dan modern chinese - sawtelle — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I saw a movie at 3rd St. Promenade with some friends, and afterwards, we decided to get some Chinese food. We ended up choosing this spot to see what all the fuss was about. From the get-go, we noticed the menu is heavily skewed towards vegetarian options, with only a few meat dishes scattered about. I decided to try the chicken dan mein, which is their version of chicken chow mein, albeit with noodles that looked like they might be auditioning for a role in a thick pasta commercial.

When the food arrived, it was the culinary equivalent of a 'meh' emoji. The chicken dan mein was fine—if by "fine" you mean it was as memorable as a random Tuesday. The noodles were indeed thicker, which I suppose could be a plus if you’re into that sort of thing, but the flavor was about as exciting as a conference call.

The service was also on the 'blah' side of average. Our server was around, and they did the job, but it felt like their heart wasn’t entirely in it. Not that I blame them; it’s tough to be enthusiastic about food that doesn’t quite hit the mark.

The ambiance? It was what you’d expect from a standard LA eatery—polished but lacking any real personality. It was as though someone took all the typical LA restaurant clichés, rolled them into one, and called it a day. Nothing about it made me think, "Wow, I want to come back here just to soak up this atmosphere."

Now, let’s talk parking. Or rather, let’s talk about the elusive quest for parking. Since the restaurant is on a street with zero available parking spots, finding a place to leave your car felt like competing in an Olympic sport. We had to circle around and settle for a spot several blocks away, keeping a hawk-like eye on the street signs to avoid the dreaded parking ticket.

All things considered, this place didn’t offer anything remarkable enough to make me want to return. It was like a forgettable first date—fine in theory but lacking the spark to make...

I had read about the scallion pancakes & How light and airy they were So I was very excited to try Dans modern Chinese restaurant. I have had Japanesescallion pancakes At many other restaurants before. So I can’t tell you how excited I was. We spent $75 on dinner for 2, To take out. We had the crab& pork soup dumplings & The chicken & shrimp steamed dumplings 2 Orders of scallion pancakes & Beef short rib Dan Mein noodles. & pork Dan noodles Pretty much everything was a miss, The dumplings had absolutely no taste of shrimp or crab in them & The soup dumplings Had a very thick skin on top that was almost unchewable! (Especially when their menu brags about the tender, thin skin, the dumplings have) I ended up removing the outer dough & Just ate the insides. I couldn’t even find traces of crab or shrimp in either ones! The beef, short ribs were Extremely hard to chew!!! At least they were lean, But short ribs cooked properly should be tender & soft. Whereas, these were definitely improperly cooked & Hard as rocks. The good things, The homemade noodles were very tender & You could tell they were homemade. Both of the sauces for the noodles were delicious.(the portions were half of what most restaurants serve) Oscar, took our order was very kind & courteous. Taking time answer my questions. My biggest disappointment, however, was the scallion pancakes. They were hard as rocks & you needed a magnifying glass to find the teeny tiny pieces of scallions! I could not even bite a piece off (that’s how hard they were) Maybe they were busy or had a new cook but I was extremely disappointed, & they did NOT stand up to the wonderful reviews...

This review is mainly about how AMAZING the service was with Zander. My friend was visiting from out of state, and I hadn't seen her in forever! She was craving soup dumplings, so we decided to try this place. From the moment we sat down, the service was impeccable. Zander's personality, energy, and attitude really set the stage for a great girl's night. He made great recommendations. It was also like he was psychic, talking about bringing chili oil a few seconds before I was going to ask. The short rib noodles were great, and we tried multiple soup dumplings with flavorful broth. Another highlight was the bok choy. I still cannot fathom how they got SO MUCH FLAVOR (especially garlic flavor, yum) into the simple bok choy. The food was delicious, but the highlight was our service. Our wine glasses and water glasses never went empty. The food was delicious, but the highlight that really made the evening was Zander. I will definitely be coming back to see him.

FYI: For some reason, the review keeps changing my individual star ratings to zero. SERVICE AND ATMOSPHERE WERE...