VIP Harbor Seafood Restaurant

VIP Harbor Seafood Restaurant is the only dim sum restaurant on the west of the 405. I was a bit nervous coming here for the first time for Chinese New Year Day after church since there are a lot of negative reviews. To my surprise, I enjoyed the food more than the Chinatown dim sum restaurants because VIP’s is less greasy but San Gabriel Valley restaurants still wins all; it’s just a pain to trek to SGV. I wondered if people hate VIP because it’s on the Westside –like there shouldn’t be a good Chinese restaurant. I certainly feel that way with sushi in Minnesota. I’ve been to five highly rated sushi restaurants in Minnesota, and they’re all not good enough for me…so yes, I am basically doing what all the VIP haters are doing.

After Easter service, Down-under and I took her friend to VIP. VIP is another strip mall restaurant on the 2nd floor. There’s only valet parking for $3.50. If you mixed Kim Jong-il and Elvis up, you will get the maître de. The restaurant is not as big as the ones in Chinatown and in SGV but still a good size. This a non-Chinese speaking friendly restaurant. In fact, none of the staff speak Chinese—well, the majority. Maybe that’s why everyone hates VIP...and the haters don’t even speak Chinese? I’ve never had to wait for a table. I bust out my Mandarin.

Since Down-under was getting over a flu and her friend wanted shrimp items, we pretty much ordered are own dishes. Down-under ordered porridge and fried turnip cake, which looked really good but it had dried baby shrimps…argh! I’m allergic to shrimp.

Down-under’s friend ordered shrimp har gow

and steamed shrimp dumplings

Shit had I known that Down-under and I were splitting the tab, I would have made her friend ordered non-shrimp items. Thank goodness he ordered one non-shrimp dish, the scallion pancakes.

I liked that their pancakes are small and non-greasy. It’s just too bad they don’t taste like my grandpa’s. I ordered the rice noodle rolls with BBQ Pork

and steamed vegetable dumplings.

I liked the dumplings and the pork noodle roll so much from Chinese New Year that I ordered them again. I was tempted to order their pork buns (it’s really good) but knew my eyes were bigger than stomach. For desserts we ordered almond Jell-O, which I wolfed down before taking a photo and egg custards.

Yum! I ate all three…they’re small.
We did more damage on Chinese New Year Day:

Oh yeah, their sesame balls are good too – they use the reddish brown bean paste.

My two experiences have been fine, so don’t be scared of VIP Harbor Seafood Restaurant!

Address: 11701 Wilshire Blvd, Ste 16, Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone#: (310) 979-3377
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