[CLOSED] Tianjin Feng Wei 天津豐味

🇨🇳 CHINA (Tianjin)
📍 525 W. Valley Blvd., Alhambra, San Gabriel Valley

EDITOR'S NOTE: This location has permanently closed.

 

You will be getting takeout from Alhambra's new Tianjin Feng Wei, which recently opened in a space shuttered since 2015, but there is something you should know. Those plump and soft bao that are part of your order need to be eaten immediately so plan to dig into the order right outside the door or before you put it in your trunk. Make a plan before arrival, maybe bring some plates and be ready to deal with the juices that will inevitably be squirting.

The Tianjin stuffed buns ($7.50, below) are sold as a grid of nine, and do not want to live in the box they are served in for very long. They are of course steamed for cooking, but leaving them enclosed to steam longer will kill the pillowy nature of the bun's bready wrapper.

The good news, despite the stains and spots that you are going to leave on your car's interior, is that these pork bao are good enough to make you want to scream in pleasure. They have bumped up in price from $6.25 since the restaurant opened in late summer of last year, but are still a steal. Make sure to open and use the chili and vinegar dipping sauces, both of which are also excellent.

These unique goubuli baozi have a fun tradition which is worth a rabbit hole or two. Start with Wikipedia. It is the type of dish that will have you craving whenever the thought of the Western San Gabriel Valley enters your brain.

The beef pancake ($2.99 each, above) has had some similar praise in various places online since the restaurant's opening, but the two served in this order had something oddly wrong. The interior tasted chalky and did not allow the beef filling to shine through. The thick, chewy wrapper unfortunately could not shine.

This section will be updated if the dish is ever tried again. So as not to repeat a possible mistake, heat this up in a pan like they are originally cooked rather than putting them in the oven.

The words "house special" are always a major attraction on any menu, and here the house special beef noodle soup ($9.50, above) is deeply rewarding. The strips of braised beef are just the right thickness and surprisingly full of flavors from the broth. It is best to eat this dish as soon as possible of course, but the springy noodles hold up pretty well on their own even if you cannot do this.

It was somewhat of a mystery as to where it was coming from in the soup, but the broth has a very slight and pleasant numbing quality to it, similar to that of Sichuan peppercorns.

Tianjin Feng Wei also serves a shredded potato salad ($3.49, above), which may remind you of a similar dish served often at Sichuan restaurants. Compared to that, the Tianjin-style eliminates spiciness and adds sesame oil. Crisp and slightly sour vinegar-spiked bites are a welcome complement to other dishes on the menu that focus on savory and fatty deliciousness.

The enormously popular Tianjin-style jianbing are of course available and will be sampled on the next visit.

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