for some reason i thought you lived in the SF valley. no matter.
if you choose not to do chinese (for whatever reason) something like green street in pasadena should fit the bill for brunch, and they take reservations.
you could do the tea room at the huntington. that’s something like $30/pp PLUS the price of admission to the huntington. (reservations are required.) without more info on the sensibilities of the group i’m not sure what else to suggest.
thanks all for the many suggestions.
chinese is the ticket, so i think i’ll have principessa start with calling
shanghai no. 1, grand harbor, king hua and maybe sea harbour.
this is probably the last decent chinese meal these people will be having for a while,
so i want to send them off with the good stuff.
any further info y’all feel like giving, i’m a listening.
many thanks again.
doesn’t really matter where i live, thanks. these peeps are headed east
and will be heading out the 10 after the meal.
since those involved include a former food writer for such places as gourmet, and
who had an affinity for FTC quality korean, thai, chinese and other “ethnic” kinda places,
i think chinese in the sgv is what’s happening.
i had suggested maybe golden deli or summer rolls as an alt but it hasn’t gone over well.
thanks.
thanks for the clarification.
if it’s more an early lunch than a brunch and ambiance beyond tables and chairs isn’t a huge concern, how about burmese? specifically yoma myanmar?
EDIT: it’s changing, but for me the ‘wealth’ of chinese places lie inl the mom & pop one trick pony holes in the wall.
Man, I would pay to see that scene.
Table of 10 (presumably non-Asians), two of them pushing 90, eating in what basically is a square hole in the wall. With a cathode ray tube TV in the background playing the greatest hits of Burma. MTV? No, karoake TV!
That. Would. Be. Awesome.
By the way, does Yoma even have one table big enough for 10 people? (Yes, I know they can play the jigsaw puzzle game and piece together enough tables, but still …)
I am having a party at Grand Harbor this weekend for dinner and have found them extremely easy to work with (manager, Eric 626- 382-9092).
They have an extensive menu, competitvie pricing, excellent food (on a reconnaisance mission a few weeks ago) and a great private room with no minimum charge, no down payment, and no corkage - what’s not to love?
Don’t know if the situation is different at dim sum rather than dinner but I would checkk it out and give Eric a call.
Awesome @CiaoBob. Definitely looking forward to your pics and thoughts of Grand Harbor! I hope the food is great. 
i’ve brought a party of eight there, so i don’t see why not?
the last time i was there, the owner’s face visibly brightened as she blurted out: “you ordered the goat curry!”
if these fine people were remaining in the l.a. area (they are relocating), i’d like to think
we’d have gotten 'round to yoma or that other burmese eventually,
as her majesty and i certainly did enjoy burmese food.
however, in this instance, i’m not sure yoma is the best choice.
this is very helpful. will pass along.
merci.
fair enough. in this case, dim sum is probably the best bet then; most of the strength of what makes the SGV a mecca for chinese food is is the one trick pony hole in the wall places, though this is starting to change a bit with the new money coming in and paying for culinary talent.
here’s an update:
so the peepsters have been to shanghai no. 1, so we thought we’d try something new.
they were askeered of grand harbor – probably due to a lot of indifferent reviews on yelp and such -
so we thought we’d give king hua a go.
king hua DOTH NOT take a sunday reservation. drat.
grand harbor back in the mix.
will keep you posted. i know how bad you wanna know.
Actually, I do want to know. Saw friend yesterday (at Ham Ji Park, which was tasty), and he said he had dinner (so not dim sum) at Grand Harbor and was totally unimpressed. And this is not a guy who is difficult to impress… (although he is also quite sensitive about $$$, so it’s possible that he just felt that the QPR was off)
go when they’re open, it’s desolate. hell go at 7pm, it’ll be a half step above desolate.
(had a great meal there a few weeks back because we didn’t want to wait 2 hours @ Newport Seafood)
I got a wedding to attend there in July; my expectations have been tempered.
i’ve not tried on a sunday, but if you can get a table for 10 at king hua with little difficulty at 11am on a saturday, i;d think you’d be able to get one on sunday, of course YMMV.
this is something, due to the age and mobility issues of those involved,
we need a reservation for, and for a specific time on a specific day.
showing up in hopes of getting a table is a risk not worth taking in this instance.
i’m bummed to hear about a meh experience at grand harbor. i had read some good
reviews from trustworthy sorts here.
@Ns1 and @linus: to clarify, my friend didn’t think it was bad; he just didn’t think it special or lived up to whatever hype he had heard. I also imagine (and would hope) that the restaurant would pull out the stops for a wedding (vs. a regular dinner).
then show up at 10:15 and make sure you have a table by 11am?
