Dim Sum Staff From Enlighten Bistro 168 May Have Just Landed

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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Visited 1968 yesterday.

Quality was excellent. Steamed items were all very good, slightly altered flavor profiles compared to the SGV legacy spots. More baller-style big tickety items on the menu (truffle, quail, abalone, crab jook, pork knuckle, etc.) than most. Heavy reliance on the deep fryer.

Is it the best game in town? It comes down to personal preference and mood. Don’t know when I’ll next be back. Wonderful to have so many very high quality options in town.

Shout out to the next level Macau egg custard tarts. Good tea service too.

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we requested a table at 11am. we were seated about 11:50. we stayed mainly with the basics:

ha gao/siu mai: eh. ha gao was a single piece of shrimp, but i’d go with lucky1 - bigger and about half the price. the siu mai was actually quite flavorful, though more of pork than shrimp.
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23 ha gao

Bistro 1968 2022-12-23 siu mai

the cha siu chang fun was for me the best item that day, largely because there was a substantial amount of filling, and the actual noodle was chewier in consistency, suggesting that tapioca had been added to the flour.

Bistro 1968 2022-12-23 chang fun bbq pork

the wagyu beef chang fun, meh.
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23 chang fun wagyu beef

you could barely make out the gold characters on the buns filled with salty egg yuck. i did not misspell a word in the previous sentence. had it been a regular egg yolk, the texture would have more agreeable, but the brining created a gritty texture not unlike malt. flawless in concept, lacking in execution.
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23 salted egg yuck

we tried a shrimp/chive(?) dumpling which we did not expect to be green. it was adequate.
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23_13-19-13

the deep fried taro pastries were well executed and the crust was shatteringly crisp. but if there was taro inside, i couldn’t swear on a stack of bibles that i could discern it.
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23_13-03-01
the lo mai gai had good flavor, but was disturbingly soggy in texture, like they’d been boiled and there was a leak in the lotus leaf wrapping

Bistro 1968 2022-12-23 lo mai gai
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23 lo mai gai 2

the steamed cake was well executed, good flavor and texture, but i can duplicate that in my microwave at home.
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23_12-47-16

the baked cha siu bao were prepared well but filled mainly with air resulting in the filling being overpowered by the sweetness of the bun. i did not enjoy it.
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23_12-41-20 cha siu bao
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23_12-42-01 cha siu bao 2

the hom sui gok came out green, perhaps to distract you from noticing that it was also filled mainly with air and that the skin wasn’t quite cooked through resulting in it being a bit sticker than normal.
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23 hom sui gok
Bistro 1968 2022-12-23 hom sui gok inside

even if the fancier dishes were better executed, i can’t recommend a place that doesn’t execute the basics with similar results, especially at those prices. the wagyu beef chang fun, for example, was IIRC $12.98.

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Somebody posted a picture of the lineup that stretched down the street this morning waiting for Bistro 1968’s 10am opening today. Clearly the hottest dim sum ticket in town at the moment.

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these folks probably all think lunasia is terrific too. or they’re just collecting another restaurant the way some people collect badges or matchbook covers.

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Yeah. What happened to Lunasia?

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i began to dislike lunasia before it became popular to dislike lunasia.

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LA dimsum is so bad even something mildly decent has lines. Still don’t get why it’s so bad here

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Well if you go back 20 years, the first non-cart dim sum restaurants opened up with Sea Harbour, followed by New Concept (which became Elite) and Triumphal Palace (which became Lunasia), which rocketed our dim sum past anything in the Bay Area. And through 2023 these three have continuously been at or near the front of the pack in the San Gabriel Valley, which is the problem because it’s the newcomers that tend to come up with new and improved concepts and dishes. Virtually all of the groundbreaking newcomers have for some reason opened up in the Bay Area. So when something new in the SGV opens up resembling what’s available in San Francisco or Vancouver, of course it’s going to cause a stir. We thought that the arrival of Chef Tony from Vancouver would have changed that, but it didn’t and like you I’m perplexed why they couldn’t duplicate their magic here,

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Appreciate the history lesson. So weird how mediocre the LA dimsum scene is…

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just cantonese food in general seems just not good enough for what you’d expect. Everyone is trotting out the same recipes over and over again. There’s no variation in live seafood prep. Was in sydney a last week and was blown away by what they were doing with dimsum and dinner. A place like Mr. Wong’s with cocktails and a “be seen” vibe has better cantonese food prep than anything in LA. Sad state.

Originally (think 15-20 years ago) I thought it had to do with a lot of the cantonese in socal were multi generational or lower income but now there’s not really that excuse.

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I’m thinking that compared compared to 30 years ago Los Angeles is less of a destination for those fleeing Hong Kong and places like Australia, New Zealand and London are more likely landing points.

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The sons of immigrants/ABC’s are what’s pushing Cantonese food in LA, SF, and NYC.

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That is also what I assume, as well. There’s a desire for familiarity (and the familiar is based on what was happening 20-30 yrs ago).

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One of these daya maybe someone will open a dim sum place along the lines of Needle or Pearl River Deli.

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I think you’ve mistaken different with better. Many places that serve some of the best dim sum in Hong Kong aren’t reinventing the wheel there either…it always comes down to execution in dim sum. If a restaurant can’t execute their classics in dim sum properly, and that’s everybody in SGV and SF for the most part, what’s the point of adding on some modern takes that they riff off of HK hotel restaurants just so they can look cool?

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100% agree. I’m all for innovation, but before that, you have to get the basics right. I keep harping on Lunasia because one in Torrance has the har gow that are a disgrace. Thick, gloopy wrappers that are inevitably broken on 2 of 4 every order.

Just spent the week in NYC and I’m amazed by how much the Chinese food scene has evolved there versus what’s happened in LA and even SF over the past decade. Not that it’s better but so much quality has been added versus what feels like stagnation here = a signficantly narrowed gap. Our meal at Little Alley was incredible. Only place that comes close for higher end, refined Chinese in LA imo is Eat Joy Food right now. Even Bistro Na isn’t as good and at a much higher price point…

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Did you go to the East Village? That would probably surprise most people who have not been in NYC in a while.

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We made it to East Village, but also Murray Hill (Little Alley, Dun Huang) and Hell’s Kitchen (a couple places, including one for beef noodle soup that was surprisingly solid). It’s not amazing by any stretch, but when we lived on the UWS from 2005 - 2011, we had to hit Chinatown / Flushing for decent eats, unless we did one of Grand Szechuans or, shudder, Ollie’s :slight_smile: Although I shouldn’t scorn Ollie’s because it was a perfectly serviceable meal when we felt like ordering in, especially for bbq meats with wonton noodle soup.

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FWIW, the word chef in western cultures also references the fact that he/she is the chief, and as such, their main goal is to ensure that recipes are executed to proper standards even when the chef is not there. that’s a large part of why thomas keller is revered - he doesn’t need to be there for you to get a perfectly executed meal.

laoxi noodle house has two branches, and i’ve noticed that people seem to favor the baldwin branch. not surprising, the wife is there most of the time, even though she’s given the staff the freedom to experiment (i tried not to blanch when she mentioned the addition of a sriracha shrimp noodle dish to the otherwise authentic shanxi menu). FWIW, noodle palace was once an offshoot of laoxi; it’s run by her in-laws, but i’ve seen her come in and prepare the binary sauces (as well as a vegetarian version of that sauce) for her wife house specials. but they seem to have branched off as they’ve added things like kaolaolao noodles (the only other place i’ve had those in LA was at a place in RH whose name i don’t recall but they had a robot noodle shaver you could watch through a window) so they’re a legit choice for shanxi but don’t seem to get much love here on FTC.

so when "chef’ tony or any other person known for dim sum opens a branch, i personally place it on them to also ensure that recipes are executed flawlessly when they’re not there, as it’s not possible to be everywhere at once when you have branches.

i am going to dim sum this saturday with someone who wanted a recommendation (sea harbor). the wait will be worth it.

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