I was wondering if it was that place! This is the place where a former iteration of the restaurant had some amazing secret dish, yes?
http://foodtalkcentral.com/t/dry-hot-pot-on-the-westside-ifood-chinese/7179/3
Hahahaha that was the Yelp menu pic I was complaining about!
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I had a work meeting here today with one of my clients and the food here was very good. Much better than Chino Hills branch. The sheng jian bao were decent, but lacking. The rest of my meal was very good.
Lacking what???
No, really.
I don’t think the place is God’s gift to Chinese food, but I actually think the SJB there are pretty strong.
The dough was gummy and dense and the filling not that flavorful, a bit too mild for me.
After trying and failing at iFood (they were out of XLB on Saturday), decided to try the XLB Tasty Noodle. Full disclosure: I know less than Jon Snow, but I thought they were pretty… tasty! I’d rank 'em higher than ROC fur sure.
And the taro milk tea boba at next door Volcano is pretty tops.
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Word. On both counts.
You guys are like arguing who the shortest midget is at the circus.
Tallest?
No. Shortest.
Cuz, I’d like to think that midgets have self-confidence and exude self-esteem.
#PowerToTheShortPeople
I think these are fair criticisms. The soup can soak into the wrapper, which is a little bready.
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I think you asking @ipsedixit to elaborate on what he/she thinks are better options (i.e. taller than Tasty Noodle House/ROC in the general vicinity)? Or am I reading way too much into one word and one punctuation mark?
No just wondering if he got the saying backwards.
FWIW, I tried the XLB and liked them a lot. Definitely better than my recollection of ROC (though my experience there may have been atypical). I actually enjoyed them even more than the SJB we ordered. There was more soup and the filling tasted more flavorful. The plain old pan-fried pork dumplings were also quite tasty.
We also ordered a bunch of non-dumpling dishes. Surprisingly, the star of the show was the mapo tofu. Much spicier and more flavorful than I expected. Chow mein was also excellent. String bean with house sauce was solid. However, beef with scallion and black bean sauce was kind of a miss. I’d skip that next time.
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Our first visit to Tasty Noodle House (Sawtelle) was during the Grand Opening, thanks to @J_L for the heads up. 
Shanghai Grilled Pork Bun:
Visually this looked promising! Nice sear on the bottom and the Sesame Seeds and glistening Grilled Pork Buns looked just like some of the ones we had in the San Gabriel Valley.
Taste-wise, they were on the medium-thick-side, but there was a nice subtle crunch on the bottom. The Marinated Ground Pork was fine. But as others have mentioned, there was no liquid inside. Still, prior to Tasty Noodle House, you really didn’t have great options for Grilled Pork Buns on the Westside.
Green Onion Pancake:
These were too greasy. 
There was a slight crisp, but it’s probably not worth ordering again.
Sauteed Garlic with Seasonal Greens - “A Vegetable”:
This was delicious. It’s hard to get it wrong, but thankfully Tasty Noodle House delivered a solid plate of Sauteed “A Vegetables” that tasted pretty much like what you’d get at many SGV restaurants.
Braised Pork and Tofu Skin in Soy Sauce:
These were a touch dry, but it had solid flavor. It tasted fresh, and there were some chunks that were tender and tasty, but some pieces were a bit overcooked.
Based on this visit, we felt like @bulavinaka, but I wanted to give them another try just to see if they improved.
2nd Visit:
So we recently went back and ordered many of the same dishes to see how they’ve fared.
Shanghai Xiao Long Bao (w/ Pork):
I knew I was asking for trouble, thanks to so many warnings from all of our FTC’ers about their XLB’s, but I wanted to see how bad they could be.
As you can see from the photos, it is as @bulavinaka @A5KOBE said: Leaky, broken Xiao Long Bao. 
It reminded me of Mei Long Village in the SGV, when they were on downhill alert. So in terms of taste, the Marinated Ground Pork filling was a bit rough, somewhat tasty, but with half of the XLB’s broken (all the Soup leaked out), you’re left without one of the key components of a great XLB.
Definitely avoid.
Sauteed Garlic with Seasonal Vegetables - “A Vegetables”:
Delicious again. These thankfully have stayed a constant “very good.”
Shanghai Grilled Pork Buns:
These arrived glistening and with a nice sear on the bottom just like the first time.
Taking a bite, it was moister than before, with the Marinated Ground Pork being moderately seasoned. I’ve had some Sheng Jian Bao that my friends took me to that seemed to have a little bit of Broth inside. There wasn’t any here.
However, with the subtle crunch and generally pleasing seasoning, they were just fine. These don’t surpass Shanghai No. 1 Seafood when they were at the top of their game, nor a couple other places that we visited in the SGV, but for being on the Westside, it is great to have this option.
Braised Pork & Tofu Skin in Soy Sauce:
OK, these were much better than before. Every piece was tender, moist and not too salty (nicely seasoned with a Soy Sauce based, long-braised flavor). I loved the Tofu Skin Knots as well, bathed in the luscious braising liquid.
Ultimately, Tasty Noodle House (Sawtelle) is a welcome addition to the Westside for slowly improving the quality of Chinese cuisine, in this case Shanghai cuisine. The discussions we’re having on this place can change depending on how we’re viewing this place. When compared to all Shanghai restaurants in L.A. and the best San Gabriel Valley restaurants, Tasty Noodle House just can’t compare (except the Sauteed Vegetables with Garlic - they tasted pretty close to what you’d get in the SGV).
The Shanghai Grilled Pork Buns (Sheng Jian Bao) are not going to dethrone some of the FTC favorites like Shanghai No. 1 Seafood, and their Braised Pork & Tofu Skin isn’t going to topple @Porthos @CiaoBob’s favorite Shanghailander (their Braised Pork is simply on another level).
There’s also the issue of the restaurant having 206 items on the menu; that just feels like they’re trying to make something for everyone.
But when staring at Google Maps and seeing the non-stop crimson red line of traffic from hell, from Santa Monica to the San Gabriel Valley on a weeknight? Tasty Noodle House will do just fine.
Tasty Noodle House (Sawtelle)
2117 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Tel: (424) 248-3232
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Yeah, I had them again recently and it was the same deal sadly. Broken skin and any remaining soup was too gelatinous. I think they have some consistency issues.
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We live close to Tasty Noodle House. Last week we ate there for the first time. We were very happy with our meal. We had:
Seaweed Cucumber Salad. This is the only dish I didn’t like. I thought there was too much vinegar.
Green Onion Pancake. Flavorful and crisp.
Cilantro Fish Dumplings. Delicious.
Eggplant and Mushroom with Basil. This was addictive. My husband couldn’t stop eating it even once we’d had it packed to take home.
Cold Sesame Noodles. These were very tasty, however I’m easy to please where sesame noodles are concerned.
As I don’t eat meat or poultry, I’m appreciative that Tasty Noodle House has a lot of vegetarian dishes. The vegetarian dishes are noted on the menu with a green icon which is great. It means we don’t have to ask the servers questions about chicken/pork/beef broth, pork as a flavoring, etc.
After dinner we had dessert at Blockheads Shavery. I had black sesame Snow Cream with coconut syrup and fresh lychees. Yum.
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me too
I kind of LOVE even bad versions
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Grabbed some SJB to go yesterday for lunch and they were pretty great. It’s weird how inconsistent this place can be.
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Thought I would chime in here. Really hopeful about the gradual upgrade of Chinese Cuisine on the Westside, though not expecting too much.
We went last weekend, found the restaurant moderately full and a fair number of Mandarin speaking patrons. The menu was quite overwhelming; Luckily we had an idea of what we wanted to order.
Grilled pork buns
Pork Dumplings
House Sauce Noodles with pork
Sticky rice siu mai
Wife and I enjoyed the Noodles (it reminded us of Dan Dan Mein) and the Pork dumplings (not XLB). I also liked the Grilled pork buns. We didn’t care for the siu mai.
Still it’s an option for the Westside, but I would imagine Din Tai Fung Century City would be a better choice.
Tho we enjoyed the meal well enough, we both decided we would just venture out the SGV when we felt like Shanghai Cuisine. We don’t eat Shanghai food that much, but really like 101 Noodle Express.
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