Restaurant Review #135: Bamboo Cuisine, Sherman Oaks

Hot braised scallops

I normally order from Joie Luck Kitchen when I'm hanging out in the valley, but I think I might be able to do better. Since I was still full from my lunch at The Great Greek, it seemed like a good time to try an unfamiliar place: Bamboo Cuisine.

The takeout menu they mailed out is quite attractive, and probably the main thing that convinced me to order from them. It isn't set up quite the same way as other Chinese takeout menus though: an entire half of the menu is devoted to specials, which aren't divided by meat category. With so many specials, were they trying to warn me away from ordering anything else?


Chicken with tangerine sauce

It's not exactly that Bamboo Cuisine's food is bad; it's that it's overpriced and doesn't match the descriptions on the menu. My hot braised scallops were supposed to be sweet, spicy and gingery; they were only sweet. For $14.95, I was hoping for decent quality mollusks, but instead I got the chewy kind. Likewise, the chicken with tangerine sauce contained nary a trace of citrus and also couldn't justify its above average price. I will say that both dishes were heavy on the meat/seafood, so if you're the type who doesn't like veggies in their food, there is an upside. Of course, Joie Luck is the same way, so again, Bamboo loses. The one advantage Bamboo does have is that they are open an extra hour.



Zagat may think this is the best Chinese restaurant in the Valley, but I strongly disagree, and I haven't even tried the other options yet. Next time, I plan to try one of the restaurants recommended to me by my fellow hounds.

If you've been to Bamboo Cuisine, how was your experience? Leave a comment!

Bamboo Cuisine
14010 Ventura Blvd.
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
818-788-0202
Sun-Thur 11:30am-10:30pm
Fri-Sat 11:30am-11:00pm
$15 minimum, $2 delivery charge
Map
Bamboo Cuisine Website (with menu)

Restaurant Review #131: Mao's Kitchen, Venice

Peace not war wonton soup

Mao's is an incredibly popular Chinese restaurant. Granted, there aren't many Chinese restaurants in the area, and most of them are bad, but even so, Mao's is very good, and it's healthy, too, with not a trace of MSG.


Late in the day, the sun can really get in your eyes

It took me a while to warm up to Mao's, because my first couple of experiences with them were less than exciting. I tried the Singapore noodles, which were bland. So was a veggie and tofu dish I tried. Everything else I have tried, however, has been very good. If you're used to gooey, sugary sauces and salty, oily soups, Mao's can be a pleasant change of pace. Though Mao's does not surprise my tastebuds with something new and exciting or very intense, their food is healthy, cheap, generously portioned, tasty, and deliverable.


Orange ginger chicken

One of my favorites is the Peace Not War soup, which is a chicken wonton soup in a chicken broth. Many of Mao's dishes have communist-themed names. The soup comes in a huge bowl, making it a great appetizer for two or meal for one. The veggies are fresh and crisp and the wontons are delectable, though the wonton skins are on the thick side.

The orange ginger chicken is neither too orangey nor too gingery and has just the right amount of sauce. In spite of all their healthy propaganda, Mao's serves up a whole plate full of just meat. I know I need my veggies, but as a child I saw veggies as a cheap filler in Chinese dishes, and I have never really been able to change my mind on this point. Another high point is that Mao's uses high quality white meat (high enough quality that I never ran across a chunk of what the heck is that? in my meat).

Mao's also has vegetarian and vegan options--in any dish, you can request vegan broth in your soup and tofu instead of meat or seafood (though I think some dishes have inherent limitations).



I also had a dollar salad, which was the best dollar I have spent in a long time. This salad is a simple bowl of romaine lettuce, shredded carrot, and cucumber in a light, sweet not-too-vineagary vinagrette.

For dessert, there's just one option: the chocolate pineapple. This dish consists of an innovatively sliced half pineapple with a pot of wine-laced chocolate fondue. The fondue was predictably good, and the pineapple fresh and ripe. My favorite part of the dish, however, was the red candied ginger meant to be part of the garnish. Yum.

Mao's doesn't serve any alcohol, but they seem to have an unofficial BYOB policy--bring your own cheap wine and corkscrew, and Mao's will supply tea cups.

The atmosphere is crowded and super-casual: flip flops and t-shirts abound. Wooden tables are tightly packed with happy locals. Some of the tables are long, family-style tables which can leave you dining with strangers at busy times. Even the smaller tables are awfully close together. I'd recommend getting your food delivered or doing takeout unless you like a loud, chaotic atmosphere with poor service.

The service leaves a lot to be desired, as none of the servers seem to care that you're there. Sometimes the food takes forever. On my last visit, I ordered the homemade ginger ale. I sent the first one back because it tasted like Sprite. When I had it remade, it tasted like dirty soda (and upon observation, it was indeed made with Sprite). Definitely skip this drink. While our server did volunteer to re-make the drinks, he didn't really seem to care if we were satisfied with them in the end. I don't like to make a scene, but I was tempted to cross the item out on the final bill and not pay for it. If you've ever had the fresh ginger ale at Gingergrass, you'll know why the stuff they serve at Mao's is such a sin.

Parking is not a joy in this area. I don't have any secret parking tips. There is no parking lot, and street parking is a nightmare. I wish you the best of luck.

If you've been to Mao's Kitchen, how was your experience? Leave a comment!


Eat early and get your choice of tables

Maos Kitchen
310-581-8305
1512 Pacific Ave
Venice, CA 90291
Sun-Thur 11:30am-10:30pm
Fri, Sat 11:30am-3am
Map
Mao's Kitchen Website (menu available)

Restaurant Review #113: Jin Jiang Seafood Restaurant, West LA (now closed)

Jin Jiang Seafood Restaurant has been around for at least 10 years, from what I could tell from the old reviews posted on the wall and the decor. It's a large restaurant on the second story of a classic west LA strip mall, and it looked to be completely empty at 8pm on a Sunday. The well-spaced, large tables are covered with pink tablecloths and sea green napkins.

I came in for takeout. The whole process was incredibly simple and quick. Read menu. Order food. In 10 minutes or less, take steaming hot containers of food out to my car. Go home and eat. I realize that things should always work this way, but sometimes they don't.

Despite the name, there are plenty of non-seafood dishes to order. Had I been in the mood, I might have ordered the lemon garlic scallops or the kung pao scallops. I ordered kung pao beef, orange chicken, and general Tao's chicken (alternately known as general Tsao's or sometimes even general Joe's), as well as steamed rice, egg rolls, and hot and sour soup with chicken.

The kung pao beef tasted good, but the meat was strangely pale in color, and there were a couple of really pungent, utterly foul tasting black things in the dish (were they supposed to be there?). The orange chicken was quite tough, and I didn't eat much of it even though I was starving. The general Tao's chicken fared a bit better--it wasn't as tough, but well, it was still on the chewy side. By the way, you probably won't want to order both of those dishes at once, since both are deep fried and coated in a sticky sweet sauce. They seem almost identical to me, except that one tastes more like sweet and sour sauce and one tastes more like orange.

I really liked the hot and sour soup, though putting ground chicken in it was weird and kind of unpleasant. The egg rolls were the small, thin kind that I think of as being spring rolls (does anyone still make the thick-skinned kind? Is that a regional thing? Were they, in fact, spring rolls, but misleadingly labeled as eggrolls on the menu?). They were fine, though I prefer a nice thick chewy eggroll. They came with a pleasantly spicy mustard sauce (hot like wasabi) and a thin, radioactive red sweet and sour sauce.

I didn't take photos because it's hard to photograph takeout and, well, you know what Chinese food looks like already. Also, I was so hungry that I was actually starting to feel ill (I had spent 9 hours in the car with mostly candy bars for sustenance).

Overall, I wasn't too impressed with the food. It's better than Pick up Stix or California Wok, but not nearly as good as Joie Luck Kitchen, Mao's Kitchen, or Little Hong Kong Cafe. When a place has been around for that long, you expect quality. The portions were generous, and the prices were reasonable, but who cares about all that when the food isn't up to snuff? And why do they use styrofoam when they could use those paperboard containers that were made for Chinese food?

Given the restaurant's name, maybe the quality lies mainly in the seafood dishes, but now I'm afraid to try them.

Jin Jiang Seafood Restaurant
11057 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
310-444-7171
11am-10pm daily
Website

Restaurant Review #84: Yangtze, Santa Monica

One of the great and somewhat undiscovered things about Yangtze is supposed to be their half price sushi bar hidden in the back of the restaurant. Too bad cheap sushi almost always means crunchy, flavorless sushi, and Yangtze is no exception. It's also generally a safe bet that if a restaurant serves Thai and Chinese in addition to sushi, they probably aren't focused enough on the sushi for it to be high quality. However, if you avoid the sushi, you should be okay. Their kung pao chicken is quite good and consists entirely of chicken and not too many bell peppers, which is great for those who don't like a lot of veggies watering down their meat dish. Yangtze delivers, and often sends coupons in the mail, though they aren't worth much (something like $2 off of a $15 minimum order). Yangtze, like most places, has a $10 minimum on delivery orders. I think this is one of the better restaurants on the Promenade, though I still contend that there are no truly good restaurants there because all of these establishments can rely on lost, hungry tourists to get them by even if the food isn't top-notch.

Yangtze
1333 3rd St Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 260-1994
Website

Restaurant Review #29: Little Hong Kong Cafe, Sawtelle, West LA

Tangerine Chicken

Not noticeably different from orange chicken except in name, the tangerine chicken consists of mostly small pieces of white meat deep fried in a thick batter. This dish is very tasty, somewhat spicy, and contains no veggies whatsover. I found that I only needed a few bites to feel full due to the heaviness of deep fried chicken combined with the artificially full feeling imparted by spicy foods. Either because of MSG or because it was deep fried (I'm leaning toward the latter), this dish did not agree with my stomach, but it was definitely me and not the dish itself as my friend did not get sick. Note that you can order your food without MSG, but you have to request it.

The chicken came with hot and sour soup, which is generally hard to mess up. The soup was pretty good and pretty spicy but it had a kind of underlying musty flavor that I didn't care for. It also came with two small spring rolls, which were so dry I couldn't eat them.


Ma-po Tofu

On the vegetarian section of the menu, ma-po tofu was the only dish that wasn't just a plate of veggies. Fortunately, it's also a dish I like. Silken tofu squares swim in a bath of thick, spicy sauce garnished with scallions.

We also tried both a passion fruit and a peach boba tea. Both were so syrupy sweet I couldn't barely drink them, and the boba were tasteless and getting a bit mushy. If you want boba, you're better off going next door or across the street.

According to my friend who picked up our takeout order, the service was very friendly, and quite prompt. They told him the wait for our food would be ten minutes, and it was ten minutes exactly. They took care to make sure he could carry everything, including the drinks. Although there was a shift change while he was waiting, and he had no problems with a messed up order or any misunderstandings. I might also point out, in light of the recent articles, that this place has a grade A rating. You can also have the food delivered by a third party delivery service (see link to menu, below).

Overall, in spite of my criticisms, I think this place is a winner, because the food is very inexpensive, but not so inexpensive as to qualify as "cheap Chinese," which is generally a good thing where meat is involved. The menu is quite extensive, so there's something for pretty much anyone. I had this meal to go, but I've also eaten at their restaurant. It's very casual, with ambience slightly above that of a fast food restaurant--not a place for a date or to really catch up with a friend, but perfect for a quick bite to eat. As far as I can tell, there aren't a lot of options for Chinese in this part of town, so when I can't go to Mao's Kitchen, Little Hong Kong Cafe will do.



Little Hong Kong Cafe
2129 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
310.478.7329
Menu