Taiwanese Superstar Pine & Crane Opens a Patio Stunner in Downtown LA

Downtowners, rejoice: LA’s most popular Taiwanese restaurant has arrived — and in style no less. Pine & Crane’s second location at 1120 S. Grand Avenue is a breezy welcome to the South Park neighborhood and comes with some of the best patio seating the area has to offer.

Owner Vivian Ku quietly began serving out of the robust new space about a week ago, trying out some of the restaurant’s signature dishes on whoever happened to walk past. The slow roll-out was purposeful, she tells Eater, because it offered the team a chance to grow without facing the kind of lines and orders that the busy Silver Lake location is so known for. After all, this new Downtown restaurant has been more than two years in the making, so it was important to Ku to get it right, she says.

Fans aren’t likely to be disappointed in Pine & Crane DTLA’s menu, which offers a happy blend of the original outlet and sister restaurant Joy on York in Highland Park. Here diners can score everything from daikon rice cakes and fan tuan to thousand-layer pancakes, pan-fried buns, beef rolls, and a variety of noodle and rice dishes like the ever-popular minced pork on rice and vegan mapo tofu. Dumplings and potstickers abound, as do cold vegetable snacks for starters and after-meal teas for those looking to linger; beer and wine is coming soon.

An equal partner in making Pine & Crane DTLA shine is the space. The Preen-built layout offers some frontage to Grand, but the real surprise is the interior-facing patio, which looks out onto a small new park operated by the building above the restaurant. The leafy, shady, open seating is ideal for the current moment, while the neutral interior (much larger than the original) is touched off by granite, green hints, and small design touches like a moon window and parchment lanterns.

Best of all, Pine & Crane DTLA is open for breakfast through late lunch / early dinner, keeping hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to start. Find the restaurant Thursday to Sunday at 1120 S. Grand Avenue in Downtown.