Tim Ho Wan, Sept 14
China Red, Sept 14
King Hua, Sept 14
Empress Harbor, Aug 14
Dol Ho, Jul 14
Capital Seafood, Jul 14
Arcadia Capital, Jul 14
ABC Bakery, May 14
NBC Seafood, May 14
888 Seafood, Mar 14
Ocean Seafood, Feb 14
NBC Seafood, Jan 14
Capital Seafood, Jan 14
Dim sum - 2013
Dim sum - 2012
Dim sum - 2011
Dim sum - 2010
Dim sum - 2009
Dim sum - 2008
Dim sum - 2007
Dim sum - 2006
Dim sum
According to Christine they were 40% off during the week, we found they were 20% off when we arrived-- not bad for a weekend, and considering that the LA Times food critic, Jonathan Gold, wrote an article praising the place... well, who knows? I find as tasteful as the LA Times food critic is about many cuisines, he often doesn't know crap about Chinese food.
Fortunately, others were right-- the food was pretty good. Very little sticks out as being memorable, but much like 888 Seafood used to be back in the day, most dishes are good to very good, and the roast pork is excellent (if pricey!). Har cheung fun and the har gow had almost-translucent skins and reasonably tasty shrimp, not to mention the right number of folds in the skin of the har gow.
BBQ pork and corn cheung fun was a little weird, xiao long bao were terrible (as they are at almost all dim sum places), the steamed char shu bao and mushroom-stuffed dumpling were more on the ordinary side. Shu mai lacked the explosive flavor of the best in San Gabriel (or the delicacy of Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong), but like the gow choy gow and the beef tripe, were very good. Dried scallop jook (congee) was okay, sadly they don't have a pei dan sau yuk jook for comparison. Baked char shu bao were pretty good too, although cutting them in half might've squished the bread a bit much, plus, to be fair, after Tim Ho Wan, pretty much every other baked char shu bao in the whole world is going to seem lacking!
Lots of good and very good items, even an excellent one or two, and important, nothing mediocre. Well, except the xiao long bao, but that was expected, and won't be held against them. Definitely worth a return visit, or maybe a more direct comparison with Elite, Sea Harbour, or Lunasia in the future?
Wandered to J.J. Bakery afterwards for delicious baked goods. Dan tat, hot dog bun, and lots of other fresh goodies! Plus pearl milk tea from SinBala a plaza over, mmmmmmm... t'was a very tasty day!