ROC Kitchen
Been wanting to eat at ROC Kitchen since it opened last November – people have been freaking out over not having to drive all the way to Din Tai Fung for soup dumplings. I happened to win a gift certificate from Blackboard Eats, so of course, that’s where I went to celebrate the 2nd Birthday of Thick Dumpling Skin!
Sadly, Lisa couldn’t join this year, but I was in good company with Tim, Shelly, Melanie, Chapin, and Abe (the photographer).
ROC Kitchen is on Sawtelle, right across from Giant Robot 2. There’s no sign on the door, but this is what it looks like.
We arrived at noon, just as they opened. The place was packed until we left 2.5 hours later! There’s a few negative reviews on Yelp about their service; my experience was that they are very friendly, but pretty slow.
The food was tasty, though! Of course, we ordered soup dumplings. Crab/Chicken…
…and Crab/Pork. I think the carrot slice may have been “code” for the wait staff?
More wrapped meat.
Half of the table didn’t eat pork, so everything else was vegetarian. We got a couple scallion pancakes…
…Sweet n Sour Pickled Cucumbers…
…String Beans with Garlic…
…Fried Rice…
…Squash with Honshimenji Mushrooms…
…and Rice Cake…
…all the meat (crab and chicken) served on the side, by request.
I ate doubles of pretty much everything, and about 5 or 6 of these dudes.
Even dessert came in dumpling form!
Stuffed with sweet taro – got a lot of mmmm’s.
A little video I managed to make…
…Happy Anniversary to Thick Dumpling Skin! As you may remember, we have some exciting things in store this year…looking forward to celebrating our 3rd one at ???