Shirley Chung’s Culver City Restaurant Melds Old and New Chinese Flavors

Yesterday Top Chef runner up Shirley Chung opened her long-awaited restaurant Ms. Chi, an all-day establishment that goes into the former Hanjip space on Main Street, Culver City. Chung wants to use her first big standalone restaurant (she also has a Ms. Chi counter at The Fields) as a place that will help redefine Chinese cuisine for Angelenos, and it starts with breakfast.

Beginning at 8 a.m., locals can pick up Hong Kong minced beef over rice, crispy tator tots, steamed wontons, runny egg breakfast bao, and hot dog bao. Lunch ventures into a bigger ordeal with reasonably priced plates of shrimp chow mein, jumbo cheeseburger potstickers, and a Chinese-spiced pastrami sandwich with hazelnut pesto and Beijing mustard vinaigrette. Cold sesame noodles, peas & carrots dumplings, and mapo tofu show round out the wide menu, priced between $8 and $13 for most dishes. There seems to be this fun, casual sensibility with recognizable Chinese dishes with some creativity sprinkled in between. Perhaps not mind-melding, but certainly a bit more ambitious than a standard SGV cafe.

Dinner condenses some of the lunch options and adds more significant entrees like crispy chicken with scallion vinaigrette, beef & broccoli with grilled skirt steak, and garlic shrimp with budding chives. It’s all meant to be approachable, casual, and reasonably priced, something Culver City locals should be very happy to welcome into the neighborhood. To finish, sip on some quality boba milk tea with cheese foam. Open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Weekend hours start at 10 a.m.

Ms. Chi. 3829 Main Street, Culver City, CA.

Wonho Frank Lee

Wonho Frank Lee

Wonho Frank Lee

Albert Law

Albert Law

Albert Law

• Top Chef Alum Shirley Chung Opens Culver City Restaurant on October 9 [ELA]