Have you been to Joss in Beverly HIlls?

[carln]

I havent found any good Chinese food on the westside but have been hearing that Joss in Beverly Hills is the best of the options. Has anyone been? What are your thoughts on this place? I dont expect anything like you would find in the San Gabriel Valley but am hoping its a decent spot for those days when i dont feel like driving 20-some miles for food.

[nosh]

I have tried the lunch combos at a large number of westside Chinese restaurants. I have two favorites.

First is Hu's, in Palms on National, south of the 10, east of Overland, and north of Palms, where National makes a 90-degree turn. I like the kung pao chicken (with extra sauce), the twice-cooked pork (without tofu), and the eggplant. I really like the small Chinese chicken salad served between the soup and entree. Surprisingly, they fry some great chicken wings. Their sweet and sour is bad -- shrimp or chicken with fluffy, bland, thick breading.

Mandarin Kitchen is in the strip mall on the east side of Westwood just south of Santa Monica Blvd. A larger selection of lunch specials. Good hot'n'sour soup, though it did not have any zing the last time I was there -- hope that is an aberration. I like the Mongolian beef and the chicken with mixed vegetables -- I get it with garlic sauce. Some of their dishes I find boring, such as the kung pao, with just onions and bell pepper as veggies. I used to like their scallops with mixed veggies and garlic sauce, but it is no longer on their lunch menu.

Understand I am not saying these are "authentic" or earth-shattering. And I find that I like particular dishes at certain places, for instance the slippery shrimp and the special spicy wonton soup with garlic at Yang Chow in Chinatown. But these places, if you order these dishes, offer a fast, inexpensive, very filling satisfying lunch and are in my rotation.

[Thor123]

Mr. Chow is always fun, if pricy. I understand Mr. Chow is opening in Malibu in the old Nozawa spot, which seems an odd fit.

[Hughlipton]

I was just there last week. Food was good to very good. Not, however, anything terribly authentic. Bring your banker when you go. Cost of gas and time spent traveling to SGV is less expensive,