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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ELITE RESTAURANT

Wow. It’s true. Dim sum is much better in the San Gabriel Valley than Downtown Chinatown.

I don’t do dim sum often since I’m allergic to crustacean and always get screwed on the bill as it’s evenly divided and half of dishes contain shrimp, but luckily the total is never more than $20/person.

After a Sunday service, a group of us drove cross-town to Elite where it’s claimed to be the best dim sum in Los Angeles. They have a parking lot, but it fills up pretty quickly during “dim sum” hours. We waited patiently outside (bring a jacket if the weather is cold) with the other hungry hippos. Be sure not to sit under the speaker, as it’s very loud unless you wan to give yourself a heart attack.

Once seated we went crazy…

Beef Rice Noodles: Loved it, not as greasy as the Chinatown’s. (We also ordered shrimp rice noodles –looks like the beef just with shrimp)


Pork Shumai: They forgot to note that there’s shrimp in them…


Snow Bun (almond-filled sweet bread): Delicious! They make these fresh for every order.




Sesame Ball: It’s not red bean paste, but still pretty tasty and not as oily as Chinatown’s.


Baked BBQ Pork Buns: You must order this and then you will see why…



Steamed BBQ Pork Buns: Very good


Har Gows: Elite puts whole shrimp in the har gows, not chopped up shrimp.


Macao Egg Custard: The BEST egg custard in Los Angeles. It’s pretty close to Macao’s Portuguese tart.



Clay Pot Rice w/ Chinese Sausage:


Almond Shrimp Ball: Looks pretty and deadly (to me)


Sticky Rice: Once again, Elite didn’t note that there’s shrimp in the rice.


Ribs w/ Black Sesame: I was expecting the meat to be darker…closer to what my mom makes. You can skip it.


Pan fried turnip (I think..): I prefer it to be crispier, nonetheless, still pretty tasty.


Jellyfish: I don’t like “slimy” texture food. Plus, if it can kill you, why eat it?


Mystery dish: I forgot it was called…it’s made with rice, vegetables, and pork….? I think we were trying to order scallion pancakes, but got this.


Bokchoy: It's hard to mess this one up.


Sesame Pork/Shrimp balls:

I wanted to note that Elite’s set up is not like a traditional dim sum restaurant. There are no pushing carts and it’s set up more like ordering sushi where you check off the items, but there are staff carrying items on trays. Service was fine although it would be nice if the staff were more aware of what ingredients are in the dishes.

We ordered around 20 dishes for 7 hippos and it cost $16/each including tip.

The hippo shall return.

Address: 700 S Atlantic Blvd Monterey Park, CA 91754
Phone#: (626) 282-9998
Rating: 5 out of 5

DIN TAI FUNG DUMPLING HOUSE

I love dumplings! I can eat them in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. And I love Din Tai Fung dumplings!

My Maryland aunt decided to give me a call at 6AM yesterday, and checked if I wanted to have dinner as she happened to be in La La Land. Since it was Chinese New Year, I wanted to take her to a nice Chinese restaurant. I mean I couldn't take her to a crappy restaurant near the LAX when there are so many Chinese people living in the city, there must be plenty of good Chinese restaurants, and it's just weird not eating Chinese food on Chinese New Year.

I drove two hours from my work to her hotel to Din Tai Fung (I got lost a couple of times). As I was nearing Arcadia, I am thinking, D.T.F. better have f-ing good dumplings, and they have f-ing good dumplings! The steamed pork dumplings were juicy and yummy as everyone said so. When I was in Taiwan over the winter break, my Taiwan aunt explained you can easily tell if you're eating good steam pork dumplings by the taste of the juice. As you place the dumpling in your mouth, you break the skin a little and suck the juice in, and then you dip the dumpling in soy sauce and eat it. I also highly recommend their pork and glutinous rice shaomai and any vegetable dishes (you have to ask the waiter).

The only problem that I had with D.T.F. was that I had to ask the waiter three times to bring us tea (they flew back to China to buy some more tea).

Address: 1108 S Baldwin Ave Arcadia, CA 91007
Phone#: (626) 574-7068
Rating: 4 out of 5

Photos credit: Eileen T

OCEAN SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

I came here last weekend for a friend's birthday, and was quite surprised that I like OSR, because I normally don't like Dim Sum because I'm allergic to crustacean and picky on how my pork is cooked, and I'll admit it, I'm not a fan of Cantonese cooking. OSR is 100 times better than the popular Empress Pavilion. The servers were very helpful. My friend was craving shumai, and after the same carts passing us for the 5th millionth time, we holler'd a waiter to bring us shumai. The chicken fried dumplings were tasty despite all the grease. I really like the flat noodle dish with pork. I just wished they gave us more options. Oddly as we were leaving the restaurant, we saw a bunch of different yummy food...

Address: 750 N BroadwayLos Angeles, CA 90012
Phone#: (213) 687-3088
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Photo credit: Mike L.