101 Noodle Express in Alhambra is known for its beef roll. The restaurant also has a location in Arcadia that serves the same roll.
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Who makes the best beef roll in L.A.? Here are eight to try now
Beef rolls, or niu rou jian bing, are ubiquitous at Northern Chinese and Taiwanese restaurants around Los Angeles and Orange County. The popular Chinese street food is typically made with a savory pancake curled around braised beef, fresh greens and a lick of sweet and salty fermented bean sauce.
The scallion pancake, also known as cong you bing, is a thin, unleavened fried pancake found all over China, Taiwan, Hong Kong — and at most Taiwanese restaurants and dumpling houses in the U.S.
I’d argue that even mediocre beef rolls are better than no beef rolls. There’s nothing a bit of Lao Gan Ma chile crisp and a dash of black vinegar can’t fix. But the best rolls feature pancakes that are crisp and chewy; beef that’s long-simmered, aromatic and either sliced thin or tender enough to mash with a fork; sauce that’s obvious but not overbearing; and an abundance of green onion, cilantro and sometimes cucumber.
It has the same addictive textural contrast as a plate of loaded nachos or your favorite banh mi, making it incredibly difficult to stop eating.
From soup dumplings to gyoza and ravioli: Here’s a guide to Los Angeles’ best dumplings, with many highlighted in video series “The Bucket List: Dumplings.”
Here are eight recommendations to jump-start your beef roll obsession.
Showing Places
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
101 Noodle Express
Alhambra Taiwanese $
Though you’ll find more than two dozen dumplings, noodle soups and various side dishes like simmered pig feet on the menu at 101 Noodle Express, most diners consider this a one-dish restaurant. At any time of day or night, you can count on a hulking, mottled beef roll on every table. Now, the restaurant advertises a cheese version, with a photo of a glob of melted white cheese cascading over the top of a roll in the window. Longtime fans call “blasphemy!” I don’t judge, so order what you must. But the original beef roll is the gold standard. The pancake is paper thin but sturdy and blistered with big brown bubbles. It’s folded to create four layers of perfectly proportioned beef, hoisin, green onion and cilantro. Each bite is balanced. It’s what I imagine the inventor of the dish hoped for when it was created. I don’t think I’ll ever order the cheese-topped version, but do what your heart desires.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Ahgoo's Kitchen
Temple City Taiwanese $
At the base of the beef wrap from Ahgoo’s Kitchen in Temple City is a textbook perfect scallion pancake. Chef Lily Yeh, who grew up learning how to make scallion pancakes in Northern China, crowds her pancakes with sesame seeds for an extra layer of crunch. They also lend a toasty, nutty quality to the pancake. It flakes in all the right places and you might be tempted to pick away until there’s nothing but crumbs. But the filling is just as compelling, with Yeh’s husband Thomas cooking down the beef for three hours in soy sauce, rock sugar, various herbs, ginger and green onion. He paints Lily’s pancake with a thin layer of hoisin sauce then piles on the sliced beef, green onion and cilantro.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Little Fatty
Mar Vista Taiwanese $$
Of all the rolls on this list, the beef wrap from Little Fatty in Mar Vista feels the most like a composed dish. Maybe it’s because there’s a bowl of beef broth that you can dunk in or sip. Or because the squares of beef cheeks are substantial, bite-sized chunks that melt in your mouth. Or maybe it’s because the roll is dressed like an excellent sandwich, with a scallion pancake slick with both spicy mayo and hoisin that merge to become the ultimate condiment. Or it’s the way the heap of pickled mustard greens and diced green onion act as the adequately dressed chopped salad on a good Italian sub. Or maybe it’s the way the green onion-studded pancake hugs all the components in a warm, flaky, chewy embrace. Order one for the table. Order one for yourself.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Noodle St
Pasadena Chinese $
The beef roll at Noodle St is a dependable alternative to the roll at 101 Noodle Express, with a thin blistered pancake that clings to the fillings inside. The beef is tinged with five spice and pleasantly firm as lunch meat. It’s a roll that’s heavily embellished with both cilantro leaves and stems and copious amounts of diced green onion. The hoisin is sweet and present but not overpowering. It’s as good at the end of your 15-minute drive home as it is 15 seconds after it hits your table.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Pine & Crane
Downtown L.A. Taiwanese $$
The pancake on the beef roll at Pine & Crane is thin enough to be transparent in certain patches, the hoisin sauce painted underneath just visible. It’s more like sturdy chun bing than a scallion pancake, chewy, pliable but still crisp. The beef rolled inside is tender and flavored primarily with five spice, though the star anise and fennel are balanced out by the sweetness of the hoisin. Matchsticks of sliced cucumber crowd the sandwich, with about as much vegetable as there is meat. And there’s a healthy dose of fresh cilantro as well. It’s a messy roll, with the entire thing coming apart at about bite three, but it’s more than worth a few stains on your shirt.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
PP Pop
Monterey Park Chinese $
The beef roll at PP Pop is wrapped in a long pancake blanketed in tiny golden bubbles. If it’s not deep-fried, it’s fried in enough oil to give the appearance and flavor of a flat doughnut. The slabs of tender beef inside taste like they’ve been plucked from one of the restaurant’s bowls of beef noodle soup. The juices collide with the hoisin sauce to create a luscious dressing of sorts for the leaves of cilantro. And though the filling may run out the bottom of the roll, nothing threatens the integrity of the hardy doughnut wrapper.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Yi Mei
San Gabriel Valley Taiwanese $
At this Taiwanese breakfast restaurant, you can choose your own beef roll adventure. There’s the classic roll with beef, cilantro and diced green onion nestled into a crepe-like pancake. You can have your roll wrapped in a flaky, thicker scallion pancake for $1 more, and you can add egg and pickles. I like to bling out my roll with the scallion pancake, the egg cooked onto the inside layer and some pickled greens. The five-spice-tinged beef is shredded, and there’s a lot of it, along with a ton of rough chopped green onion and cilantro. Unlike other beef rolls around town, there’s no hoisin sauce on the pancake. Instead, there’s a condiment bar where you can load up on the restaurant’s signature garlic sauce. Mix some vinegar into the garlic sauce and pour a little of your raw garlic-charged condiment (or a lot) onto each bite. You won’t miss the hoisin, and you’ll probably want to take a cup or two of the garlic sauce home.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
You Kitchen
Alhambra Taiwanese Chinese $
Located a few doors down from 101 Noodle Express in the same shopping center, You Kitchen boasts its own beef roll. It’s a smaller, tighter roll with just enough beef to know it’s there. This is a roll for green onion lovers, with the more pungent white part of the diced allium being the dominant flavor. But what really sets this roll apart is the texture of the pancake, with a brittle top layer you can peel away with extra crunchy shards of dough.
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