Road Trip: Dim Sum at Sea Harbour - Rosemead (Los Angeles)

Today, stewing in my triple-digit-temperature sodden juices, I had the evil idea of doing a post on my latest bowl of Bun Bo Hue, or perhaps another Pho post. But just the thought of looking at a photo of a steaming bowl of Pho, was just a bit too much for me. So instead, let's just go directly to our current favorite Dim Sum Restaurant, Sea Harbour in Rosemead. When folks say they're going to LA, and want a recommendation for Dim Sum, I'll usually recommend Sea Harbour. Heck, when Ed from Yuma, wanted a couple of recommendations for Seafood Restaurants in LA, Sea Harbour was on that short list. And based on his post, Ed really enjoyed his meal at Sea Harbour. And if you needed another seal of approval, during our visit to Urasawa, Hiro-san himself told me that his favorite restaurant is Sea Harbour. Need I say more? You probably notice a dearth of posts on Dim Sum in San Diego...... that's mainly because the wild swings in quality and mixed experiences over the years have made us a bit "gun shy", after all, the usual layout of funds for a good dim sum meal, exceeds the risk associated with a good bowl of soup! Especially when the return on investment for dim sum in San Diego during the last few years have crashed faster than the stock market.....

On weekends there will usually always be a wait at Sea Harbour..... even if you arrive before the 1030 am opening, it's likely you'll be standing behind someone who got there even earlier than you. Still, if you get there before 11am, on a normal weekend, it's likely the wait won't be too long. Turnover is very quick here.....

Like Elite and Happy Harbour, Sea Harbour does Dim Sum the upscale "menu style". The check off list is quite large at about 130 items....

It's always quite an effort to decide on what to eat. As much as Siu Mai would seem a "no-brainer", a visit to Sea Harbour is something of a special meal for us, so I've yet to have that here. The standard Char Siu Bao, is usually persona non-grata during our Dim Sum meals, as the Missus hails from Shandong and Beijing, and the dough is much too sweet for Her tastes.

So we tend toward the dishes that are not quite the norm for a typical Dim Sum meal. On this day, things started off with the Baby Pak Choy with Ginko and Bean Curd Sheets:

This was almost an entree sized dish. The pak choy was prepared perfectly, still crunchy, not saturated. We both love bean curd sheets. The broth was a light, but tasty chicken stock. The only negative for us in this dish were the ginko nuts. They were very bitter. I have been using ginko nuts a lot recently, and immediately knew these were not prepared well, the texture was mushy, and the flavor unpleasant. Still, the pak choy was good, even as leftovers.

The Shrimp, Dry Scallop, and Chinese Celery Dumplings were excellent.

Over the years, I've resigned myself to either overly sticky, or brittle and ripped wrappers for steamed dumplings. These on the other hand were perfect; with just enough pull. The amount of Chinese Celery was just right, adding that wonderful palate cleansing effect. The size of the cut was good as well; you knew you were having Chinese Celery. The shrimp was flavorful; and even though we really couldn't make out a dried scallop umami, the proportion of the other ingredients was just right for our tastes. We really should be having more of the steamed dumplings at Sea Harbour.

Though it's really hard when you see stuff like Foie-Gras Minced Beef with Spinach on the menu.

I was surprised that you could really make out the flavor of goose liver in this. The spinach was good quality, and not bitter in the least. A rich, but good dish.

We were split on the Cheong Fun with Bittermelon and Chicken.

The Missus thought that while the bittermelon was perfectly cooked, it was much too bitter for Her. I on the other hand enjoyed this. We both thought that the sauce for the Cheong Fun had a good salty-sweet balance to it.

The biggest disappointment of the day were the French Style Goose Liver Won Ton.

Very bland won tons (where was the goose liver?), in an insipid broth. This dish was very disappointing, as both the won tons and the broth lacked flavor.

Second place for most disappointing dish was the Fish Cake with Corn and Peas.

Which also suffered from the blandness bugaboo. This one almost got me to request soy sauce and chili paste, which is not provided on each table like the typical Dim Sum Restaurant. I can understand the desire to have each customer taste the real flavor and quality of each item ordered. But man, this was fairly tasteless.

The Missus and I were split on the Pan Grilled Spinach Pork Bun.

The Missus thought these were too sweet (of course), and too light and fluffy (???). I thought the sweetness wasn't over-powering, and really enjoyed the shrimp in the Buns. I'd have these again, but don't think the Missus would allow me to order them.

As a whole, we really enjoyed this meal, and ended up with some leftovers. And even though we ordered several of the most expensive items on the Dim Sum menu, our bill came out to a tad over $40, much less then we had expected spending.

Leaving, we noticed the huge crowd waiting outside the restaurant, braving temperatures that were surely approaching a hundred degrees. It left me wondering if I'd be willing to wait in this heat. Perhaps not, but we still think of Sea Harbour as one of the better spots for Dim Sum.

I'm always attracted to the "Chicken in the parking lot" here, and am racking my brains to recall what this place was before Sea Harbour. Maybe you'll be able to tell me.....

Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant
3939 Rosemead Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770

Comments

[foodhoe]

I've been craving dimsum recently... those dumplings with the twisted edges look so beautiful, and so many unusual and delicious sounding dishes. It's hot over here too, summer really took it's time to get here and I'm ready for it to turn into fall!

[kat]

everything looked so good no wonder you highly recommend it. hope the weather gets better over there!

[Ben]

For a moment when I glanced at the title "Dim Sum at Sea Harbor" I thought you were in Richmond's Sea Harbour. Got me excited for a while. LOL!

Wow, the order form has color pictures on them, huh? That I have yet to see in Vancouver although we have tons of fine dim sum restaurants.

Ben

[RONW]

heard about that hot weather in your neck of the woods. Imagine the heat in a restaurant's kitchen.

[Kmylml.wordpress.com]

Hi Kirk! I can answer your question since I grew up in El Monte and went to Rosemead High School. Before it was Sea Harbour, the building was a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor. I went to a few birthdays there when I was in elementary school - they had awesome ice cream sundaes. Farrell's went out of business in the mid 90s and the building was empty for a while. Sea Harbour opened around '00 or '01 and it wasn't very popular at first since the idea of expensive dim sum was pretty foreign to the area. Business definitely picked up after it was in business for a year or so and now there's always lines out the door.

Have you tried this take out dim sum place off of Garfield and a little north of Garvey? I think it's pretty close to Dean Sin World. It's this tiny booth that's been serving take out dim sum even before I was born. My aunt used to work near there at the Garfield hospital (where I was born!) and I would always get excited anytime she'd bring me this bright pink box since I knew it would have the bbq pork buns that I loved. Now THAT place is a Monterey Park institution. I haven't been back in years, but I'll definitely check it out when I'm in SGV this coming weekend.

[Sandy]

I've been to Sea Harbour a few times, but the last visit was at least 3-4 years ago. We usually stick with the traditional dim sum items, so the ones you chose are very unique to me (cheong fun with bitter melon?) Were these listed on the English menu?

I also remember the health code rating - instead of a letter, it was 68/100! That's a D grade. Of course, the restaurant was packed with people so obviously the letter wasn't an issue!

[janfrederick]

Farrell's? The chicken brought thoughts of Mrs. Knott's to mind, but I read that she specifically did not want to franchise despite tremendous pressure to do so. So Farrell's it is. :)

[Kirk]

Hi FH - Someone was telling me that it was over a hundred in SAnta Cruz the other day! It hit a 107 near the office I was working from....

Hi Kat - Thanks.... it's already cooling off; though now it's getting more humid.

Hi Ben - It's so nice to hear from you! They also have a picture menu as well.

Hi RONW - LOL! I don't even want to think about it.

Hi Kmylml - Thanks so much for the historical tidbit! And the place you're mentioming is Dim Sum Express. It's been there forever!

Hi Sandy - I think Sea Harbour is getting better. I believe every item we ordered was on the English picture menu. They also had an 'A' rating.... so you might want to go before they get a 'B'. ;o)

Hi Jan - I di think the answer was going to be some fried chicken joint too.

[Green Turtle]

Wow! That's alot of good quality dim sum for $40. I'm sure at China Max, it'd be $60 or more for the equivalent. By the way, next Wed (10/6), Jasmine's having a free party from 6-8pm if you're on their VIP mailing list (free to sign up on their website).

[Jeff C]

Kirk, I really need to go to Cali SGV, I didn't realize how out of touch I was with the dim sum until your post. Those are some really interesting new dishes they are coming up with. Chowhound has an interesting discussion on how LA no longer has any decent Cantonese HK cuisine. Such a turn around from when I was growing up in Cali and how the only thing you could find was Cantonese.

[Kirk]

Hi GT - Nothing in San Diego even comes close....

Hi Jeffrey - That discussion seems a bit of a waste. In many cases the folks seem to be looking for something that is a snapshot of time......

[kirbie]

Wow, so many unique dim sum dishes I haven't seen before. Trying to convince BF to do another LA run but with the hot weather, he hasn't been willing.

[Kirk]

Hi Kirbie - I think that sitting in an air conditioned car is better than stewing in your juices at home! ;o)

[Carol]

Hi Kirk! Those wrappers on the steam dumplings are so pretty! And it sounds delicious!

[Kirk]

Hi Carol - This is one of our favorite stops for Dim Sum.

[Tammy]

Uuu, we need to go here. Mr. C never takes me to eat dim sum anymore. Is everything on the menu in chinese?

[Kirk]

Hi Tammy - Oh no, they have English translations.... and even photos! I think Mr C doesn't take you to dim sum in SD because it's so inconsistent.

[Chubbypanda]

Hmm... Slow roasted Kirk... :D

[Kirk]

Hi CP - More like a braise! Without a nice aroma....