88 Club — Restaurant in Beverly Hills

Having been a big fan of Mei Lin ever since her Top Chef days, and after being so heartbroken that Nightshade closed, I was beyond excited to hear about her new venture, 88 Club. However, my experience on 4/3/25 left me and my party of 4 disappointed. Perhaps we will revisit when things start to run more smoothly, with time and continued staff training.

SERVICE/AMBIANCE: 2/5 We had a reservation, but still waited awkwardly in the doorway (no other place we were told to wait) for at least a few minutes, blocking other patrons from entering. The host was completely zoned out and gestured vaguely after a few minutes, and as we started walking towards the table, we realized he was talking to another party. Some communication would have been nice, and maybe he could have had us wait in the adjacent (empty!) bar/lounge area until our table was ready?

We sat down at the table for at least 15 minutes before anyone even asked us about water or drinks. This entire time we had a clear view of the host, who was still spaced out and staring into the distance.

FOOD: 4/5 The "Singaporean chow mein" was a complete let down, maybe because it was a vegan version? This is a common dish in any Cantonese restaurant, and anyone who's been to the SGV would be familiar with it. However, this version was lacking wok hei and lacking the egg and char siu that provides this dish its punch of flavor. This one fell flat for sure, and I wish we were given a heads up that this was a vegan dish and probably very different from what we're used to.

Mapo tofu was overwhelmingly salty and probably meant to be eaten with rice, but no one suggested adding any rice or explained how it was meant to be eaten. It is clear the servers do not have any context or knowledge about this dish or the Singaporean dish as explained above. This is disappointing for those of us that grew up eating these dishes.

Successful dishes included the prawn toast, the XO rice cakes, the 3 cup maitake, the mango sago and almond pudding desserts. However a simple question about the ingredients in the almond pudding clearly left the waiter fumbling and flustered - more training and learning is desperately needed for this restaurant to reach its full potential.

OVERALL: 3/5 I would love to give 88 Club another try once it's gotten its act together, because the dishes and concepts are inventive, but the service and knowledge of its staff is completely lacking. Hope to...

MEI LIN HAS SOME HIGHLIGHTS, BUT OVERCHARGES FOR DINNER IN THE DARK - AND THE RICE!

Went to 88 Club for pre-Mother's Day dinner and found it to be good, not quite Top Chef/Iron Chef worthy, but there were some standouts, and it's very dark.

PROS:

Space is small and compact, not a lot of tables, so good, it's quiet and tight, but in a good way.

Bar is very small and not good unless you are moving from there to dinner.

Got a nice corner booth table - put 3 people on it and it was perfect.

Service was good - attentive and on time to grab used dishes with limited space on the table.

Food Highlights:

Prawn and Bamboo Shot Wontons - best of the night. It's like a great asian chicken soup. Addictive broth. Get it!

Cha Siu - a great Char Siu dish and the chinese mustard it the item that pulls it all together well.

Fish Fragrant Eggplant - nice litte eggplant dish with schezwan peppers that sneak up on you.

Hiramasa Crudo - tangerine dream fish dish. Very refreshing.

CONS:

No Valet - good luck with parking

Space: It's dark, very very dark. Really dark.

Expensive: See bill - dinner for 3 with one drink was $370 + $60 tip + $430. Damn.

Food Cons:

Nam You Chicken - good, but very hard to eat. Sauce and chicken is nice and additional add on sauce is good touch. They don't provide knives and this is a half of a chicken. Legs and wings are included - good luck not using you hands.

Sesame Prawn Toast - everyone loves this, as it looks good, but it's not that tasty and as good as other dishes.

Steamed Rice - just ok (and you need rice for these dishes) and they charge for it - $6 each. I guess elevated asian dining has no limits

Mango Coconut Sago - someone figured out how to do dipping dots in mango and pomelo. Fun desert - looks better than it tastes.

Overall a few good hits on the food in a very dark space and one that will hit your wallet. Worth a try once - let's see how this expands over time of it it will just be another overpriced...

88 Club offers modern fresh Chinese food in Beverly Hills. We visited on the second night after opening so I understand there will be some room for improvement but the experience was just not great.

The food was thankfully the best part each dish was well prepared and fresh. It's not traditional Chinese food but it's enjoyable. The plating was sometimes odd with several dishes piled high with cilantro that seemed out of place but I didn't feel any of the dishes were bad. There wasn't anything special or imaginative outside of the cocktails.

Unfortunately the service and pacing were very off. Time between each course was too long and at one point we received our main dish without sides and that took another 10-15 minutes. The format and timing doesn't make sense for a restaurant that emphasizes shared dishes.

Staff were not very friendly and despite a very high staff to table ratio they never really felt present or attentive

Overall the experience was disappointing especially for the price and even for a newly opened restaurant I don't think there's any reason I'd want...