Master Chef

This is the former location of Plum Tree Inn, which moved to Broadway.

I had a big dinner here recently with my big Cantonese family. This means we ordered a lot of dishes. This was also fairly recent. But I can’t remember any single dish, all I remember is all the mediocrity. And not very good service.

Oh wait, some of it is coming back to me. I ordered the deep fried squid. It was ok. We also got the clams in black bean sauce. It was also ok, and I’ve definitely had better. Crispy fried chicken. My family always ends up getting this. It was pretty standard, but there was no toasted spiced salt in sight. WTH?? That salt is an integral part of that dish. We had leftovers that no one even wanted to take home.

The restaurant was mostly empty, but we had to wait for a table bc there is only one big table.

They have a tiny—tiny—dim sum menu, which is also overpriced, for brunch/lunch. Token dim sum, what’s the point?

Who says you cannot get good Chinese in Chinatown?
Master Chef is the best Chinese food I have had in a long time other than dimsum out at Sea Harbour.
I have been back twice now and both experiences were top notch. We ordered clams in black bean sauce that were so good I was reluctant to share them with my friends (unfortunately they felt the same way too) sweet and cooked just right in a deliciously complex sauce, delicate steamed shrimp stuffed tofu, a lightly fried whole flounder with scallions and ginger, amazingly good and beautifully presented, garlic eggplant , just a little zinginess to the sauce and a vegetable chow fun that had an unexpectedly smoky taste along with the silky slipperiness of the noodles and some choice vegetables. Apart from all this the service was very friendly and knowledgeable and the prices very reasonable.

Stars actually 3.75

Master Chef is a nice place to eat, and If you want authentic Chinese Cantonese cuisine, you have to try Master Chef’s!!

It’s not the fast food of :Panda Express, P.F Changs, nor the $3.99 fast food lunch deal! So- the real deal. for Chinese in China Town!

It is so easy to get to from the freeway, even late at night- ~downtown LA and traffic does apply. there are booths and tables, and a small back bar area seating say 3.

Cantonese-style cooking
The food is average to above -Chinese food, & I learned is peanut oil free? None of the food was overly greasy!
All fresh cooked, and tasty.
Service was good considering the amount of people and full tables.

With every meal you get soup, which is a corn soup. Lots of corn starch mixed with chicken stock and some corn. Nothing great but it does come with the meal, and the standard hot tea, and steamed rice.

Our meetup group was 40 people and we had 4 tables.

Our table had 10 dishes!
View pictures for a mouth watering experience.
Some dishes were: dry chicken chow mien, wet chowmein, Chinese Fried Rice, Mongolian Beef, Deep friend squid (crisp and very salty),walnut shrimp, Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce, Chinese Broccoli with Beef, and on.

The total bill ( our table) excluding drinks was $72 for our table so $90 was left.

By far in years late, this is the best of the Chinese I have been!

China town is in total decline as what it was years ago, and small art galleries have sprung up everywhere- many offering free wine, beer, and snacks! Lets say it is called ART?-

So, this is becoming akin to Silver Lake Sunset on Hill and Broadway!
Imagine some Motown blasting sounds live in China Town, and people walking about drinking beer and wine!

Star Rating:
Food: 4.25
Service:3
Cleanliness: 3
Ambiance:3
Health Dept rating: A
Parking: 2
Noise: 3.75
Waiting area for tables: 2.5

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Went with a group of 30+ people, four tables of eight, and so tried a good variety offerings from the menu. Not a one of them impressed. The tofu seafood soup was like dishwater. Not a single person at my table ate more than a spoonful. The"Peking duck" was a joke — the pancakes were thick and dry. The duck skin was tasty and crisp But — hear me now — the restaurant does not serve you the duck’s meat when you order Peking Duck! I am serious — not a shred of duck meat in the dish! I guess they save that for some other recipe. Pork chops and chicken were dry; beef was undercooked with a generic and watery sauce. Scallops were beautifully cooked and flavorful, but there were only four in a dish for a table of eight! It was 10% scallops and 90% asparagus. But, hey! We each got a shrimp with the walnut shrimp! And, I am not kidding here: the cod with bean sauce had about six beans in the dish! If I hadn’t seen them and counted them I would not have known they were there. They could not be tasted. Bland, bland, bland. It all tasted alike. And here we were with all of this uninspired food, just steps from Yang Chow. So near, yet so far. Even the service was wretched. One dish never appeared. It took more than a half hour for the first dish to come out of the kitchen. The waiter could not identify any of the dishes…. I could go on and on. Why bother? Never again.

A bunch of foodie compadre’s and I decided to take our very famished (and some slightly inebriated) selves to Chinatown for dinner after our culturally charged Artwalk tour in Downtown LA.

We decided upon Master Chef for our late night culinary hunt and our stomachs were oh so delightfully grateful.

Master Chef offers very affordable and more importantly tasty traditional and modern (Americanized) Chinese food that you can enjoy with your hungry companions.

We ordered an assortment of dishes from bbq ribs to beef and scrambled eggs. In all we ordered 11 or 12 dishes that we all shared – family style.

Master Chef offers a special late night menu for all of those hungry Downtown nightlife seekers and none of
the dishes were more than $8 including the delightful seafood dishes like braised shrimp and sauteed scallops.