Fu's Palace - Chinese restaurant on the west side

I headed over to Fu's Palace for lunch today. Many of my co-workers love the place, and it's a favorite lunch spot. But I like it for different reasons. Yeah, they've got lunch specials. That's what a lot of people get. I personally find the entrees on the lunch specials list to be boring, and they tend to be the over-sauced, Americanized dishes which aren't really my preference. I've learned that if I order off the regular menu, I'm a lot happier.

One of my favorite things at Fu's Palace is the sizzling rice soup. Not all Chinese restaurants offer that since it's a lot of work to make. The regular soup portion contains vegetables and different meats (in this case, chicken, shrimp and pork), and the broth is piping hot. Poured into the hot soup are pieces of rice patties, which are made from the cooked rice that's stuck at the bottom of the pan which have then been deep-fried, almost like puffed rice cakes. When the fresh deep-fried rice is put into the hot broth - voila, sizzling. I love the flavor of the soup, and they have a good selection of vegetables and meat, and the rice is perfectly done. Some places can start with rice patties that are too thin or too thick or not fresh enough, and the staleness of the rice definitely comes through. But not at Fu's - it's delicious and a definite recommend. If you've had it before, you'll love it hear. If you've never had it before, this is a great place to give it a try.

I also had an order of the pan-fried pork dumplings. It arrived at the table very hot, and one of the things I like about Fu's is that it also comes with a dish of vinegar and sliced ginger to go with the dumplings. Not too many places seem to offer that but it adds great flavor to the dumplings.

Fu's also has really good hot and sour soup - great flavor and lots of bits in the soup. I brought an order of that back for a friend at the office.

Here's a website with some reviews and more information as well as a link to the menu.

Fu's Palace
8751 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
310-271-7887