Pine and Crane Silverlake — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I don’t know why this place is popular… the food is not good, at best it’s just good enough. Given the demographic of its location, expect the crowd to be predominantly white-ish. Why I note that is because for restaurants the customer base does matter in terms of how to tweak dish flavors and items to suit the taste of the locale, but being korean myself… I would personally suggest that there is much better food in SGV or around Rowland Heights (ChengDu Taste and Mian in Rowland Heights are my favorite). Maybe because they are curating the dishes and flavors to suit the taste palette of the neighborhood it leads to a bland flavor profile? If so, they did a job well done. But on the grand scheme of places that serve Taiwanese food… not good. I got the beef roll, Beef noodle soup, twice cooked pork, and mapo tofu.

The Beef roll was actually the best item because the beef was tender. The cucumbers will fall out between bites.

The mapo tofu was very bland and had no hint of spice. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a spicy dish that makes you sweat, but it was just a very muted flavor.

The beef noodle soup was okay, but the beef in it was very tough. For example, the beef was hard to pierce even with their metal chopsticks. The noodles are good and chewy. The broth itself was nice and hearty.

The twice cooked pork was also a muted flavor.. reminiscent of only oyster sauce. Just felt overpowered by the broad bean paste sauce without much of anything else. The pork itself was thick and sort of tender. Also more than half of the pork shaped items on the plate was tofu…

Regarding the service, the cashier was nice and helpful. You order at the counter then take a number to a seat they tell you to go to. After that you get up to their counter to get all your own plates and water. Utensils and condiments are on the tables.

Servers came to our table to deliver dishes and then later take it away at what they think is the end. They checked on us zero times through the meal. We asked for togo boxes. So why do they have a tip option at the cashier before any service is rendered? Imagine you tip like you might think you should at a sit-down restaurant, and then you need to get everything yourself and are checked on zero times through the meal. I tipped 18%, but i don’t know if that was well earned. Actually, what am I tipping for..? I say this having worked in various service positions and businesses for over 10 years myself… you decide for yourself. Owners should just raise wages and make their own margins lower honestly. Don’t put the cost on customers.

This place is reminiscent of Chil-fil-a but the food comes on plates and they serve taiwanese food. Albeit Chic-fil-a has better service.

Overall it was disappointing and I would not come again.

To the business manager, no sarcasm; it looks like your business is doing very well and I wish you more success. To management, if the register asks for tips, maybe the “servers” can focus on more service instead of just food running.

Remember, this is just my personal opinion and you’re free to completely disagree. Don’t take...

If you ever pass by this restaurant, you'll notice a long line. Once you eat here, you know why!

The interior has a rustic feel with really nice, mellow vibes. Compared to how busy they are, there's definitely not enough seating but since COVID, they've set up seats and tables outside. You can choose to take your order to-go and eat it outside or wait outside while waiting to dine-in.

You order at the register and then they give you a number to wait outside. Once a table is ready, they'll seat you! We waited about 25-30 minutes and upon being seated, the dishes started to roll out pretty quickly.

Dan Dan noodles- for something that looks like it has a few ingredients-- THE FLAVOR IS SO BOMB!!! Noodles in peanut sauce covered in thinly cut cucumbers?! Omg ... one bite of the noods with few pieces of cucumber?? Has my eyes rolling back. I don't know why this dish is so good to me haha I had Dan Dan noodles at one other place besides here and it did not compare at all.

Beef noodle soup- the closest thing I can compare this to is pho but this had a more rich/concentrated beef flavor. I thought it could've been seasoned a little more but the beef was very tender.

Beef roll- cut into 4 pieces is another dish with thinly sliced cucumbers and beef!!! (I love cucumbers) If you're not a fan of cucumbers, don't get this haha. Dip this in the chili oil from the pork belly and you got yourself an even more elevated dish! Chefs kiss*

Spicy shrimp wonton- I wouldn't say this is spicy but it is nonetheless delicious and tasty. Tastes like the dim sum shrimp dumplings.

Garlic pork belly- I thought this would taste a little weird because I don't like my meats cold and this dish is served cold. But the flavor overshadowed that. The chili oil is soooo good to eat other dishes with.

They have a pretty large drink menu! We tried the Taiwan beer in lychee flavor 3.5% alcohol and the yuzu sparkling water. The lychee flavor, of course, tastes like straight up lychee juice. It was SO yummy!!! I could've had 5 more. The yuzu was strong and very carbonated. If you like yuzu, you will like this drink! It's in the cutest little glass bottle that you can reuse.

The service was great, very attentive and efficient! The water is self serve. Also-- did I mention the prices are very reasonable! Parking can be tricky as it is street parking. I recommend going early/late lunch and/or dinner to...

Wait, a Taiwanese kitchen in the Los Feliz area? You're...kidding, right? It's probably super hipster and priced out to...wait, it's reasonable? Hm.

PROCESS

Park. If you can. It's....not the worst thing ever? Ish. Walk in. Line up. Grab a menu, and decide what you want. Order. Pay. As my mother commented, you pay your tip before you even get any service. Take a number. Get guided to a table. Sit there, and your servers will bring your food out to you. Eat. Eat. Eat.

FOOD

We got a few items - two beers (!), Shrimp wontons, dumplings, Dan Dan noodles, beef stew noodles, scallion pancake, vegetarian mapo tofu, three-cup mushrooms. The beers - they have IPAs, so yes, they're pretty hipster in some sense. The food - it was all pretty good overall, with the Dan Dan noodles being a interesting take, and the beef stew noodles being honestly a bit disappointing, but the only dish to evoke such a feeling. Everyone at the table felt the beef stew noodles were too, eh, strong? Vinegar-y? I'm not sure.

SERVICE

It seemed a bit hit-or-miss. The cashier was very friendly, and the person pouring our beers, less so. The people who brought out the food were also hit-or-miss, as one asked if we would like plates to share without being prompted, while another seemed annoyed at the suggested that bowls might be needed. You'll have to pour your own waters, grab your own utensils, and whatnot. Also, they'll clean up your plates relatively quickly after you're done with one, leaving you very much feeling like you should leave once your table is done with the meal.

One example - one keg ran out mid-pour, so the cashier said we could get another beer at any point, on the house to make up for that. What happened instead? Another server ran out after one sip, while we were seated, and just filled the beer up. It's not a big deal, since after all, we got exactly what we paid for, but the message seemed a bit odd, and honestly, interrupting.

CONCLUSION

This was a pleasant surprise, and actually quite good. It's reasonably priced for the area, and close to home. It's hard to expect every dish to be a winner, but with a relatively small menu, I think it should be achievable. Maybe I'm too critical. One thing for sure though - if service were a bit nicer or more consistent, I think it'd easily get the...