Pine & Crane

Pine & Crane is named for Vivian Ku's grandfather's noodle company, and a large photograph of him pulling a sheet of dough from a machine hangs on the wall; he was ninety when it went up, and it was a surprise to him. Ku opened the restaurant in Silver Lake in the spring of 2014, in the old Cru space on Griffith Park Boulevard. She had written the business plan while managing a chicken-fingers grill, then trained at the Culinary Institute of America and cooked at Chez Panisse.

The food is Taiwanese, and the vegetables come from her family's farm, Sunfield, in Bakersfield, which has been supplying Southern California's Asian markets for decades. Pea shoots all year; chrysanthemum greens, water spinach and sweet potato leaves as the seasons turn. The dan dan noodles are the Taiwanese kind, milder than Sichuan, with more peanut and sesame and a splash of house chili oil. There is three-cup chicken, twice-cooked pork, beef noodle soup and a crisp scallion pancake. Michelin lists it as a Bib Gourmand, its mark for good cooking at a fair price.

Michelin lists it as a Bib Gourmand, its mark for good cooking at a fair price.

It is counter service and bright, all pale wood and natural light, with noodle bowls thrown by a neighbour. Nobody books; you order and sit. Go at an odd hour, order more greens than seems reasonable.

Text to ask.