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.
@maccrogenoff I’m happy to announce that your favorite jade dragon boat survived the renovation!
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.
For the Chinese-capable FTCers.
Har Gow / Shrimp Dumpling
Textbook stuff. Pretty thin and elastic skin. Well steamed. Here’s a shot of Sea Harbour’s.
No hint of truffle flavor in these Har Gow like Sea Harbour’s but who needs it?
Shui Mai / Pork & Shrimp Dumpling
Another textbook dish. Well steamed and not overly dense like they are at many places. Sea Harbour comparison.
Macau Egg Tart
Bruleed sweet custard eggy goodness. Crust is much flakier than the recent egg white version I had at Sea Harbour.
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…
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
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!
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.
Cross section. Most of you can probably tell what’s wrong with it but it really isn’t noticeable when I scarfed it down.
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!
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.
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!
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
Feel free to chime in with your sublime, average-joe, or disgusting experiences at Elite here!