Earthen Is The Best

For my money Earthen is the best Chinese food in OC/LA/SGV. It’s the most consistent and the variety of dishes would allow you to eat there several times per week. I’m literally working my way through the entire menu. Have ordered almost everything at this point and never had a bad dish.

I don’t know what category of Chinese Earthen falls into but it reminds me of a cross between Noodle 101 and a Chinese/Korean place. I’m sure somebody much more knowledgeable than me can confirm.

Top dishes
Scallion pancake - the best
House special chicken - the best
Jja jiang menin - the best (and that is not easy for me to say since I’m Korean)
Hot garlic shrimp - the best - better than any other Korean/Chinese restaurant in LA/OC hands down
Jjam bong - great refined less oily version but wouldn’t mind a little more spice
uchoy /achoy - whatever vegetables they have that day just order them
Pan fried pork dumplings - fantastic and perfectly executed crispy bottoms with steaming juicy inside
Fried rice - excellent rendition (not as good as DTF)
Kung pao chicken - excellent, great spice and like all the extra vegetables to balance out and add some crunch
all of the appetizers we’ve had are also great

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I keep meaning to try this place but mom is literally addicted to the braised pork in brown sauce at Shanghailander Palace in the same plaza.

http://m.yelp.com/biz_photos/shanghailander-palace-hacienda-heights?select=9VdfxUUv-9nKQTXjg7S_bg

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I like Earthen too. We were a party of 5 yesterday for lunch and had some of what you listed plus their jellyfish (very good) and mu shu (wiped it out too). Comfy/chill atmosphere… good service.

The crunch on their dumplings…damn…

Now I want to try their shrimp!!

Shanghailander is the truth.

I do like Earthen, especially their boiled fish dumplings and pan fried pork dumplings.

my experience with earthen is get the shandong chicken and their version of a scallion pancake which is a thin crispy rendition with no layers. but if you get anything else and you don’t like it, it’s your fault.

I usually just go there for the dumplings and forget to look at the rest of the menu…

Nobody does braised pork in brown sauce as well as the Shanghaiese. The braised pork in cuttlefish stew at Old Jesse in Shanghai is the stuff of legends.

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That braised pork was amazing. Everything else we ordered was just ok. The XLB were ok not great. What else do you guys like there?

If I went into that parking lot and made a left to Shaghailander Palace my kids would put my head in a noose.

J L, s that from Shanghailainder or a place in Shnaghai?

The dungeness crab with rice cake is another must for us. Basically those two are their standouts. I see a lot of people getting the braised whole pork shank which is tempting but we can’t pry ourselves from the braised pork in brown sauce.

Photo is indeed from Ji Shi (AKA “Old Jesse”) Restaurant in Shanghai.

There’s nothing Korean about Earthen. Let’s not insult the food, since if you like it so much…

Also, really so far, FAR away from being the "b"est of Chinese in LA. It may be Robouchon when compared to New Garden, but… New Garden is absolute shit even for Korean-Chinese.

What I’m saying: Korean ajusshis need to stop eating garbage tangsuyuk and get down with the “truth”. This applies to my in-laws who won’t try “dimsum” cuz “that’s not Chinese food”. F U.

tony, I have to just smile.

but I can’t make heads or tails at what you’re getting at here.

sometimes I definitely need like some sort of fucking Rosetta stone to get at what Tony is talking about.

having said that you do know what’s out there.

Kevin I believe what Tony C is trying to say is that in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. Haven’t been to New Garden in ~2 years and that place has been going downhill since the 90s.

I don’t agree with Tony’s assessment as I would still take Earthen over plenty of other places like DTF, Noodle 101, Luscious Dumplings, Wang Jing Xi and many of the top dim sum places in the SGV. I think the whole Sichuan revolution over the past year or so is a bit overblown.

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Definitely agree with that.

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Good and bad picking up at Earthen today.

Parking lot was empty. I got a spot literally right in front. Very sad to see as its usually a zoo on Sunday.
They repaved most of the parking lot which is nice.
The house chicken travels very well since they put the sauce on the side.
The green onion pancake does not travel well but 4-5 minutes in the air fryer is perfect.
They are selling lots of frozen dumplings to go.
No a choy or yu choy today.
We should have been picking up from Earthen more often during quarantine.

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Has anybody eaten at Earthern lately? Why is it so empty now- has the food quality fall off a cliff or something?

I just passed by it today on a weeknight and there was only one or two tables that had diners while the restaurant two doors down had every table filled.

They changed ownership. All of the wait staff was new the last few times we went. The recipe for the green onion pancakes is different. It was not as divine and crispy as usual. We still like Earthen but on weekend afternoons we have also noticed the dining room was not as packed. There seemed to be a lot of take out though.

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The last few trips to Earthen produced mixed results. The much lauded green onion pancake was not nearly as good. Flaccid and not crispy. Some of our other dishes were not up to the normal Earthen standard. We decided to give them another try on Lunar New Year. We were expecting a full house so got there right at opening at 11am.

I’m very happy to report that it seems some of the kitchen issues were mostly rectified.

Back to its former glory. This has been our standard for the green onion pancake. It’s perfect.

You could bottle this sauce. The chicken came out warm today. Loved that. Only small quibble is the lack of green onion and only 1 sprig of cilantro.

Crunchy cartilage with a very nice fry. A few almost burnt pieces. Like the ones I buy at every supermarket these jalapeños have absolutely no heat. Love the nice onion and green onion mixture.

Tofu skin, pork and green onion. Love spooning that sauce on top of rice.

The veggies have always been excellent at Earthen. The combination of the seasoning and the wok hei. My kids eat more veggies here than any other place we eat at.

There is a new hot sauce that is like a chili oil but there is some type of fermented ingredient. It has almost like a Korean denjang flavor with a good amount of heat. The pacing of the dishes out of the kitchen was weird. We’d get a dish every 5-7 minutes. It was almost like a 5 course tasting menu. It was actually fine but we ate all the green onion pancakes before there was another dish on the table. Then the chicken came by itself and we ate the whole dish. Rinse and repeat.

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