Chinese food in Redondo Beach is a tasty treat at this restaurant – Daily Breeze

Yellowtail carpaccio comes in two varieties at Lotus Asian Grill in Redondo Beach. (Photo by Merrill Shindler)

Lotus Asian Grill sits in the space that was, for many years, W’s China Bistro. Like W’s, Lotus is a reliable neighborhood Chinese restaurant, with a name that speaks of a grand ambition to be something more than that. W’s was only a “bistro” in the vaguest and most general of ways.

Lotus meanders off the well-trod — and tasty — path of favorite Chinese dishes with a pair of seafood “carpaccios,” a quartet of Japanese hand rolls, and a 10 spot of sushi rolls. There’s edamame and tempura among the appetizers. There are pad Thai noodles. But otherwise, Lotus is a destination for crispy orange chicken and spicy garlic shrimp. And, there ain’t nothing wrong with that.

Lotus sits on one of the most wildly eclectic restaurant streets in the South Bay. Its neighbors include El Tarasco Mexican, Banana Leaf Indian, Beach Cities Social, Kurisaki Sushi and Peet’s Coffee. One block north is the wonderfully named Bitcoin Pizza. One block south is Sweet Wheat French.

Thank goodness for the parking lot in the back, which keeps the street from descending into chaos. What would we do without convenient parking; public transportation ain’t getting us no place!

Lotus is the most elegant of the restaurants on the block. Which is not to say it’s a tie-and-jacket experience — we’re in the South Bay, where ties are worn, if at all, as more of an ironic statement than a necessary element of dress. But I wouldn’t show up here in board shorts and flip-flops either.

It’s also, as are many Chinese restaurants, a destination that works best with a group — the menu is filled with a greatest hits list of temptations. But before I got to the beef chow fun, I had to taste what made Lotus put “Asian” in its name. Which was a fine way to warm up for a far bigger feast.

As I said, there are two “carpaccios.” I put “carpaccio” in quote marks because, well, they’re not “carpaccios.” Carpaccio is a dish invented by Giuseppe Cipriani at Harry’s Bar in Venice in 1963. It consists of (mostly) raw beef, but also more recently raw fish, pounded thin, and served raw, often with thin slices of fine parmigiano Reggiano.

It is not served in a sauce. Raw slices of fish, served marinated in a sauce, comes closer, if anything to a variation on sashimi — though since sashimi also isn’t sauced, this “carpaccio” is something else.

And honestly speaking, I would have preferred it totally unsauced. The ponzu and olive oil on the salmon, and garlic ponzu and scallions on the yellowtail, got in the way of the delicate slices of fish. Raw fish is fine by itself. But like most kitchens, there’s a desire to make the dish their own.

Otherwise, the non-Chinese dishes are largely creations we know well — spicy tuna hand rolls (wrapped in soy paper rather than the more traditional seaweed), California rolls and rainbow rolls, volcano rolls and spicy tuna roll.

The sushi chef at Lotus apparently likes avocado — it’s not just in the spicy tuna, but also in the spicy yellowtail, the eel and avocado roll and spicy tuna avocado tempura roll, among others. None of the rolls are made with cream cheese — and thank goodness for that.

And then, it’s back to the Chinese menu. They do a good pan-fried chicken dumpling, and a steamed wonton with chicken and shrimp. A meatless friend praised the vegan chicken chow fun and the vegan kung pao chicken; I like chicken too much to eat anything but the real deal.

The crispy salt-and-pepper chicken was impressively hot, without killing my mouth, which is much appreciated. The shrimp in lobster sauce is a dish I haven’t had in years; the first mouthful took me to retro dish heaven. And the sweet and sour pork split the difference between savory … and dessert. Which may be what keeps me eating it till the plate is bare.

The most expensive dish on the menu, at $58 — three-plus times most of the other items — was the “lobster garlic noodles in uni truffle sauce.” I like garlic noodles … a lot. I like lobster … a lot. That said, there was nothing about the uni truffle sauce that tempted me. On top of garlic noodles and battered lobster, it seemed excess on top of excess.

Perhaps I’ve grown simplistic in my dotage. But too many flavors, laid one atop another do not make me happy. Like the lotus flower of the name, I want my response to the flavors to be like my response to the beauty. I want to be surrounded with purity.

Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email [email protected].

Lotus Asian Grill

• Rating: 2.5 stars
• Address: 1410 S. Pacific Coast Hwy., Redondo Beach
• Information: 310-921-8650, www.lotusasianrestaurant.com
• Cuisine: Pan-Asian … But Mostly Chinese
• When: Dinner, Wednesday through Monday; lunch, weekends
• Details: Beer and wine; reservations helpful
• Atmosphere: A classic Chinese restaurant, with a full assortment of noodles and familiar dishes like salt and pepper shrimp and kung pao chicken, along with sushi rolls, hand rolls and “carpaccio.”
• Prices: About $35 per person
• On the menu: Breakfast/Brunch: 4 Soups ($3.50-$8), 15 Appetizers ($5-$14), 3 Dumpling/Buns ($6-$11), 2 “Carpaccio” ($12-$15), 4 Hand Rolls ($5), 10 Sushi Rolls ($10-$14), 6 Rice Dishes ($14-$19), 2 Vegan Dishes ($23), 11 Noodle Dishes ($10-$19), 7 Chicken Dishes ($18-$19), 8 Meat Dishes ($18-$25), 7 Seafood Dishes ($19-$23), 5 Vegetable Dishes ($13), 3 Chef’s Specials ($48-$58), 5 Desserts ($3.50-$7)
• Credit cards: MC, V
• What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.