Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant: Deluxe Dim Sum in Rosemead

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Restaurant Sign Los Angeles

Chef Tony Ho's Sea Harbour restaurant serves as a Los Angeles dim sum beacon.

Dim sum predilections ebb and flow in L.A. One week, a restaurant’s top notch. The next week, a chef’s gone or prices rise and customers flee. Some places that led the pack upon my mid ’90s arrival to L.A. are still around, like Ocean Star and 888, but nobody in my food-crazed community mentions them anymore, as if they were specters. Only one dim sum parlor has maintained standards for an extended time span: Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant.

Tony Ho opened a Sea Harbour branch in Rosemead in 2002, building upon the chain’s initial success in China, and beginning in 1999, Vancouver. There was also a short-lived Sea Harbour at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, but it closed, perhaps because they avoided crowd-friendly dim sum in favor of higher priced Cantonese fare.

Twin roosters used to stand sentinel in front of the Rosemead entrance, but no more. People still line the benches and stand on the white and yellow tiles. Inside, the sprawling space has white clothed tables and a formidable wall of seafood tanks in front of the kitchen. Sea Harbour serves plenty of dim sum standbys, including dumplings, bao, cakes and egg custard tarts, plus some more unusual offerings.


Dim Sum Los Angeles

Salt and pepper fried chicken knees delivered good cartilage crunch, residual dark meat and scallions.

Dim Sum Los Angeles

Vinegar-dressed chicken feet address one of my key concerns with chicken feet, braised skin’s limp texture. The feet are served cool, with firm, tangy skin.

Dim Sum Los Angeles

Silky pork spare ribs come with chewy connective cartilage, black beans and minced bell pepper. This style of ribs is ubiquitous in the SGV, and Sea Harbour’s version is above average.

Dim Sum Los Angeles

Siu mai sport thin skins, cradle pork and shrimp, and tout tobiko, aka flying fish roe.

Dim Sum Los Angeles

Steamed chicken buns have crimped, empanada-like edges and contain gingery dark meat chunks. This dish doesn’t have much of a wow factor, but is good for what it is.

Dim Sum Los Angeles

My favorite dish combined tender stewed honeycomb tripe strips and firm tendon, both braised with precision.

Dim Sum Los Angeles

We went light on dumplings, but the steamed shrimp and chive version with firm, sweet shrimp and translucent skins proved convincing.

Dim Sum Los Angeles

Egg rolls sported crispy sheathes and contained shrimp, chives, and none of the cringe-worthy mayo that afflicts lesser dim sum rolls. Finally, a roll that didn’t hit a speed bump.

Dim Sum Los Angeles

My favorite dessert at Sea Harbour remains warm, flaky durian pastry, but we went more traditional during this round of dim sum, including mildly sweet, many-layered date jello rhombi.

Dim Sum Los Angeles

Sesame mung bean balls arrived hot, with crisp-coated, glutinous walls and paper nests.

Sea Harbour has been consistent throughout my many years of dim summing there. They use checklist menu service, so the food’s made to order and generally fresher than cart service proponents. The restaurant also charges a premium compared to bargain alternatives in the SGV, but at least the ingredients are clearly of a consistently high grade. I’m convinced that it’s worth the slightly higher cost. Just beware of the waits. Sea Harbour isn’t exactly a secret, so visit during the week, or arrive before 10 a.m. on weekends.

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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