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Liliya's China Bistro
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
24 reviews for Liliya's China Bistro
I went to Liliya for lunch and enjoyed one of their lunch specials. Downtown has tons of places to go for lunch, but around Little Tokyo there are mostly just Japanese places.
Liliya offers lunch specials that include a salad, bowl of tofu seaweed soup, vegetable egg roll, rice, and entree for approximately $9.
The service was fast, restaurant was relatively clean, and they have lots of seating. They even have 4 portable airconditioning machines upstairs so you don't get hot. The food was tasty, portions were large, and they had a great variety. I will be back next time I'm craving Chinese food downtown!
Their soups are so good!
Wonton is amazing. Sizzling chicken soup was a little fishy tasting so I didn't like it... but it was still good.
Also, they have really good lunch specials!
Stumbled upon this place and decided to give it a try.
The server brought a complimentary "boat" filled with freshly fried won ton chips and a red sauce. Loved the chips but ambivalent about the sauce.
Ordered shrimp egg rolls which were nice except they came with the same sauce. They seemed freshly stuffed and fried. Not stuffed too much but filled with small whiole shrimp, shitake mushrooms and other veggies. The Beef Chow Fun was absolutely awesome ... generous with the beef and lovely wide Chinese rice noodles. Very large portions.
We'll go back soon.
PS: A new Mexican cafe is under construction next door ... between Liliya China Bistro and Pitfire Pizza, named "Charcoal Grill" promising Mexican grilled food. Construction just starting so it seems a long way off.
You know what, me and my buddy have eaten here three times now and although not the best ambiance it is cheap, high quality meats with great service and always a smile on their faces. They will put the game on for you, even introduce you to new patrons and have them sit with you if you request. Dig the Galbi and potstickers, both tasty to the core. I can see how some people would not like this place, but they simply don't get it. It's Chinese food, get it?
This place is OK. There was nothing offensively bad, but on the other hand, there were no stand-outs.
The potstickers we had as an appetizer are oversized, and it's worth noting that they're deep-fried. I definitely prefer steamed or steamed-then-pan-fried. These were a little on the greasy side, such that we left some on the plate, although the filling was the great savory-sweet mix you hope for.
We also tried a Korean beef dish comprised of super-thin meat and onions, steamed broccoli, and Japanese ginger on a sizzling plate. This was pretty good, though the amount of meat made me ache for more veggies. The combination of the beef with ginger was really good.
We also tried sesame chicken, which was okay. The breading was very thick, and the the sauce was overly sweet. (The best flavor was with pieces heavily seeded.)
The rice served with our meal was just how I like it... dense and a little sticky. Some will find it's more in line with sushi rice (minus the sweetness), but I prefer it.
On a Thursday evening, the service was good. The music was at the right level, and the ambience was fine. The booths provide privacy within the restaurant, but in our spot at least, the outside window made us feel on display for the people dropping off their cars with the Edison's valet. The price is reasonable for the amount and quality of food offered.
Wooohoo...this place was NOT tasty.
I live within walking distance of this restaurant, so I suggested that my friends and I try it...admittedly, it looks pretty decent from a cursory glance through the windows. Let's just say they're hesitant to let me pick our after-work dinner locations anymore...without yelping them first.
We ordered a couple pretty standard dishes: Mongolian Beef, one of their chicken dishes, the Liliya String Beans, and one of their pork dishes. Overall, the green beans were the only thing we ended up even finishing, and the pork was by far and away the worst...when it came to our table looking a bit gray, we all took an obligatory bite, but once our tastebuds confirmed what our eyes already suspected, we pushed it to the side of the table for the rest of the meal. The chicken and beef dishes were edible, but we definitely wouldn't order them again...they just weren't good enough.
Definitely would not go back. I even prefer somewhere like Panda Express to this place...at least there, you know what your'e getting.
I'm shocked this place has such bad reviews ... Then again, I did come right after I had six drinks at the Edison -- so memory may not serve me correctly.
A couple of friends and I really enjoyed this place ... Decor is cute ...Food was good. I had the spicy seafood soup -- it was VERY good. Surprisingly good. My friend had the pineapple fried rice -- also really good. Service was enjoyable and quick -- we even had small banter w/our server.
Most the restaurants around Edison aren't that great ... so it was nice to get a pleasant surprise. :-)
Eh. I've had better.
Definitely not authentic Chinese.
But I did like their potstickers! And their chicken fried rice! And the fact that their service is great, and that they deliver to my loft upstairs, and don't skimp on the condiments, they get 3 stars from me!
This place gets three stars only because the the Orange Chicken is the best I've ever had. It's just spicy enough, there's not too much batter on the chicken, and it's still crispy fresh when it arrives at the table. Oh, and it's sticky sweet, which is how I like my Orange Chicken.
Everything else was just so-so. The salad bordered on inedible and the soup was meh. I wasn't crazy about having to drink out of a plastic cup; it didn't quite match the decor and atmosphere they are trying for.
So I wanted chinese food and didn't feel like waiting for the one place we order from to deliver. Liliya was close enough to walk to even though the reviews here really made me want to skip this place. I figured how bad could it really be...it's Chines food. People give Panda Express 3+ stars and that makes me want to gag.
We get to Liliya and no one is there. We pick our table and they bring out wonton noodles with an orange sweet and sour dipping sauce. Reminded me of a place back in NJ though their noodles are bigger. I ordered the Jasmine ice tea, veggie egg rolls and kung pao tofu. Brian had a diet coke and sesame chicken. Everything seemed very fresh and HOT. Right out of the fryer, wok...whatever it might be. The food was basic and not as heavy as some restaurants make it. It's average...it's kind of what you expect from a chinese restaurant. 3 stars it is.
Oh...want great entertainment? Sit by the Edison valet drop off. WOW.
As a recent transplant to Downtown after living in Hollywood for 18 years I was hopeful that Liliya's would be the perfect Chinese restaurant only a few blocks away from my loft. I was disappointed. Although the decor is stylish and the row of video monitors allowed us to watch CNN during our meal, the food was unremarkable.
The staff was helpful and courteous, but seemed somewhat confused as if they had never actually waited on customers before. I had a red iced tea that brought back bad memories of taking cough syrup as a child. My guest decided not to risk the unknown and had Diet Coke instead. We skipped appetizers since we didn't know how large the portions would be and I chose Sesame Chicken and brown rice as my entree. The chicken was almost flavorless and very fatty and the rice was overly sticky. It's nice to have this restaurant as an option close to home, but I doubt I will become a regular, unfortunately.
Liliya is the Pitfire Pizza of Chinese food. Incidentally, it is located right next door to Pitfire Pizza. Coincidence? I think not.
Trendy decor, cult films (they were playing Kurosawa's "Ran" last time I was in) on the plasma[s]. I'll hand it to them, they've really put some thought into making the place look fun and inviting. That presentation extends to their food, and the food looks absolutely great. Regrettably, the taste doesn't live up to the presentation at all -- but it had me coming back for a week or two. Overall not a bad place to eat, but really, when you have Chinatown 2 more minutes down the road, what are you doing at this place?
BOBA, of course! Yep, Liliya serves the standard set of Milk Teas and Boba with their Chinese food, which was certainly a nice touch. Er, at least until I asked for a coke and they took my Milk Tea glass over to the coke machine and filled it up, resulting in what could only be described as a float gone heinously, heinously wrong. Was it something I said?
Solid 3 star establishment. The people have spoken.
We went through a Liliya phase a while ago when we were trying to find restaurants with good food that were closeby. I think we ate here too often and got sick of it. The food is good, and its conveniently located if you live or work downtown, or if you're going to be enjoying some evening entertainment at the Music Center.
I like their calamari, but it's spicy and has little chilis in it. Everything else is pretty good here, too.
Walk in, order at the counter and then you are shown to your table by a wait-person with soup and salad for all those in your party. Get your drinks from the soda machine or its delivered later.
The ambiance is nice, kinda a cool upstairs section. For lunch its a good spot.
The food is less than perfect, the orange chicken was like eating candy, I like candy, but not so much for my main meal.
I'll go back and try some other items to see.
Not great. But not so terrible that I would give it one star.
Living downtown, you don't have many delivery food options. I had to literally beg a pizza place to deliver to my house once. My overwhelming charm and powers of persuasion convinced them to bring a pizza my way, "only this one time." They weren't lying. I tried to have another pizza delivered from this place (that we will call Papa John's) and I think our address is blacklisted now.
Liliya delivers.
The egg rolls are fine. The Liliya Special Shrimp is alright ("special" is a slight exaggeration). There's nothing amazing about this Chinese food. But it's good and the price is normal.
I do love their strawberry iced tea. I don't know who makes it (it comes in a really cool little container with a cute anime iced tea princess on it) but it's sooooo good. It should be called "Liliya most special strawberry iced tea ever." No exaggeration here folks.
If you are looking for Chinese food downtown and you don't want to deal with Chinatown, Liliya will do the trick.
It stuns me that this place received more than one star. Some co-workers and I passed by this place, and thought it would be a cute place to have lunch. It looked clean from the outside, and decent. We arranged to gather and go the following day.
First of all, reservations were made, which doesn't really mean anything. When you arrive, you order at the register, and then it's open seating. The only advantage in having reservations is that one of the rude people who work there, will reserve a spot for you. We still had to wait in line for our order to be taken at the register.
The quality of the food is typical Chinese fast food. Nothing that great, and yes, the portions were small and pricey.
Needless to say, this isn't a place that will have my business again.
I admit that I've never stepped in the restuarant, always drive by, but have ordered delivery. Yes they deliver. They say that it is chinese, but there are alot of korean foods on the menu and sort of a chinese/korean fusion..
the walnut shrimp is good, pretty standard, let's see, I haven't been brave enough to try their korean style black bean noodle dish. This is a staple in most korean's diet, but the noodles are really important, even more so than the sauce (cha chang mien), and when they said that their version is with rice noodles...ummm....I'll pass.
Seems like an upscale, expanded menu/ copy of dare I say it....Panda Express. Only upside, delivery!
Although better Chinese food exists a few streets away in Chinatown and cheaper Chinese food is served up down in the dungeon of the LA Mall, the China Bistro on Second and Main is a fantastic weekday lunch destination. The sleek dining furniture and the unique paintings (rumored to have been painted by the owners) on the walls really add to the artsy vibe of this place. After a rough morning at the office, coming in here is so relaxing.
I'll admit that I haven't been here enough to try a whole lot (hence, my 3 star rating). Generally speaking tho, the food is decent but not sparkling spectacular. I believe that you'll find your meal rather light in the end and you'll notice that its NOT greasy at all so you won't feel sluggishly slowmo when you make it back to your cubicle an hour later. Most likely, no stomach problems either. I definitely enjoy their Orange Chicken here. Thankfully, this may be the only place that doesn't drown theirs in tangy sauce.
Overall, hmmm... how can I put it? Ahhh yes... the food here has a very "universal appeal." You might notice that you have to pay a little more here than you'd expect for their items, but they are quick and clean.
What is this crap I have been served? Can't remember being served anything worse than this in Los Angeles. Hooray for the garbage disposal.
Was walking over from Little Tokyo to check out this place and the new Edison bar, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had already opened their doors!!! They've only been open for 3 days! The owner [Liliya] was very nice and so was the staff! You can tell they've put a lot of effort into this place to give you a great experience; the projectors, TV screens, and even the little "service" button at the tables all bring this place together! The food is above average but wasn't super stellar, but the decor made up for it! I would definitely come by again. It's great to see this part of Downtown becoming revitalized .... Liliya's China Bistro, Edison Bar, Pitfire Pizza, and Little Tokyo/CalTrans headquarters ... it's all coming together! Hope this place fares well into the future, would really like to see this place succeed.
The food here was crap. I'm not a mean person but there is no other way to put it. We ordered the kung pao chicken and the chicken lettuce wraps and both dishes were so awful we just ate the rice. This is possibly the worst chinese food I've ever had. I'm at a loss to understand how other yelp reviewers gave this place more than one star. I mean yes the staff was very nice but if the food is crap that doesn't warrant more than one star.
This place isn't that great. It looks a lot better than what the food tastes! I've ordered steamed pork pot stickers which are relatively good, chicken teriyaki which is too sweet and a dish that everyone should avoid at all costs, and garlic chicken which tasted the best but was made with dark meat and a lot of fatty pieces were used and served with the mushrooms and brown sauce covering it so you couldn't tell what was chicken, fat, mushrooms or garlic b/c it all had the same brown, squishy texture. The food is over priced and we've been mistakenly charged for rice that should have come with the meal. My friend ordered a tofu eggplant dish that was actually pretty good - if you're ever stuck eating here choose that!
Ahh...downtown, yer beginnin to feel more and more like a place a person can actually live. I noticed Liliya China Bistro the other day on my newly found shortcut to Glendale for some car shopping. After a long day of haggling with Rodney with his tight tie, fake teeth, pink shirt, goatee, and condescending manner, we were in some desperate need of good delivery. We've tried a few places around here, but have been underwhelmed and/or violently ill because of it. So I admit to being a little nervous. But I called up and placed the order based on some positive reviews on another site that will remain http://nameless.cityse....
Everything arrived in 30 minutes, delivered by the owner who I recognized from his blog that is linked to the restaurant site.
I'll agree the food wasn't as amazing as it could be, but it was fresh tasty and served in the finest takeout containers I have ever seen - totally reusable with see through lids so you can tell which one has what! WHAT A CONCEPT!
Anyway, not too much funny about this, just straight ahead, inexpensive, tasty treats served fast and easy downtown.
GENTRIFY THIS!
I give this place 2 stars for the convenience factor in Downtown and 1 for taste but overall, it's overpriced and has small portions (at least for takeout).
