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| Lili and Cecil Kim offer healthy dishes and inspired cuisine in their eatery on the ground floor of the Higgins Building. Photo by Gary Leonard. |
Fresh Korean Ingredients Play a Role in Historic Core's China Bistro
by Jay Edwards
Liliya China Bistro offers traditional Chinese food, as the name suggests, but the restaurant also specializes in Korean Chinese food. Critics and bloggers have been quick to label Liliya's arrival part of the "Asian Fusion" trend, but Korean-influenced Chinese cuisine is actually a well-established style that you can find all over Koreatown and, well, Korea. What makes it different from traditional Chinese food? A lot of things, actually, but at the better places it is often seen in the fresh Korean ingredients and the emphasis on healthy dishes.
Having found a home on Second Street between Main and Spring streets, on the ground floor of the Higgins Building, Liliya is one of those better places. The design is sleek and modern, but don't let the polished look fool you - this is not some chain restaurant. Owners Lili and Cecil Kim have fully invested themselves into finding a careful balance between urban sophistication and respect for tradition. This comes by way of established and excellent dishes - such as the Famous Black Bean Noodles ($7), flavored with slices of pork and stir-fried squash - from Lili's mother's storied Koreatown restaurant Jin Heung Gak (also known as The Mandarin House).
The great variety of rice and soups (served in three sizes) also shows that commitment to tradition. The Egg Flower Soup ($3/$6/$9), with whipped eggs added to a boiling chicken broth, is tweaked with substantial chunks of carrot, onion and mushroom. The Hot & Sour Soup ($3/$6/$9), widely considered better for colds than chicken soup, is a steamy and head-clearing mix of bamboo shoots, black mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms and tofu strips in a chicken broth touched with vinegar and hot white pepper. Among more standard rice dishes, it's nice to find a great version of seasonal Bibimbop ($10), which in this case is cooked with slivers of beef and sesame oil and made lively with spinach, sprouts and fried egg.
If I'm going meatless, it's either for the Szechwan-style Liliya String Beans ($9) - stir- fried with a punch of garlic and just enough salty soy - or the Eggplant & Fried Tofu ($9). If you're into eggplant, this is roasted and served under a tangy brown sauce with purple onions cooked into it. It is a large and filling dish.
Liliya is not the kind of place where the Orange Chicken ($11) has been sitting under a heat lamp waiting to be part of a two-item special. Instead of drowning overcooked nuggets of chicken in a garlicky red paste, which too many Chinese restaurants do, the meaty and lightly fried chicken chunks are gently complemented by an amber sauce flavored with ginger and orange. It comes with brown or white rice.
The Sweet & Sour Chicken ($11) is another familiar-sounding item that's made with a clear and tangy glaze, which is a welcome change from the thick, goopy, iridescent stuff that has become the norm for MSG joints that still rely on the novelty of take-out boxes. (Liliya's take-out boxes, by the way, are sealable, reusable and transparent.)
Liliya calls several of its best items "flame-tossed," which describes the process of mixing, for example, Spicy Hot Wings ($10), Special Shrimp ($15) or Honey-Glazed Walnut Shrimp ($15) in a large pan over high flames. This keeps the meat crispy on the outside and allows the unique sauces to be evenly distributed. Each of the three is different and they are all delicious.
One of the impressive things about Liliya is that it makes the best of Koreatown's cuisine available to the Downtown Los Angeles crowds who have yet to venture into the Korean heart of Eighth Street. Bulgogi ($13), for example, which is a tender Korean BBQ-style sesame rib-eye steak or pork dish, is ordered almost as frequently as the Broccoli Beef ($12). Galbee ($14), made with soy- and ginger-marinated short ribs which are sliced and ready to eat with lettuce wraps, has become a frequent lunch choice. Boba and ice-blended flavored teas ($3.25-$4.25) add to the import charm, and if you're looking for a new sweet but healthy midday snack, try the candied banana fritters ($4).
The best time to stop into Liliya these days is during happy hour. Weekdays from 4 to 7 p.m., all appetizers are half-price and huge draft beers of Kirin, Stella or Bud are $2. A range of soju cocktails and sake are also available, but the new trend for the maturing Cosmo-drinking crowd is to share compact bottles of sweet Korean rice wine, like the raspberry Bokbunja ($15) and the pomegranate Seok Ryu Ju ($17).
As the "call buttons" on each table make clear, customer service here is a priority, so it's no surprise that Liliya has been one of the establishments to recognize the need for more late-night Downtown dining options and extended its hours. Little things like this show that a place cares about becoming a productive part of the neighborhood and providing what its customers want, and that keeps people coming back.
Liliya China Bistro is at 108 W. Second St. #102-103, (213) 620-1717 or liliyachinabistro.com. Open Monday-Thursday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday 11 a.m.-2 a.m.; and Saturday 12 p.m.-2 a.m.
page 16, 7/9/2007
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
Having found a home on Second Street between Main and Spring streets, on the ground floor of the Higgins Building, Liliya is one of those better places. The design is sleek and modern, but don't let the polished look fool you - this is not some chain restaurant. Owners Lili and Cecil Kim have fully invested themselves into finding a careful balance between urban sophistication and respect for tradition. This comes by way of established and excellent dishes - such as the Famous Black Bean Noodles ($7), flavored with slices of pork and stir-fried squash - from Lili's mother's storied Koreatown restaurant Jin Heung Gak (also known as The Mandarin House).
The great variety of rice and soups (served in three sizes) also shows that commitment to tradition. The Egg Flower Soup ($3/$6/$9), with whipped eggs added to a boiling chicken broth, is tweaked with substantial chunks of carrot, onion and mushroom. The Hot & Sour Soup ($3/$6/$9), widely considered better for colds than chicken soup, is a steamy and head-clearing mix of bamboo shoots, black mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms and tofu strips in a chicken broth touched with vinegar and hot white pepper. Among more standard rice dishes, it's nice to find a great version of seasonal Bibimbop ($10), which in this case is cooked with slivers of beef and sesame oil and made lively with spinach, sprouts and fried egg.
If I'm going meatless, it's either for the Szechwan-style Liliya String Beans ($9) - stir- fried with a punch of garlic and just enough salty soy - or the Eggplant & Fried Tofu ($9). If you're into eggplant, this is roasted and served under a tangy brown sauce with purple onions cooked into it. It is a large and filling dish.
Liliya is not the kind of place where the Orange Chicken ($11) has been sitting under a heat lamp waiting to be part of a two-item special. Instead of drowning overcooked nuggets of chicken in a garlicky red paste, which too many Chinese restaurants do, the meaty and lightly fried chicken chunks are gently complemented by an amber sauce flavored with ginger and orange. It comes with brown or white rice.
The Sweet & Sour Chicken ($11) is another familiar-sounding item that's made with a clear and tangy glaze, which is a welcome change from the thick, goopy, iridescent stuff that has become the norm for MSG joints that still rely on the novelty of take-out boxes. (Liliya's take-out boxes, by the way, are sealable, reusable and transparent.)
Liliya calls several of its best items "flame-tossed," which describes the process of mixing, for example, Spicy Hot Wings ($10), Special Shrimp ($15) or Honey-Glazed Walnut Shrimp ($15) in a large pan over high flames. This keeps the meat crispy on the outside and allows the unique sauces to be evenly distributed. Each of the three is different and they are all delicious.
One of the impressive things about Liliya is that it makes the best of Koreatown's cuisine available to the Downtown Los Angeles crowds who have yet to venture into the Korean heart of Eighth Street. Bulgogi ($13), for example, which is a tender Korean BBQ-style sesame rib-eye steak or pork dish, is ordered almost as frequently as the Broccoli Beef ($12). Galbee ($14), made with soy- and ginger-marinated short ribs which are sliced and ready to eat with lettuce wraps, has become a frequent lunch choice. Boba and ice-blended flavored teas ($3.25-$4.25) add to the import charm, and if you're looking for a new sweet but healthy midday snack, try the candied banana fritters ($4).
The best time to stop into Liliya these days is during happy hour. Weekdays from 4 to 7 p.m., all appetizers are half-price and huge draft beers of Kirin, Stella or Bud are $2. A range of soju cocktails and sake are also available, but the new trend for the maturing Cosmo-drinking crowd is to share compact bottles of sweet Korean rice wine, like the raspberry Bokbunja ($15) and the pomegranate Seok Ryu Ju ($17).
As the "call buttons" on each table make clear, customer service here is a priority, so it's no surprise that Liliya has been one of the establishments to recognize the need for more late-night Downtown dining options and extended its hours. Little things like this show that a place cares about becoming a productive part of the neighborhood and providing what its customers want, and that keeps people coming back.
Liliya China Bistro is at 108 W. Second St. #102-103, (213) 620-1717 or liliyachinabistro.com. Open Monday-Thursday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday 11 a.m.-2 a.m.; and Saturday 12 p.m.-2 a.m.
page 16, 7/9/2007
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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