"The egg tarts were teeny and a little bit greasy."
(in 9 reviews)
"11) Fried turnip cake (law bok gow."
(in 7 reviews)
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Empress Harbor Restaurant
Rating Details »
111 N Atlantic Blvd
Ste 350
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 300-8833
Ste 350
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 300-8833
- Hours:
Mon-Sun. 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Garage
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
87 reviews for Empress Harbor Restaurant
Review Highlights
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My uncle had his wedding here this weekend. His party occupied about 14 tables. The space was rather small plus he had to share the restaurant with another wedding party. That didn't stop our Wedding Singers that turned the music up full blast.
Surprising the service was fantastic. I'm used to having the worse service at Chinese restaurants. I'm used to them dropping off the food and just leaving. There were several waiters that were standing behind the tables ready to change our plates, get water, etc.. very unexpected.
As for the food.. this is the banquet set we had:
Cold Meat Assortment Plate - Consisted of jellyfish, bbq pork, crispy pork skin, and pork knuckle. This dish was average.. I think the jellyfish could have used some sesame oil or seasoning. The best part was probably the crispy pork skin.
Abalone and Greens - Not too heavy on the gravy. Abalone had good texture and the Greens were cooked al dente.
Scallops Two Ways - Fried Scallops, sauteed scallops with ginger and asparagus. Light dish..
Shark Fin Soup- Above par but really didn't see much shark fin in my soup.
Walnut Shrimp - Nice Plump Shrimp.. lightly battered and flash fried.. not too heavy on the Mayo..
Lobster with ginger and green onion - other places make this dish with way too much cornstarch and instead of tasting the sweet lobster meat you end up tasting starch. This place made it perfectly.
Steamed Fish with Scallions and Ginger - Also another simple but traditional dish.. It was steamed perfectly.. the fish was still very moist and flaky.
Fried Rice- Just a filler dish that comes towards the end for people that are still hungry. Nothing special just a egg white fried rice with asparagus.
Dessert - Red Bean Soup- I hate this dish with passion so I didn't even try it.
I felt that I had a good experience because overall the food was cooked well and the ingredients tasted fresh. None of the dishes seemed to be swimming in oil. Maybe my last couple of visits at 888 Seafood really turned me off with their sloppy Chinese Banquets..
Sounds like from the other reviews that this is also a good place for dim sum. Only complaints are the price. I will be back here to try the dim sum! I would also come back for a family dinner.
Rude employees, poor customer service, and disgusting food. This place tainted the little tolerance I had left for dim sum.
My friend and I were probably treated with such disrespect because we look young (curse the Asian genes). We are paying customers, regardless of our age. And by the way, please do not assume that we do not speak Chinese.
The food was nothing extraordinary (I've had better), but at least we were served "fresh siu-mai" ... so fresh, that they were still RAW. -__- I was a little preoccupied with talking to my friend, but while I attempted to eat it, I realized it was way too chewy and tough. So I spit it out, and saw that I had been trying to consume raw pork. WTF? They are lucky I did not get food poisoning from this.
That is unacceptable. It took FOREVER for us to get a waiter's attention, and when we finally did, he quickly took the dish away and subtracted it from our bill without a word. (Non-existent apology not accepted anyways.) Just -$4 for that plate of food poisoning. Thanks.. I guess.
By the way, they did not even give us the advertised 30% off discount. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT! My friend and I were running late, and were already too disgusted, so we did not even bother to argue with them for it.
I am NEVER coming back here. The food is expensive and nasty. The customer service is horrible. And the dim sum carts take FOREVER to make their way around the restaurant.
There are PLENTY of other restaurants around the area that are 10 times better for a fraction of the cost. I suggest you take your appetite and money elsewhere.
Chinese restaurants are notoriously inconsistent. But last Sunday at about 10AM, Empress Harbor managed to impress me. No guarantees for when you come around to it though.
Dim sum is all about freshness and variety. Freshness mostly. You can tell if people are doing their job right by how springy the dumpling skins are, how soft the rice noodles are, how pump the pork buns are.
Things were pretty much up to par last week, although a couple things that would knock it down.
1) The taro and turnip cake was way too salty. Called the manager over to try to cancel/replace them, and she disagreed with us. Said that that the turnip cake was in fact NOT too salty, so she only replaced one of them. $#!%, I really don't care what you think, you should care about what I think. That's chinese service for you.
2) Having just come from the LaMill Tea-xperience, and having new appreciation for the essence of good teas, I ordered some oolong tea, and they gave me a chrysanthamum, po-lei blend. And a bland one at that. Minus one star.
For now, if you go M-F, get 30% off your dim sum check (to time limits), and on S-S, get 20% off. It helps. And get to know the guys in the black suits. Chum them up, the might comp your tea (at writing, $1 a person, drink up).
I had dinner there with my family.
We had one (dumpling) appetizer, 3 bowls of rice (charged by the bowl), one soup, and 2 dishes (sliced medium rare steak and Singapore noodles). We spent $65.00. It was definitely pricey for the amount of food that was served.
We got seated right away, but it took the servers 20 minutes before they decided to take our order. Then additional 30 minutes before we got all our dishes.
We had constant refills for our tea, but I was nearly fallling over due to starvation. There must have been other parties that were not visible, but the wait for the ordered food was horrible.
They did had a really nice mango dessert. The food was so so... Maybe I got them on a bad day, but I might try them again next time.
If you're judging Chinese restaurants by the grade on the window, you really have little knowledge about the food. Almost all varieties of asian food are prepared much differently than say "American food", and don't always lend themselves to being made in the same way. For instance, to get really authentic types of some Vietnamese food, it needs to be made in a way that doesn't conform to the US ideas of healthy. Yet to be authentic, it needs to be created the way it is in the homeland.
Big groups tend to bring out the best or worst in places, and this cavernous place was a little Jekyl and Hyde in it's consistency for our birthday dinner. Overall the food was delightful, brought down only slightly by two dishes that just didn't make the cut. The restaurant is huge, there was a wedding going on, separate diners in another room, and our dinner party of twenty or so and there was still room to spare. Whoever decorates these dim sum houses is a busy, busy person, or not because they keep recycling the same design over and over again. Same fake crystal chandaliers, same wild red and gold wall coverings, same bad village artist paintings, even the carpet looks familiar.
Fortunately the food is much better than the decor. We began our long and arduous trek through the ten plates with Lobster Salad. It's essentially a fruit salad with huge chunks of lobster mixed in, nicely presented with the lobster lording over the plate. Light and refreshing.
Next came the standard cold cuts plate, one of my favorites and really well done here. The pork rinds were thicker than normal and nicely flavored. Jellyfish, wonderfully crispy pork skin, beef cuts and some chicken. Third dish was Mayonnaise shrimp and pecans, and as good a version as I've had. The shrimp were large, the mayonnaise cooked with just a vague crispness to them which gave them so substance.
Only three plates in and I'm already full, and quite happy. Next came the Scallops and vegetables, batter fried and stir fried, both fresh and abundant. Things were going swimmingly good, and then suddenly we almost drowned. Sharks fin soup was horrid, bland, tasteless and no amount of soy sauce, vinegar or salt and pepper made a difference. The entire dinner party were complaining, trying anything to make it better but in the end to no avail. The next dish was no better, a almost sour Abalone and vegetable plate. It looked delicious in it's thinly cut beauty but the faint sourness and chewiness betrayed the our delight in the end.
Optimism had lessened dramatically at this point, but thankfully the remaining four plates were all back up to par. Duck made into little Chinese tacos were heavenly. Steamed fish was perfect, the meat was thick and substantial, in a light broth. Fried rice here was different, just rice and egg white and although I was full I couldn't help but have an extra bowl. The evening finished up with tapioca and while it's nowhere near as good as the American version, it's still the best version of Chinese dessert I've had. Even after all this time I still can't understand how a culture that makes some of the greatest food in the history of the world can't come up with some better desserts. Seriously, Red bean this and that, mango pudding, tapioca and orange slices. Dear China, this is the best you've come up with after thousand of years of trying?
Still despite a misstep or two (and unfortunately on the two most expensive plates no less:(), the overall level of food was outstanding and they also comped us 10% for the plates we didn't like. Even so, this is not an inexpensive choice for dinner. Two tables and twenty people came out to about $60 a head, which is quite high considering the many options in the area.
As a short side note, they also serve a pretty fine version of dim sum here in the mornings, I've been here many times for it and it's always very good and also not particularly cheap. It's also very busy, though the huge crowdsof yesterday have splintered off to new destinations.
Food - A- (C- for the two poor dishes)
Ambience - B
Service - B
Value - B-
It's been a really long time since I have enjoyed proper Chinese food and I was hungry for some after enjoying my afternoon at the hilarious and incomparable Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Since we were in one of the great cities for Asian dining, the stage was set for a great meal to remind me of what I'm missing at home. Empress Harbor in Monterey Park was chosen as one of the favorites by our local guide and upon arrival were a little intimidated by its lavish decor and seemingly expensive menu. However, once we sat down and began ordering, none of that mattered anymore because we were starving.
While all of the menu items looked and sounded great, we decided to share the honey walnut prawns, beef chow fun, sweet and sour pork, and the deluxe braised vegetables. While all of the dishes were very good, the prawns definitely stood out. I've enjoyed the dish at many restaurants, but the version here was cooked perfectly. The prawns were huge, tender, succulent, and perfectly cooked and the walnuts were very fresh. Even the prices were very reasonable and we left paying only $15 per person, including tip, for our meal.
I don't usually give top marks to just any restaurant but my bar may have been lowered by the passage of time. The service was very good here and the food brought back ton of memories of my childhood. I should note that we were served water in a plastic cup which was a little bit annoying, but the good food was more than enough to overlook that little detail. Empress Harbor is easily better than any Chinese restaurant in San Diego and I would definitely come back again.
Food: 9/10
Service: 9/10
Price: $$
Atmosphere: 9/10
I've been to Empress Harbor for 2 weddings, and for dim sum now. The place is pretty frickin huge, where it was able to fit a wedding of like 300 guests, and still had room for normal dinner service at the same time. I don't really remember the food, because honestly who remembers anything pass the 3rd course of a 7 course chinese dinner? I was drunk off my ass by the 2nd course.
As for the dimsum we took out the wife's mother for lunch this pass weekend for dim sum, and had plenty to eat for around $20. They've got some sort of discount on the weekends, but i didn't really see what it was to tell for sure what it was.
I am pretty sure I came here years ago for dim sum but not really sure if this is the same place or not. So what you will have is my dinner review of this place.
I did enjoy almost everything I ordered. Just not so sure about two of the items but that was probably my own fault. I would certainly come back again for the simple fact that I think it is hard to find good Chinese food around where I live.
Also I found it interesting seeing two scantly clad young women coming in at separate times in almost the same hoochie outfits and being ushered to a private room. I really wanted to stick around till the people in that room filed out so I could get a better idea of the shenanigans that were happening.
Their business volume has definitely decreased since the last time I've been there. We got there at 11:30 Saturday morning and there was no wait.
They're also giving discounts now so they must really be hurting. I think the discount made the meal more worth it.
Food wise, it was just like any other dim sum place, similar choices and food was fresh and hot. We ordered a peking duck too (they had a special on that too) and it was good, not great but good. The steamed fish we had was just okay.
Service was decent so overall, a good experience. I'd say 3.5 star, but not 4.
What's the dealio about places not having dan tat until later!??! Are we supposed to go later in the day for restaurants to have time to make these little gems or what? No dan tat when we came at 10:30am. Sadly, it was also the day the power decided to be sketchy, which is what the lack of dan tat was blamed on. Epic dan tat fail.
In other news, the shu mai here was HUGE. It's about double the size of shu mai elsewhere! The deep fried taro was really good too. There are some places that have a funny aftertaste to them, but not Empress. Yum.
Otherwise, they have other typical things, but not as much selection as other places. I might have to give this place another try, but later on in the day.
My friend and I decided that we wanted real live Chinese food so we drove off to what some people call the 'Real Chinatown' off the 10. We had no real destination and stumbled upon this place. We were the only white people there, in my head meant a good thing because if Chinese people were eating here it had to be good, and got a table right away. We ordered a few appetizers. The dumplings were great. Then we ordered a few entrees. A beef something or other and a pork what have you. Everything was pretty good and cheap. Service was good.
The most interesting thing however was they had some banquet rooms behind closed doors. Every few moments a young, Daisy Dukes clad young Asian girl would saunter into the restaurant and disappear behind this closed door. As we craned out neck to look in every time it opened we saw old men in suits and lots of barely legals. We finally asked our demure waitress what was going on in there and all she could do was giggle.
Someone let me know how I get to eat in that room!
Great place for dim sum. Enjoyed everything we ate, and came across a lot of items that I haven't seen at other places- like a deep fried pastry wrapped in rice noodle that you dip into a peanut sauce. The chicken feet was great too and I'm usually not a big chicken feet fan. The tripe was off the charts, and I grew up eating this stuff- better than mama made!!
Service was friendly and they came by often, but like most dim sum places, the ladies pushing the carts don't speak much english, so do try to come with someone who can speak the language. But all the waiters and hosts in suits seemed to speak fluent english.
Nasty. Will not come back here again.
My co-worker and I were in the plaza so we decided to try this place out for dim sum.
The place seems clean and crowded, service was not bad. This is another "parental" restaurant, everyone there was at least 50+. We ordered a few things... the steamed bun was very DRY, the chicken feet was not tender, it looked like it wasn't cooked enough. the pot rice with chicken doesn't have much favor and was DRY again, the shrimp in the steamed rice noodle was not fresh at all. We didn't even finished our food cus it was sooo bad!
And this place wasn't cheap, both of us spend $25 bucks for 6 dishes. there are way better and cheaper alternatives in the area.
I only go to Empress Harbor when I know I can finish my meal by noon on weekends. Without the 20% discount, Empress Harbor is a bit on the expensive side. My Cantonese ex-coworker recommended Empress Harbor to me a few years back. Most of the clientele is Chinese so you know it's gotta be fairly authentic. The portions seem a bit larger than some other dim sum places.
I really like their spareribs with steamed rice. Because the rice is steamed with the spareribs, it's infused with the rib flavor - so yummy!
So after that mishap at Ocean Star in the next strip mall over, my godbrother's wife suggested this place. We get to the door and i breath a sigh of relief because i see the A grade. However, im going to be honest, my review may not be too fair because i already had the "bad taste" in my mouth from the C grade at the same type of restaurant. I really did try to eat everything we ordered but i just couldnt. It looked good and it smelled good but nuh huh, my spidey senses just wasnt havent it. Plus, they didnt have wonton soup or orange chicken so my feelings were hurt haha
It was OK for dim sum but I wasn't impressed with the selection. Might try one more time. They have some discounts which make it worthwhile.
Dim Sum is an all time favorite of mine. Sundays, midweek, doesn't really matter. I'm always game for dim sum.
A friend of mine decided it was time to venture out a bit and try other dim sum restaurants in Monterey Park and outside of LA's Chinatown, so we came here.
Empress Harbor was PACKED on a Wednesday around lunchtime. Service was fast and all came to the table fresh and hot.
This time around, only the rice noodle with the shrimp was a bit gummy. Could have been the last one they served up. Who knows?
The dim sum here is comparable to the dim sum I've had at other places. What I noticed right off with Empress Harbor is that it didn't take long to find someone to bring you more tea, hot sauce or water.
Service is excellent and the food really good.
By the way, they have a 'B' rating now.
Last time I came here for lunch it was almost two years ago. Since then this new chef loads his dim sum with a lot of MSG and salt. The hot tea they serve now tastes terrible. These are some of the reasons there is plenty of empty tables at noon on father's day.
The worst part of yesterday's visit was that they rip you off on the bill. They advertise a 20% off on weekends and 30% off on weekdays. In fact they double the price of the dim sum before giving discounts. A dim sum size steamed chicken on rice now costs $6.75 before discount. Our bill of 9 dim sum items came up to $42.
For much lower price and better quality food, I suggest to go next door to the Ocean Star where they charge $1.68 weekdays and $1.98 weekends on all sizes dim sum. However, there are a lot of smart Asians in town so either get there early or be prepared to stand in line.
There is no way the Empress Harbor can stay in business with this kind of practice in a recessionary economy. The Ocean Star next door puts up a sharp contrast that bleeds away customers from this place.
My family frequents this place quite often for dim sum. The dim sum is good and there seems to be a good selection. I can't say their bowls and spoons are clean, though, but I think that is the way it is at most Chinese restaurants. There are a number of LCD TVs playing HK dramas (or sports, depending on demand) that are placed around the restaurant. If you're there to watch TV, sit accordingly. The parking sucks, though. There is a lot of underground parking but it smells and the elevators suck. As for the price... I don't know. I never pay but it can't be that bad. :) There used to be a discount going on. Is it still there? I don't know. I recommend the pork and preserved egg congee.
I had an EXCELLENT experience at Empress Harbor on Saturday night! We were there for a banquet dinner. Our group had 16 tables there and had a 10-course dinner (all of which was fresh, tasty, and awesome). It was some of the best Chinese seafood I've had in a long, long time.
The service was outstanding. The staff would clear our dirty plates with clean ones before we had to ask. They would transfer the served dishes onto smaller plates so the new dish would have room on the lazy susan.
The dinner included:
- Cold appetizers (chicken, jellyfish, and roasted pig?)
- Prawns with honey glazed walnuts
- Sauteed fresh Scallops with asparagus
- Shark's fin soup with crab meat
- Braised Abalone with mushrooms and mustard greens
- Peking Duck
- Lobster with supreme sauce
- Steamed Fresh Fish
- Braised E-Fu Noodles
- Sesame Balls with lotus seed paste (dessert)
- Mango Pudding (dessert)
I was so full because we had a few people absent from our table, but it was good since we all got to eat more!
That was one of the better meals I can remember in a long time, so Cheers to Empress Harbor restaurant!!! Their website is http://www.empressharb.../
I tend to not venture very far from tried and true restaurants, but my friend convinced me to try this place and I thought it was quite yummy. We also got a discount on our dim sum bill - people, bring a friend who can read the Chinese signs out front! You can save a lot on seafood during the week.
Overall I agree this place was a little bit pricey, but I thought the quality of the food more than made up for it. Really liked the siu mai and the chicken feet.
I cruised here w/ some coworkers on a Tuesday for dim sum because I know that the food is pretty good and they're supposed to have 30% off weekday specials. It wasn't too busy and we quickly got our food. The problem was there were hardly any carts and the same ladies kept walking past us. The smaller selection on weekdays is understandable, but it felt like there were only 5 carts, so we were a bit disappointed. The food however was pretty good.
What really got me was when we were ready to pay the bill the waiter handed us the full price receipt w/out the 30% discount. I politely asked him and he told us that was the 30% off price, which was totally BS. I guess he thought I wasn't Chinese so I wouldn't know. I didn't want to argue w/ this guy in front of my coworkers so we paid and left and they will never see us again. So don't get ripped off here if you go during the weekdays.
I really liked this place
Clean with good food and service. Good selection. The maitre d' even stopped by to offer translation
Suckling pig - crispy and tasty
Pea shoots very fresh and tasty
E fu noodles subtle and tasty
Stuffed tofu skin very good
Mushrooms stuffed with Shrimp in black bean sauce - very good
This place was alright. Nothing special. Trying to flag down the women pushing the broccoli buggy was annoying. The fact that I am not Chinese and trying to stop these women from leaving our general area before I could put my order was disheartening.
Parking was uber annoying.
Overall, I've had better dim sum...and I've had worse.
yeah 4 stars. In your face haters! jk...
Anyways. This is one of the best dim sum places that I have tride and believe, I've been around ;)
I do admit it was a little pricier than a lot of other dim sum spots, but I was satisfied for everything I ate. Service gets slow, but hey if it's busy they are probably busy in the back cooking as well so it doesnt bug me.
What I do is I would get up with my stampy paper and walk around and get what I want. Thats how they do it in Hong Kong so why can't I do that here? Got everything I wanted! rofl
But for reals their dim sum is not bad and it is clean.
And what was even cooler was that there were 2 mexicans out in the fron wearing the gold vest! I'm not being racist or anything, but you have to agree with me that at a chinese restaurant the Mexicans are always on the back. So it was really nice that they were in the front getting the opportunity to work their way up!
Good place I will come back any time.
I will post some pictures up of what I ate.
Dim sum anyone?
I usually go to this place for dim sum. I always get their siu may, har gow, egg tart, char siu bao, rice porridge, tofu skin roll, turnip cake, rice porridge, tofu fa, mango pudding and any other yummy stuff I see. They give you discount if you come during lunch hours Mon-Fri. I don't remember exactly how much..I think about 20% off discount. It is my favorite dim sum place so far. I pick this place over Ocean Star or NBC.
The building complex sucks (dilapidated). The parking garage sucks (dark and smelly). And most importantly, the dim sum sucks. Don't take a date here.
I suggest you go a few blocks down to NBC Seafood Restaurant for MUCH better dim sum.
Went to tea here with a friend in November '08 and the food was good. It's all your standard dim sum fare. A genuinely good standby spot.
We arrived early to avoid the rush but the con of that was there seemed to be more food brought out towards the afternoon when there was a larger crowd. I liked the food that we did get. The server ladies were very nice and accommodating. The interior ambiance was clean and even the bathroom had an attendant that spruced up the place periodically.
Good dim sum at an affordable price. This place is locaed at the corner of Atlantic and Garvery in a pinkish building on the second floor. Weekends are super busy so I would avoid the big rush 1130-130pm if you don't mind waiting half an hour to one hour. This dim sum place has better quailty dishes that neighboring dim sum places. I definitely would recommend this place!!!
Oh! forgot to mention, if you park in their underground parking lot, it's pretty dark and dirty, the elevator takes forever, more importantly, hold your breath in the elevator...smells like pee.
Don't let this hold you back, after all, you came here for the food not the parking lot! Just breath out a lot before you start eating.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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6/6/2008
5 STARS for their Dim Sum only. I'm not much of a fan of family style Chinese dinner which is what… Read more »
I came to empress harbor for dim sum last weekend, and I was somewhat satisfied.
We arrived late (1:30pm), so there was absolutely no wait -- we were seated immediately. I know if you show up for the brunch rush at 11am or so, you will be standing around for a long time.
Unfortunately, some items we wanted were not available - not sure if it was because we arrived too late, or this place just has little variety.
Food:
The flavor of the food was pretty good. To be honest, unless the dim sum if really bad, or really unfresh, all dim sum on Monterey Park tastes around the same to me. This place is one of them...
The egg tarts were so tiny and greasy. Flavor was Ok. I would prefer bigger, prettier, less greasy egg tarts.
The har gow were good, as always.
The pork shu mai was really good, it came with a shrimp laid on top. Too bad we only got 1 order of shu mai -- they ran out afterward. :(
We were unable to get any shrimp rice rolls, either there weren't any, or they just ran out.
Service:
Not bad.
Maybe it's because we arrived late, but the ladies pushing the carts came by often. The minute we sat down, the lady pushing the har gow and shu mai came by. *cha ching!*
We had our tea pot was quickly refilled when it was empty. And we were easily able to flag down someone, to give us the bill, when we were finished.
Price:
This place is pricey for dim sum.
It was about $4 - $5 for each tiny plate of dim sum. And everyone knows you need to order a ton of plates, so the bill quickly adds up.
It came out to about $20/person including tax and tip. A bit more than I would expect to spend for dim sum.
Other:
Large outdoor and underground parking lot.
Empress Harbor is very big -- you can rent out a section of the restaurant for private parties.
This restaurant has changed its name a few times though always retaining "harbor" somewhere in its name. I'm fairly certain it's affiliated with a certain other Harbor dim sum place I love in San Francisco.
When it first opened, my parents remarked we had a fancy new dim sum restaurant in town. It was a sign that dim sum was slowly changing over from a more casual brunch/ lunch meal to something more sedate. I thought it rivaled neighboring Ocean Star next door for its elegant decor.
Fast forward to the last time I went. Ah, it is no longer the most ostentatious restaurant with refined dining and superior dim sum. In fact, it seems to be what it tried so hard not to be- with crazy crowds of hungry diners clamoring for a table of somewhat acceptable though no longer remarkable food.
It's still good but it doesn't impart the same feeling of nostalgia any more.
My family spends so much money here every time we come that the service is always excellent.
The Dim Sum is average. But the entree's such as Shark Fin Soup and Fish Jook are delicious. My grandfather looooves the Hoi Sam (sea cucumber). The Lobster is okay but really I don't know who could compare to Newport seafood.
My absolute favorite is the Coconut bread. Try to ask for it warm I can eat all 4 by myself!
The parking here is MUCH better than it is at Capital or other places in the MPK because of the underground garage. And it has the big open Chinese dim sum joint feel with the hussle and bussle of carts moving around.
But the food was mediocre. I didn't have anything that I haven't had a better version of at Elite Restaurant (I'll review it later), 888, or Capital across the street . The dumplings didn't have the right texture that firm meatiness,the flavor was there but meh I really enjoy that burst of shrimp or pork that you get at other places. Things were passable but very little wow factor.
Tthe shrimp in the rice noodle was comparable to other places.The egg tarts were teeny and a little bit greasy. The sweet buns were very good there (the ones with the pineapple crust and the gooey custardy inside) but you can pick a giant one of those up at Kee Wah. Service was quick and we didn't have to wait to get seated for a group of seven on a Sunday around noon-ish. Prices are reasonable coming out to about $13 a person.
Yick. Did not like. This place makes me ashamed of my Cantonese heritage...
Food: The variety of food here is appalling low for a dim sum place. I had been looking forward to coming here for a week and was craving two standard items which never came out: 1) dan tat (egg custard) and 2) that fried chive pork thing wrapped in a clear rice shell. How can you be a dim sum place without dan tat?? I did manage to try the shumai (http://www.yelp.com/bi...), har gow (http://www.yelp.com/bi...), char siu bao (http://www.yelp.com/bi...), and sticky rice (http://www.yelp.com/bi...). All of these were abnormally small, practically bite sized. I know dim sum is supposed to be small, but this was just ridiculous. They also didn't taste that great and everything looked super dirty. It was also fairly expensive.
Service: Really bad, even for your typical Cantonese dim sum place. I am used to getting yelled at and yelling back to order, but you seriously have to hunt these ladies down. No one knows English or Mandarin here. We asked for things that never came out.
Atmosphere: Pretty dirty, although there are some cool pictures on the wall of citrus fruits like the hand of buddha and a cute ox in a box sitting on the bar (http://www.yelp.com/bi...). The parking situation is awful though. No, it's not that there's a dearth of spaces. It's just that the spaces that are available are in a subterranean garage that obviously has a sewer leak. IT REEKS.
Synopsis: There really is no reason to come here... not for the price, not for the quality of the food, and definitely not for friendly service.
I went here yesterday for dim sum with my family. The food was good. We normally go to Ocean Star, but there was a long wait and plus we found out that Ocean Star has a C Rating. Not good. Empress Harbor as an A Rating. Woohoo. We had the ha gau, siu mai, bbq pork banh bao, egg tarts, tripe, chicken and rice wrapped in bannana leaf, pork spareribs, turnip cake, etc...the place was clean, not as crowded as Ocean Star which is plus in my book.
if it wasn't as pricey, then this would've been an easy 5 stars... and you know it's def a local favorite when there ain't all these zagat, citisearch awards all over. OINKY! i wanted something cheap and authentic and not pricey as it is ... *shame on you*
but ANYWAYS, thx to oinky, =D i was in for a pleasant surprise ... dim sum shouldn't be $60 ... HMMMMMMMM? [at least i didn't pay for it] so, here i was, nibbling on some dimsum, when i could very well eat my brains out in san francisco ...
place is inside this pink plaza, on the top level.
a clean, friendly, dimsum joint... i have to say, the dimsum was fresh, and not to mention, the ladies were super friendly and always full of smiles.
i'm going to another dimsum joint... NEXT! ;]
So ,we haven't been back here since October 2007....decided to give them one more chance and I'm glad we did. First off, they have an "A" for their inspection....very good sign. Now for the food....the rock cod in spicy salt and soy sauce chicken - soooo gooood. The eggrolls are also still the same as I remember, very good. I'm glad we came back and we will return again.
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6/18/2008
I have only been here once...for a wedding rehearsal dinner. Everything was good especially the egg… Read more »
This review is for Dim Sum at Empress Harbor, not any other dining experience.
The Dim Sum here is good. My friend wanted to introduce me to another DIm Sum house the last time we went out for Dim Sum. I liked the decor a lot and the restaurant has a nice atmosphere.
My favourites from this restaurant was the haa gau (which I guess is my favourite almost everywhere, but it was good here), and the baked pastries.
My recommendation: go here if you don't like Ocean Star, and if you want to still have cart service instead of ordering off a menu.
Decent food not a wide variety considering it's suppose to be dim sum. It was obnoxiously loud. The service was horrible, you had to ask for things around 2 or 3 times to actually get them. They also spilled a drink on my brother's lap and we were there for his Bday. Parking was a pain in my b***! Never going again.
