It’s happening! And walking distance from Casa Bigmouth!
That’s right next door to Moon House! Maybe the entire strip mall can be taken over by Chinese restaurants. It would be like a tiny little piece of Valley Boulevard transplanted to West L.A.
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Hahahaha! I think it’s across the street from Moon House? Either way, Westwood is becoming Little (Person) SGV!
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Yes. According to the article, it’s taking over the spot now occupied by Jin Jiang. That + Sawtelle = nirvana…
Who would’ve thought that we’d have this, Tasty Noodle, Popcorn Chicken, Qin West, DTF, and Northern Cafe all w/i a 2 mi radius???
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I think the significant thing is that Sichuan Impression is a name brand out of the San Gabriel Valley, while Tasty Noodle, Popcorn Chicken, Qin West, Northern Cafe, and Little Highness were minor players out there or not at all (Popcorn Chicken from Irvine, Qin West from Chinatown).
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I expect this will be a hit. It has enough foodie cache that Westside eaters will flock to it. If the food is as good and cheap as it is in SGV, it will be packed.
that’s what we predicted for Newport… RIP
Did we predict that? I think a fair number of us were not super surprised that it tanked.
Is the SGV one expensive? If it’s really good and decently priced for the area, that’s enough for me, personally. The $ I save on gas will make up the difference…
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It will do well there. The rent is way cheaper than up on San Vincente and where Newport was over BH. The only problem is, parking kinda sucks around there. Since mom has a handicapped permit and she gets her hair done at the salon on the first floor, I’m good to go.
Yes, most of thought Newport Seafood on restaurant row would be an unmitigated success. Indeed, I avoided the place for a while to avoid the crowds that didn’t show up.
I think this is kind of revisionist history. I think people quickly realized once they saw the prices and location that there would be challenges.
This will be an interesting test.
I wonder if Chengdu Taste will follow suit since they already have a ton of outlets
Were the prices substantially different from the SGV? I actually don’t recall.
Not at all. It was when the sparse crowds never got better that people realized there was a problem. Newport Seafood had a nice lunch menu full of items around $10. That attracted only a handful of tables of customers at any time,with a conspicuous lack of non-Asians. I do think Sichuan Impression will do fine, however, because of all of the Mainland students attending UCLA. The problem with Newport Seafood is that the demographics skew all to non-Cantonese food these days everywhere except LA Chinatown.
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This is instantly top on my personal most anticipated restaurant opening!
I think lobster was 30 vs. 17 per pound in San Gabriel. Other dishes were incrementally higher but not outrageous. And as I noted lunch specials were reasonable.
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First, thanks so much for letting us know about this - as soon as there’s a specific opening day out, I’ll be starting a countdown.
I wonder if the Westside menu will be as extensive as the SGV location. One of the other issues I had with the BH Newport was that its menu was much smaller and less interesting than the SGV locations. I might have been willing to pay a bit more if I could have gotten some of the dishes I liked in the SGV.
And I sure hope the Westside Sichuan Impression does not tinker with the names of the dishes on the menu. I want to see “Big Mouth” Zigong Ginger Frog when I’m trying to decide what to order.
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I went to Hop Woo restaurant, the Cantonese restaurant at Olympic and Sepulveda tonight and they have a new szechuan menu which have Zigong Ginger Frog, Roast Fresh Rock Fish Lazi Chicken etc. It seems to be a little wired because it is a Cantonese restaurant however the taste is amazingly good…Just like the ones I tried at SGV…
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I think that’s pretty wild, both Cantonese and Sichuan.
TBH a lot of Cantos don’t touch/like Sichuan food
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