No. 88: Hollywood East Cafe on the Boulevard

At noon on weekends, the onslaught of carts careening through the pink-walled dining room of Hollywood East Cafe on the Boulevard takes on the feel of a roller derby. That’s when the cafe rolls out its most scintillating selection of dim sum—bamboo steamers bearing shark-fin dumplings, glossy Asian eggplant stuffed with shrimp, brown-crusted buns filled with roast pork, clams slicked with black-bean sauce—and when the crowd gets caught up in a frenzied bidding for plates.

If there’s a better, more varied dim sum feast than the one owner Janet Yu puts out every week, we’d like to know about it.

Dim sum is the best thing about this sequel to the nearby Hollywood East Café and the reason for its existence—had Yu not landed the Hong Kong–born dim sum chef she coveted, she says, the new place might never have been. But it’s not the only reason to pay a visit, nor is it an excuse to snub the original. Both are open till 2 am on Fridays and Saturdays, and if you can abandon your cravings for more conventional, Chinese-American stir-fries, you can eat lavishly—and cheaply. The strength of these kitchens is in complex, layered casseroles, such as roast duck with sweet taro, and their array of arcana, like a plate of salt-and-pepper-coated anchovies.