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DimSumQuest – Colette

Oct23

Restaurant: Colette

Location: 975 N Michillinda Ave, Pasadena, CA 91107. (626) 510-6286

Date: March 8, 2023

Cuisine: Contemporary Chinese

Rating: Solid, slightly experimental dim sum

There is a lot of buzz about Colette, which is part of the “next generation” of LA Chinese restaurants. They opened in a cafe-like space and are serving both Cantonese-esqe and dim sum. From their website:

Colette is a Cantonese-based creative Asian restaurant that welcomes people from all walks of life for all occasions. Our goal is to provide you with an inviting experience whether you’re joining us for a fine new Asian cuisine, after hiking, a friend or family gathering, a business meeting, a date, or other special occasions.

Whatever the occasion, our ambiance, and setting at Colette will serve your needs. Whether you are on the go or want to bring your pets to relax and hang out with friends, our indoor seating area and the outdoor patio are designed to offer you a cozy and comfortable space for you to enjoy your meal. In addition, our food is cooked to order and is prepared with quality in mind. Whenever it is possible, our food is prepared using ingredients from local farmers’ markets.

At Colette, we believe dining is an experience involving all senses, not just taste. Therefore, we try to ensure that our guests will enjoy the service provided by our staff and our decor, in addition to the excellent quality and taste of our menu items. We want to offer a memorable experience to each guest so that you will return with your friends and family.

Not your classic decor.

The lunch menu.

We decided not to throw down $79/lb for some geoduck. Did at a dinner a few months later, but more on that later.

Pretty tea service.

Abalone sauce chicken feet. Chicken feet braised in condensed seafood sauce. Those willing to try these nasty things thought they were bland and generally a poor showing.

Shrimp & Pork Siu Mai. Shrimp and pork filled in thin wonton wrap. Not a bad siu mai. One of the better dim sum.

Lotus Leaf Wrapped Sticky Rice. Sticky rice, chicken, salted egg yolk, mushroom, wrapped in lotus leaf. Torched mozzarella cheese. Nice presentation, but we weren’t sure the melted cheese added in any way to the rather bland classic sticky rice. It did have a good amount of filling, however.

Zoom!

Crispy Abalone Taro Tart. Fried taro tart topped with braised abalone. The abalone on top was great and the “body” of the dumpling was a giant ball of taro that was wrapped in a crispy shell and deep friend. While hugely carby, it was kinda delicious.

Sauces. We had to ask for these.

Shrimp Egg Roll. Not a bad spring roll and stuffed with shrimp.

Inside.

XLB. Very mediocre typical dim sum XLB. Not great but not bad.

Zoom.

Jumbo Shrimp Har Gow. Shrimp with rice noodle wrap. The filling was pretty good but the wrapper was sticky and tore easily.

Char Siu Bun. Bun stuffed with minced Char Siu. Pretty sweet but a solid (normal) version of the dish.

Cross section.

Lobster sticky rice. This whole lobster was stir friend and somehow blended with a fried Chinese sausage sticky rice. While an odd frankenstein of two dishes, this was actually pretty tasty.

Zoom!

Crispy stuffed chicken. Deboned air-dried chicken, shrimp paste. This is known as 100 flower chicken. It’s basically a pan fried shrimp paste cake sandwiched in chicken skin. This was a solid version of the dish, and it’s a great dish, so probably one of the best items we had.

More close ups.

Golden Pork Trots. Fried pork trots marinated with red bean sauce and garlic. These were terrible. Overcooked and with a nasty “ripe pig” taste. Yuck.

Overhead on the nasty things.

Black Pepper Diced Beef. Sauteed black angus beef dice. Fairly typical “shaking beef”, pretty sweet, but enjoyable enough.

Overall, this is a weird place. It feels like an American breakfast cafe, but it’s Chinese. The food is mildly fusion. It’s partially dim sum, partially other Chinese. Dishes were hit or miss but nothing really stood out as amazing and it’s not actually “better” in any way than most SGV restaurants. But that’s just the dim sum. A follow-up dinner here turned out an absolutely first class meal. So while I think Colette is nice enough at lunch, it really rocks for less dim sum oriented Cantonese — more on that in another post.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, DimSumQuest, Pasadena

DimSumQuest – Happy Harbor

Sep21

Restaurant: Happy Harbor [1, 2]

Location: 1015 Nogales St, West Covina, CA 91792. 626-965-2020

Date: February 14, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Great cantonese

I went here for dinner in 2021 and had a great meal — so I had high hopes for our dim sum visit.

Happy Harbor is a medium sized Cantonese located right next to Mandarin plaza, a “far east” (Hacienda Heights ish) area we have eaten at again and again.

The interior is classic Cantonese.

The infinite corridor.

Grungy tanks.

Le menu.

Decent set of basic sauces.

On request, they brought us peanuts form the dinner menu.

And smashed cucumbers which were very pleasant.

The lot.

Chicken Feet in Abalone Sauce. People said they were okay.

Jumbo Shrimp Har Gow. The insides were generous and pretty good but the shells were thick and sticky and broke apart on trying to pickup the dumplings. So just middling.

Truffle Shrimp har Gow with Squid Ink. These were better as the wrapper retained its integrity. The inside was shrimp with a hint of truffle oil. Not bad.

Fish Roe Siu Mai. The classic Siu Mai were huge and porky with a bit of whole shrimp. They were solid — both literally and figuratively — but not awesome.

Chiu Chow Style Steamed Dumplings. With the peanuts inside. These were pretty tasty but the wrapper was fairly heavy.

Mushroom Shrimp Dumpling. Pretty nice and certainly plump.

XLB. Typical for dim sum XLB — aka not particularly great.

Bean Curd Balls with Vegetables. The wrapper was a bit chewy but these were enjoyable.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bao. The bun was over-steamed and the inside sickly sweet and not very pleasant.

Inside.

Baked Abalone Sauce BBQ Pork Buns. Very sticky and sweet on the outside with a sickly sweet red pork interior. Better than the steamed but not great at all.

Inside.

Deep Fried Spring Rolls. Stuff with shrimp. Very nice flakey/crunchy outside and some solid shrimp. Pretty good.

Fried Chives Shrimp Pork Patty. I always try to order these when I see them. These were good, although not the best. They did have that nice texture and the pleasant greasy quality.

Tofu with Spicy Chicken Sauce. Not sure what’s chicken about this sauce. The Tofu was the classic fried Egg Tofu and was good, even if the overall presentation was sloppy and ugly. The sweet and slightly spicy sauce was probably jarred. But I did enjoy them as I always do.

Spiced Fried Shisamo Fish. Little dark baitfish DEEP fried. They were very strong and the fry was out of control thick. No one went for a second fish.

Stuffed Morel Mushroom. Stuff with shrimp paste and topped wiht a bit of crab. While the mushroom was a bit rubbery this was one of the better dishes and is fairly rare.

Steamed Shrimp Ball with Corn. Fluffy shrimp ball, a touch underseasoned but not bad, laced with corn kernels. The corn leant it an interesting and pleasant texture.

Steamed Rice Noodle with Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce. We ordered these ribs on top of the chow fun in order to get a “2 for 1”. The ribs were the usual steamed ribs, a bit porky, but soft and reasonably decent. Not sure having a bunch of rice noodle underneath was much of a plus.

Sticky Rice Wrapper with Lotus Leaf. The rice itself was under-seasoned, almost sticky white rice, although the filling was very pleasant.

Inside.

Live shrimp steamed with garlic. The garlic flavor of the sauce was potent but nice. The shrimp themselves felt a bit overcooked and small and shell dominated by the time we got to eating them. Could have been much better. AND they were like $80/lb!

Crispy Durian Cake. The lard based “buttery” pastry was solid and the durian custard very durian-flavored and reasonably nice.

Overall, Happy Harbor was very “B”. None of the dishes stood out as great. Most of the normal dim sum was okay, but not only below the top A tier, but also below the better (but not top) A-/B+ places in the SGV proper. Still, Happy Harbor was better than the meh places, they have a huge menu with many good options, so it would be enjoyable if the location was convenient.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Dim sum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, Happy Harbor, Lunch Quest, SGV, valentines day

DimSumQuest – Lunasia

Sep08

Restaurant: Lunasia [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 500 West Main Street Suite A, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 308-3222

Date: February 23, 2023

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Excellent

The DimSumQuest group continues to scour San Gabriel Valley dim sum restaurants. I’ve actually been to Lunasia many times before, but this is my first trip here for dim sum in a long time, so I figured that instead of updating the old post (it’s almost a decade old) I’d do an entirely new report.

Pretty menu.

House Special Stir Cucumber. The cucumbers themselves were fine, but they dumped packaged sweet and spicy dipping sauce on them. Kind of meh.

Seaweed Salad. This “seaweed” salad seemed like Jellyfish Salad. It was chewy, which was okay, but with a grainy mustardy dressing that lacked acidity — so not very pleasant.

Hangry brought some Beijing Lamb Buns from next door.

Steamed Chicken Feet. Bland.

Spare Ribs w/ Black Bean Sauce. Pretty good actually with lots of meat. Not much “black bean” but one of the better versions of this we have had — not the best but pretty good.

Jumbo Shrimp & Pork Siu-Mai. Huge but delicious with tons of pork meat and whole shrimp suspended inside.

Truffle Siu-Mai. The truffle version was identical but with canned truffle on top. Actually quite good but perhaps not legions better than the basic version.

Jumbo Shrimp Har-Gow. Great version, with fabulous shrimp inside and a good shell. Not the thinest shell ever but with first rate texture. After a few minutes the shell got a little sticky but that always happens.

Scallop Dumpling w/ Squid Ink. Sometimes the scallop dumpling falls a little short but not this one. The squid ink wrapper was nice and there was a lot of scallop inside, almost like a cooked “battleship” scallop sushi.

Spinach Shrimp Dumpling. Unusual, usually this is chive. It had both a green “spinach” wrapper and spinach inside with the shrimp — which surprisingly worked well.

XLB. Solid dim sum version. Not amazing or anything but better than many.

Pork Bean Curd Wrap w/ Broth. Really quite nice. This is the broth version, as opposed to the “flavor corn starch sauce” version, but the broth was pleasant and the rolls excellent.

Steamed BBQ Pork Char Siu Bao. There was plenty of filling but it was overly sweet and the bun itself was soggy and over-steamed. Not terrible but fairly meh.

Contents.

Baked BBQ Pork Char Siu Bao. The baked version had the same overly sweet pork. The bun was oddly small and just okay.

Inside.

Pan-Fried Pork Bun w/ Crab Meat. The buns seemed a bit soggy but the “crab” filling was interesting.

Inside again.

Stick Rice Wrap. This classic was great, probably second only to the 1968 version. Lots of stuff inside the rice and a great rice flavor. Excellent.

The guts.

Supreme Beef Ball. I’m the only one who liked these chewy beef balls.

Shrimp Egg Roll. Nice and crispy with a lot of shrimp inside. Quite good.

Deep Fried Taro Cake? Not sure exactly what this was but the texture was fabulously crispy. Quite lovely.

Mixed Puff with Pork. Just okay version. Not crispy enough and not enough flavor in the filling.

Live Lobster Chow-Fun. I’ve never had lobster chow fun, but now I have and this was awesome. One of the best regular chow fun I’ve had. The sauce cold have been a little strong/sweeter but the texture was very nice and there were lots of nice lobster chunks.

Crispy Seafood Noodle. Just fair version of this generally excellent dish. Seafood itself was pretty good but the MSG factor was very high.

Pan-Fried String-Beans. Woah — MSG string beans. Nicely crispy but they were also stir-fried with the same sweet chili sauce that were used on the cucumbers. Weird.

Assorted BBQ Combination Quartet with Hong Kong Roasted Duck, Lunasia Boiled Chicken, Macao Style Roasted Pork Belly, and BBQ Pork (char siu). Kinda excellent, particularly the char siu. But the duck and Macao pork were also great. Some great sauces for them too.

BBQ meat sauces.

Pineapple Bun and Macao Style Egg Custard. The Pineapple Bun was small but very good with a nice flavored custard and good texture. The egg tart was quite good, although still not in the same league as the Montery Palace one. Macao (caramelized) egg tarts are almost always better than the regular ones.

Pure and Concentrated Evil — Kentucky Mud Pie Gelato — Expresso Knob Creek Bourbon Custard Gelato base with layers of house-made Crushed Oreo Valrhona Fudge Ganache, and house-made Vanilla Coconut Cream Cheese Icing — The Plaid Mode of Gelati and includes a hefty Caffeine kick — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #coconut #valrhona #chocolate #ganache #expresso #bourbon #custard #oreos #icing

Overall Lunasia was much better than I expected. It’s always been quite good for dim sum, and there is some uneveness to the kitchen, but the steamed items were in general excellent, in the A tier. Fried items were good too. But baked savory items a bit meh, and some duds like the cucumbers and jellyfish. Desserts were excellent. The non dim sum dishes here generally aren’t great, but the BBQ was very solid. So overall maybe A-, slightly under 1968 and Tonys, but very close.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Chinese Food, Dim sum, DimSumQuest, Lunch Quest, SGV

DimSumQuest – Chef Tony

Aug31

Restaurant: Chef Tony Dim Sum

Location: 1108 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 623-6668

Date: February 2, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: Most dishes quite good

Continuing our group survey of LA’s best dim sum is Chef Tony, the original Arcadia location. I once went to the Pasadena branch, now shuttered, but I haven’t been here.

Frontage is strip mall.

A much smaller, pleasant, but less upscale dining room than the Pasadena location.

You can see into the kitchen and the steaming chamber.

Where the magic happens.

Epic menu!

The dim sum menu.

Cucumber Salad with Garlic and Vinegar. A very solid version of this classic. Cucumbers were nice and crisp and “fresh” tasting. It wasn’t smashed cucumbers, more cut, and there wasn’t much garlic. It did have a decent sauce though and was taken up a notch by the addition of our high end “Jing” chili oil.

Wood Ear Salad with Mature Vinegar. This might have been the best marinated wood ear I’ve had. Perfect chewy texture and a great sweet/sour sauce.

They had very solid sauces here at Chef Tony’s including strong mustard, black vinegar with ginger, and a very nice chili paste with a strong vinegar tang.

Preserved Chicken Feet with Chili. Yuck. And I don’t see any chili.

Steamed Chicken Feet with Brown Sauce. Not much better. Everyone thought these were bland.

Spareribs with Black Bean Sauce. Very soft and juicy with lots of meat. This might have been the best pork niblets we’ve had!

Har Gow. Very good thin skinned with nice whole shrimp inside. Great texture and not over-steamed. I think I liked these better than the “fancy” black version.

Squid Ink Shrimp Dumpling with Gold Leaf. Basically har gow. The Squid Ink shell didn’t taste like much. Not bad at all since these are great har gow, but nothing too special.

Shrimp and Pork Dimpling with Black Truffle. Siu Mai. Really nice ones at that with a more al dente wrapper. I’m not sure the truffle adds here, but it wasn’t offensive like it sometimes is.

XLB. Probably the best dim sum place XLB I’ve had. Nice and juicy and served with good black vinegar and ginger.

Scallop and Shrimp Dumpling with Fish Roe. Somehow not that exciting and not quite as balanced as the har gow — although certainly tasty.

Shrimp Wonton with House Spicy Sauce. These were great. Very delicate with lots of great shrimp plus the sauce, which was more sweet than actually spicy, was fantastic.

Rice Noodle Roll (Chow Fun) with Minced Beef & Chinese Parsley. I haven’t had a beef Chow Fun in a while. This had great texture as it was steamed perfectly. The meat was very soft, pleasant tasting, and extremely mild. Overall nice, but it would be useful to try some of the other flavors. It also wasn’t sauced with the usual seasoned sweet soy, which I do like with Chow Fun.

Sticky Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf. This is a classic and we liked how they were actually smaller. It was perfectly stick and steamed and had a realative lot of filling. While it wasn’t quite as awesome as the 1968 version it was a very good example of this dish, possibly the second best I’ve had recently.

It’s not all rice which is great.

Whole thing.

Deep Fried Shrimp Spring Roll. The exterior was solid, but not awesomely flakey. The interior was more real shrimp and was excellent.

I think these were crispy fried shrimps.

Deep Fried Pork Dumpling. This was a very solid example of the Glutinous version of the pork dumpling. It had a nice chew and a decent amount of filling. It fell just slightly short of perfection as it wasn’t really crispy on the outside.

The interior.

Savory Deep Fried Chinese Donut stuffed with Mixed Shrimp, Squid, and Fish Paste. This was a polarizing dish. Jeffrey didn’t like the mayo (which was probably Kewpie) but I LOVED it. In fact I ate almost all of them even though I shouldn’t have. It had a great exterior crunch, a really nice umami shrimp cake interior, and that nice bit of acidic fatty zing from the “flavored” mayo.

Eggplant Stuffed with Shrimp Paste. Just okay, although the sauce was great (possibly the same as was on the spicy wontons).

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun (Char Siu Bao). Certainly a very solid version. Smaller than usual, which wasn’t bad, with a good ratio of sweet juicy BBQ pork filling. The bun was nicely steamed. This isn’t my favorite classic, but this was well executed.

Interior.

French Baked BBQ Pork Bun. Same filling as the steamed, and also a bit smaller than some, but with a nice crispy sweet exterior. Not the absolute best but a solid 8/10 version and better than the steamed (not realtively, but just because I like the baked better).

Interior.

Ginger, Chicken, Shrimp and Pork Bun. Interesting shape and the inside had a very pronounced shredded ginger chicken thing going on which was quite lovely and unique. Maybe it was the hit of ginger pungency. Very good.

Interior.

Pan Fried Shrimp and Pork Pandan Bun. The pandan leaf lends this bao its distinct pretty green color. It was nicely pan fried too and the dough was quite pleasant. The interior was fine too but overall I didn’t love it as much as I remembered from the last time I had it (at the Pasadena location).

Interior.

This chicken was displayed this way first.

Roast Crispy Chicken with Black Truffle. I’m not sure about the black truffle part, but we ordered this because of the irresistable “Vlad the impaler’s chicken” vibe the menu gave at — and the impaled chicken didn’t dissapoint. The dish too was actually great. Really nice juicy chicken with a crispy skin. Just a very nice roast chicken.

Poached Sliced Beef in Hot Chili Oil. This is a classic Sichuan dish and a fairly solid version at that. Quite a bit of numbing Sichuan peppercorns and tender beef — plus way too many bean sprouts but that’s a thing with this dish. I’ve had versions with more depth to the broth but this was quite solid and had the proper more water/oil texture rather than the goopy corn sauce vibe.

Sateed String Bean with Minced Pork. Very solid version with crispy beans and lots of umami almost XO-like pork.

Deep Fried Durian Pastry. After so many great dishes it was surprising to bite into this one — it was awful. The outside was a bit greasy and the durian inside overcooked and heavy with a bannana-like texture. Ick. Nothing like the incredible crispy puff with light durian cream at Monterey Palace.

Interior.

Egg Custard Tart w/ Milk. I’m not sure what the “milk” deal is but these pale soft tarts had almost no flavor and certainly not much egg flavor. Barely seemed like a custard at all. Big fail and maybe the worst egg tart I’ve had. Again the divine one at Monterey Park comes to mind.

Coconut Bunny Pudding. So cute and served very very cold. These had that agar agar jelly texture, much like a chilled hard-boiled egg white. The taste was mildly sweet and mildly coconuty. It was actually pleasant but not much to it.

Cute!

Overall, Chef Tony’s was one of the best dim sum place we’ve been to. Hard to remember exactly how it compared to Pasadena (3-4 years ago) but while the menu was almost the same I think this is quite a bit better. Almost all the savory dim sum was great, particualy the steamed dishes. The desserts were weirdly awful. The wood ear, spareribs, har gow, XLB, shrimp wonton, and sticky rice were first or second in class. Given how good the chicken, beef, and stringbeans were I suspect the rest of the menu would be pretty good too.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chef Tony, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, DimSumQuest, Lunch Quest, SGV

DimSumQuest – ixlb Dimsum Eats

Aug29

Restaurant: ixlb Dimsum Eats

Location: 5900 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 848-4766

Date: January 30, 2023

Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum

Rating: Meh. Horrible takeout focused format

ixlb is a mom and pop takeout oriented dim sum spot in Hollywood. The owner is incredibly nice and dedicated to his craft. The kitchen is great and the older dim sum chefs make everything in house right there. You order at the counter and they bring everything in takeout containers. Drinks, plasticware, napkins etc are all of the disposable variety. There are only a couple tables.

The tiny interior is even smaller than this wide angle photo makes it look.

The menu covers most of the dim sum basics but they lean toward the fried and are missing a lot of the dim sum classics like chow fun, lotus sticky rice, etc.

The menu.

We had to keep ordering in batches.

Iced Coconut Tapioca.

Spicy Cucumbers. Okay cucumbers.

Sauces is one of the biggest problems with ixlb. They are in these little containers. Mustard and chili paste are in packets. There doesn’t appear to be vinegar or XO sauce. They are hard to use like this and of vastly inferior quality. The mustard was bitter and awful. To me, along with the crappy plastic wares and takeout containers this lowers the whole “form factor” and “enjoyment factor” of the eating by a fairly massive margin — even though the kitchen is quite good.

Char Siu. Very solid “hefty” version. Nothing amazing, but good.

XLB are good for dim sum XLB but no great shakes by real XLB standards. The lack of vineyard is a big problem too.

Har gow. These had thin wrappers and an excellent shrimp interior. The wrappers did tend to stick and fall apart — perhaps because of the transfer to the tackout containers.

Shrimp and Chive Dumpling. Okay with that “metallic” chive taste.

Shrimp Wonton with Chili Oil. Not really much chili oil but this was a very nice light wrappered shrimp dumpling.

Pan Fried Dumplings. Pretty tasty.

Not sure what these fried shrimp wontons were called but they were very crunchy and delicious. Interior was basically shrimp ball.

Spring Rolls. Crispy with a pretty good interior. Not as good as Rays, but solid.

Scallion Pancake. Just fine.

Fried Crab Sticks. Just about what it says: fried crab sticks. Ok.

Steamed Char Siu Bao. Very nice sweet pork filling and well made bao.

Baked Char Siu Bao. Very nice sweet pork filling and nice fluffy bun.

The interior.

Snowcap Char Siu Bao. Very nice sweet pork filling and well made bao, quite sweet, with really nice crispy top. This was slightly better than the regular baked one mostly because of the awesome texture.

Smiling Bun Fish. Basicaly fried fish, slaw, and sauce. Pretty darn tasty, but a lot like a fried fish sandwhich.

Inside.

Fried Shrimp Balls. Very fried but nice solid shrimp paste.

Sticky Rice Ball with pork. Basically a wrapped ball of sticky rice. Way too carby and bland for my taste.

Inside — all rice.

Seafood Pearl (steamed rice ball). Filled with shrimp paste and a few veggies this was an decent “ricey” version of the normal shrimp ball.

More rice (and shrimp paste).

Tea Eggs. Hard boiled eggs marinated in tea. Not my thing. In China these are usually quail eggs.

Curry chicken puff. This was stuffed with a yellow chicken and pea curry. They were awesome actually, really delicious with a nice crunchy outside and great filling.

The delicious inside.

Baked Sausage Bun. Basically a hot dog in some baked bread. Total meh. The owner said they were “for Americans.”

Ick.

Char Siu. Overcooked, but somewhat tasty. Pretty middling.

Spicy Pork Noodles. Very dry, salty, and lacking in interesting flavors. Not particularly spicy. Not so great.

Mixed up.

Pineapple Bun. This was probably the best pineapple bun I have ever had. Really first rate. The outside had a wonderful crunch and the bun was sweet and pleasant but the custard was awesome, like coconut custard with just a bit of fresh pineapple mixed in.

Awesome.

Sesame Balls.

Macau Egg Tart. Fair version. Pleasant enough but nothing special.

The gang and the owner.

Overall, I didn’t actually enjoy ixlb even though the dim sum itself is homemade and actually quite good. Basically the format utterly ruins it for me. I hate plastic ware. I hate disposable containers. Dumplings stick to them. I hate high top seating. I hate counter ordering. I hate ordering and paying in batches. The sauces totally sucked. So all this conspired to make some quite excellent dim sum actually not taste very good. Dim sum needs the sauce. It needs the steamer with the little sheet of wax paper that prevents sticking. It needs to come out piping hot. It needs to come out in waves (and going up, waiting in line, and paying for each wave isn’t very fun).

Some might say it’s great for take out. Probably is. I don’t do takeout. Don’t like it. Dumplings don’t travel well.

Oh and then add to this that it’s far Hollywood location is actually harder to reach (for me) than the SGV. Well, I’ll probably never be back. Oddly, a couple of the guys really liked it. Not for me. I’ll sit down at a real table.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Dim sum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, Lunch Quest, take out, takeout

Ray’s Duck House

Aug22

Restaurant: Ray’s Duck House晶瑞轩海鲜酒楼

Location: 4721 Chino Hills Pkwy, Chino Hills, CA 91709. (909) 606-9046

Date: January 26, 2023

Cuisine: Cantonese (and more) Chinese

Rating: Quite excellent, but really really far

So strong is my commitment to Chinese food that I was willing to drive a small group of us ALL the way to Chino Hills (roughly 1.5 hours each way) just for the chance to try this newish recommended Peking Duck and dim sum restaurant.

The aforementioned hills.

It’s unusual for a Cantonese place to have real Peking duck.

Check out the mysteriously featured “plastered over wall”!

Nice new “classic” decor.

Sauce station.

The menu sheet.

Specials. There was also a large glossy dinner menu I forgot to photo.

Jeffrey waiting for Chevy (who was 45 minutes late). Grr.

Chili sauce and very intense Chinese mustard.

Soy Sauce and Red Vinegar.

Smashed Cucumbers made special to order. Not marinated but very fresh and pretty decent.

Spicy Vermicelli. This wasn’t quite what I expected as I was looking for the Sichuan tangy spicy numbing version. This was basically the same but not very tangy or spicy. It was good though and a little vinegar and chili oil half solved the problem.

Spicy Wontons. Sort of drowned in lightly spicy broth. Wontons themselves were fine.

Ray’s Peking duck spread. Style was modern Beijing cut in the back room.
Skin was thick, crunchy, airy, and quite spectacular, both the separate parts and the bits on the meat — it was all crunchy! = 9
Meat was served mostly moon cut with the skin, some dark meat by itself. The wings and legs were missing. And while the meat wasn’t as juicy as MDP it was very very tasty with great duck flavor. Probably the third best meat = 7.
Pancake was thin and translucent and there were plenty of them = 10
Hoisin was great. It wasn’t goopy thick, nor too sweet, and had fabulous on-point flavor = 9
Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual. This was the weakest element as they had been cut the previous day (most likely) and were dry = 3
Bones were on the menu, but they didn’t think we needed them = N/A
Duck Soup was bland although at least not unpleasant = 4
The burrito/bing together was excellent = 8.5/10.

More details on our giant survey of LA peking duck can be found here in the Ultimate LA Peking Duck Guide.

Skin was thick, crunchy, airy, and quite spectacular, both the separate parts and the bits on the meat — it was all crunchy! = 9
Meat was served mostly moon cut with the skin, some dark meat by itself. The wings and legs were missing. And while the meat wasn’t as juicy as MDP it was very very tasty with great duck flavor. Probably the third best meat = 7.

Hoisin was great. It wasn’t goopy thick, nor too sweet, and had fabulous on-point flavor = 9

Accoutrements were scallion and cucumbers as usual. This was the weakest element as they had been cut the previous day (most likely) and were dry = 3

Pancake was thin and translucent and there were plenty of them = 10

Duck Soup was bland although at least not unpleasant = 4

Spareribs in Blackbean Sauce. These were a bit bony — fine — but not as (realatively) good as most of the rest of the dimsum here.

Steamed Chicken Feet in Brown Sauce.

Shrimp Har Gow. An excellent version of this classic. Pretty nice medium shell with a nice chunky shrimp interior.

Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai. Excellent version. Very chunky with lots of good pork flavor.

Shrimp and Chives Dumpling. Quite solid.

XLB. Not the typical over heavy buns in the tin foil, so a step up. Shells were decent, if still a little thick. The meat was good but there wasn’t that much “soup.”

Rice Noodle Roll with BBQ Pork. The sauce was more savory than usual, but very nice. The texture on the chow fun itself was really stretchy and excellent and the pork was juicy and great.

End on view.

Sticky Rice Wrapped with Lotus Leaves. The rice itself was very good and the filling bits tasty, but minimal. Needed a bunch more and some eggs.

Inside the wrap.

Pan-Fried chives & shrimp cake. I always love this dish and this was no exception. Greasy and delicious with awesome texture.

Bean Curd Skin Rolls in Brown Sauce. This was one of the best versions of this dish I’ve had. Maybe not THE BEST but very good. The quality came down to the extremely “flavored” (MSGed) brown sauce and the nice texture of the wrap and veggies inside.

BBQ Pork Bun. The fluffy bun might have been a hair dry but the pork interior was sweet, classic, and delicious.

Inside view.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun. The sticky sweet bun was spot on and the interior contained the same yummy sweet pork. Excellent.

Inside view again.

Tianjin Pork Bun. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. What we got was a classic bao bun, the kind that’s also common in Japan, with a dumpling like pork ball interior. The meat was good. This felt quite old school.

Beef Ball with Dried Tangerine Peel. These were a bit fluffier than usual, although still stretchy. The flavor was nice so quite excellent, although subtly different.

Fried Shrimp Ball with Egg Yolk. Not sure where the yolk was, as these were served with what seemed like a sweet mayo. They were good though, being classic shrimp balls with a crunchy shell.

Deep Fried Vegetarian Spring Roll. This was like the ideal veggie spring roll, perfect. It was super hot, crispy, and then the cabbage and white pepper interior was absolutely lovely.

Deep Fried Pork Dumplings. The glutinous shell was a bit sweet and quite good and there was a different (if understuffed) pork filling inside. Quite excellent.

Baked Egg Tart. Shell was a touch heavy but the eggy custard filling was excellent. Not as amazing as the Monterey Palace ones, but still good.

Overall, Ray’s was reasonably impressive. The Peking Duck was quite solid, definitely real Peking Duck and right int he middle of the pack. It would have been even better if Chevy wasn’t 45 min late (during which time the duck sat and waited for him, growing soggier). The dim sum was also very good. It’s not the BEST and the dishes were pretty standard, but execution was overall quite good, allowing for a totally solid classic dim sum experience.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese Food, Chino Hills, Dim sum, DimSumQuest, Lunch Quest, Peking Duck, Ray's Duck House, SGV

DimSumQuest – Monterey Palace

Aug18

Restaurant: Monterey Palace [1, 2]

Location: 1001 E Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91755. (626) 571-0888

Date: January 24, 2023

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Many good, some great items

The DimSumQuest continues with Monterey Park classic Monterey Palace.

It’s right there on Garvey with that classic 90s look.

And the classic Monterey Park dining room.

Hanging roast meats.

Menu.

You have to pay for the basic sauces at $1 a plate.

We ordered this twice and it cost $1. They were out of XO sauce! huh?

Har Gow. Solid, but a little underseasoned. There was a real shrimp in there and the skins were just a touch thick.

Shu Mai. Also a bit underseasoned. Not my favorite. Not bad or anything, just a bit meh.

XLB. The standard “Elite style” pre-packaged tin foil thick XLB. Filling was underseasoned.

Shrimp with Chives dumpling. Filling was a touch underseasoned and skin just a little thick, but certainly pretty good.

Chao Zhou Dumpling. Peanuts inside this one. Better filling, same skin.

Bean Curd Wrap with Oyster Sauce. A nice version of this dish, piping hot. Solid but not the best ever.

Steamed Pork Spare Ribs with Pumpkin. Really excellent version of this dish. Little bone, very tender, and lots of flavor.

Beef Balls with Orange Peel. The typical “dense” beef ball but quite nice.

Sticky Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf. Solid enough, but not so much meat. Rice did taste very nice though. Not as good as the incredible 1968 version.

The contents.

BBQ Pork Chow Fun. Solid with the wrapper being a touch heavy but the pork was good. Sauce could have been a touch sweeter.

Sauced.

Flaky BBQ Pork Buns. Flaky laminated lard pastry was great but the filling was minimal and bland. Very meh.

Baked BBQ Pork Pie (or possibly this is the flaky, hard to know). This pastry was great here and the pork pretty good, although not as red and sweet as some. The pastry was just a touch undercooked in the center but the outside and crackle was delicious.

Pan Fried Spring Roll with Taro. The outside was nice and crispy/flaky but the blah taro interior was heavy and flavorless.

Pork Dumpling. The usual glutinious bomb. These were actually a great example of the type with a nice thick, chewy, and slightly sweet skin. Could have used a bit more filling but what was there was delicious.

The nearly hollow interior.

Cantonese Roast Duck. Cold. Once a person adjusted to the temperature this juice duck — while very salted — was absolutely delicious.

Chinese Broccoli with Salted Fish. Nice very salty green veg with lots of crunchy and umami.

Roasted Squab. Solid, probably 7/10, but I have had better versions of this dish quite frequently.

Live Turbot.

Live Turbot, steamed with Garlic and Ginger. Absolutely first rate fish. This had nice flavor and that melt-in-your-mouth flesh quality that the best versions of this dish have. Almost as good as the Chang’an version — which is to say incredible.

Bovon likes a good Turbot.

Baked Snow Capped Bun. Inside was a coconut cream filling. The pastry was nice, but not that sweet and the filling lacked flavor to my taste.

Yum.

Baked Portuguese Egg Tart. These were probably the best example of this classic I’ve ever had. I think the “pastry” chef here is very good. The tart itself almost fell apart but tasted great and the filling was light, eggy, and very fluffy, not too sweet. Spectacular fresh out of the oven.

Thai Durian Puff. Super crispy sprial pastry with durian cream inside. This was again the best durian puff I’ve ever had. That petrol taste was clean and lovely with a really great “creme pat” texture. Fabulous warm.

Insanely good.

Black and White Sesame Balls. Took 30 min to bake! I didn’t try but apparently they were good too.

Overall, the dimsum was solid but generally just “good-” on the scale of SGV made to order dim sum. A couple dishes stood out. The baked pastries were excellent although the savory fillings hit or miss. The sweet baked goods some of the best Chinese sweet baked goods I’ve had anywhere. There was a general tendency to under-seasoning in the savory items. The non dimsum dishes were better, quite salted.

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By: agavin
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Tagged as: Brunch, Cantonese Chinese, Dim sum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, lunch

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.

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.

Escaping the parking lot involved this endless corridor.

Brand new!

Double-sided order sheet

The long form menu.

The main dining room. Several private rooms spawn off the sides.

At first we were in this claustraphobic interior room, but then we moved.

Into this much nicer (and larger) room. It had a window!

Holds a good sized group.

Jasmine Tea.

Basic sauces. They put several on the table, plus some chili oil.

Black and Red Vinegar.

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

Chili oil is always better than paste.

Bean Curd Skin Roll in Soup. Great texture but very mild in flavor.

Shrimp Har-Gow. Fairly perfect textbook har-gow. Shrimp was delicious and skin was light.

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.

Pork Siu-Mai. Awesome version. Light, meaty, tasty. We had 5-6 orders.

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.

Pumkpin Dumplings. Seasonal. Very mild and pleasant.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Shrimp Noodle. The shrimp were large and succulent and the chow fun texture was excellent. The sauce could have used slightly more punch.

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.

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.

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.

Close up.

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.

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.

Pan-fried Turnip Cake. I didn’t try because of the carbs.

Crabmeat Egg-Roll. I didn’t try but everyone else toasted them in two seconds.

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.

House Special Crispy Lobster Roll. Very fluffy and crunchy texture stuffed with noodles and tiny bits of lobster. Interesting.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Lobster with Ginger and Scallions. Pretty nice lobster in the “wet” style.

Soy Sauce Chicken. A bit sweet, but very aromatic and juicy so a lovely chicken.

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.

Smaller sized portion of the same dish.

Slightly Sweet Sauce for the duck.

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

Sauce for that.

Barbecued Iberian Pork w/ Honey. Classic sweet red Chinese BBQ pork. Very sweet sauce but pretty damn tasty!

Deep Fried Quail with Spicy Salt. Yummy, but extremly salty and mostly bones with little bits of meat on them.

Roasted Squab. Leave it to Yarom to order every bird on the menu. These were solid, but not in the top tier.

Crispy German Pork Knuckle. Very piggy, nice crispy skin, succulent meat. I enjoyed these.

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.

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.

Creamy Egg-Yolk Bao. Tasty and the yolk inside almost exploded out. I just nibbled for dietary reasons.

Macau Egg Tart. A classic. Nice and eggy.

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

The wines.

Yarom and the owner and the manager.

The whole gang.

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!

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bistro 1968, BYOG, Cantonese, Cantonese Chinese, Chinese cuisine, dimsum, DimSumQuest, dumplings, Gelato, SGV

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.

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