Chinese restaurant near UCLA
February 4, 2008 3:23 PM   Subscribe

Recommend a good Chinese restaurant for Chinese New Year! (Los Angeles)

My boss has generously offered to take my coworkers and I out for dinner in celebration of Chinese New Year! ...Which means I get to plan it. Yay! Unfortunately I don't know where to go. So, Mefites, have any suggestions?

I'm looking for a place that:

- Is near UCLA (where we work) or Santa Monica
- Has fairly authentic Chinese food and is vegetarian-friendly
- Large enough to comfortably accommodate a group of 10+

I roped my coworkers into going to Mao's Kitchen last time since 90% of them are recently from mainland China and uh, I figured we might at least get a few giggles out of that. The food there was good, but pretty adapted to American palettes and also, I had no idea it was so tiny. So that's a pretty good example of what I'm not looking for.

Fire away with your suggestions! Even if it doesn't work for my coworkers, I'd be interested in knowing where all the good eateries are anyhow.
posted by reebear to Food & Drink (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Good Chinese on the westside? Hah, good luck. You can either choose "near UCLA" or "good Chinese" but not both.

If you're willing to venture out of Westwood and Santa Monica and head north on the 101 for about 15-20 minutes, there is a vegetarian Chinese restaurant called Vegetable Delight that can accomodate your numbers and it's decent as far as vegetarian Chinese food goes.

If you're willing to head east to the San Gabriel Valley, the possibilities are endless.

If you definitely want to stick to the west side, there are the various Hop Li restaurants (I think there's one on Santa Monica, and one on Pico) as well as Jin Jiang on Santa Monica east of the 405. I can't really recommend those restaurants though, since I haven't tried it, but from what I've gathered on the internet, they're not that good.
posted by nakedsushi at 3:33 PM on February 4, 2008


Full House in Chinatown!!!!!
posted by TigerCrane at 4:54 PM on February 4, 2008


Hop Li on Pico is pretty good. Stick with the daily specials and the chef's specialties. Seafood is generally good there, especially whole fish, shrimp, and crab dishes.
posted by mzurer at 5:03 PM on February 4, 2008



I'm a big fan of Soybean Chinese on Wilshire, right over the 405 but it's not big at all (maybe 10 could fit?) and my Taiwanese friend thinks it's a little too Americanized (although for the record she thinks everything on the westside is too Americanized)

If not maybe check the Chowhound Los Angeles boards.
posted by sharkfu at 5:17 PM on February 4, 2008


Oh, just found this.

And I suddenly thought of one recommendation... I have been to Twin Dragon and it was pretty okay. I have friends who love it and go there regularly. Since I don't really like Chinese food, I'll just say the full bar was a really nice plus. :)
posted by miss lynnster at 5:33 PM on February 4, 2008


Szechwan, the one on Sepulveda near Fry's. It's great. kinda far though.
posted by proj08 at 5:35 PM on February 4, 2008


Twin Dragon is right down the street from me, the bar with the 50s tiki drinks served in coconuts and tiki gods is great...the food is very good american chinese food. If you are looking for "authentic" chinese food, I doubt this is it, but it is VERY good American style stuff. Try the honey glazed walnut shrimp....YUMMMMMMMMMMMM
posted by legotech at 8:39 PM on February 4, 2008


I've gotten takeout from soybean a few times, and it all right. There used to be a place on santa monica and 6th called golden china that I thought was really good, but they closed last year, and I too have been searching ever since for good chinese on the westside.
posted by brent_h at 9:50 PM on February 4, 2008


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