A well-hidden Chinese gem

Mary Furr

The holidays may be over, but the search for a good place to eat

lunch or dinner during the work week goes on.

Look no longer, though, as your luck will hold when you decide on

the 888 Chinese restaurant, way down on Beach Boulevard in the last

strip mall before Pacific Coast Highway.

Here you’ll find fresh and natural cuisine where chef and co-owner

Jeff Shen with Stephanie Lee cooks enticing dishes with 100%

vegetable oil and no MSG. The numerical moniker for the single

storefront means “luck” in Chinese, and you’ll be in luck with the

healthy choices found on the menu, as well as for the generous

portions and modest prices.

A plate of appetizers comes first for lunch and dinner (lunch,

$4.25, dinner $8.25 to $10.95) as well as the usual egg flower soup.

This is thicker than most with strands of egg white, bits of carrot,

corn and peas -- great if you’ve been caught in the current flu bug.

The appetizers could have been improved the last time we were in,

as they were not hot enough, and the egg rolls had great vegetable

stuffing, but a tough pastry wrapper as if they were not freshly

prepared.

From the 20 lunch entrees, I selected Sweet and Sour Shrimp

(lunch, $4.59, dinner $9.25), a big pile of bright orange,

wonderfully flavored shrimp with big cuts of bell pepper and onion

with pineapple for a sweet flavor. It is served with carrots, peas

and bits of broccoli florets.

Another choice is honey-walnut chicken, a favorite of Lee’s, who

says it’s almost like a dessert. The platter is overloaded with soft,

but still crusty battered deep-fried chicken and big walnut halves

blanketed in a creamy sauce. You could overdose on the dish, but it

is so good!

Moo Shu Pork (lunch, $4.55, dinner $9.25), my friend’s selection,

is a real showpiece with a translucent wrapper stuffed with bok choy

cabbage pieces, pork and crispy bean sprouts.

It is hard to believe, but the menu lists 100 choices with beef,

pork, chicken and seafood -- something for everyone. Chef Jeff offers

the traditional cuisine as he learned it in a large factory cafe he

worked at in Shanghai with the fresh touches of the vegetables he

buys at the local Chinese market in Westminster.

When he came to the United States, it was luck that he met Lee,

who had also come to the United States to learn to cook and wanted a

restaurant of her own -- and so luckily the 888 Cafe was born.

According to Jin Shen, they have plans to add fish dishes with

lots of vegetables in keeping with the current dining-out trend

toward healthier selections. The owners have found that well-prepared

fresh dishes will always be popular with diners who are lucky enough

to find 888 Chinese Cuisine.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have

comments or suggestions, call (562) 493-5062 or e-mail

hbindy@latimes.com