I have been tasked to coordinate my dad’s upcoming 90th birthday dinner banquet which is tentatively set for the first Saturday of August of this year. There may be around 200 guests and the menu will be the traditional food, roast pig, duck, fish, chicken, etc. I would greatly appreciate any recommendations you can give me in finding a good restaurant within SGV that could accommodate this request. Thank you in advance.
The usual suspects would apply with either Sea Harbour or Elite being my top choices. Others to consider would probably be 888, Shanghai Seafood No. 1, Lunasia or the new Grand Harbor.
Really depends on your price point, the banquet setup, and whether you want to reserve an entire restaurant, part of a restaurant, or what-not. With 200 guests, you’re looking at 20 tables, which means private rooms are out of the question. So when pricing it out, have to remember that there may be an additional cost or surcharge for reserving the entire restaurant.
At the end of the day the differences in banquet foods, especially if ordering off of a set menu with different prices, the quality and quantity isn’t going to vary very much. So it comes down to availability, cost of reserving the restaurant, extras such as setups and particulars that you want for the celebration, etc.
Good luck, and remember. Bargain, bargain, bargain. Hard. And then do it some more.
Happy b-day to dad!
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Newbie here…Never knew you could bargain on set banquet menus in Chinese restaurants…good to know!!..Thanks ipsedixit!!
Of course you can, and should.
Plus, pay them in cash, and then everything becomes negotiable.
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Thank you ipsedixit for your usual insight. I’m not much of a bargainer (always hated that when I went back to Hong Kong) but I have plenty of relatives that will do that for me. Thanks again.
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This is key.
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One caution–you’ll be going up against summer wedding banquets which will complicate your quest. I remember my son wanted to get married in September but had to put the wedding off until January due to lack of facilities. This may mean going further down on your list of restaurants to 5 Star, NBC, Mission 261, Capital Seafood, Shi Hai,Pleasure Harbor in Hacienda Heights, Top Island, and a bunch of others.
The original post was from 2016 seeking reco for traditional Chinese banquet. I don’t live in CA but since reading about Imperial Cuisine with the arrival of Bistro Na, there appears to be many more updated Cantonese style restaurants offering dimsum and banquet options. With the arrival of Tong Tak and Tang Gong in 2019, does this esteem group of SoCal locals have any experience with the quality of their traditional banquet food executuon compared to NBC, 888, or Top Soup? I am trying to decide on the best place to book an anniversary banquet dinner in early 2020.
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Hi @LlinFTC,
Welcome to FTC! 
We recently were invited by some of our SGV friends to a banquet dinner at Tang Gong. It’s really about the same level as 888 or Capital Seafood. Sea Harbour is definitely better execution, but I believe Tang Gong is cheaper if budget is a consideration.
Thanks a lot for sharing your recent experience at Tang Gong. I have not considered Sea Harbour, so now I must.
Thank you.
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