Elite Restaurant ( Post Renovation Dim Sum Impressions)

Didn’t really see a dedicated Elite dim sum thread unlike Sea Harbour so I’ll start one here. On the other hand, the mods can feel free to merge this with an existing thread if you guys feel that way.

Our party of 3 came here at around 10:45 and still had to wait a good 25-30 mins. :rage:


@maccrogenoff I’m happy to announce that your favorite jade dragon boat survived the renovation!

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Post renovated shot. Here are a few changes that I noticed after comparing it to pre-renovated shots that I see on Yelp: new carpet, took down a few picture frames and TV, removed the wooden panels on the ceiling, and last but not least…new wallpaper.

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For the Chinese-capable FTCers.

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Har Gow / Shrimp Dumpling
Textbook stuff. Pretty thin and elastic skin. Well steamed. Here’s a shot of Sea Harbour’s.

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No hint of truffle flavor in these Har Gow like Sea Harbour’s but who needs it?

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Shui Mai / Pork & Shrimp Dumpling
Another textbook dish. Well steamed and not overly dense like they are at many places. Sea Harbour comparison.

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Macau Egg Tart
Bruleed sweet custard eggy goodness. Crust is much flakier than the recent egg white version I had at Sea Harbour.

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Black Sesame Custard Buns
Feels like a new item and it wasn’t a very successful one at that. Chinese description says it should be a black sesame lau sa bao(流沙包) but…

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As you can see, nothing was “flowing / 流”. The sesame custard was relatively paste-y. Buns are above average much like other higher end SGV dim sum joints but nothing like the transcendentally light and fluffy bun I had at Benu. Maybe the Hong Kong ones can reach and even exceed that height? Anyone can chime in? @Sgee @chandavkl @beefnoguy

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Chicken Feet with Special Sauce
I really haven’t had a bad variation of it in SGV. They’re all quite similar to be honest. Slight chewy and gelatinous.Tasty!

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Elite BBQ Pork Buns
Flaky “pineapple” crust with diced up mushroom and BBQ pork/Char Siu fillings. Sweet. Savory. Tasty. But it’s not even close to Sea Harbour’s version which uses a sugary crust along with much better BBQ Pork/Char Siu.

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Cross section. Most of you can probably tell what’s wrong with it but it really isn’t noticeable when I scarfed it down.

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Macau Roasted Pork
Crispy skin. Meat was slightly tough and not very juicy. It’s not bad but still a far cry compared to the melt-in-your-mouth version that I had at Dragon Beaux earlier this year. Skip!

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Sticky Rice Lotus Leaf Wrap
Please excuse the loose leaf wrap since Elite is not to be blamed. I accidentally opened it before I took a picture so I re-wrapped it but placed it back in the steam basket. Shame on me. I know.

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We have the usual ingredients of shrimp, lap cheong (Chinese sausage), pork, mushroom, plus the slice of abalone that the higher end dim sum places add in. The essence of all ingredients get cooked into the sticky, chewy, and gooey rice so rice is flavorful but ingredients are all overcooked but they’re all in bits and pieces anyway so they just reinforce umami flavors within the rice as well as adding in different textures. Delicious unlike the shameful where-did-my-ingredients-go-? version I had at Sea Harbour!

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Golden Corn BBQ Pork Rice Noodle
Rice noodle is quite thin here (a good thing IMO since I get a better mouthfeel). We got the sweet, salty, and savory thing going on here again. I especially like the fact that they add in corn for that occasional pop of sweetness plus variation in texture.


Do we get a lot of creativity here? Nah. It’s also my fault for going with almost all traditional stuff this time. However, almost everything I’ve had here (sorry, your steamed turnip cake is crap) are quite competently made with great flavors and textures unlike Capital Seafood (oversteamed city? and maybe $13pp) on Garvey and Atlantic which I frequent weekly. Best of all? It was $15.5 per person before tax and tip so I will take Elite over Lunasia ($23pp?), King Hua($25pp), and Sea Harbour($30+pp) all day given that none of them are even close to a slamdunk over Elite with a 35% to 100% price increase everytime I go to those places! I can’t deny my inner stingy Asian-ness :sunglasses:

Feel free to chime in with your sublime, average-joe, or disgusting experiences at Elite here!

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Nice review, @moonboy403!

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Did you notice if they still have the steamed turnip cake?

Didn’t take a picture of the menu so I really don’t know but highly doubt that they took it off. I’m a panfried turnip cake kinda guy…

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The “truffle” taste the har gow has over at Sea Harbour is unnecessary.

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Elite has a lovely sweet almond soup with a pastry crust that is only served on weekends.

Same item served at Capital Seafood Beverly Hills. And Hop Woo, too, if memory serves.

Longo Seafood and King Hua offer it as well, and I’m sure a few other places.

But if you want to be “la-dee-da,” don’t you have to include truffle or foie or ???

ETA: Oh, right. Caviar. Not just fish eggs.

Hell, I’ve even had that at 888 before.

I don’t think it’s that easy at least skill wise in California to get black sesame paste to “flow” the way it is expected in the bun and to get that consistency, it may have to be a touch more dliuted which will wet the bun even more and make it super messy. Perhaps they want to avoid a McLawsuit by not making it flow? It’s kind of sad because usually I encounter two extremes, either way too earthy/over roasted and thick, or a more watery paste with not as much depth. This is why a lot of high end seafood restaurants even refuse to do custom orders of an entire family style soup pot / wor of black sesame paste, but would have no problems doing Chinese almond egg white dessert soup. Hmmm…

Perhaps Elite should’ve tempered expectations by not calling it “lau sa” because that’s the reason I ordered it. But fair point on the potential difficulty in getting the “flow” right while keeping structural integrity of the bun intact without making it too doughy.

On the other hand, do you know of any place that serves excellent buns by itself that are extraordinarily light and fluffy like that of Benu’s?

Elite is still my go-to for dim sum with the best QPR around the area


Har Gow / Shrimp Dumpling


Excellent


Chicken Feet with Special Sauce


Baked Custard Bun with Cereal Flakes


New item? Not a fan. Kinda odd to pair cereal with a baked bun but it does add some crunch to the otherwise soft bun.


Sticky Rice Lotus Leaf Wrap


Flavorful


Golden Corn BBQ Pork Rice Noodle


Baked Moch with Puff Pastry


Another new item? Red bean filling


Sweet Heart Cake / Wife Cake


No good…filling is a bland goo that lacks any texture

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I was there this morning too. It was delicious. The rice noodle with crispy shrimp is still amazing. And all the basics (har gow, shu mai, etc) were all done exactly right. Only thing I didn’t like was the snow buns. Don’t even blame them, it just probably isn’t for me.

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What time were you there?

10:15

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I’ll admit I haven’t been to Elite in years. But Eater says
Elite Restaurant in Monterey Park, long considered one of Southern California’s best spots for dim sum, has opened for evening service. The new nighttime service is available from 5:30 p.m. to 8:40 p.m.

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It was always open for dinner pre-pandemic.

Open for dim sum dinner service or non-dim sum food for dinner?

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This homie is not a fan of having this style of morning food for dinner…

catcakes

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