Newly Opened Enlighten Bistro 168 May Already Be The Best Dim Sum Restaurant in the Los Angeles Area.

I’m sure many of you are scratching your heads since few of you have heard of Enlighten Bistro 168. It opened a few weeks ago in the old Marie Callender’s at 820 S. Baldwin in Arcadia, four blocks up from Chef Tony.  But despite its recent opening, I would be surprised that when the smoke clears this isn’t the best dim sum in town. As big of a cheerleader as I am for Los Angeles having the best Chinese food in the country, the one area where we fall short is dim sum, where there are several dim sum operations there which I prefer to anything here in Los Angeles. In this regard, Enlighten Bistro is much more reminiscent to me of Bay Area dim sum rather than San Gabriel Valley.

This is Enlighten Bistro's golden har gow, their equivalent to the squid ink shrimp dumpling with gold leaf, and which conservatively is as good as, if not better than Chef Tony’s.

 

 

Snow cap bbq pork bun a.k.a. crispy baked bbq pork bun, also known as Tim Ho Wan buns. My absolute favorite Chinese dish right now, and the best version in Los Angeles. 

 

 

Strangely the morel stuffed mushrooms have the mushroom on top, rather than on the bottom. Stuffing seems to be a combination of fish and shrimp paste. 

 

 

 

You may be familiar with crispy shrimp rolls. Enlighten Bistro goes one further with crispy lobster rolls. 

 

 

 

This may look like an ordinary beef rice noodle roll, except that the beef is ground instead of being minced. Oh, and it’s made of wagyu beef. Pricey though at $12. 

 

 

 

The pumpkin sesame ball may not look like anything, but it’s excellent. 

 

 

 

Perhaps the most visual item is their spicy pork mochi bun.  As we had these right before seeing the Arboretum Christmas light show, I couldn't help imagine these hanging on a Christmas tree.

A popular item with many people is the crab egg roll, though I didn't think it was particularly special.

 

 

 

And their egg tarts are among the best around.

 

 

 We also tried some dinner items.  Looks like fried rice, but it's really orzo with duck.

Pork belly--the best ever?

Never liked dow miou in broth, until now, with bean curd skin.

 

Interestingly, Enlighten Bistro 168 offers dim sum at dinner, along with a regular dinner menu.   We had a combination of items at our dinner visit.

 

 

The crowds seem to agree that this is one already one of the best Chinese restaurants in town.  At the same time that Enlighten Bistro 168 was packed on a weeknight for dinner, the crowd at the much more heralded  Chef Tony a few blocks down the street was sparse.  And Chef Tony does a pretty good dinner, too.