Earlier this summer on the same day that I noticed my desert rose and begonias were blooming again, I had met up with a college friend who was in town. Because of logistical reasons, we decided to meet up for dim sum in Chinatown. Everyone knows all the best Chinese restaurants are in the San Gabriel Valley, including dim sum, so I was at a loss as to where to go. I asked the Twitterverse and Christine of Folie a Choisauce suggested CBS Seafood Restaurant.
It's a bit old school with pushcart-style dim sum, but it has a free parking lot next door, which is always helpful. I also found a restaurant.com coupon ($25 off $50 coupon for $10, but I had an online code for 70% off so it only cost me $3.) so that decided it. Her parents and grandparents were also joining us, otherwise we would have never been able to eat $50 worth of dim sum.
I got there first so I ordered tea while I waited for my friend. See the pushcart in the back? I was pretty surprised actually because the restaurant is quite small and the newer, smaller dim sum houses have done away with the pushcarts, opting for taking orders off the menu.
Cold pastries cart.
My friend arrived first with her baby and we proceeded to order like crazy. The good thing about old school dim sum restaurants is that most of the popular dishes were only $2.
Gee? Do you think we ordered enough?
Tripe, $2.
Har gow (Chinese shrimp dumpling), $2.
Steamed char siu bao (Chinese barbecued pork buns), $2.
Siu Mai (Chinese Pork Meatball Dumplings), $2.
Cheurng fun (Chinese shrimp rice noodle), $3.
Steamed Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) with Oyster Sauce, $6.50.
Baked taro puffs with meat filling.
Turnip cake, $2.
Chiu Chow fun gor (Chinese Chiu Chow-style dumplings), $2.
Sticky rice in lotus leaf, $3.90.
Rice porridge.
While the dim sum wasn't as refined as at Lunasia Chinese Cuisine (Dim Sum) - Alhambra or Elite Restaurant (Dim Sum) - Monterey Park, it was perfectly decent. There were enough old Chinese people to make the place authentic, yet a lot of non-Asians to indicate it was popular with tourists. Well, I'm assuming tourists because most of them came in clutching paper or books, and who eats in Chinatown except tourists and the old folks who live in the senior home nearby?
When my friend's parents and grandparents arrived, they also ordered tofu pudding.
And the special braised tripe.
That still wasn't enough food to get us to $50. But since I had already bought the coupon, and we had spent roughly what the discount would've been anyway, I suggested they order a roast duck and noodle dish to get the bill to $50 in order to get the discount. Basically, same amount of money out of pocket, but with extra food to take home. The coupon isn't good for take-out orders, but there's nothing that says you can't over-order and take home leftovers. So that's what they did.
By then, I had to go. So I said my good-byes and snapped a photo of the take-out counter beside the dining room.
The parking lot was jam-packed as I left, so maybe it's not all tourists who eat in Chinatown?
Oh, and seems like MSG-warning week on the blog, but yeah, they were a little heavy-handed on the MSG here too. But if that's not a problem for you, can't beat $2 for dim sum with an online coupon to boot.
Other dim sum posts:
Bon Marche Bistro/B Village Cuisine (Dim Sum) - Monterey Park
Capital Dim Sum & BBQ - Monterey Park
Dim Sum Express - Monterey Park
Elite Restaurant (Dim Sum) - Monterey Park
Full House Seafood Restaurant (Dim Sum) - Arcadia
Lunasia Chinese Cuisine (Dim Sum) - Alhambra
Mission 261 (Dim Sum) - San Gabriel
NBC Seafood Restaurant (Dim Sum) - Monterey Park
Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant (Dim Sum) - Rosemead
Seaworld Seafood Restaurant BBQ & Dim Sum To Go - Rosemead
Yum Cha Cafe - San Gabriel
Seaworld Seafood Restaurant BBQ & Dim Sum To Go - Rosemead
Yum Cha Cafe - San Gabriel
CBS Seafood Restaurant
700 N. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-617-2323
8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Free parking lot beside restaurant.
*****
1 year ago today, Absolute Bakery & Cafe - Mancos - Colorado.
2 years ago today, Tahoe Galbi Restaurant - Los Angeles (Koreatown).
3 years ago today, pastrami chili cheese fries with pickles and tomatoes at The Hat - Alhambra.
I always wondered about this place. Would pass by it on the way to Philippe's. The tofu pudding looks yummy..
ReplyDeleteI love Restaurant.com - man! $2 dim sum dishes? When I was in Philly, they were like $3 for most or $3.50! I want to move there!
ReplyDeletea touch of the good old traditon always makes the food taste better!
ReplyDeleteIs CBS better than Empress Pavilion? Not that Empress is all that good, but that's where my co-workers and I used to go when I worked downtown.
ReplyDeleteDennis,
ReplyDeleteYou could always go to the take-out counter after Philippe's. Conversely, I've never been to Philippe's. :P
Kitty,
It gets even cheaper. Take-out dim sum gets down to $1.60!
Master of boots,
I actually like the newer dim sum restaurants. :)
WeeMo,
Never been to Empress Pavilion. CBS is like NBC. Hehe. Or the old NBC anyway. I haven't been since they remodeled.
Errr....har gow already means shrimp dumpling, so putting shrimp in front of it is kind of unnecessary. Taro puffs are also deep fried, not baked.
ReplyDeleteEating Indulgence,
ReplyDeleteOops. I normally write har gow (Chinese shrimp dumpling), but got lazy with this post. Will fix it back. Yup, I know the lacy top of the taro puffs comes from deep-frying, but it says baked on the menu so I'm just being consistent so people can order the right dish.