Authentic dim sum has finally made its way to Westwood Village, thanks to the opening of ixlb DimSum Eats. Like its counterpart in Hollywood, you order on tablets and your food is prepped for takeaway – no dim sum carts, no table service. If you wish to enjoy your food on the premises, there are a few tables set up outside on the patio.

For a small place, they have a pretty extensive menu of steamed, baked and fried items – over 40 – priced around $6. I ordered 10 items and waited outside until they called my name, probably less than 10 minutes later.

Har gow are one of my must-have dim sum items. These were good, with big pieces of shrimp inside a translucent wrapper.

Siu mai is my other go-to and these were huge, if somewhat oddly shaped, mostly pork with some shrimp. They weren’t much to look at (this one was the best looking of the bunch) but the tasted just fine.

Baked char siu baos are a fave with my daughter, and these were huge and made her happy. Given that these were the same price as other items, they were definitely the biggest bang for your buck.

Another win were the shrimp wonton in chili oil. They were generously filled with shrimp and had a light coating of some chili powder that was HOT.

The pan fried turnip cakes were good as well.

Pan fried dumplings were fried on all sides, which I was not expecting (I thought it would be just the bottoms). My daughter complained that there was too much veggies in the filling, though I suspect it might have been the ginger that she found objectionable. These were decent.

Less successful were the xiao long baos. These were hands down the least juicy soup dumplings I have ever had. Their appearance reminded me of the frozen soup dumplings that I bought from Dragon Beaux, not a good thing. My picky daughter ate one and then was so disappointed that she refused to eat another one. Save your xiao long baos for a visit to Din Tai Fung.

The noodles were the weakest dishes I tried. The chow mein was completely flavorless and the garlic sesame noodles tasted overwhelmingly of raw garlic. Hard pass on both of these.

ixlb DimSum Eats is currently in soft opening, so it’s entirely possible that the xiao long baos and noodles haven’t quite been perfected as of yet. Overall, I’m happy to have a fairly reasonably priced dim sum option nearby in Westwood!

Location – 1822 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025
Website – http://www.ixlbdimsumeats.com
Kid’s Menu – n/a
Vegetarian/Vegan Friendly – Yes
Gluten-Free Items – Yes, veggie dumplings, har gow, shrimp and chives, pan fried turnip cake, edamame and sesame balls.