Message: | The honest answer to this question is 'not really'. It seems that whenever a good chinese restaurant opens up a branch on the westside the quality goes way down and the emphasis is placed more on mainstream bland and boring tastes. Royal Star is a perfect example, being a sister restaurant to what I consider to be the best dim sum restaurant in existence, Ocean Star in SGV. The food is nowhere near as good as Ocean Star and the selection is more limited (yawn). Hop Li in West L.A. isn't much better. I was there once and had a very forgettable dinner. Whole steamed fish with ginger and scallions that had absolutely no taste. It was as if it wasn't steamed long enough to absorb the flavor of the ginger and scallions, not to mention the scallions were a bit sparse. And the sea cucumber I ate there tasted like geltinous jelly? No discerning taste at all in an excessively gooey brown sauce.
But as far as any recommendations, the best chinese restaurant in that area is Hu's Schezuwan, a literal hole in the wall in West L.A. It may not be attractive, but the food is very good for westside standards. Lotus Blossom in Marina del Rey is also better than average for mainstream fare, such as excellent braised shrimp and such.
But the truth is, whenever I'm in the mood for Chinese food, I find myself so fortunate to have the best Chinese food in the country being only 30 minutes away in the SGV area. True bliss is worth such a short trek. |