You had me at pork hock! I have to try this place, so close to home.
Hit the Sawtelle Tasty Noodle the other night and will definitely be back! Chow mein was on point, as were the Shanghai grilled pork buns. The latter are prepared to order, but the 15-minute wait is totally worth it!
I have to say, though, the real revelation for me was the little dish of nori-seasoned peanuts that comes with every meal. The salt and umami are just the perfect seasoning.
Peanuts:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/5KV1fpQDFZpJUFR93
Chow mein:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BZSQpR6Lc3VtNaa82
Grilled pork buns:
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Bigmouth Strikes Again!
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Stay tuned for my solo effort: You’re the One for Me (Little) Fatty.
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In that case I shall don my elastic waistband pants, Stretch Out and Wait…
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Wait, someone for real ordered XLB there? lol… i cant even get it from dim sum places in SGV… that’s a specialist only kind of thing.
XLB is Shanghaiese in origin. Dim sum is Cantonese in origin (why order XLB there in the first place?). Tasty Noodle House skews more towards Shanghaiese fare. Ergo…
ROC’s XLBs are much better than tasty noodles, so go there if you have a hankering for XLB on sawtelle.
I’m trying to make a different point. It’s a dish requiring high skill level and a specialization. Being on a menu at a restaurant just as part of 50 other dishes they make would mean I’m not ordering it. That’s just me though.
I personally did not enjoy the XLB at ROC, though it’s been years since I tried them. I recall the soup’s having a sour taste I found off putting.
The pan-fried buns are one of their specialties. What did you try at the W 3rd location?
I had the doughy buns, they were pretty good. I’ve had a couple of their soup noodle dishes also. Meh. I’m right down the street, obsessed with asian food and never want to go so that’s a bad sign.
Guaranteed they won’t make it in that location. That’s a baller lease.
I so, so disagree with this one statement.
Sorry to hear that, I’ve been to ROC a couple of times on Sawtelle and their 3rd st location. Although not amazing probably the best I’ve found west of Downtown, maybe try them out again some other time.
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If they close it will make me sad 
Perhaps I’m a bit odd in this regard, but I personally wouldn’t want to order XLB at a canto restaurant. And you can definitely get XLB at SGV dim sum places since they’re presumably sourcing them from some central location (and my dad once ordered them at Lunasia b/f I could stop him).
I tried the XLB after they first opened, and they were foul and disgusting. The ones I had a few mos ago were better than edible… Although I still wouldn’t order them there.
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No, it’s not.
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I think the calibration may have been wrongly set in North America when the marketing of DIn Tai Fung somehow made the oh-so-precious thin skin the epitome of the XLB genre.
When, in actuality, XLB is more like pizza for the Chinese. Some people prefer thin crust, while some others (like me) prefer thicker crust. My Northern Chinese relatives have always made the thick, doughy skinned XLB - So superb for breakfast on a cold Tianjin morning.
But going back to Sawtelle, the ROC XLB filling is just insipid.
There is another place within 3 minutes drive time from ROC/Tasty Noodle, with even better thick-skinned XLB, IMHO.
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And the name is…??? 
I’m guessing Northern Cafe in Westwood.
Nope.