Road Trip: Dragon Mark - San Gabriel(LA)

Only in the San Gabriel Valley.....could 3 restaurants selling Xiao Long Bao co-exist in the same strip mall, nearly side by side! Dragon Mark, is the "middle child" of the three restaurants, with Mei Long Village to the West, and J & J right next door to the East. You can see just how close J&J is.....

Like J & J, Dragon Mark is quite tiny, though very brightly lit.....the Missus twice remarked how bright  the lighting was at Dragon Mark. Unlike J & J, Dragon Mark actually serves tea in a real tea cup, not cheapo Styrofoam cups.

You are handed a menu that is both in English and Chinese, but need to order on a check-off sheet, that is written in Chinese! Go figure.....I'm pretty sure that the ladies would do the check off sheet for you.

We only had time for a "snack" during this visit, so of course we had to order the Xiao Long Bao ($4.75):

Soon enough our steaming hot Xiao Long Bao arrived...first thing we noticed was all of the broth on the parchment paper...several of the XLB had burst! Second thing was that these were served with the julienned ginger on top the Xiao Long Bao...so where was the Black Vinegar???? After rummaging through the bottles on the table, we spotted the vinegar, in a Soy Sauce bottle, with a teensy-tiny label!

Here's what the XLB filling and soup looked like:

We found the dumpling to have too much meat, and not enough soup. The pork filling was very salty, and didn't have the unique savory-sweet flavor of XLBs. The wrapper was on the thick side, and the folds on the top of the XLB were hard. Bummer......better than Dim Sum Restaurant XLB, but not very good by San Gabriel Valley standards....still this XLB was better than anything in San Diego.

The Missus noticed a dish I enjoy on the table top placard, and ordered it.

The placard said "Pork and Basil Dumplings", but these are actually Pork and Dill Dumplings($5.25). I've seen these as Fennel and Pork Dumplings, and now Pork and Basil Dumplings......

We really enjoyed these, the dill was soft, without being mushy, and the ratio of pork to dill was perfect.

In most cases the dill overwhelms everything, but this was a good example of great balance. This got the Missus and I talking about how the flavor and texture of the filling was put together....perhaps the dill was blanched? Leave it to the dumpling heads to spend most of lunch talking about Jiaozhi! The wrapper was okay, on the brittle side without enough "pull". The Missus thought that the dough had not been kneaded enough.....too much kneading and you get tough wrappers, to little and the wrapper will be soft, but will break easily without any "pull".

As with most of these tiny restaurants, service is fast, but don't expect much in the way of friendliness.....instead expect efficiency. The restaurant is about the same size as J&J, but we thought it was brighter(much brighter) and cleaner. Though I think I enjoy the XLB at J&J more(and Mei Long Village even more...). Other than versions of dumplings, we saw most everyone else eating Niu Rou Mien.

Dragon Mark
301 W Valley Blvd Ste 110
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Another silly observation......

I kinda take it for granted that almost all signs in the area are in Chinese, or Chinese and English. So we both cracked up when the sign to the right, taped onto the stairway wall to the parking lot was written only in English. Why only in English?

BTW, I did NOT write the LOL on that sign.......

Comments

[RONW]

"....As with most of these tiny restaurants, service is fast, but don't expect much in the way of friendliness...."

Been there.

[Birdie]

I do not believe you.

LOL.

[Wandering Chopsticks]

Oooh, I love dill. I wasn't going to try Dragon Mark b/c I've heard it pales in comparison to MLV and J&J, but now that I know it had dill...

BTW, my cousin swears the waitstaff tries to avoid all eye contact so they don't have to do any service. :P

[clayfu]

THey opened a J&J in diamond bar! Super SUPER clean, and the cups and bowls are all cute and pretty.

[howie]

Burst XLB always makes me sad :-(

That sign cracks me up. I wonder if it actually works, and people actually move to the next strip mall to pee/urine on the ground.

[Carol]

I think it's been over 16 years since I've had Xiao Long Bao. Come to think of it, that's about how long I've lived in SD. Hmm...

That sign is funny! Wonder if it works.

[Pam]

dang Kirk, I think you've reviewed more SGV restaurants than most LA food bloggers! very cool!

hey, next time you guys are in the 'hood, call/email us so we can go eat!

and LOL about the sign. (no pun intended)

[Kathy]

awww, you make me miss LA! This was one of the last restaurants I visited before I left! :)

[Captain Jack]

Yum,
the dill dumplings look good. I wonder how the Niu Rou Mein is. I love the version at Shanghai City you turned me on to.

[Kirk]

Hi RONW - That is pretty much the standard for most of these restaurants!

Hi Birdie - Now would I lie to you? ;o)

Hi WC - We figured why not complete the set. In our opinion, the XLB weren't very good, but those dumplings were nice. For us service was pretty much the same as J&J.

Hi Clayfu - Wow, that's nice, we'll make sure to check it out next time we're in the area!

Hi Howie - The stairway was spotless, with no offensive odor!

Hi Carol - sounds like you need to make a XLB stop next time you're in the area!

Hi Pam - We try to get around as much as possible. We'll get in touch next time we're in the area....Lu Din Gee maybe?

Hi Kathy - You've got a whole new world to explore......

Hi CJ - The NRM didn't look very good. I heard that the NRM at Mei Long Village is pretty good.