A Taste of the (Real) Chinatown on the Westside
Friday, July 8, 2005 22:47Since I live on the Westside, if I want to find good Chinese food, I have to drive out to Alhambra, Monterey Park, or one of the adjoining cities to find an affordable yet appetizing restaurant. To my surprise, I don’t have to make the 25 mile or more trek out to the real Chinatown (not that old touristy place in Downtown) to enjoy authentic Chinese cuisine. Nestled in a little strip mall on the corner of Sepulveda and Olympic Boulevard, Hop Woo offers a little taste of Chinatown (the real one).
What initially makes Hop Woo a great draw is the Chinese BBQ it offers. This usually means roast duck and pork. Hop Woo’s duck is by far some of the best I have had. It is rich with juice while maintaining a crisp outer layer of skin, prerequisites for any worthwhile Chinese establishment (assuming it offers duck). The duck flavor burst through without leaving any strange aftertaste, which is an indication that the duck is somewhat old.
In addition to their great BBQ, Hop Woo avoids the age-old problem that affects many Chinese restaurants, namely that they use too much oil and salt in their cooking. Now I personally don’t mind that aspect of Chinese cuisine, but here in LA, those can be negatives especially if you’re not dealing with a mostly Asian consumer base. However, Hop Woo’s dishes are light (comparatively) and still maintain to be tasty.
As for the rest of the dishes, Hop Woo offers a special sticky rice dish that incorporates shitake mushrooms, Chinese sausage, dried scallop, dried shrimp, and lots of green onion. I mention this because you won’t find it on the English menu. Rather it’s written on the wall in Chinese. Another dish to look for is their house soup or soup du jour. What the restaurant does is take various older ingredients, throw them into a pot, and simmer the soup for the entire day. What you end up with is some of the most flavorful soup you will ever have. However, if you don’t eat meat, you will need to make sure that the soup does not use beef or chicken as its base.
Hop Woo also offers the typical assortment off menu items, which include most Chinese vegatables (a plus for any real Chinese restaurant), though it may not be on the menu. Usually, one need know what these vegetables’ Chinese names are in order to order them. One dish I had was a hot clay pot filled with soup, winter melon gourd, and clear rice noodles. For the adventurous, I also had fried oysters, which were crispy on the outside, yet very juicy on the inside. A definite plus was that they used fresh oysters, as oysters can turn bad very quickly.
Finally, if you want to enjoy a little alcohol with your meal, I would recommend taking your own bottle of red wine with you. There’s no corkage fee (as with most Chinese restaurants). Parking is limited due to the size of the parking lot, but there is plenty of space on the adjoining street. If you live on the Westside and enjoy authentic Chinese cuisine, definitely try this place out.
Hop Woo
11110 Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
By Jeff (see more of his posts).
jonah says:
July 9th, 2005 at 10:36 am
Wow, excellent inside tips, especially with the soup. I didn’t know that with the lack of a corkage fee, I thought that was just Mao’s Kitchen that did that.
thranduil says:
April 14th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
We stopped by this weekend to try it out and thought the food was good and reasonably priced (at least compared to other Chinese restaurants we’ve tried on the Westside i.e. Santa Monica). Our taste test is generally a beef tendon clay pot (listed on Hop Woo’s menu as Cantonese beef stew or something like that) - my dad always orders this and so we try to make sure that if he’s going to make it to a restaurant, we’d better try it in advance. We thought that it was a good version - the beef was tender and the tendons were gelatinously soft. Only downside is that parking in that lot is pretty hard, but it’s much better than sitting in traffic trying to get out to Monterey Park/Alhambra/San Gabriel!
Andy 美國土å? says:
April 15th, 2006 at 2:32 am
Jeff, I went to Hop Woo in Chinatown about 2 weeks ago and despise the tourist looking setup, the food is quite authentic and very very good. I think we may have gone to different branches of the same restaurant. I was told there is also another branch in the MP/Alhambra/SG area too.
Here was my report and pictures…
Jonah says:
April 15th, 2006 at 7:52 am
Thanks Andy, great reviews on your site! You do a great job at explaining the specifics about Chinese cuisine.
Kathy says:
April 17th, 2006 at 8:26 am
Regarding the sticky rice dish you mention… what is the proper way to order it? Do you just say “may I have the sticky rice please?” or are there different versions so you have to be more specific to get the “sticky rice dish that incorporates shitake mushrooms, Chinese sausage, dried scallop, dried shrimp, and lots of green onion?” Please let me know because it sounds SO good.
I’ll check back here for comments and hope you’ve responded!
Andy (theABC) says:
April 18th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
As for the sticky rice dish, just ask if they have a “sticky rice” and ask them what is in it. Sticky rice is generic for glutinous rice. There are numerous preparations ranging from sweat, to savory, to entirely plain and with a multitude of ingredients.
Last time we went to Hop Woo (Chinatown branch) we ordered everything with the exception of one dish off the wall. The specials are usually the best, though typically untranslated for non-Chinese readers.
Kathy says:
April 19th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Thanks for the clarification on sticky rice! I definitely agree that the untranslated stuff tends to be the best… but I’m always at a loss when I don’t have a friend who can translate to drag along. I live right near the Hop Woo in Alhambra on Valley, so I’ll be giving it a try. Thanks again!
Andy 美國土å? says:
May 17th, 2006 at 12:17 am
if anybody is interested, I did a second return trip to Hop Woo in Chinatown.
http://theabc.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/05/_toda.html
Jenel says:
September 4th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
You mentioned the specials on the wall. Will the waiters translate them for non-Chinese readers? If not, would you mind listing some of the ones you ordered last time? I think I’m heading there tomorrow. Very excited!
sonia reznick (Sunny) says:
March 13th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I ordered special beef fillet at the urging of the waiter. As I was eating it I realized that it was LIVER, however cleverly disguised. Not bad if you like liver but I definitely felt defrauded. I confronted both the waiter and then manager (or at least the person who came when I requested the manager. They both equivocated, and gave very lame excuses, did not offer me any refund or new dish. The second dish we ordered, also at the urging of the waiter, one of the rockfishes, was bland and ordinary, although the fish itself was good and the quantity abundant.