ixlb DimSum Eats — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Had the wonderful good fortune of having a bad experience at Northern Dumpling right down the street - which led me to trying to find another dumpling place.

All I can say is, thank you thank you universe because had I not eaten here…. it would’ve been such a loss!

I literally had just donated blood at UCLA and was starving. This place is situated conveniently in the part of Westwood Village where you can actually find parking! Which was a real bonus on a Saturday.

Walked in, and there was a charming Australian gal, who politely answered all my questions. The more we discussed all the offerings, the more hungry I felt =) I wound up over ordering – which isn’t a bad thing because everything is able to be packed up easily to go, so - a great dinner tonight as well.

The shrimp wontons were beyond amazing. I’m originally from New York and have had a lot of great Chinese food (at least American Chinese food), and this was so flavorful and juicy and generous. The cucumber salad was excellent; the hat gow was so so flavorful, and the scallion pancakes were exactly what they should be, lightly fried, crispy chewy, and so yum.

One incident occurred, which really pointed out the difference between a place that will last - and is worth shouting out - versus just ordinary:

I ordered the shrimp wontons “as is“ which comes with a fair amount of chili oil. I hadn’t really paid attention to the side note of the chili oil so after one and 1/2 of these … literally was having trouble tasting anything. They were super spicy!

I considered just suffering through it, but realized that that would pretty much ruin the rest of everything else I ordered.

I politely asked the server if I could get the second two re-done without the chili oil. Not only was she very happy to do that… But she literally gave me all four - even though I’d pretty much already eaten two. That kind of generosity of spirit, and un selfishness and lack of greed - is what keeps loyalty. And had the effect of me going back to order more food for later, just out of respect for that generosity. I also tipped generously, of course.

I honestly can’t say enough good things about this experience, except for another sidebar: as I was beginning to eat at their neat little outdoor terrace, three clearly-successful affluent Hollywood folk were skeptically waiting for their food. The gal in the group said, “Well, I guess we’ll see, this place gets a lot of hype, but it could just be the cheap prices and the location since it’s mostly college students…”

I understood the sentiment, but having already enjoyed a bit of my meal knew that she would be pleasantly surprised.

Sure enough, about five minutes later, their food arrived, and all three of them quite loudly and enthusiastically were shocked at the quality and tastiness. I kind of laughed and they looked over and I said “right?!”. And then we all went back to gorging.

Can’t recommend enough....

I had seen an overwhelmingly positive review of this place and thus felt optimistic about trying it out.

For one, it was over a hundred dollars for everything, which would usually be fair in Westwood, but I should have known something would be wrong with the stinginess of the sauce. They charged about 2-3 dollars for sauces (soy sauce, Sriracha, chili oil, etc), so if you decide to eat here, I just recommend bringing your sauces from home. Second, we dined in, and the food was still brought out to us in to go containers despite them having seating outdoors. This was disappointing as it felt rather wasteful. Third, there were no plates they could give us to eat right there.

The actual food: My groups' order consisted of half vegetarian and half meat (shrimp and chicken). Hands down, their spring roll tasted amazing and started off the meal with high hopes, so I fully recommend that. The vegetable dumplings and vegetable bao dumlings were decent. The chicken over rice was also okay. The garlic noodles and chow mein were okay. However, the shrimp dumplings were disappointing. I would only recommend the fried shrimp dumplings. I would not recommend the rice ball dumpling as that was not good. It tasted weird. Overall, I walked away disappointed with the meal as most of it was subpar. Sure, some things didn't taste terrible, but for the portion, pricing, and flavor, I would seek out other places before coming here.

For transparency, the vegetable options were typically 7 dollars for 4 dumplings. The vegetarian options were okay. However, those in my party that ate the shrimp containing dumplings developed food poisoning. This was the only meal we had had at the point of developing symptoms. Those who had eaten the shrimp had even noted a weird feeling in their stomach, which proceeded to throwing up. If you're coming to eat here,...

Found this place completely by accident and very glad I did! I don't know Westwood very well and was looking for some dinner. Peeked into a few of the other restaurants on that block with no interest and I was about to leave when ixlb caught my eye. I walked in and was greeted by the most immaculate open kitchen I've ever seen. Almost looks like a laboratory with all the line chefs wearing white shirts and aprons. Cooking area was spotless, not a splatter anywhere. Ordering was easy with 2 available kiosks where you can order independently or you can place your order at the registers. If you plan to dine in, there is limited outdoor seating so I recommend coming here for take-out. I ordered har gow, steamed chicken buns, smiling pork sandwich, scallion pancakes and marinated cucumbers my first time and everything was delicious. Everything has flavor and doesn't really require sauce. Even their steamed cabbage is amazingly flavorful. Orders are quickly prepared and I typically wait around 5-10 minutes. This is a staple stop for me when I come to Westwood now. This food is fresh and clean and leaves me feeling really good and not weighed down or tired. I HIGHLY recommend you try this absolute gem of a restaurant if you are in Westwood! You won't be...