Roadtrip (During Covid) - Comparing Sea Harbour (Rosemead), Then and Now

Recently we had an appointment....a looong overdue appointment in our old neighborhood. The Missus had been wanting Dim Sum so we decided to revisit an old favorite of ours, Sea Harbour before our appointment. We got there about 10 minutes before opening and we waited by the front door....and then of course the "SGV moment" happened. As the door opened, a guy and his wife just cut right in front of us and then as we stood at the host stand asking for a table for two another couple pushed right in front of us and got seated....but heck, I guess it's ok because they are regulars??? Welcome to the SGV......I'm not sure if it's because I've lived in San Diego so long, but it seems that it's even worse these days...

Anyway, we got our table and placed our order. There seemed to be a strange disconnect during our meal as things took a very long time to come out and the order in which items came out seemed a bit strange. Also, some of the dishes seemed a bit off and one was just plain terrible. So, after coming back home, I dug out some photos from previous visits to Sea Harbour over the years and did a comparison of some of the dishes.

So, here's the meal in order.

Usually, during dim sum meals, noodles and rice comes out last.....but not today my friends.....the Seafood Pan Fried Noodles was out first.

The Seafood was excellent; cooked perfectly. The noodles not so much as some were just really hard....not crisp, hard. And there just wasn't enough sauce/gravy in the dish to help soften the noodles. There seemed to be a smaller portion of seafood as well.

Here's a photo from a previous visit.

The Durian Pastry arrived next....these were good. Light, creamy interior, crisp exterior...though more of a dessert kind of thing.

One of the two items we had that seemed basically unchanged (except for price) was the Egg Tofu with Abalone Sauce.

Wonderful creamy interior; slightly crisp exterior, nice savory sauce......

It does seem that earlier versions had a bit more sauce though....

The other was the Sticky Rice in Lotus leaf which was solid and quite filling....

Quite hefty with a decent amount of pork filling.

Next up was a favorite of ours; the Shrimp, Dry Scallop, and Chinese Celery Dumplings. 

   The shrimp were nice and plump, the dry scallops added a sweet-savoriness, and the celery helped provide a nice "clean" finish and crunch to things. The biggest issue for us was how thick, sticky, and rubbery the wrapper was.

I thought it was much thicker than on previous visits and also that it used to have "folds"; so when I returned home and looked at previous photos; guess what?

Here's what it used to look like.

I guess I'm not quite senile yet.....

We also ordered the Black Fungus and Celery Dumpling.

    These suffered from the same issue with regards to the wrapper as the shrimp and dry scallop dumplings. Too thick, doughy, and sticky. In this case the filling just could not stand up to all that wrapper; even with chili oil.....

Here's a photo of this from a previous visit......it looks like something from a total different restaurant, doesn't it?

And yet, I knew that if the last item to arrive would be up to our Sea Harbour standards, everything would be fine and end on a high note. The Missus's favorite item from here is the Radish Cake with XO Sauce. When it arrived, the Missus and I looked at each other and said "where's the XO sauce"?

Apparently, these days, they saute the bean sprouts with the XO sauce and dump it on the radish cake. Which used to be nicely crisp on the exterior and soft and with a decadently melt-in-your-mouth tender interior. This was like eating mush....it was terrible and lacked flavor. This was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I mean look at how it used to be.

Does it even look like the same dish?

The service was uneven, the pacing terrible, the staff indifferent, all for $80 of dim sum for two. It was quite sad; Sea Harbour was once our favorite Dim Sum restaurant. Perhaps Covid has changed things....I can imagine changing portion size and using some products sparingly....but even technique seemed missing here; look at those dumplings! 

We left sad and depressed, as in the days before Covid, Sea Harbour was a favorite stop for us in the SGV. I must have done at least a half dozen posts on the place and I know that Ed from Yuma had done at least two.

Looks like we'll have to find a new go-to Dim Sum restaurant in the SGV. 

Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant
3939 Rosemead Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770

Comments

[Sandy]

Bummer about everything. I always remember Sea Harbour's poor grade from the health department (I see my comment about the failing grade from your May 2019 post!), yet the place was packed. I'm guessing they have had turnover with the dim sum chefs.

[Junichi]

It's always sad when a favorite goes downhill. Hopefully it's temporary due to covid.

[Kirk]

Yes, I remember that Sandy. Sea Harbour seems as busy as ever; but the quality and execution have definitely gone downhill in our opinion.

Yes, it really is Junichi. Needless to say we were bummed.

[KIM]

Long time reader but first time comment! As someone who works in SGV area and works 5 min from Sea Harbour, there are many other places now that are dominating the SGV dim sum scene. My personal favorite is NBC Seafood in Monterey Park and the next place on my list to try is Enlighten Bistro 168 in Arcadia.

[RedDevil]

Hopefully, it was just a bad day for SH. I’m sure it was still better than anything we’ve got here in SD. Our favorite in SGV used to be King Hua but think they’re long gone. 😢. NBC seafood, as Kim mentioned, was on the rotation too but haven’t been for years.

[Hangzhou Hero]

Horrifying.

[kat]

bummer

[Kirk]

Hi Kim - First off, thanks for ready our little blog and especially for taking the time out to comment. We used to go to NBC/888/New Capital in the days of yore......but not since NBC changed owners back in like 2013 or something like that? Thanks for the reminder!

We used to go to NBC RD; though not since they've changed owners back in 2013....time for us to get exploring; though I think we'll wait a bit.

It was HH! Nice to hear from you and hope all is well.

We were really bummed Kat!