Chinatown: Starry Kitchen at Grand Star Jazz Club

Fans of Starry Kitchen will follow them where ever they end up, even to a dive bar in Chinatown. I’m obviously a fan so I checked them out a couple of weeks ago. Starry Kitchen is now at the Grand Star Jazz Club. And it’s just right in time as Chinatown is starting to boom.

The Grand Star is where I used to go whenever we wanted to go dancing in Chinatown. I’ve been there for Japanese drumming and other random events. I had not considered its food because there wasn’t any. The kitchens with its giant woks haven’t been in use in decades. It’s so exciting to see what dishes SK will come up with next. In the meantime, they’re serving up some of their best dishes from their residency at Tiara Cafe as well as some of the lunchtime favorites I loved like the beef-tacular.

This beef-tacular has evolved though. It has layers of flavor after flavor. Although it didn’t need it, I still added a bit more fish sauce from the provided bowl (which is a Chinese tea cup). Speaking of which, I love, love, love the new plates. It’s so Chinatown.

100 Eats joined me for this meal. Once I found out he had never had the SK tofu balls, I knew we had to order them for him. Those crispy balls are still amazing. I wonder if they would consider doing a stuff meat and tofu version?

The dainty beef wrapped in sesame leaves skewers is also a great appetizer. Watch out for those chiles in the marinated veggies though. Those are seriously spicy!

I had never tried the SK enoki, chayote and goji berry dish before. You get so much enoki mushrooms and I love the crunchy chayote squash. It’s like eating my own cooking but better. SK is about Asian comfort food and this is totally something I’d make.

I almost got a noodles dish since we had gotten the beef-tacular which comes with rice but in the end, the pork belly fried rice won out. Actually, we didn’t need two starches but we were hungry. Starving, really. Okay, our eyes were just bigger than our stomachs. Gotta love leftovers though!

Currently SK is serving Wednesday through Saturday at Grand Star for dinner only. We walked in around 8 p.m. and were a bit surprised when tables and chairs started disappearing as the club goers started coming in. They close at 9:45 p.m.  I’d suggest getting there earlier so you can enjoy the dive bar atmosphere with a drink!

Related Reading:

Starry Kitchen at Tiara Cafe (2012)

Starry Kitchen’s Beef-tacular (2012)

Pho night at Starry Kitchen (2011)

DineLA at Starry Kitchen (2011)

Test Kitchen: Starry Kitchen (2010)

Starry Kitchen Now Open for Dinner (2010)

Starry Kitchen DTLA (2010)

Starry Kitchen at Grand Star Jazz Club

943 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012  —  (213) 814-1123

© The Minty  2013