As some of you may have noticed, I describe the area where I live as one of the many wastelands for Chinese food that exist throughout the Los Angeles area. As such I never dreamed that there would be XLB or dim sum anyplace close to my house. Yet, ixlb has just soft opened on the corner of Sunset and Bronson. Limited hours (3 hours at both lunch and at dinner), though they say that eventually they’ll be open from 7am to 9pm. Everything on the menu is $3.95, with about half of the menu items available during the soft open. I had the baked bbq pork buns, the XLB, and the bo lo bao, all of which I would describe as serviceable. Take out only and eventually ordering will be via iPad. If they really will start opening up at 7am I could see myself stopping by here on the way to work.
Of course the elephant in the room is whether the dim sum is home made or comes from an outside supplier. My items were ready to go within five minutes of ordering. I’ve expressed my skepticism before Who's Really Making Your Chinese Food? - Menuism Dining Blog
and after reading Clarissa Wei’s subsequent article about the El Monte dim sum factory, I have a suspicious eye on all common dim sum varieties.
I went. They served me cold freaking dimsum it was disgusting.
If it was warm it would have beem average quality dimsum. It looks like they at least make some if not all inhouse due to the equipment they have and seeing the employees actually preparing food.
I just stopped by today and had the char sui bao and the white turnip cake. It was pretty good except the turnip cake could have been a little crispier. The char sui bao was pretty mild in flavor and a little mushy but but the bao itself was very soft and I thought it tastes pretty good.
For the location and the price I thought it was very solid. Since there’s no dim sum within probably a 7 mile radius.
I spied that they were making and stuffing two different types of dumplings in the back. So I’m not sure if all of the items are homemade, but at least some are.
As previously mentioned, this place is set up for take-out, with only two smallish counters if you choose to eat there. Here are the counters looking out on Sunset and Bronson:
Regarding whether they cook there, or reheat, it’s unclear, but the lady gave us some experimental items fresh from the oven as we were waiting and they seemed fresh. Here’s the kitchen:
I’d rather spend double this and eat at ping tung if I want mediocre overpriced dim sum without making the trek to sgv. I’d rather pay triple and make the trip to Glendale DTF for the quality, consistency, and overall experience. Or if I were pointing west, I’d rather head over to ROC. And given that you get 8 Dumplings per order at DTF and ROC, ixlb really isn’t cheap. what i was served at ixlb was pure dreck that even at the low price point for this area, I felt ripped off. And I ate in so there was nothing lost by travel. Xlb w pasty filling, incompetent wrapper and hardly any juice, nasty red vinegar in little plastic cups that smelled like piss, dense and gummy turnip cakes, dried out har gow… sticky floors to boot. The only thing that wasnt a complete lost cause was the won tons w chile sauce. Worst use of stomach space in recent memory. Will never return.
We were hoping to find Mucho Perro at their usual spot on Sunset, but they were nowhere to be found, and so went across Bronson and tried Ixlb.
We had, in no particular order, char siu bao, shu mai, har gow, and of course their namesake XLB.
Nothing was really bad, but nothing was certainly memorable, or even good. The bao was a bit mealy and the filling sweet like a dessert sweet, shu mai and har gow were I think fine though nothing that makes them memorable even for WeHo/Hollywood. XLB were a travesty, however. Just not good.
How best to sum up? Imagine if Hungry-Man made dim sum.
Oh, yeah, we also had the egg tarts. I’m still trying to put that experience out of my mind.
I don’t know who that is, I’m not a foodette and don’t have much time to spend in the 626. Btw interesting article and while I appreciate the utility of top ten lists when visiting an unfamiliar area, I do know they are inherently flawed so I tend to refer to them only to narrow down my search but do further research. I can say with certainty that ixlb has the best dim sum within a 1/2 mile radius of sunset and bronson. I really wish them well as the owners seem like nice people, but it really was one of the worst meals I’ve had in a long time. Maybe I just eat well
