Three of the hottest Los Angeles Asian restaurants – best dishes at Nightshade, Ma’am Sir, Baroo Canteen

Chinese, Filipino and Korean chefs trained in fine dining deconstruct traditional dishes to create taste and texture sensations that constantly surprise

Pastrami with Sichuan peppercorns, mapo dofu lasagne, spring rolls filled with shrimp mousse and lardo – these fusion dishes somehow suit a melting-pot city

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A selection of dishes from Ma’am Sir, a Filipino restaurant in Los Angeles. Photo: Ma’am Sir

Published: 8:45pm, 26 Jun 2019Updated: 7:24pm, 27 Jun 2019

Eating dinner at 6pm feels strange, but reservations are very hard to come by at Nightshade, and by the time I walk into chef Mei Lin’s restaurant in Los Angeles’ Art District – a mix of street art, galleries and interior design studios – the place is already full.

The bright space in a former loading dock features an open kitchen marshalled by Lin. Born in China, she grew up in Detroit, where she worked in her parents’ Chinese restaurant. Stints at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Las Vegas and Michael Voltaggio’s Ink in Los Angeles cemented her growing reputation, as did winning the 2015 edition of Top Chef, an American televised cooking competition.

She opened Nightshade in January, and two dishes were immediate hits – her mapo dofu lasagne and shrimp toast with Cantonese curry.

With the former you have a crunchy exterior, layers of smooth egg noodles, then gentle waves of heat from the Sichuan spices – called prickly ash on the menu as a reminder of the provenance of hua jiao peppercorns. There’s also a tofu cream, wisps of Parmesan cheese and delicate flowers with purple petals.

Nightshade's shrimp toast with Cantonese curry. Photo: Chris Dwyer

It’s clear why it’s an Instagram favourite and a dish which has come to define Lin– this is a modern mash-up of countries and flavours, and the perfect dish for contemporary Los Angeles: comfort food from two cultures bought together in happy union.

Chefs in green baseball caps with the Nightshade logo craft the shrimp toast with Cantonese curry, holding the bread in the air while spreading the shrimp mix with a spatula. Served sliced into three pieces, it’s surrounded by a light and creamy curry sauce; a scattering of crisp curry leaves complete the dish.