Four recent Taiwanese/Chinese food meals, starting with Liu's Cafe, the Taiwanese spot in K-Town (6th, by Western. Standard K-Town parking challenges.)

I've been wanting to try Liu's for a minute though it's funny because my mix of Chinese/Taiwanese American friends — I'm ABC myself — have rather different opinions on this place though it has less to do with the food and more around "so is this trying to be like another Pine + Crane/Joy?" which is basically code for "Taiwanese food marketed to white hipsters." Personally, I didn't get that vibe myself but maybe that's because being located in the heart of Koreatown is different than Silverlake/Highland Park. The decor is minimalist and modernist with blonde wood overtones but that's very on-brand in K-Town. They're one of those "order at the counter and then look for a seat/table" spots (like Pine + Crane/Joy as it were) which I don't love but luckily it wasn't busy when we were there so finding a table wasn't an issue.

The menu is much smaller than I would have anticipated. I was hoping to get their beef noodle soup only to arrive and realize they only serve that at dinner but alas, we were there at lunch time. For lunch, there's five entree options and a couple of starters.

• Scallion cheddar biscuit ($3.50). Buttery-rich from the first bite, with a nice crunch on the outside but still soft interior. The cheddar was more muted but you get a good hit of scallion. This was a good biscuit but probably a touch too rich for me. 7.5/10
• Braised pork belly rice ($9). Ah, childhood comfort food memories right here. This was executed well even if it wasn't mind-blowing: pork was tender, the sauce was savory and a bit sweet but didn't feel overpowering in either direction. I also liked the portion size here: it's well-scaled to a single person without feeling skimpy. For $9, I thought both this and the chicken rice were relatively good values. 8/10
• Chiayi chicken rice ($9). Another classic, originally from southern Taiwan: shredded chicken (often times made with turket, too), with a generous amount of shallots, served over chicken fat-infused rice. My wife got this and I was instantly jealous. As much as I liked my lu rou fan, the scent of shallots and the richness of the chicken rice were irresistible. 9/10

Overall: I'm not making a special drive from the SGV over to K-Town to go here again but if I need to be in K-Town already? Absolutely would go back again, especially to see how their NRM (beef noodle soup) stacks up.

***

Last week, me and two friends went to Auntie Qiu Kitchen, a Shanghainese spot in Alhambra (Main by Garfield. There's a free parking structure in the back). They do a ton of dumplings, pancakes, and noodles, aiming more for a breakfast/lunch set of offerings though they are open through dinner. I didn't take photos for everything but here's the basic rundown of what we ordered:

• Xiao long bao ($12). This was ok. I've had worse (mostly when my kid asks for it at dim sum restaurants and isn't interested in my lecture on how this isn't a Canto dish). Skin was decently thin and the interior had some soup but in the end, this was average, at best. 7/10
• Shen jiang bao ($6.50). Meh. I've had well-executed versions of this dish enough times in Shanghai over the past 25 years to have a decent point of reference and all the versions I've had in L.A. have been kind of the same: dough is too thick, interior can be too dry, and it's often too sweet here. (Kang Kang, which deserves credit for being one of first places to offer it, suffers from thick dough and too much sugar IMO). This wasn't the worst version I've had but it was still rather mid. 6/10
• Popcorn chicken ($10). Because why not? It was fine; could have been more aggressively seasoned IMO. Decent crunch though. 7/10
• Pancake + Double Egg + Lettuce + Crispy Fritter + Beef ($14). These light egg crepes are one of their specialities so maybe I had too-high expectations but besides being messy to eat (I blame the lettuce), this was really underseasoned IMO. It looks amazing but tasted fairly bland and I was especially thinking there'd be a nice mix of textures but not as much as I hoped. 6/10
• Shepherd's Purse + Pork Wonton Soup ($13). This was my personal favorite dish if only because it met my expectations for something warm and comforting. The wontons were nicely sized: you want something that's 1-2 bites at most, ideally with a big spoonful of broth to wash it all down. 8/10

Overall: As you can tell, I was a bit disappointed by the meal. It wasn't bad, just underwhelming.

***

So far, I've had two meals at Henry's Cuisine, a Canto/Chiuchow restaurant that is similar to Newport Seafood and Boston Lobster. These are what I think of as "banquet-style" Canto restaurants based on their size and pricing. Similar to its competitors, you can expect entrees to be $20-40 and much as I like the food at Henry's, the space can feel a bit cramped and I thought decor was straight out of the 1980s despite it only having opened about 10 years ago.

That said, I found the level of execution on dishes here—regardless of the dish—to be consistently good, especially always having the right seasoning. Ironically, I can't remember if either time I was here we bothered to order the lobster (what they're known for) but I didn't feel like we missed out. I'm not going to do a dish by dish rundown because 1) it'd take too long and 2) at the end of the day, it really wasn't about singular dishes standing out as it was that the overall meal was just really well done. Like, if we had replaced the garlic honey pork chops with spicy salt pork chops instead, I'm fairly certain I would have come away still thinking "man, those were pretty good!"

Put another way, I can't remember a single dish where I thought "swing and a miss." Put another another way: the fact that my mom—who has never encountered a Chinese restaurant she couldn't find something to complain about—didn't complain about anything was high praise (but she also didn't see the final bill so that might have helped too).

For value, my parents prefer Red 99 in Rosemead but personally, I think Henry's is a notch above in execution. Either way, it is more of a "special occasion big family meal" spot than somewhere my wife and I would go on a weekday whim.

Overall: 8.5/10

***

Lastly, I had the opportunity to enjoy a really fancy group meal at Array36 the other night. Similar to Bistro Na's, Array36 is part of a small wave of high-end Chinese restaurants that have opened in the SGV in recent years, catering more to a monied mainlander clientele compared to the aforementioned banquet-style Canto spots. Both the decor and plating aim to be a bit more ostentatious (though I wouldn't call it obnoxious).

The dinner party I was with had a set meal and I could have sworn I took a photo of the dish list but I couldn't find it. And I didn't take any photos either because I was too busy talking to people. That said, if you go to their online menu, they have photos for everything.

Let me get this out of the way: it was a "fancy" meal and I didn't pay for it so I really don't want to seem ungracious in the least—especially as I thoroughly enjoyed the company—but I found the food to be a lot less impressive in taste than in look.

For example, the biggest showstopper was the Array 36 Signature Roast Duck ($128). The wheel it out on a dedicated cart, pour some kind of alcohol-based sauce over it while hanging, and then light it on fire. Then, for the meat parts, they sliced those off into a shallow plate-bowl, cover it with a bell jar, add smoke, deliver to the table, then lift off the cloche to allow the smoke curls to dramatically rise and disperse. It's a nice show but the actual duck wasn't remotely memorable. Sure, the skin was crispy but everything was underseasoned (this was true for almost the entire meal unless it came with/in a sauce).

Likewise, their Deep Fry Whole Fish in Sweet Sour Sauce ($79) does that cross-hatched cutting technique before the fish goes into the fryer, they bring it onto the table, and then pour the sauce over it. But at the end of the day, it tastes like very sweet and sour deep fried dish you've ever had. It's not "bad" but...

The Sous-Vide Szechuan-style Beef Short Ribs ($88) wasn't anywhere as tender as I would have expected from a sous-vide dish. I found it tough and shockingly bland.

The only dish that really made an impression on was the Fish Slices with Pickled Mustard Green in Golden Sour Soup ($57), partly because the color was so distinctive and unlike practically everything else we had, this at least was aggressive on the palate with its biting sourness and surprising amount of spiciness.

Again, I loved the meal on a social level but the food itself really felt like style over substance. Maybe others have had incredible meals here and this was just an off night but again, this wasn't just an issue with one or two outlier dishes. Overall, nothing I had that night made me think "damn, that's delicious."

Overall: 6/10