Dim sum is a Chinese meal of small plates best enjoyed in the company of family and friends. Due to the large Chinese population in San Gabriel Valley, the majority of dim sum restaurants reside there, I learned about Iron Teapot, a dim sum restaurant opening on the westside. My daughter and I visited during their soft open.
Iron Teapot resides in a mixed-use residential building in Culver City on Venice Blvd. The restaurant, Jaffa, last operated there. Jaffa had patio dining, but it didn’t isolate you from the outside. Iron Teapot’s owner had a beautifully stained wood partition built which enhances the outdoor experience.
To prepare the staff, Iron Teapot is currently conducting a soft open. Presently, reservations are only available via booking on their website. A $25 deposit is required to secure the reservation and the amount is deducted from the final bill when you dine there. Orders are placed in the restaurant’s point of sale system by scanning the QR code available at the table.
They bill themselves as “Elevated Authentic Fast Casual Dim Sum” so you won’t find older Chinese ladies pushing around carts of dim sum. The patio feels feng shui friendly and inviting for a casual meal. The interior is quite striking and the bar area will probably become a place to be seen. Bottles attractively frame the bar and the natural lighting works for this attractive venue.
The menu is quite extensive and it is organized by dim sum that is steamed, fried, baked, or pan-fried. They include a lot of what you can expect to find at a dim sum restaurant like ha gow, siu mai, spare ribs, but items that you would not expect to see like chicken and spinach filled potstickers and truffle oil siu mai.
Presentation is a factor here; steamed dim sum arrives in large beautiful bamboo baskets. Since table size is rather limited, it’s nice to be able to stack the empty bamboo baskets.
We began with a Japanese Sunomono Salad and transitioned into their Sliced BBQ Pork which is served with a sweet Chinese BBQ sauce. The BBQ Pork was very good as it was both lean, moist, and full of flavor. At other venues, it is common to have BBQ Pork served with pork that is quite fatty.
At a typical din sum restaurant, the spare ribs are full of flavor but are extremely fatty. The chef uses a better cut of meat and the result is still tender, but more enjoyable. What also made them unique was the addition of minced Fresno chiles.
Jumbo Shrimp & Pork Siu Mai with Masago is a variation of the classical Cantonese offering. Jumbo steamed dumplings made of juicy pork and ground shrimp are topped with masago fish roe. The result is beautiful, delicious, and addictive.
To attract the vegan population, they offer a complete line-up of vegan dim sum – yes, this is not an oxymoron. Plant-based meat substitutes are used to prepare vegan siu mai, har gow, BBQ Pork Bun, and others.
Iron Teapot features themselves as “Dim Sum and Bar”. The emphasis is on their signature craft cocktails that include fruit popular in Southeast Asia. An example of this is the Rambutan Martini with lychee Liquor, vodka, vermouth, yuzu and topped with 2 rambutans, a fruit similar to lychee and longan. Iron Teapot boasts that their version is superior to the Southeast version made with lychee.
If you like dim sum, I think Iron Teapot is worth a try. My visit was during their soft open and the service was a bit spotty. The dim sum was tasty and I expect the overall experience will improve.
Iron Teapot, 10306 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90034; 310.736.1803; iron-teapot.com