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
2.20.2006
Restaurant Review #112: Literati II, West LA
Crispbreads and tulips
First of all, check out the new site search box in the sidebar (to your left). It actually works now! (I have no idea why it wasn't before.)
Ah, Valentine's Day. That special time of year when you feel advertising agency-induced mushiness for your honey, scathing bitterness towards your ex, or feigned indifference. That special night when it takes 45 minutes to drive a mere 4 miles home from work because everyone is trying to get home in time to change for dinner. Luckily, I have a Portuguese tape in the car to quell my road rage.
"Si, eu sou americana. Sou de Los Angeles."
"Eu nao falo o portugues."
I purposely tried to arrange the evening to be as stress-free as possible. We cancelled our original reservations at another restaurant, fearing that the place would be too popular a destination and therefore too crowded and too noisy. We picked Literati II instead, under the assumptions that 1. the food would be good, because the food at Literati is good; 2. it would not be exorbitantly expensive; and 3. it would be quieter than most places while still being romantic. We were right about the first two, and partially right about the second.
At our prime 7:30 reservation time, the restaurant was packed, and we could barely hear each other while waiting in front of the hostess stand. Fortunately, we got seated outside, where the noise of Wilshire was nothing compared to the noise inside. In fact, the fence and clear plastic wall surrounding the patio area kept the noise out fairly well. The chairs were made comfortable with small chenile pillows, and plenty of heaters kept me warm. We even got our choice of tables. I picked the big round one, knowing that if we picked a table for two, we would probably eventually have other diners sitting 12 inches away from us. I really don't understand the popularity of this phenomenon. I know that restaurants want to have the opportunity to turn as many tables as possible, but christ. If I wanted to eat dinner with strangers, I'd hold an open house at my apartment.
The patio
Aside from the close tables, the patio was lovely -- much better than the Los Angeles average. "Hi, I'd like to make a reservation for two, and can we please get a table in that lovely plastic tent of yours?" Usually, outdoor dining in this city seems designed not to create a European cafe style experience, like it pretends to do, but simply to add more tables, so poorly is the design executed.
The hostess was warm and friendly, and not in a fake way. I liked that. The waiter was professional and competent, though not extra impressive. He did an okay job of picking a wine to go with our food, but he might have done better asking someone else for input. Busboys, some of whom I recognized from Literati, came by regularly to refill water and take away plates.
The wine menu contained mostly bottles, but they did offer about ten wines by the glass at prices in the $9-14 range. They also had a menu of frou frou cocktail drinks, many of which sounded enticing. I had to go with the caipirinha, since I don't often have the opportunity to order one. It was quite strong, and pretty good, though it didn't taste like the ones I enjoyed so much in Spain. I realize that Spain is not Brazil, but it is right next to Portugal, so I like to think that they had some idea what they were doing, convoluted though my logic may be.
I was quite enamored of the crispbread that came as a starter. Regular bread can be too filling, but the cracker-like bread didn't create that problem. Make sure to try the parmesan crisps. The red pepper dip that accompanied the breads was tasty as well.
The menu was just one page long, possibly because of Valentine's Day. By the time I eliminated all the shellfish and hunk of meat entrees, I was left with just two choices, which my friend and I ordered.
Bucatini
Bucatini is sort of like spaghetti, but wider and with a small hole in the middle. The lemon zest-infused butter sauce was excellent, and the leaves you see tasted like sugar snap peas. Do sugar snap peas have leaves? (I'm planning to grow some soon, so maybe I'll find out.) The peas themselves were cooked, which meant they had that mushy pea consistency that I'm not so fond of (I like to eat them raw). The wild mushrooms were tasty, but a little too buttery for me. Literati II apparently prides itself on using fresh farmer's market produce and changing the menu by as much as 30% daily to reflect what was fresh and available that day.
Ocean trout
Ocean trout is pink like salmon, but doesn't have as strong a flavor. This dish impressed me from the moment it hit my tongue. In this case, it was really the herb and salt rub on the skin that did the trick. Here again lemon zest and peas were part of the dish, but there were also artichoke hearts and rapini. Rapini is essentially a weed, but it can be used in cooking as a dark green vegetable that seems like a kale/seaweed hybrid. It tastes better than it sounds.
Pavlova
For dessert I ordered the Pavlova, which was tangelo sorbet, raspberry sorbet (I think), meringue and a rectangle of almond candy. The tangelo sorbet failed to impress me. Its flavor was too mild and didn't proclaim, "I am tangelo!" I have every right to criticize it because I've spent hours scraping the zest from tangelos to make my own sorbet. Literati II's sorbet seemed to rely on tangelo juice, but no zest, for flavor. I didn't love my dessert. I was much more fond of the 10 year old port that I ordered alongside it (I know, I know, it doesn't go). It wasn't as good as Warre's Otima, though.
Overall, I enjoyed my visit. I'd like to go back on a regular night and take in the normal menu and the indoor seating.
Total for 2, including 3 alcoholic beverages, tax, and tip: about $100
Literati II
12081 Wilshire Blvd (at Bundy)
Los Angeles, CA
310-479-3400
Website (not really put together yet)
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