Elite Restaurant

Elite Restaurant
700 S Atlantic Blvd
Monterey Park
626-282-9998

When it comes to dim sum, I am a very picky eater. I don't eat chicken feet or many other items served during dim sum. But, to my way of thinking, any dim sum restaurant has to have good pork shui-mai and steamed BBQ pork buns. If they don't, I'm not going back.

If you ask foodies who has the best dim sum, Elite Restaurant will be mentioned frequently. So, I finally decided to give them a try. I got to Elite around lunch time, which was perfect because the wait was about ten minutes long. It may have had to due with the overcast day and a forecast calling for rain. But, either way I was happy for the short wait, because I was warned the wait times can run close to an hour at Elite.

Elite is different than other dim sum restaurants, they do not have the carts!! You know the drill, the carts are wheeled around and you pick what you want. Instead Elite makes you select how many orders of each item you want. Most of the servers, those taking your order, not the people bringing you the food, speak English well, so it's easy to place your order or if you have questions.

Pork shui-mai-$3.38. These pork shui-mai were huge, maybe the biggest shui-mai I've seen. Well worth the price tag. The pork was very well seasoned and tasty. The shrimp was a medium sized shrimp, that actually worked well with the pork. Though, I don't think I like the trend of pork shui-mai having shrimp in it! This came out hot, with plenty of steam coming out. The wonton is a bit thicker than other shui-mai I've had, but this is a very good example of shui-mai.

Crystal shrimp har gow-$3.38. The first piece of this shrimp har gow was a sticky gooey mess. The outside just attached itself to my chopstick and never let go. The first piece I had, torn apart and I had to eat the shrimp and wrapper separately. The second piece I had was fairly good, the shrimp fresh, well steamed, good sized, and the wrapper was light and with a good texture.

Fried shrimp dumpling-$3.38. Frankly this dish was terrible. The outside did have a nice flakey texture, was fried very well. But, the inside was a doughy mess. There shrimp was ok, but all the veggies-cabbage and green onions just didn't work for me.

Steamed BBQ pork bun-$2.38. This had to be among the worst steamed BBQ pork buns I've ever had. The small amounts of BBQ pork was fatty, too sweat and just not good at all. The bun was too chewy and tough for me.

Service is good. The orders come out quickly and the servers are nice. At least when I was there, they didn't rush you. But, that maybe different when the wait times are over 30 minutes.

For a place that comes so highly recommended, I was very underwhelmed!! The pork shui-mai was good, but I wouldn't order anything else, that I ordered today, again!!

NBC Seafood

NBC Seafood Restaurant
404 S. Atlantic Blvd
Monterey Park
626-282-2323

Dim Sum at NBC Seafood is served by ladies who have food carts and you pick and choose what you want to order. When it comes to Dim Sum, I usually just stay wit the basics, shu mei, dumplings, and steamed pork buns.

NBC has some of the best Dim Sum around. As you can see from the picture, NBC is going through some renovation but is still open for business. We saw bare dry wall inside the restaurant.

The shu mei is full of fresh pork and shrimp, then steamed to perfection. Each plate of shu mei is $1.90.

The steamed pork buns are also $1.90 per plate. They are fairly small compared to other places I've gone to. But the pork was nice and tender. The bun was soft, with a good texture and had a nice sweet taste to it.

The last picture is pan fried dumplings with pork and shrimp. This was very tasty, though the outside was a bit tough and chewy.

Service is good. The ladies with the carts come at your in waves. They may not speak English that well but point and choose works. Be warned though, this is a very popular place for dim sum and on weekends you may wait over an hour to get a table. It can also get very noisy in the restaurant.

I would go back to NBC again and again. Next time I go, I want to try their regular menu.

Yank Sing

Yank Sing
One Rincon Center
101 Spear St
SF
415-957-3900

I know SF is an expensive city. But I never expected dim sum to cost so much. Yank Sing has pretty good dim sum but it's very expensive and not worth the price.

The first picture has chicken egg rolls, stuffed crab claw, and phoenix tail shrimp. The eggs rolls were crispy but very greasy. They were some piece of chicken but it was most vegetables. The stuffed crab claw are stuffed with shrimp paste and then deep fried. There is a very small amount of crab at the claw but it hardly noticable. I did not like this dish at all. My favorite dish was the phoenix tail shrimp. A huge piece of shrimp, coated in batter with some green onions then deep fried. The shrimp was crispy and tasty. It was greasy at all.

The second picture is the chicken satay. This was terrible. The chicken was like processed chicken or mystery chicken. They put a small coating of peanut sauce on the chicken and that was salty and overpowering. Not the thing to order.

The third picture has shrimp dumplings, pork siu mye, and Shanghai chicken. The steamed shrimp dumpling, while small were tasty. The pork siu mye was smaller than the siu mye I'm used to. But they were steamed and tasted fine. The Shanghai chicken is basically Yank Sing's version of Kung Pao chicken. It was tasty but nothing special.

The bacon wrap shrimp was ok. The bacon would have been better if it was crispy. But it was chewy, as if they cooked it at too low temperature. The shrimp was pretty fresh and tasty. But the combination would have worked better if the bacon was crispy.

Service was good. The dim sum carts came around frequently, almost too frequently. But we weren't left wanting anything, service wise. But our wallets and palates were left wanting. The cost for two people, was $60!!!! $60 for TWO PEOPLE FOR DIM SUM????? Something isn't right here. We had two plates, no sure which, for $9.20 each. I'm guessing the shrimp and maybe the Shanghai chicken? But neither was worth $9.20.

I would not go back to Yank Sing again. Most of the food is good but there are not worth the prices they are charging. There has to be many places in SF Chinatown that serve just as good if not better dim sum, at much better prices.

New Capitol Seafood

1330 S Fullerton Rd.
Rowland Heights
626-581-9813

Dim Sum literally means touch the heart, in Cantonese. To get the best Dim Sum experience you need to go to a restaurant where the food is served in carts. You pick and choose what you want. Most dim sum places have dumplings, BBQ pork buns, chicken feet, shrimp ball, pork blood cakes, and egg rolls.

Most places have tiered pricings for dim sum. The ladies with the carts will mark your bill after you picked your items. There are basically two types of carts, steam carts mostly with dumplings and non steamed carts with things like egg rolls, fish balls and any sweet "dessert items"

At New Capitol the items are either $1.99 or $2.19. A great price for some of the items. To be honest I forgot how much each item picture cost. But as a general rule, BBQ pork buns, pork and chicken dumplings are $1.99 and shrimp balls are $2.19.

The first picture is the chicken wings. This wasn't a good item. Very greasy, not fresh, and just bad. This had been on a cart way too long.

BBQ pork buns a dim sum staple. The pork buns from New Capitol Seafood are a good example of how BBQ pork buns are made. The pork is nice and tender and flavorful. The buns are nice and fluffy.

The next two pictures are something of dim sum fusion dishes.

The first one is a shrimp ball covered with a crunchy outside. The stick is a sugar cane. This wasn't good at all. The flavors of the shrimp ball and the crunchy outside didn't work well at all. This was terrible. But at $2.19 it's not going to break my wallet to try it.
It is a fish ball topped with mushrooms in a soy sauce. Not a bad thing. I thought the fish ball and mushrooms worked well together.

The last picture is the pork shu mei. As long as you use fresh ground pork and steam it properly, you can't really mess up shu mei. There is nothing outstanding or bad about the shu mei at New Capitol.

Service is good. But be warned, this place is packed on Saturday and Sunday during prime dim sum hours, 11am-1pm. You may wait up to an hour and a half for a table. This is a big restaurant and they do get people in and out of the restaurant but there this is a popular restaurant.

You may have noticed a C food department rating. The day, March 11, 2007, we went for dim sum it was a C rating. The day I took the picture of the front door, that had the C rating was April 16,2007. I had forgotten to take a picture of the entrance so I went back later.

I'm not all that impressed with New Capitol Seafood. It's ok but nothing outstanding for dim sum. Not sure why they are so popular. I do think their low prices are one of the biggest reasons why they are popular. In Rowland Heights, there are many other places for dim sum. I would try those other places first before coming back to New Capitol.

Seafood Village Dim Sum

Seafood Village Dim Sum
1463 Nogales St.
Rowland Heights
626-913-2338

Seafood Village is a sit down restaurant. I will review them soon. But next door they have a Food To Go location where dim sum, BBQ pork, duck, and Chinese dishes are served.

Dim sum during the week is $1.68. On weekends they raise the price to $1.88. I ordered the su mai and steamed BBQ pork buns. You get four pieces of su mai and they are nice and tender pork. It's matches any other su mai you can get from any sit down restaurants. And the price is right.

I wasn't as impressed withe steamed BBQ pork buns. IT's almost like a sloppy joe. There isn't much BBQ pork and the little amount there is is chopped up and pretty flavorless. I've had much better BBQ pork buns.

The BBQ pork and duck are pretty expensive, almost $6 a pound.

Service is OK. They speak little English so be prepared to point or you'll go hungry.

I would go back for the su mai but I wouldn't order the steam BBQ pork bun. But the prices and quality of su mai make this one of the best values aroun

Sam Woo-Closed

Sam Woo
18922 Gale Ave.
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
626-913-9933


Went to Sam Woo for dim sum today, Mon. July 3rd. The first thing I noticed was that Sam Woo has a C rating from the health department. As for dim sum, at any popular dim sum restaurant, if you go on a weekend, it will be very crowded. Expect to wait about 45 minutes or more. But on a Monday there weren't that many people there.

As I sat down the ladies with the steam tray carts came to the table after waiting about tenminutes. Not sure if the food wasn't ready or what. But I haven't had to wait that long for the carts to come by. There are four sections of food at Sam Woo. Section A is priced at $1.98 Section B is priced at $2.20 Section C is around $3 and Section D is $5.20. I have been to Sam Woo before and the carts would come by every 2-3 minutes and they would have items from each section. But today I did not see the deep fried shrimp balls at all.

The first picture is the steamed BBQ pork buns and the second picture shows what the BBQ pork looks like. The buns are fron section A and cost $1.98. The buns were warm but I didn't like the pork inside. They were chopped up and shredded. Most places have diced or sliced pork, not shredded. So the BBQ pork buns were about average.

The next picture is of steamed Chinese sausage buns, from Section A. The buns were nice and hot and had a sweet flavor to them. The sausage was ok but I didn't like the texture because steaming sausage isn't the way to go.

The last picture is the pork dumplings, also from Section A. The pork dumplings were loaded with pork and have a nice texture and flavor. I see some people put mustard or hot sauce on the dumplings but I think the dumplings themselves are great.

The only outstanding item was the pork dumplings. The BBQ pork buns and Chinese sausage buns were average. I didn't like the long wait for carts to come by. I didn't like the same food carts kept coming by. There wasn't the shrimp balls or anything else from Section D. Maybe it's because I went on a Monday but if they aren't going to have something on their menu, they should let people know.

Service was OK. The ladies with the cards are nice and I my cup of water was always refilled.

Not sure if I would rush back to Sam Woo, especially if their entire dim sum menu isn't going to be served.