us to open our wine the group rebelled and moved to Beijing Tasty House. Anyway, I managed to go twice in 2021, both for a test lunch and then for a Tony Lau dinner.

It’s adjacent to an old 50s/60s billiards hall which I think is still actually open! This is just all so SGV.

Big menu.

Peanuts on the table.

Beef and anchovy patties. A bit salty and “fishy” in a good umami way.

Deep fried chicken cartilage. Garlicky. Delicious but very salty. Here you chew right through the “chicken knees” (chunks of chewy cartilage. This isn’t always easy for those of the Caucasian persuasion.

Rice stuffed chicken wings. Stuffing slightly bland.

100 flower chicken. Great. I love this dish.

Tilapia rolled up around ginger. Delicious but very salty. This is a polarizing dish. Not only is it salty fried fish but there is this tangy and bitey bit of fresh ginger inside. I loved it, but not everyone did.

Quail. Excellent.

House Special Lobster. Delicious.

Mushrooms with a salty yolk fry.

Beef with truffle. Heavy on the truffle oil.

Simple greens.

Veggies with dried shrimp and crispy taro. Delicious but again super salty.

Almond Chocolate Cloud Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Toasted Sicilian Almond Cream and Dark Chocolate Rocas! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #creamcheese #ganache #icing #almond

Pinoli Gelato — Siberian Pinenut Gelato — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pinoli #pinenut

Portuguese Tarts.

Pineapple Buns.

Embassy Kitchen has a number of unique and interesting dishes and great flavors. It does however, use a lot of salt and MSG and I could really feel it both after both visits. Worth it. The ambiance is classic SGV with that unique blend of 50s/60s buildings with interesting “hybrid” Chinese American decor. Certainly our Tony Lau dinner made for a great night!

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Embassy Kitchen, hedonists, Lunch Quest, SGV, Tony Lau

No. 1 Charcoal Really Is

Mar09

Restaurant: No. 1 Charcoal BBQ

Location: 112 N Chandler Ave #101, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 281-5288

Date: August 22, 2021 & March 13, 2022

Cuisine: Chinese BBQ Skewers

Rating: Fabulous food — Highly recommended for the adventurous

Yarom and I discovered this Chinese BBQ joint while exploring the area (and eating at a nearby Northern style place).

It’s around the corner from Garvey, not far from the lots of places I’ve frequented.

Inside is amusingly peculiar, the current Chinese BBQ place having clearly taken over a space that was once an 80s or 90s Japanese restaurant, complete with sushi bar and wood paneled tatami private dining rooms. In typical Chinese fashioned they didn’t redecorate. As far as I can tell most of the business in summer of 2021 is takeout.

The magic occurs here in this sloppy looking (but tasty) charcoal grill under the hood.

You can still see the sushi freezers on the bar. Everything is just cluttered with random crap.

We used this private dining room, which while a bit awkward to climb into was very cute and the atmosphere was way better than the messy front room and its constant stream of takeout customers.

The menu.

Western Chinese skewer powder.

Jellishfish — quite good, although it could have been tangier. Notice the “plates” that consist of styrofoam takeout containers ripped in half.

Tofu with century egg — delicious with awesome savory notes.

Cucumbers with slightly peanuty dressing.

House Special Beef — there was a delicious brown MSG sauce (pictured below).

Crack sauce.

Pig ears.

Cold lamb with house special sauce.

Cold sesame noodles.

Lamb “Casserole”. Not bad.

Shredded potato. Great.

Stinky Tofu. Stinky!

Spicy tofu sauce.

Dumplings with 3 ingredients. Typical boiled dumplings.

Spicy Crawfish — great sauce, hard to eat as usual.

Spicy “casserole” (aka Mala hot pot).

Extra spam.

Beef tongue

Lamb skewers. All these skewers had a lovely charcoal flavor and were sizzling hot and delicious. The awesome tablewares continue with some cheap paper plates.

Pork.

House special spare ribs — boney but incredible flavor.

Sausages — a bit sweet and awesome.

BBQ Leek — great.

Beef tendon.

Chicken Feet.

Fish Tofu — a touch sweet and spicy.

Lamb Brisket. Good enough we ordered seconds.

Cabbage with garlic — incredible. Really stunning cabbage dish.

King Oyster Mushrooms.

Enoiki Mushrooms.

Grilled BBQ Squid — a touch fishy but good.

BBQ Garlic!

Ball of Quail.

Reminds me a bit of:

Sliced potatoes.

Garlic with a side of eggplant. Also awesome.

Crispy Chicken Bones. Amazing sauce and crunch.

Mascarpone Coffee Crunch Gelato — A base infused with Mascarpone Cheese then blended with house-made Coffee Crunch — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #cheesecake #mascarpone #cheese #coffee #CoffeeCrunch #candy

Grapefruit Aperol Tarragon Sorbetto — Cold pressed Fresh Grapefruit juice from my garden, Aperol and fresh Tarragon! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Unique and bracing — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #grapefruit #aperol #tarragon

Strawberry Jam Gelato — an awesome dairly 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

Our fun little room.

Our wines for the night.

No. 1 Charcoal is one of those surprising SGV finds that make the drive east so so worth it. Despite the amusingly “casual” (or ad hoc) hole-in-the-wall style of the restaurant and the crappy disposable “serving dishes” the food here was actually incredible. It was just full of flavor. Highly recommended for the adventurous.

A second visit in March of 2022 reconfirmed that this is a darn tasty place with a fun room.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: bbq, BYOG, Chinese cuisine, Gelato, No. 1 Charcoal BBQ, SGV, skewers, Wine

Iron Teapot Dome

Feb05

Restaurant: Iron Teapot Dum Sum & Bar

Location: 10306 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90034. (310) 736-1803

Date: August 18, 2021

Cuisine: Dim Sum

Rating: Good food, terrible service system

I was surprised to hear that a “real” dim sum restaurant had opened in Culver City. It’s certainly a neighborhood I know well having had an office there for years and owned and operated a restaurant (just blocks from this location). The concept is basically a menu like the “daytime” menu from a regular Cantonese dim sum place, without the evening banquet menu.

The interior space is tiny, right on busy Venice Blvd near the many good Indian and Mexican places.

They have a large outside patio which was great on this warm August night. They also have one of those whacky “staff free” ordering systems where you order on your phone, no physical menus, just a QR code, and the food comes to the table. This turned out to be quite the issue (more on this at the bottom).

Chili oil, ginger, mustard.

They give you containers where you can mix your own blends which is nice.

Fresh chopped persian cucumbers tossed in a sesame oil with sweetened and salted garlic.

涼拌海蜇. Cold jellyfish marinated in a sesame oil, vinegar and Chinese spices.

哈高蝦 – Crystal Shrimp Dumpling.

Crystal steamed dumpling made with shrimp and chives.

大烧卖燒賣 Sui Mai. Plump cylindrical steamed dumplings made of juicy pork and ground shrimp topped with fish roe/Masago.

排骨. Steamed pork spare ribs in a garlic and black bean sauce.

咖哩雞餃. Curry Chicken Crystal dumpling. We’re dim sum on the westside, we have a license to be a bit different. It’s nice to see some variants from the usual dim sum like this.

鮑魚糯米鸡 . Abalone, Chicken, and sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf glutinous rice steamed and steamed. Abalone is a sea snail that tastes like heaven.

The interior.

Braised Chicken Feet, in a sweet garlic soy, sesame oil and onion sauce. This version is not as saucy and gloopy, allowing you to enjoy succulent bird feet tendons & skin the right way.

Honeycomb beef/cow stomach braised and steamed with five spices, garlic, and sweet soy so that it tastes like.. um… um.. heavenly goodness.

叉烧BBQ Pork – BBQ tender pork with a sweet Chinese BBQ sauce.

咸水角. Fried Soft sweet Mochi stuffed with ground pork and chicken. Classic favorite that is crunchy on the outside with soft mochi filling.

Classic steamed Turnip Cake with ham prepared with a light fry (different from the traditional pan fry).

Light & crispy fried soft tofu with salt, pepper, and five spice. 椒鹽炸豆腐.

Cuttlefish & Pork Soup Dumpling. Juicy pork dumpling mixed with the unique flavor cuttlefish. Blue Xiao Long Bao.

韩元–辣椒油. Ground shrimp and pork filled wontons in a spicy peppercorn, malat chili oil.

腊肠包. Classic steamed bun wrapped over classic Chinese sausage. Dim sum “snausages”.

Classic Dim Sum dessert made with an egg custard baked in a flaky puff pastry (Not the less tasty pie crust style). This is the better style.

黑流沙包 Premium dessert made with black squid ink and filled with a sweetened salted egg yolk that is specially prepared to ooze out like Lava. Made only by highly skilled Dim Sum chefs. Remember not to pop this in your mouth. Open it over your plate and enjoy the oozing heavenly goodness of the sweet salted egg yolk.

馬拉糕. Ma Lai Go is a dim sum classic steamed sponge cake that’s extremely soft, springy and sweet.

The gang.

The dim sum itself was actually quite good. Maybe not on a piece by piece basis quite as good as a great SGV dim sum place, but quite solid. Almost as good and better by far than someplace like Bao or Dim Sum House. And there was a nice variety of dishes. More even than many regular dim sum places, but missing some of the more homestyle Chinese items like congee or Cheung Fun (which is a total dim sum staple).

The main problem lay with the weird phone based ordering system. Now granted, we were there only a couple weeks (maybe a month or two) after they opened, so hopefully they have fixed some of the bugs — but it was awful. We ordered. Stuff arrived in a completely random order with huge gaps between dishes. At first, they were stuck in some kind of infinite loop where they brought us “3 sets of crystal shrimp” then “3 sets of har gow” then they did waves of those again (even though we had only ordered each once). Then they did a third wave of same. They didn’t charge us for all the repeats, but it took like 90 minutes (and nothing else different came out) so people pigged out again and again on the same dishes and were too full to eat the rest. Instead of the 35 minutes the above would take at a normal Cantonese place (too fast) the above took like 3 hours (too slowly paced). Pacing was WAY off with big gaps and very little control. It was just a bit comical. We also had too many people for this kind of restaurant (8-10). 4-6 would be better.

But the manager was very nice and tried to reign in the chaos a bit (not totally successfully) and they comped a bunch of stuff.

The restaurant has no parking, but (sketchy) street parking is plentiful. I also worry that they won’t survive as the food is very Chinese and Culver City is a TERRIBLE neighborhood for authentic flavors. Sorry, but having owned a restaurant there it was pretty clear that the locals are nice, curious and all that, but very “Mayberry”.

In any case, I have to go again and see how it has progressed.

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