Who’s got the deets? Jon Yao posted and insta says it’s a Mei Lin joint
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mei just consulting
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Yeah I think she just came up with the menu but likely won’t be actually cooking. Going Monday so will report back
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Interesting - into her menu if they are able to execute it well
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I know she’s an owner and has been in the kitchen day in and day out. Seems like more than just consulting. Looking forward to trying it when it opens this weekend.
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welcome
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Welcome to FTC!!!
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Forgot I owed a report on here so didn’t get great pictures. Would have got menu pics if I’d remembered, but I’m sure it will surface soon enough, apologies.
Overall it was quite good as expected, drinks were all variants of classics with a spin in the same direction as the restaurant. Highlights were the shrimp and bamboo wontons, nam yu chicken and whatever wizardry is done to the sweet and sour fish (though the batter was.. strange).
It all felt reminiscent of SGV with an upscaled touch that was very Mei. Would return if I didn’t live in basically the most easterly part of LA county with Rosemead and environs a short drive away.
Hiramasa Crudo
Prawn toast
Pork and Bamboo Wontons
Potstickers (pork and shrimp I think)
[at this point the pregame at LDV and 3 cocktails here were at the fore - picture effort suffered as a result]
Sweet and Sour Fish, 3 Cup Maitake, Char Siu Abonico
Nam Yu Chicken
Mango Coconut Sago Pomelo, Ginger Ice Cream
Not pictured: chrysanthemum salad
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Gorg. How was pricing??
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Definitely the aspect furthest away from the SGVness of it all. But it’s what you’d expect in BH. Smaller plates and sides were about 20-30, a few going higher than that. Mains between about 45-75 from what I recall, but I think the mapo tofu was closer to 30. Desserts all 20ish
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respectfully going to dissent. even ignoring price and service, the food wasn’t really for me. i can see this food resonating with some crowds, but it seemed to me like a chefified PF Chang’s or maybe Mr. Chow (but it’s been a while since I’ve been to either of those).
they’re new, so maybe they’ll improve after some tweaks. review forthcoming @PorkyBelly @Spicyshlomi ?
pros - i liked the appetizers of pork and bamboo wontons in broth (arrived liked tortellini en brodo. not a slippery tail Cantonese type, really like tortellini tbh) and the cold cucumber and wood ear mushroom salad. i could eat a lot of those two. the wonton broth was tasty.
otherwise, most dishes were either oddly dry yet oversauced or a little bit unusual in texture. even the dessert came out a bit dry and fussy. to me, most dishes resemble little of what one might expect from good Chinese food typically in terms of texture. doing things differently can work, but the food felt caught in the middle with different presentation being the biggest priority.
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sesame prawn toast: too sweet saucy (dollops of sweet sour jam, mustard to be mixed on top) yet a bit dry inside.
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pork and prawn egg rolls: thin taquitos in look, no moistness, inside a little dull
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xo rice cakes: dry, no sense of any wok, and not that sticky for what is ostensibly 炒年糕 . lots of XO as a topping.
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kung pao scallops: big scallops, a little dry again, and not really integrated with any sauce, more like a stir fry sauce with some scallops on top
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mapo tofu: odd presentation in a pot, no "wat"ness to the tofu. i appreciate the fresh fava beans in there as a nod to doubanjiang but this didn’t really resemble mapo tofu, it was more a mid-firm tofu with a Sichuan-esque sauce. i get that serving a traditional mapo tofu can be a hard sell in the area, but when “elevating” a dish, often it’s smart to at least keep the characteristic texture unless one’s improving on it…here it wasn’t an improvement, just a little bit dull.
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sweet and sour fish: decent fry ostensibly a squirrel fish presentation but oddly fishy. inside definitely not as moist as a solid 椒盐鱼片 to which i compare it because the fried part was unsauced; sauce was on the bottom. so, not really presented like 松鼠桂鱼 like Eater makes it out to be. i get they wanted to preserve the crisp but in 松鼠桂鱼 the fish is sauced. a compromise would be to pour the sauce tableside and advise diners it’s best enjoyed immediately. how about show the presentation fish after it’s ordered, fry it up, bring it fried like it was served, but then sauce at the table? as is, you don’t really mix it without breaking the fry, so it becomes a dipping sauce almost akin to how Korean tangsuyuk is served.
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nam yu roasted chicken: i guess this is their signature, but it’s really odd to me. it’s basically a fermented red tofu (nam yu) marinated spatchcocked chicken baked and served with a soy sauce and also served with a green onion sauce 姜葱酱 (???). i get that the normal cold chicken 白切鸡 with 姜葱酱 probably wouldn’t resonate in BH, but it’s odd for 1) texture of the chicken, 2) quite salty, 3) why do they also add green onion sauce when this is a soy-sauce nam-yu chicken? fwiw, wings would make more sense due to surface area of skin vs. meat.
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char siu pork pluma: dry, not enough fat. even if it’s iberico pluma or whatever, the ingredient quality was lost. it ended up being a bit dull, not glossy, and just not the right amount of moistness/fat. in this case, a little bit of honey would’ve been welcome because the flavor was just OK despite being from a pluma cut.
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3 cup maitake: good fry on the mushrooms by themselves. sauce was quite salty and didn’t resemble Taiwanese “3-cup” much. i just liked the mushrooms without the sauce, which was fine because they’re fried like tempura (a bit unusual for 3-cup) and not mixed in with the sauce.
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fish fragrant eggplant: overall pretty successful ignoring the dry texture of the eggplant. for Sichuan 鱼香茄子 this felt like the eggplant was cooked too long, not a quick fry in a wok. really missing the “wat” texture of the eggplant. flavor wise it was fine, though, and i know others liked it.
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steamed jasmine rice: decent, but too soft. maybe this was smashed in the bowl too much. seems petty to review jasmine rice, but at $28 for 4 individual bowls of plain white rice, it’s priced like a dish.
desserts:
- mango, coconut, sago, pomelo: a little too cold/dry, like it sat for a while? i’m used to sago as slippery tapioca, here it was lost. not to sweet, though, that’s a plus.
- almond tofu: would’ve been better with the fresh fruits as pictured by Eater. here it looked deconstructed and you were to mix everything. the almond tofu had a bit too much resistance. a ginger syrup could’ve bound everything together, but as is it felt a little dry again. probably due to the abundance of pomelo. kumquats were a little bitter but the Japanese baby peach (wakamomo no kanroni) were a nice, sweet touch.
i’m not against fusiony desserts but if they kept the desserts simpler in texture, that would probably improve things. how about a silken almond custard with ginger syrup bruleed and serve chilled kumquats/apricots or orange peel confection on the side of few almond cookies? red dates, gojiberry, fried milk, osmanthus, taro tapioca soup base, lots of options to do a Chinese dessert but there was too much going on in the ones we ordered.
inside wasn’t my cup of tea either, a little bit forced moodiness while narrow / small (including the superfluous lazy susan given the table size) yet cavernous (very tall ceiling) and the materials felt a little bit low rent for this kind of restaurant…a little corporate lounge goes Vegas dark? service can and should probably improve; i won’t knock them since it’s early. but overall this didn’t feel like the kind of successful rollout that say Rasarumah was. with that said, i want new businesses to succeed, but i think they’ll have to dial in a bit more to broaden appeal beyond just the business likely built in from neighborhood crowd.
pricing in line with but a little bit different than the one on the Eater piece from a week ago. on par for the area, not going to complain about that.
fwiw, i liked Nightshade and i like Daybird.
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Sound like she’s actually the chef, not just consulting.
results didn’t seem that way but you may be right. i didn’t care for the way the dishes were executed or conceived. perhaps she gave more big level vision and this is food by cdc Nick Russo (of E.P.L.P., La Dolce Vita, Nightshade)? i liked Nightshade, but there’s some dissonance if indeed this is Mei Lin cooking with effort. to be fair, cooking for modern American small plates isn’t necessarily a transferrable skill set to cooking Chinese food.
i’m curious if the writer ate there or if that article is more of a promo piece. i’ve been to a fair amount of Chinese banquets and the food at 88 Club wasn’t reminiscent of them at all.
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