I don't think that's it - they use standard crockery except for styrofoam cups.

They were excellent, and not a bit of leakage.

Can't vouch for Noriega's, but I visited Woolgrowers last month and had a great time.

I guess I always find it strange when they use foam - more wastage, more expensive, and easier to knock over. As for Proper Dumpling Spacing, I was more focused on taste so didn't notice.

Unless you are in a tearing hurry, take 99 instead - only about 20 minutes longer on the average, and a far prettier drive. Stop in Kingsburg for Swedish bakery treats, or at Bravo Farms in Traver for good dine food and local produce. Both are touristy but fun and way better than anything on the 5.

Stopped into the Tozai Plaza complex at Redondo Beach Boulevard and Western intending to visit Mountain for eclectic Korean and noticed a new place called Dumpling House. It has been open for only a week or two, and as soon as I saw the menu all other plans vanished. We tried XLB, smoked pork pancake with scallion, and lamb with cumin -all were Monterey Park quality. The lamb with cumin was best, spicy, oniony, and delicious.

Service was friendly but amateur, and strangely they served the tea in styrofoam cups. We brought wine and drank it from soup bowls - next time we will bring our own glassware. Bill was $29.00 for more than two people could eat. We will be going back, again and again if it is always this good.

Dumpling House
15486 S. Western, Gardena.

Excellent French country food in a very nice atmosphere. Solid cooking but not much innovation, and the price is very reasonable.

It's a fun place with some good items on the menu, some mistakes. The Mexican lasagna is good, but the salmon flautas should be avoided - they are usually very oily. Salsa is boring, alas. Their conventional Mexican items are just OK, but as Chowbee says, the fusion stuff is generally good.

Al Noor is excellent but slow, and its in the wrong direction...

Manresa is proud of their garden, but I just wasn't wowed by their food - it was fussy and over-engineered. The best items were the simplest, the few where they just let the flavors from that garden take center stage.

I know the one on Sawtelle, and that's not the one - I'll have to drive by and see if it's still there.

I find them dull rather than really bad - underspiced, and the vegetables have no imagination at all.

Glad to hear they're still good - I had an excellent meal there a while ago, and have dined well more recently at the one in Fullerton.

Sion's salsa is on the mild side, but they're generally good.

There is still a Good Stuff in El Segundo, and they serve the same menu. Even closer to the Sheraton...

For Middle Eastern, Playa's Pita is very good - it is in Playa Del Rey. Drive north from the airport on Highway 1 to Manchester, west until it ends at Pershing. Playa's Pita is on the southwest corner. They make excellent felafels, their own soujuk sausages, and the best fool medames I have had in LA. It's about ten minutes from the airport.

There used to be a good little Middle Eastern place in Culver City just off Sepulveda on a side street - can anybody remember the name?

Creme de la Crepe is next door to the Kettle and much better for dessert. They are open until 10 PM.

Harold and Belle's doesn't have a completely private room, but there is an alcove that ought to fit ten or twelve people. It wasn't loud last time I was there, though that was about two years ago.

I know, but hope springs eternal, and if somebody brings up the topic every few years we may all get a pleasant surprise. I didn't think there were any Uzbek places either until I asked here, and that turned up a winner.

I visit the Red Lion Tavern in Silver Lake every few years for German food, and since I haven't noticed any discussion of the place lately it seems a review is in order.

This was my first visit in about three years, and nothing has changed except that the pianist who used to entertain in the bar is no longer there. This is a mixed blessing - he added character to the place but was often overamped, so we rarely sat in that room. I had decided to avoid the bar since it is often loud, so we sat at a slightly tilted outdoor table. (The back patio is on a considerable slant.) There are new servers among the staff, many of whom don't speak German. This would have been impossible when I first visited the place and more conversations at tables were in German than in English - you couldn't have gotten hired there without at least some German fluency.

Fortunately the food was still good - a spicy, meaty Hungarian goulash to start, followed by schnitzel Holstein style with fried egg and anchovy, kassler rippchen, and rouladen. The red cabbage converted someone who previously detested all members of the brassica family into a fan, and the sauerkraut was very good too.

The crowd was mixed between young and old and almost all were speaking English. The decor has gotten a bit tattered, but that's just how everybody likes it - the place has a kitschy, old-fashioned warmth that is rare in a metropolis that reinvents itself regularly. The only place that I would put on the same level of food quality and authenticity is Jagerhaus in Anaheim - though Jagerhaus is much more upscale in decor and has a few game items that aren't served here. LA doesn't have many German restaurants that offer more than sausage and schnitzel, and we should cherish the ones we have.

I am ever hopeful that a New Mexican restaurant will thrive around here... Anybody know of a place that serves the authentic Santa Fe flavor?

I went to La Paella with someone who is an expert on Spanish food - he said the squid ink paella is the most authentic he has found on the West Coast.

I had visited Szechwan in Lomita for dim sum and found it tolerable but not noteworthy - not bad, but nowhere near the selection of Sea Empress in Gardena, not to mention Chinatown or Monterey Park. A friend who loves the place insisted on meeting there for dinner, and I braced myself for another mediocre South Bay Chinese experience.

I was pleasantly surprised when the person who had dragged me there suggested that I check the chalkboard specials before even opening the menu. A place that isn't just cooking by rote? Something could be up here. I was intrigued by a fish filet stuffed with seafood and steamed, but one member of our party wouldn't eat crab and vetoed it. There were some other items that we did order from that menu - eggplant with fresh basil and a vegetable they transliterated from Chinese as "A-Grade" sir-fried with garlic. We also ordered kung pao chicken, hot and sour soup, shrimp with Szechwan sauce, and fried roast duck with Peking-style buns.

The soup was OK, the boneless duck was good but not great - a substantial portion of tasty meat with buns, scallion shavings, and dipping sauce. The other dishes were far above the standard - the A-grade a crispy green vegetable that tasted vaguely like spinach, the eggplant with basil a milder version of the Thai favorite with Chinese seasonings. I had not expected to like this place very much, but will return with friends who have more adventurous tastes to try more.

The restaurant is worn but clean - service was unusually good, and when I started asking about the specials the server seemed very happy that one of their non-Chinese patrons was interested.

Address is 2107 Pacific Coast Highway, Lomita. The blackboard is not near the front door, but in the middle of the restaurant near the rest rooms, and some of the items are printed only in Chinese. Parking is shared with Big Lots next door.

I had brunch here last Saturday, and there was no clue that anything was changing. I hadn't dined at the original popup and liked the place - their shrimp and grits were excellent. Interesting to see what happens next.

Second the motion on Cafe Gratitude - I'm an omnivore and have enjoyed several meals there. It's a pleasant environment with very good food - a business meeting or date-worthy vegan restaurant.

Unfortunately the options have narrowed since Halibut Corner closed... that was my go-to for modestly priced good fresh seafood by the per. Quality Seafood has high quality fresh fish simply cooked, but the outdoor tables and sometimes loud crowd are a turn-off. I wasn't impressed by Boiling Shrimp - the fried fish had a very crisp batter but nothing else was good, and the Thai noodles were awful.

I have never been excited by Kincaid's food, but they aren't bad and the outdoor patio over the water is as nice as it gets. If you like retro environments, Old Tony's is straight out of the early 1960's and the simple seafood items are fresh and competently prepared.

If you are up for Japanese seafood, the best meal on the pier is at Oriental Breeze. They have both sushi and cooked dishes, and both are excellent and authentic.

Avoid the poutine at the Redondo Beach Cafe - the gravy is thin and tastes like it was from a can. Odd, because they have good Montreal smoked meat and other Canadian items.

We had a set menu for a dinner with the Culinary Historians of Southern California - two salads, achikchuk (tomato and onion) and Tashkent (white radish and beef with yogurt), with shurpa soup (beef and vegetables with dill) to follow. Then came somsa (uzbek somosa), khanum (pasta coiled around meat and vegetables, then steamed) a chicken kebab over pullao, and tea. We didn't have any of their lamb dishes, which I intend to get next time.
Service and English fluency of the staff were both good, and the restaurant is nicely decorated. Music was loud at first, but they turned it down when requested. .

I had heard about the Basque places, but not Portuguese... interesting. I have driven through dozens of times but never explored the city, and it sounds like this is going to be a worthwhile stop.

Update: EuroAsia in Encino has an Uzbek chef, and we had an excellent all-Uzbek meal there at a reasonable price. Bonus: Rasputin Market is across the courtyard, and they are the best and cleanest Russian/Eastern European grocery I have found in LA. They smoke their own fish and have an excellent cheese selection. Unfortunately the black rye bread is not as flavorful as the real thing, but it's not bad. Worth a trip.