King Hua for Dim Sum: The new Sea Harbour

[WHills]

I went to check out King Hua for dim sum today. It's located next to the Alhambra Costco. Previous restaurants at that location have not been very successful. We know a few of the waiters, and it's true--the dim sum chef from Sea Harbour has now gone to King Hua. If you have noticed, the dim sum quality at Sea Harbour has gone done lately.

The dim sum was very, very good at King Hua, which confirms the chef change. Every was top quality. The service was pretty good also.

It's definitely the new place to go to dim sum, although the location is not too convenient.

[jjsawrey]

Anyone know what time they open on Sat? I called and the line just beeeeeeeeeped.
Thanks!

[jotfoodie]

Weekdays - open 10:30; Weekend - 10:00

I was there today for lunch, IMHO it is average, nothing great. Definitely bigger than Sea Harbour. Watch out for the "Creative Lunch Recommendation" page of their tick off menu, no price, and could be a surprise. I ordered a mediocre E-Mien with Yellow Chives - $11.80. Prices for their dim sum is 1.98 (S), 3.20 (M), 3.95 (L), 5.50 (SP), 6.26 (C). I believe is comparable to Sea Harbor.

[jjsawrey]

thanks for the update on the time. we're going right at 10 tomorrow. hope it's as good as the old sea harbor.

[JEN10]

I am worried about the posts that said they used MSG. Could you report back on that and if you had any side effects? Thank you, Jennifer

[Pitchman]

I was very excited to go check this place out after these glowing reviews and the fact that it is very close to my house that we recently moved to. Yesterday, I took my parents and my almost 2 year old son right at 10 a.m. so we didn't have to wait.

One thing right off the bat-MSG!!! OMG! Way too much! We couldn't finish half of everything we ordered and for a Chinese family to not finish a meal for whatever reason, this is huge. My mom tasted it in the congee right away and I felt the MSG effect for the rest of the day.

I wanted to like this place so much, but IMHO, it's not that great...actually it's not good at all. This family will be sticking with The Kitchen for dim sum.

[wilafur]

whoa. thanks for taking one for the team. msg gives me huge headaches so less is more.

[dreamcast18]

don't know abt MSG...but I thought it was average at best. The goose liver..was kinda BS...small 1mm piece?!!

[ipsedixit]

1mm?

Surely you jest.

Did you bust out a metric ruler just to make sure, or were you eyeballing it?

You're a much better 'Hound than I if you can eyeball -- accurately, no less -- down to the 1mm level.

[exilekiss]

Hi Pitchman,

Thanks for the warning. I'm pretty sensitive to MSG myself, and I would've really been upset if I got KO'd by an MSG overdose. Sigh, I was looking forward to trying this place out this weekend, too. :( Oh well.

[JEN10]

It is off my list too, I don't like the MSG high!!!

[choctastic]

the dishes are slightly different from what sea harbour used to have (I miss that bitter melon ball too!) but the food was excellent. it was busy after 2pm which is a very good sign of course. weird location but what's nice is the proximity to fosselman's (a couple of hundred feet away). my favorites were the tofu in abalone sauce (yum!), the very good egg custard tarts and the pan fried pork buns with dried abalone. the one thing i wouldn't order agian is this one fried squid dumpling that looks like a bee. but that is mostly because i don't like fish balls and it's just basically a fried fish ball.

I always order the xiaolongbao when i see it at a dim sum joint, just because i'm perverse like that. i dunno what is up with the whole trend of the little metal pie pans but i actually liked the xlb here! this is the best xlb i've ever had in a dim sum restaurant. and unlike mama lu's they put ginger in the vinegar. in fact, the xlb at King Hua is better than some xlb joints proper, esp some of the execrable crap i've had in NorCal.

[choctastic]

Ooh thanks. I'm there. Stupid question: are they doing the same things as at Sea Harbour, if not, what are different things you saw?

[WHills]

Pretty similar...they have a special menu with King Hua items. Their dim sum menu might be slightly smaller than Sea Harbour.

[JEN10]

Where exactly is this place? I have been wanting to try Sea Harbor, but will now give this a try instead. It will be a drive for me as I am located in Palos Verdes.

[Chowpatty]

King Hua Restaurant
2000 W Main St
Alhambra, CA 91801
[phone]

http://www.yelp.com/biz/king-hua-rest...

[ipsedixit]

As patty mentioned above, it's right across the street from Target, as well as an abandoned Mazda dealership, and about 1/2 a block from Fosselman's.

Going west on Main St., if you've hit Fremont, you've passed it. Going east, if you've hit Atlantic you missed it.

[JEN10]

MUCH THANKS!

[CookieEater]

ooh, perfect. Dim sum, Fosselman's for dessert.

[monkuboy]

Thanks for the info. Do you know anything about the dinner chef? Because that part has always been a total disaster. If they could improve the dim sum part, hopefully they will have improved the dinners because they couldn't get much worse.

[Chowpatty]

It's convenient if you go to Target as often as I do! Interesting because I just inquired about this place below...

[WHills]

Yes, I saw your previous post. We know waiters at both Sea Harbour and King Hua. It's confirmed by both that the dim sum chef has gone to King Hua, and the previous "line chefs" are doing the dim sum at SH, which explains the decline in quality.

[bulavinaka]

Thank you for the heads-up. This pretty much seems to be the game in the very competitive restaurant business in SGV. It's almost like free agents in pro sports. Once you've found a winner like Sea Harbour, enterprising restauranteurs are ready to xerox the business model, court over the talent, and hopefully start a franchise. And on and on it goes...

Is King Hua's dim sum menu-oriented as well? I was wondering also if the space is about the same size as Sea Harbour... Any recs off the top of your head?

Thanks in advance...

[WHills]

Yes, no carts-off the menu dim sum.

Their shrimp dumpling (har gow) and siu mei were very good.