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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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Posted in: Food

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

Quick Eats — Bill’s Burgers

Apr23

Restaurant: Bill’s Burgers

Location: 14742 Oxnard St, Van Nuys, CA 91411. (818) 785-4086

Date: September 9, 2021 (and several times since)

Cuisine: Burger Shack

Rating: Great “hand made” “Big Mac”

This is an unusual stop for me!

Bill’s is a total LA institution. It’s totally a burger shack. Don’t be fooled by the building behind, it’s just that tiny shack in the parking lot.

You can’t really read the menu here, but there are just a couple basic sandwich options.

The owner here, Bill Elwell is 94 or 95! He’s been making every burger here since 1965 — which is slightly longer than I’ve been alive. The place is only open when he feels like coming into work, which is surprisingly often given his advanced years. Hopefully he keeps slinging these for some time yet.

Double cheese burger. I had them leave off the tomatoes — because well I hate tomatoes on sandwiches. It’s a really simple burger, just two thin pure beef paddies, grilled, with chopped lettuce, a bit of onion, American cheese, and some kind of “burger sauce” (ketchup and mayo based). It’s very good. Basically it’s soft and beefy and very similar to the way one remembers a Big Mac. I’ve eaten two every time I go. They take a while to get (15-20 min) even if you are off hours and longer on. So if you are a pig like me, order 2 when you go up.

As a kid (or teenager), Big Macs were probably my favorite burger type, and since this is basically a better version — way better than a current Big Mac — I really enjoyed it. I don’t actually like a thick patty and I really like American cheese on burgers.

It was actually so tasty that I did some experimentation at home making smash burgers (Bill’s isn’t really a smash burger, but not too different either).

This is my homemade smash burger. Really it’s a Oklahoma Style Grilled Onion Smash Burger — USDA Prime Beef seasoned only with Salt & Pepper, smashed on a hot iron pan with thinly sliced Onions, Kraft Singles, house-made Burger Sauce, and a Brioche Bun — one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bill's Burgers, burger, Fast food, Hamburger, SFV

Poke Express

Sep28

Restaurant: Poke Express by Handa-Ya

Location: 316 E 2nd St. Los Angeles, CA 90012. Little Tokyo, Downtown. (213) 628-3665

Date: September 21, 2016

Cuisine: Pole

Rating: Sloppy but cheap

This is actually my first visit to a full on Poke place — sure I’ve had poke in Hawaii, and in all sorts of other specific occasions, but not at one of this new crop of Poke exclusive places.

Poke Express by Hando-Ya (not the car) is located right near Sushi Gen and the like in Little Tokyo.

Typical looking QSR (Quick Serve Restaurant) — much like a Subway.

The format is actually a lot like a dessert bar or snow place like Salju.

You basically pick a base (rice, salad, noodles) and then they dump on it a selection of toppings and proteins of your choice. These are the proteins (tuna, salmon etc).

Then toppings.

And more toppings — slightly confusingly divided into different categories. However, for your base price you get a ton of them. A few like crab are extra. Plus there are sauces.

Then a self serve toppings bar with dried onion, garlic, sesame seed etc.

Wasabi and ginger (looking non-too-fresh) and the omnipresent siracha and “spicy mayo”.

Here is one of our creations.

And a separate one.

These things are cheap, maybe $11-13 bucks typically before tax. How do they taste? Hmmm. Disorganized and sloppy. Not bad, but nothing went together. First off the rice isn’t great sushi rice — which is delicious by itself. This was pretty loose. Then nothing had too much flavor except for the tangy dressing and the spicy mayo. It would take great care and skill to construct a “harmonious” blend. Instead I’m sure more people end up with a works type approach like we did. Didn’t really taste like much.

Works much better for Salju or Frozen Yogurt.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Fast food, Japanese cuisine, poke, Poke Express

Seoul Sausage Kingdom

Sep16

Restaurant: Seoul Sausage Co.

Location: 11313 Mississippi Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 477-7739

Date: September 20, 2013

Cuisine: Korean… sorta

Rating: Tasty!

LA is a funny kind of foodie town, being divided into both wildly experimental cuisine, classic ethnic, and a not-so-in-the-closet love affair with fast food. And let’s not forget Asian fusion. One of the current trends seems to be updating classic American fast foods with crazy cross-cultural insertions. This is nowhere more obvious than in the rash of new gourmet food trucks that offer things like “kalbi tacos” and “Thai shrimp burgers.”

Seoul Sausage Co. has a storefront, but it’s very much in this vein, offering up a tiny menu of fat and flavor driven Korean/American hybrid dishes.

This is a tiny place affording only counter service.

The short little menu.

Some of the rice balls waiting to be re-heated.

The sandwich makes for easy take-away.

Kalbi Sausage. Handmade Korean BBQ beef sausage w/ garpic jalapeno aioli and kimchi relish. This was a pretty delicious “hot dog.” The sausage was succulent and flavorful and the aioli added a nice brightness.

A pair of balls and their sauce. These balls are like vaguely Asian Arincini (a similar Italian food consisting of deep fried rice balls — it may even date from the Roman Empire!).

On the left, the Lil’ Osaka Ball. Japanese curry rice ball w/ ground kalbi and potatoes served w/ shoga siracha mayo.

On the right, Flaming Ball. Cheesy kimchi fried rice w/ spicy pork served w/ DMZ sauce (garlic jalepeno kimchi siracha aioli).

Neither was actually hot (by my standards). Both were tasty, a bit mild, and I liked the Osaka Ball better (it tasted like Japanese brown curry).

Next door is Blockheads, a shaved ice joint.

I experimented with this classic sweet ice (shaved frozen sweetened condensed milk) and chocolate, almonds, and brownies. I should have gone with Mango or some other fruit version.

Sawtelle has morphed in recent years into a rather excellent lunch destination, offering up a bevy of yummy (and quick) eats. There is a lot of traditional Japanese and Korean, plus these newer more experimental places.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: bbq, Fast food, Japanese curry, Kalbi, Sausage, Sawtelle, Seoul Sausage Co., Spam

Fast Food Sushi?

Mar15

Restaurant: Sushi-Don

Location: 970 Monument St #118, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. (310) 454-6710

Date: March 9, 2011

Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi

Rating: Not bad for a $20 lunch.

There seems to be a strange trend going on right now where top sushi bars are opening fast food or light branches. Sushi-Don is in my hood, and it’s owned by, or in some way executive chefed by, Sasabune (see my first and second reviews of that here). Sushi-Don is a kind of fast food version of it’s big brother Sasabune, where you have a simplified menu and reduced prices.

The menu is on the wall.

I went for “Combo B” the soup, cut roll, and 5 pieces of standard sushi.

The miso soup is exactly as you’d expect.

You can chose any cut roll, I went for blue crab. Left to right we have Maguro (tuna), albacore x2 with two sauces, salmon, and Hamachi (yellowtail).

The sushi itself is fine. It’s not fantastic, being perhaps 80% as good as that at Sasabune. This is no Sushi-Sushi (REVIEW) either, but then again, the above was $12. It’s certainly not icky mall sushi, and the chef made it in front of me.

I also ordered a scallop hand roll, which was tasty enough. Could have used a touch of yuzu 🙂

Sushi-Don is what it is. You can have a little light sushi meal here for $15, or you could probably get stuffed for $30-35. The equivalent food at Sasabune or Sushi-Sushi or similar would be at least twice as much. Sure the quality is better there. But at Sushi-Don you can also be in and out in 15-20 minutes. So I think it fills a niche, when one is in a hurry, often alone, and just want a tasty quick bite to eat.

Sushi Nozawa has tried a similar concept with SugarFISH, but that for me is even less satisfying, as it isn’t actually much (if any) cheaper than a real sushi bar, and they’ve eliminated the chef. My colleague kevineats.com reviews that HERE.