Northern Cafe Long Beach opened with a menu that shocked fans of the SoCal staple. And it shocked patrons because it was minimal. A single page that left dim sum almost entirely off the menu, minus a few soup dumplings. A drop in wok plates that echoed a sharp cutting of offerings from its other locations. Ownership has heard loud and clear the calls for something more Northern Cafe-esque. They have launched an 11AM-to-4PM daily dim sum menu while vastly expanding their regular menu in what seemingly feels like a ten-fold fashion.
"Ultimately, we're here for the community," said General Manager Lidia Tiznado, who oversees multiple Northern Cafes. "We want things that are affordable and that have long defined our spaces, but also feel special for Long Beach."
Northern Cafe should have had a better reception, particularly given the love it holds across much of the region. But I also understand why it didn't. Unlike their far more expansive menus at locations like Cerritos, Gardena, and Monterrey Park, with Long Beach, they opted for a far more parred-down version of that menu while outright skipping on dim sum. (A heavy mark to miss if there was one: Before EA Seafood came along with their dim sum and just as Northern Cafe opened, Long Beach was home to zero dim sum menus.)
Indeed, there were gems that people were widely dismissing: Owner Betty Ren's famed beef rolls. The space's most underrated noodle dish, their sauerkraut beef noodle soup, where soured bits of cabbage and chunks of bok choy meld with beautiful layers of salt and bits of bitter. Their hand-pulled dan dan noodles (which now come in a dim sum-sized serving). The best mapo tofu in the city. And, of course, their solid soup dumplings.
Shrimp wonton [top left]; beef roll [top right]; sauerkraut noodle soup [center]; pork soup dumplings [bottom left]; and steamed seafood dumpling [bottom right]. Photos by Brian Addison.
But perhaps nothing is more gloriously Northern Cafe-d out than their stellar, heat-meets-umami bomb that is their spicy dry pot. Texturally fabulous -- strands of shoestring fries meld with tofu bits, broccoli, mini-bunches of Shimeji mushroom, celery strands, and tenderized beef -- and a beautiful ride of flavors that range from salty and spicy to acidic, this dish exemplifies why so many love Northern Cafe.
And the dim sum? Affordable, solid portions, and served seven days a week from 11AM to 4PM.
Northern Cafe Long Beach -- a member of the largest chain restaurant of loved'n'respected Chinese restaurateur Betty Ren -- currently sits where La Creperie used to be before shutting down in 2023.
Betty's restaurant pedigree throughout Los Angeles is a wild one: Hailing from Fushun in the Liaoning Province of China -- directly next to the Yellow Sea where China meets North Korea -- she first opened Dumpling House in Arcadia in 2004 when arriving in the States. The space, highlighting Betty's handmade dumpling varieties -- from fish and pan-fried dumplings to pork and chicken dumplings -- is popular to this day.
Then there's a Golden House and Northern Cafe in Temple City, with other Northern Cafes dotted throughout the region: Cerritos, Hacienda Heights, Westwood, DTLA, Pasadena... There's China Tasty in Alhambra... So, it was always hoped that Northern Cafe Long Beach would be a Chinese space that offered everything from handmade dumplings and hand-pulled dan dan noodles to spicy dry pots and sauerkraut noodle bowls and pig ear in chili oil and...
And now, we have it -- and it is definitively worth exploring. Or reexploring if you were unimpressed the first round.
Many in the Asian community have long upheld a Yelp theory that solid Chinese food cannot go below or above this strategic point: Above means it's too white in its palate and bougie, and below means you're not getting the quality you deserve. The 3.5 sweet spot means Asian mothers were disappointed enough to call it "okay" (which really means good) and that white folk were upset enough by the lack of happy smiles to give it a middling score; this overall equates to greatness.
Are there exceptions? Of course -- but for the most part, it works. To add this as a rule of thumb, the theory was happily confirmed by Freddie Wong in a post that eventually went viral.
Either way, the much-loved spaces throughout the region didn't quite have the warm reception it should. But with its new menu, it definitively deserves it.