This area is screaming for decent restaurants. We’ve had some good options open up very recently with the Uovo/ HiHo/ Kazu-Nori trio and now Qi Steam. There’s a new rustic Italian opening up this week on Fairfax in the heart of Little Ethiopia.
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That’s a strange way of saying “wow Ns1 your call to action was really effective!”
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Can you imagine if only I gave them a HIGHLY recommended rating?! 
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Tried it, albeit only via delivery from DoorDash.
Had the mixed steamed vegetables, although mine did not come with any asparagus like the picture from J.L. Only broccoli, cauliflower and lots and lots of red and yellow peppers. Also J.L.'s picture looked like there was some kind of sauce. Mine came with no sauce and was completely tasteless. Wished I had some Sriracha handy or even some salt to add some flavor.
Also got the steamed turbot shown in J.L.'s picture. Not mind-blowing, but tasty with lots and lots of ginger, so it didn’t suffer from the tasteless issue as with the vegetables. It is so hard to get healthy quick food (or frankly even healthy non-quick restaurant food since most restaurants seem to have nothing but calorie bombs on their menu), so I appreciated the opportunity for DoorDash to bring me something cooked and healthy right to my door.
Will have to stop by when I’m in the neighborhood. Parking situation?
No problems. There is a parking lot. But if it’s full, there are street metered spots.
Interesting to see other regional Chinese restaurants outside of the SGV, I hope this will be a continuing trend.
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Hmmn, my second experience with Qi Steam Kitchen, albeit again via delivery.
I wonder if I am just such a fan of big, bold flavors (although I do love Japanese cuisine, which I don’t consider as big or bold) that the wonders of Hubei cuisine are lost on me. Or maybe if you dine in, there are dipping sauces available.
Today, I got the steamed shrimp, which was just boring. Liked the turbot with tons of ginger better. Having been burned last time with the completely bland steamed vegetables, this time I ordered steamed eggplant with garlic sauce. Didn’t wow me.
Best of what I ordered, but not great and probably suffered with delivery, were the tofu skin wrapped mixed vegetables rolls (quite watery with delivery). Wasn’t terrible, but definitely needed a dipping sauce.
Not sure I’ll try again - perhaps better for meat and pork eaters since those are bold flavors in themselves. Also, if you are by yourself and don’t consider a meal complete without a fair amount of vegetables, this place is really pricey since everything is a la carte. Total before tax, tip and delivery fees was $36.40, which is quite a lot for lunch just because you don’t consider a meal complete without vegetables.
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We’ve been busy with holiday, family stuff and haven’t made it to Qi yet. A couple of times we had the urge to have it delivered but decided it’s probably the type of food best eaten at the restaurant.
Was running errands earlier in the neighborhood, so decided to drop by.
It’s much more economical to eat there than to order delivery because they have combo specials when you eat in, rather than everything being a la carte, so you are not obligated to break the bank just so you can have some vegetables with your meal.
This time I asked for hot sauce with my steamed vegetables, which they gave me. Except I realized I don’t really like Chinese-style hot sauce. Not sure what their house hot sauce is, but it is a very different flavor profile than Thai hot sauce.
With the steamed vegetables I got as part of my combo what they called
Sichuan chicken. This was bland chicken strips with some kind of mildly spiced sauce on top and then sprinkled with crushed peanuts. It was okay – the best thing about it was probably the fresh cilantro with which it was topped.
The tea was downright annoying. They serve the tea in an extremely tiny, but extremely thick plasticky cup - basically like drinking from the thickest plasticky cup you can imagine. Or imagine drinking wine from a one inch thick glass. I know we are talking about cheap supermarket tea, but even supermarket tea can be okay if served properly. They are obviously unaware that the thickness of the cup affects the taste of the tea, with some saying that a thickness of less than 1 mm (millimeter not inch - 1 inch is over 25 millimeters) is preferred https://www.teaguardian.com/tea-hows/tea-cup/ . I’m not saying that tea always need to be served in a 1 mm cup, but the equivalent of a 25 mm or so cup is just gross. If there were comment cards, I would have left one advising them to either stop serving tea or to throw away those horrible cups. I won’t be back for that reason alone as I generally like tea with my meals or afterwards.
ETWNYC, sorry for the delay in replying. Qiwei Kitchen had the same ownership as Tasty Dining in San Gabriel. Unless there’s been a significant change in the menu I’m not aware of, the Wuhan-style places in the SGV had dry pots plus a few other Wuhan items (mian wo, the savory dough rings; dou pi, a tofu skin pouch filled with meat, veggies and shrimp; Wuhan-style shao-mai and the hot dry noodles, re gan mian). The since closed Happy Tasty in San Gabriel had a few more Wuhan dishes, but I’ve never noticed anything like the steamed dishes at Qi Steam Kitchen, which makes it all the more unique.
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Lol. A quick view of Major “Fatpenis” T.'s yelp profile (yes, that’s the reviewer’s self-given nickname) tells me that Major enjoys doling out a significant percentage of one-star reviews.
Who knows? Maybe there really is a downhill slide there. I haven’t been in a while. I need to go back.
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I just thought the review was pretty funny given all the evidence to the contrary re the venue. Trolls will be trolls.
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Oh my! That review!! Totally Trolling. We went two weeks ago and really enjoyed it, especially compared to the other options in the area. It appears that the neighborhood has also embraced it. When we arrived, it was nearly full, by the time we left, there was a small wait. We were really surprised at how small the place and they are still very much in opening mode as they get a sense of the demand.
We met one of the owners, a nice guy named I think his name was Gary. His wife is the restaurateur. She has had restaurants in Hong Kong and Vancouver. Gary is from San Marino and so they came back to L.A. after their son got into Harvard Westlake. They didn’t want to live and work too far from where he was going to school. They wanted to offer the neighborhood something different but approachable and so they went with this concept. The night we were in, the clientele was a real reflecction of the area. Several of languages being spoken throughout the small room, tables with kids.
The service was very friendly. Although shakey. The thing that got me in the BEST mood when I walked in was the smell of chinese cooked rice. It zipped me right back to my childhood visiting friends homes. Such a warm and welcoming smell. However, although we ordered rice with our dinner… none arrived as they later apologized… They had run out and were just starting to cook more! Further, when we said, forget it (As all our food had arrived…) the rice charge was still on the bill.
Now the food…
We wanted the Secret Sauce Slow Cooked Ribs, but they had sold out by the time we went there (around 7p) so instead we ordered the Szechuan Style Chicken with Chili Sauce. The Chili was slight, but I did love the sauce and the roasted peanuts on it. Although I was totally missing the rice, it was indeed very tasty on its own and a good portion.
We ordered the pork bao and were VERY happy with them. Not gummy but they arrived piping hot. They were a good size, not huge but you did have to open wide for a bite. The filling was quite delicious and juicy. I only took a picture of one because we dove into them as soon as they arrived the table. Between the two of us, we could have eaten another three easily.
They are constantly changing the menu, so be sure to check yelp for the latest one. When we went they had added cabbage rolls on their menu and offered pork, beef and veggie filling. Since we got pork dumplings, we went with the beef filling. However, in a newer menu they seem to just offer the pork.
Neverthless, they were tasty and a bit diminutive. The filling was a little mushy inside, but it made for a tasty bite.
We very much enjoyed the tea service. We didn’t go too out there, although they do offer a varied selection of teas, but we enjoyed our Chrysanthemum Tea and the little glass tea glasses they gave us.
Finally, out of sheer cuteness, we had to order the Panda Lava Bao. And they indeed were pretty darn cute!
Again, the bao was not gummy and the filling was generous! It was preserved egg filling! I am not the biggest fan of this filling, but this version was SO GOOD. Very buttery (Which Gary confirmed they do use). Would definitely order again…
All in all, we were very happy with our meal and would return given we are near the area often and really… REALLY liked those Panda Bao.
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Thanks OP for the write up and the context. I look forward to going there a lot as this is my hood. Also because I just tried an amazing Jiaozi dumpling spot in Chicago called Qing Xiang Yuan which is primed for multi city expansion
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We were there recently. This must be the review the manager was telling us about. Must do a counter-yelp-review because we really enjoy our Qi meals. I’ll do a report soon - for now I’m going with @Dommy’s. 
The claim to fame of our area is it has the two most evenly, “racially, ethnically & religiously mixed” zip codes in L.A. County. We 
It!
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This is the exact reason we love our Church in the area!! Our Lenten Friday Fish Fries are LEGENDARY! LOL!!
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Awesome!