From June 2006 Cheap Eats

Both locations of these Cantonese siblings, only a boulevard apart, turn out succulent roasted meats, earthy clay-pot casseroles, and, at the Café on the Boulevard, some of the area's best dim sum.

The original restaurant on Price Avenue has the spirit of a Chinatown eatery. Its slicker spinoff on University Boulevard is more dazzling and is open until 2 am. Both have their place in a food lover's little black book.

Menus are nearly identical except that dim sum is available at the newer address. You can order it off the menu during the week or pick from carts on weekends. High points are plump dumplings and noodle crepes laden with whole shrimp, steamed buns full of crunch courtesy of minced water chestnuts, carrots, and bamboo shoots, and a silky steamed turnip cake with bits of sausage and a drizzle of soy. Unusual morsels routinely turn up, such as a slippery noodle crepe filled with fried bread--a curiously engaging combination of dim sum and carny treat.

Beyond dim sum, both kitchens have a way with layered, complex casseroles--roast duck paired with sweet taro, lamb with strips of bean curd in dark gravy, briny oysters mated with smoky roast pork and shiitake mushrooms. Similarly, both make the most of vegetables, be they tender stir-fried snow-pea-shoot leaves or slightly bitter Chinese cress with salty shrimp paste.

On a menu this large, there are bound to be disappointments--Eight Treasure Duck has an overly gelatinous sauce, and fried shrimp dumplings are all about the dough and little else. Still, in a world where second acts often falter, Hollywood East is one instance in which the sequel is as good as the original.