Iron Teapot Dim Sum & Bar Reviews
Submitted by Justin Solomon on 01/02/2022
Justin Solomon 4 stars rating.
For dim sum, most times it's best to go out to SGV - leaving many other places in a desert of of choices. But this new spot conveniently in west LA has a lot of promise. Checked it out today with a few friends.
The food was surprisingly delicious. The black malt chili oil pork soup dumpling was one of my favorites. Just the right amount of soup to provide a boost of flavor without overpowering the filling. The God of Gamblers drink was very tasty as well. Refreshingly spicy. Wasn't a fan of the rim though but after the owner explained the inspiration, I get it. Still not a fan but the drink itself would still order. I actually ordered twice lol.
All in all, I enjoyed this place. For west LA this exceeds expectations and provides a justifiable alternative to going to SGV.
4/5 ONLY bc it's soft opening and don't have a full menu yet. I'm sure this will be a 5/5 very soon
Andy Mysliwiec 2 stars rating.
This might have been a one-off experience, but this location was unable to accommodate our 7pm reservation. By accommodate I will elaborate that the wait time was famously long after being seated, many items were unavailable or sold out, and clearing tables took anywhere from 30-40 minutes. I couldn't bring myself to say this was a birthday dinner for fear of second-hand embarrassment.
Was told by servers (who really did their best given the management decisions made) that they were unexpectedly busy. Also a large party seated had course after course and the servers explained they didn't have enough steam baskets to prepare more entrees for tables like ours. Considering we had made a reservation in advance, I suppose I expected they would have the capacity to serve us. Seemed like this location was willing to sit more people than they could serve within a reasonable amount of time.
To be very clear, this is clearly a failure of management; understaffing or overreaching with seating puts the servers/chefs in a terribly tough spot. We got an employee discount and some items taken off the tab, so I truly would give this spot another chance on another night.
Two of the dishes were quite interesting like I've never had (xiao long bao sampler Magnificent six, Ham Sui Gok); certainly these gave me hope that better service could have made this a great meal and evening.
Submitted by Andy Mysliwiec on 08/10/2022
Steve Riley 5 stars rating.
It was my birthday and I wanted to try something different. I hadn't had Dim Sum since I was a kid visiting my Chinese uncle in San Francisco and Dim Sum came up. This place was suggested and I'm extremely satisfied with our experience! Literally every bite was delicious. The dumplings were perfectly stuffed and cooked. You could tell the ingredients were fresh. Even the pictures don't do it justice but I'll upload some to help. The little Dim Sum robot was adorable.
Submitted by Steve Riley on 07/12/2022
Jane Lee 2 stars rating.
Vegan dimsum was pretty good here if you keep an open mind. I’ve missed eating turnip cake since it’s hard to find it vegan but I liked the version here. Presentation was beautiful and Service was excellent though I’m honestly not a big fan of the robot that brings us our food. I also have mixed feelings about this place because I read on IG that they took a lot of ideas from Inomoni.
Submitted by Jane Lee on 03/28/2022
Monica Guevara 4 stars rating.
This is my second time visiting the restaurant and I am so glad I gave them a second chance. They have worked out their service issues - we receive all of our items piping hot. The quality of a number of the dishes also improved - most notably the siu mai. It was juicy and flavorful. All of the traditional dim sum items were ordered were respectably tasty and it is now a contender for when we don’t have the time (or the gas money) to go to SGV. While it is obviously pricier than dim sum in SGV it is a) located on the west side b) has a full liquor license and c) now has a quality of menu items that can contend.
Submitted by Monica Guevara on 03/27/2022
Felicity Dawn 4 stars rating.
It was really good. The food was really tasty. My fiancé had the regular dim sum, and I have the vegan versions. It was delicious and you couldn’t tell a difference between the two. So that’s good if you’re vegan. Only thing was we went there because they had robot waiters, but it didn’t really seem like they had that part down yet. I don’t know if they just barely opened. But the robot waiters and the regular waiters were kind of interchangeable, in the way that the regular waiters were just grabbing the food off of the robot waiters. Instead of us being able to interact with them. Otherwise it was great. The staff was more than friendly. And we got sat pretty quickly.
Submitted by Felicity Dawn on 02/23/2022
charles fillinger 5 stars rating.
Visiting from Florida, and came to the restaurant after seeing a clip of it on TikTok. The food was great, I tried several dishes, the soup dumplings came out ahead of the rest as the best purchase. The employees are super friendly, especially Noey, he was the best! He gave several other suggestions for our trip and went above and beyond with his hospitality. Give it a try, it’s a modern twist on a classic dim sum restaurant, and worth the visit. Oh, and you’re food is delivered by a robot cat waiter, which just adds more fun to the experience.
Submitted by Charles Fillinger on 02/05/2022
Cynthia Rodriguez 5 stars rating.
Great vegan dim sum, friendly staff, and nice (dog-friendly) outdoor patio. It’s hard to find places with more than 2 vegan dim sum options on LA and this place has plenty. I especially loved the vegan mochi stuffed with veggie protein and the taro dumplings. Can’t wait to come back for more!
Submitted by Cynthia Rodriguez on 01/16/2022
Shaun Young 2 stars rating.
I have wanted to try Iron Teapot for a while now, since The Infatuation listed them as one of the best new restaurants to open in LA. It was a very underwhelming and disappointing experience.
To start, the front door was locked even though they were open. There’s a side door (that’s really in front) with a sign that says “Please use front door.” We entered through the side door.
Like most restaurants these days, they were under-staffed. The waitress was friendly, but rushed so whenever she dropped off a dish, we didn’t know what it was. Many tables were left unclean and the cart for dirty dishes was piled high next to the entry.
The steamed bak choi was essentially raw. We sent it back. The tea we ordered never arrived. The rest of the dishes varied from OK to borderline bad.
I know these are difficult times and I want restaurants to succeed. This place has potential, but I don’t think I would return.
Submitted by Shaun Young on 12/29/2021
Vivian Liu 3 stars rating.
Overall the food is not bad, there’re some interesting dishes on the menu. We didn’t have a reservation so we sat at the bar. Maybe because of this our dishes are not prioritized. We ended up waiting for average 10-20 for each dish and over an hour for dessert. This is very surprising to me as I sways thought dim sum places are fast and good at mass-producing food. I’ll give it another shot next time with reservation.
Submitted by Vivian Liu on 09/26/2021
