Shi Hai

This is for dinner on CNY Eve. The score was adjusted UP to reflect the evening we were there.
1^st Strike. We were part of a group that had a room in the back. When we checked in the hostess said there was no party by the name given to us by the person who made the reservations. We called our Aunt and was told they were in the room. I asked the hostess where the private room was and miraculously she looked in the book and found the location of the table. It was as if a round eye was not worthy of more of than“they are not here– go away”. This is not my 1^st or 20^th CNY so I know the drill.
2^nd Strike. The food was wildly inconsistent. Some worthy of the Emperor’s table– the geoduck clam with vegetables, the chicken won ton soup where a whole chicken was used and the steamed fish. But everything else was either over cooked, the vegetables, cold the duck lettuce cups, salty or wrong. The wrong was a dessert soup made with Moche that were made with wheat flour, not rice flour. Total fail.
3^rd Strike. The inattentive staff who SMOKED in the hallway by the private room. Illegal.
All this for a price that makes Mission 261 or Elite Seafood or Newport Seafood look inexpensible.
Jonathan Gold has recommended this place. After my experience it makes me wonder…
I will recommend this place to people I hate.

My family and friends went here for dim sum around two today. It was the first time for us. There was no carts and we wrote our order on the paper. Tea was $ 1.28 per person. $ 2.99 for small. $ 3.99 for medium. $ 4.99 for large. $ 5.99 for special and $ 6.99 for extra special? I think the food was OK. Nothing to brag about.
The service was good until the end. We were done with eating but we were still drinking tea and talking. We didn’t realize they close at three. They actually just let another table of four people in at 3! Then this one rude waiter came over to our table and started to put the dishes away like he wanted to break everything. He used the chopsticks to hit the table right in front of my friend. He didn’t say anything though. My mom asked him are we in your way. He mumbled something I couldn’t hear. Then he just kept putting things away in the rudest way possible. My mom got very upset because the way he treated us. She had to go back to talk to the manager. The manager apologized for him but this mean waiter totally ruined our gathering! We paid $ 107 for the food and $ 20 for tips. I guess that’s not enough for him to ask us to leave politely. Zero star if I could. No manner that man has.

Around this area, there’s not that many dim sum places but I gotta say this one is not bad. The restaurant is pretty spacious and the waitress/​waiter are very attentive.
As expected, there is strong hint of MSG but the ingredients taste fresh and the food came out piping hot, The piggy bun, was cute and the kids loved it. Their shrimp dumpling was good and they didn’t use any fillers.

DIMSUM REVIEW
Exterior: Average looking and parking is not the best here. Very tight spot.
Interior: spacious and clean. Not too bad.
Food: 30% off dimsums only. Not for entrees. Dimsum are good. We went around 1 so to have good hot dimsum is rare. At Rowland, we use to to go four season restaurant and capital seafood for dimsum. However, four season restaurant closed so we decided to look for a better one. Pleasure Ocean Restaurant near Hacienda is terrible. Long wait for mediocre food. It’s a new restaurant though so hopefully it gets better. Shi Hai is ok but the best one was their egg tart. Hot and enough egg inside. Really good and similar to the traditional ones.
Service: it’s ok, they did messed up our order by forgetting 2 of it. But still, decent speed.
Overall, it’s good. Parking is a downfall bur beside that, the dimsum is acceptable. Worth coming here for the dimsum.
*** As for dinner, it’s pricey and not worth it. ***

Under New Management! Good foods and great service！The fresh lobster was very good! Must try!

We arrived their at 7:30pm, and they sat us in front of the entrance. I wonder if this is a strategy to let people see that there’re customers inside and not empty, when seen from the entrance. They gave us 3 yearbook size menus, which are heavy, difficult to flip and difficult to understand. It is showy and stupid. We place our order at 7:40, and the food doesn’t arrived till 8pm, and by 8:20, our last dish is still unserved, which we had to cancel it. The waiters look so idly and slow paste. The restaurant was not even half full, yet the food takes forever to come. We weren’t the only small tables that waited a long time for food. Only the 2 large tables that made big orders got their food served continuously. This really makes me wonder what is the reason for this restaurant, it doesn’t seem to want to make a profit. What’s the reason behind this restaurant?
After we left the restaurant, I feel dizzy, nauseated, and light headed. I wonder if I got reaction from the lamp meat dish.

Who else came to Shi Hai specifically for the cute Little Piggie buns?! Cause I sure did!
Got in & was seated right away on a Saturday at 12:00pm! Yasss…
Don’t expect Chinese ladies pushing carts here, bc the ordering system is just checking off items on a ordering sheet.
Food came around 5 – 10 minutes of ordering.
YAM PIGGIE BUNS: So freaking adorable! I was going to town on taking pics & snapchatting it. But aside from the appearance, this is a very mediocre bun with yam filling inside. Nothing special taste-​wise. Probably wouldn’t order it again.
EGG TARTS: O.M.G! BOMB! The crust was flaky n crispy & the egg custard was just the right amount of burnt on the surface. The filling itself was so warm and creamy.
CHRYSANTHEMUM JELLO: I would skip this one. Although aesthetically pleasing, the jello was quite bland. There’s a slight chrysanthemum flavor but I wasn’t feeling this one.
HAR GOW: The shrimps here are so BIG! Two thumbs up if you like har gow!
PORK BBQ BUN: Tastes different from other dimsum places. When you bite in, you automatically taste the honey they brushed on top of the bun to get it to glisten. The filling inside was a smooth consistency, which I found unique. Usually, you can taste chunks of meat. But here, the filling was smooth but bbq flavor. I kinda liked it.
TURNIP CAKE IN WONTON SHELL: Such a unique presentation! Love the originality! However, the taste was just mediocre. They do add bean sprouts & the wonton shell tastes like the outside of a eggroll.
BITTERMELON RICE NOODLES: Again, so original! Who would’ve thought to put bitter melon in a rice noodle?! If you like bittermelon, you will like this! Rice noodle was soft and smooth! The bittermelon is a healthier alternative to your average beef or pork! I quite enjoyed this!
PRICING: Dim sum here ain’t cheap! Each dish ranges from $ 3-​$ 6! Our table ordered 11 dishes, and the bill came out to $ 60! However, they gave us a 40% discount so it turned out to be around$ 40! Not sure when/​how long this 40% discount is for. But if we did NOT get the discount, I think this restaurant is too pricey for just average dimsum.

I should have turned away when I saw the B grade on the window. This usually means that food is not kept at a certain temperature, cooks or staff are not hygienic or the place in general is not clean.
My aunt kept raving about how great this place was and it was better than where we would always go because the sizes of the food was bigger. We came on a Sunday afternoon (around 1) and it was empty… that should be a bad sign too. You know how good the dims I’m place is by judging how many people are waiting outside during the weekends.
Let’s talk about food. We were excited! We wanted to order everything on the menu since there was 4 of us. Sadly, after we ordered, the ladies in the suits brought back our menu and pretty much told us that half of the stuff we ordered is not available. They said their oven is broken so we can’t order their baked goods. Sad. That’s half of their menu. I give them props on bringing steaming hot food to our table. But, the wait for the food wasn’t worth it. We waited almost an hour for our food. For a place that isn’t so busy, that’s bad. We noticed that a couple of our items weren’t being given to us. We asked the ladies about it and they said that it’ll take another half hour. We ended up just canceling those items.
Honestly, I’d rather go to those dim sum places where the sweet old ladies push around carts. Granted that food sometimes won’t be piping hot but there will always be food around you.

My review is going to be super biased. Firstly, I didn’t pay for this meal nor get the chance to look at the check. Secondly, I came here with my cousins who are frequent visitors that get the VIP experience.
Initially when my cousins decided on this place for dinner I was dreading it. First of all, it’s all the way in Alhambra (far drive for me) and secondly, look at it’s Unilocal ratings! Terrible terrible ratings.
I was however pleasantly surprised at how delicious everything tasted. Practically every dish was like entering a portal into Hong Kong.
We got the geoduck sashimi — which didn’t taste the freshest. It almost felt like it was two different geoducks put onto one plate. One side of it had that fishy aura while the other side seemed fresh. They also messed up our order and ending up giving us a geoduck congee instead of a fried rice sort of dish that we ordered. Either way, the geoduck congee was nice. It had a mildly sweet taste to it.
Assorted BBQ dish — Pork neck meat and 5 layer roast pork — The roast pork was awesome. You actually could see 5 layers on it. The skin was perfectly crispy and the fat wasn’t overpowering. The pork neck meat was whatever though. It tasted like BBQ pork (Cha-​sew) and wasn’t special.
Soy sauce duck — This was awesome. Not too overpoweringly salty but just the right amount of flavor. It was tender and soft.
Chicken feet — I think these were a free app but they weren’t the normal red chicken feet you see at dim sum. These were more of the «Crystal» form that I don’t know what they call in english. However, these had great flavor and everyone devoured these so quickly. We even had to ask for a second helping.
Overall, this place does seem very pricey. However, the chefs in the back really know what they’re doing. Their dishes will transport you back to Hong Kong.

So normally I don’t F with eateries under 3 stars BUT!!!
I made a new friend on Instagram (something I never thought would happen.) LOL! Any who, she loooooooooooooves my food porn and I love her homemade food porn and drink porn, so that’s a win win collaboration: P We always mentioned dim sum for lunch and she said this was one of her favorite places. I trusted her judgment since she’s a foodie like me. So we came in on a weekday afternoon. I was running stupid late because I didn’t know it was that far from my place LOL. I had her ass waiting almost 40 minutes :(:(But she didn’t mind. I hate being late and I’m never that late. Thank god I wasn’t later than that because they actually close at 3 and reopen for dinner later. Unilocal needs to update that otherwise I would have driven much faster HAHA.
So we walk in and get seated immediately. We weren’t rushed even though it was an hour and a half left to service. So I take a look at the menu and saw a few things I liked, but I felt like it was her show and I wanted to try what she usually eats. We wanted that roasted pork but sadly they were without and that made sense they were almost done serving but damn that crispy pork skin porn was callin my name :(:(That probably would have been the star of the show!
So we ordered Fried taro, shrimp pork shumai, pork congee, chow mein, almond crusted shrimp balls, shrimp crispy cruller and that was about it LOL. They forgot the bbq pork dish, but I figured we ordered enough food but I still wanted some meat meat! Things come in spurts so I thought it would be the best thing saved for last. By the time you’ve tried everything, who wants to get a fresh dish when you’re practically full. So that made me a little grrrrr. Thank god what we ordered was damn good to make up for that.
Of course I’ve had shumai and chow mein, but every thing else was my first time having it. The almond crusted shrimp ball were my least favorite. Still good and tasted fresh but they didn’t give me mouthgasms. The fried taro on the other hand blew me away!!! I’ve always had taro in pastries. Never thought about having it in savory form. Never heard of it or seen it. Funny thing, my friend never had taro in sweet form, never heard of it or seen it ahahaahaha. So we we’re polar opposites with our experiences with taro LOL. I like it in the savory sense much more!!! So crispy and seasoned well within. Damn I’m dreaming about it as we speak: P I can’t believe I’ve never had congee. Clearly I’m no expert and I can’t compare it to other places, but I was satisfied. I loved the pork bits. Like mini spare rib cubes of gelatinous yumminess!!! Tasted even better the next day. Big portions and two girls gotta take some food home. I never had a cruller before and that was another hit. I’m definitely ordering that everytime. I love the two different consistencies, crispy and soft and slippery. Very satisfying meal.
I didn’t have a chance to check this place out on Unilocal when she mentioned where lunch would be. Of course I did afterwards and my sister was shocked I went to a place with a lot of bad reviews and overall low stars. But I’m glad I tried it because my experience was pretty good for a first impression and I would totally come back. Plus their prices for weekday lunch made my jaw drop. All that food for about 30 dollars, can’t be beat in my book .I left a happy camper and I’m still having dreams about that taro!

I really, really liked it here. This was one of my favourite places I ate at in LA while I was there for a week. It took us like 30 minutes to get there, but our local friend insisted that we do because he said it was super legit. And it was hella delicious. We went on a quiet night too, so it wasn’t too busy and the service was fast, friendly, and attentive.
The food itself was beautifully presented, not greasy, popped with flavours, and just damn delicious. It was also very filling as the portion sizes were hefty. I think Chinese restaurants do themselves a disservice by charging too little and I am glad that Shi Hai does not do that. If you’re a cheap ass then yeah don’t go here, but if you want some quality Chinese food then this place is definitely legit.

I decided to come with my family to try out their food. What a bad decision that was.
They have a poster outside advertising $ 19.99/lb for the Alaskan King Crab, so we decided to get that. The manager told us it would be around 12−13lbs and we agreed.
Once the bill came, we were shocked to see that they rigged the price of their crab to 15.9lbs when it was, supposedly only around 8lbs.
We argued against the price hike on our bill, stating that it would at most be 12 lbs, and the manager took that into account and only gave us a 1lb price decrease ($ 19.99). That still left us 14lbs to pay for.
We decided not to give any tips (mindful that it was not the service of the waiters but the issue of the restaurant’s way of management and operations as a whole), and left. We were not about to give $ 40+ tips when we were cheated out of already.
Shortly, the owner came after us after realizing we didn’t tip the amount that would satisfy them. He came out asking the reason we were dissatisfied with their service and we had an intense argument. While I didn’t record the conversation, he bluntly stated that he regularly hikes the price up on what is stated on the sales poster outside. He does this on a regular and if a customer has a problem with that, it is their fault and not his. That being said, why do you bother luring customers in with your unethical tactics and behavior? If your restaurant has no management skills to get customers to eat at your restaurant, might as well shut down and let another business in!
The food was pretty good, but be prepared to pay more than what you asked for. The manager/​owner of this restaurant will rig your bill so that they don’t lose the price of what they originally paid for the seafood.
The sales tactics is unreasonable here so don’t bother coming here for seafood because you’ll pay way more than what you expect. The manager and owner are both unethical in their way of treating customers.

Authentic Delicacy Dim Sum
New from Old
My hosting friend said: «I am taking you to the best place for dim sum., the food is little pricy but worth It. And we are going to enjoy it!» So here we came.
I had actually dined at this location before but not at the now newly renovated since months ago. Oh yes, I was much pleased of the well lighted open area., the dim sum ladies wore cheerful outfits, the table cloths and napkins were coordinated. Ok, I’m ready!
I have found the following dim sum transformed from old tradition to new contemporary:
Minced Beef Rice Noodle Roll — well seasoned, the beef is soft not chewy
Steamed Tunip Cake — well garnished with lots tunip
Shi Hai Steamed BBQ Pork Bun — warm steaming buns, minced pork were not overpowered by BBQ sauce
Shrimp & Sprout Leaves Dumpling — the steamed jade green in see thru wrap were very inviting
These cold dishes were impressive:
Fungus with Spicy Vinegar Sauce — very refreshing in the hot summer day
Cold Rosted Pork Belly — crispy outside soft inside, garnishing well with very thin sliced cucumber, lovely presentation
The must have — the heavenly indulgent desserts!
Blue Mountain Coffee Cake — the in between layers of jello and coffee cake — a perfect match in color and in texture
Shi Hai Creamy Bun — the warm creamy filling mixed with salty-​egg-​yolk was unbelievable delicious — it lived up to the Chinese description of the «running sand bun.»
The dim sum we had were all well prepared in good quality … properly seasoned, wrapped, steamed, and presented.
Thank you very much my friend, for the fantastic new experience!

My mom saw an advertisement for this place in the LA TImes and mentioned it when we were nearby. I felt like dim sum, so we decided to go. There was a sign outside like they just opened, but when I looked at Unilocal,I was surprised when they only had 2.5 stars and 126 reviews. Oh well, we were already committed.
Things we liked:
–No wait on a Sunday afternoon (probably for the reasons they have 2.5 stars.)
–You order off a menu with pictures, Chinese, and English (no ladies yelling their dishes.)
–There are no carts bumping and squeezing by (they bring your orders straight to your table.)
–Food is fresh.
–The place is clean, especially the restroom.
I definitely understand the low rating though. Those things aren’t enough to make up for the bad.
–When we walked up to the hostess counter, there were two people there and neither acknowledged us. We had to ask them if this is where we should come to get a table. We also had problems getting someone to take our order, get the bill, and get to-​go boxes.
–PRICES ARE MUCH HIGHER than most dim sum restaurants. I would say about 40% more expensive. So not worth it.
–Like many, the cute piggy buns caught our eyes and we had to order them. Unfortunately, like most of the food, they LACKED ANY FLAVOR. Nothing was good, just okay. That’s the deal breaker!
For bad service and expensive food, it better be delicious and it’s not. I won’t be going back again.

Those of you who know me know that I like my Chinese food. I especially like my dim sum served hot and flavorful. I’ve eaten all throughout China, so I KNOW bad Chinese.
I really could care less about the service, unless it affects the actual food. but this place is overpriced! And when I say overpriced, I mean anywhere from 2 to 4 times the price of any other place that we go in the SGV. you can go to capital seafood and get a plate for a 1.97. At Shi hai you’re going to be paying a minimum of 2.99 if not 4.99. Be warned. The will serve large as often as possible. The discount makes no difference at the end.
There is no octopus in their octopus rolls, and everything seems to be made with the same type of shrimp that lacks flavor or non-​rubbery texture. The shrimp has been boiled, rolled in flour and the steamed again. You will walk out with a baby cannonball in your stomach, and a much lighter wallet.
Steer clear.

Dim Sum Prices: This place will stay at two stars since the portions are big.
$ 1.28 tea per person
(S) Dishes are $ 2.99
(M) Dishes are $ 3.99
(L) Dishes are $ 4.99
(SP) Dishes are $ 5.99
(ES) Dishes are $ 6.99
Decided to try our this place for dim sum… I know I had mentioned that I wouldn’t come here for dim sum and I was right! Overpriced and mediocre service. I wanted to leave and go to Five Star Ocean Restaurant for dim sum or Henry Cuisine down the street, but Mom wanted to stay since they had already brought out our tea (we didn’t even poured the tea or ordered yet)…but I figure I’ll let Mom taste dim sum here and let her see the pricing of the only 8 items.
This place is a paper order dim sum and not my push cart ladies. The following items favor from decent to meh:
1. Siu Mai $ 3.99 (M): 4 big steamed meat dumplings with roe on top. They are bigger than golf balls. Ordered to go for Dad.
2. Hai Gow $ 3.99 (M): 4 shrimp dumpling with lotsa shrimp inside and bigger than golf balls too. Ordered to go for Dad.
3. Bean curd wrap with meat $ 4.99(L) inside with its own steamed oily soup — pretty good and tender. The wrap broken apart with easy.
4. Pan Fried Dumpling $ 3.99 (M): Lots of meat and veggies inside. For 3 pieces, it was huge and good, but would have liked it to be fried brown a little longer.
5. Surf Clam with Crab Egg Dumpling $ 4.99 (L): we had to get a new one because the one they gave us was a little uncooked for the wrapping, otherwise the meat and clam were nicely cooked when they brought out the new one.
6. Shrimp and asparagus Rice Noodle Roll $ 4.99 (L): Super Bland! No amount of soy sauce could make it better and I didn’t taste asparagus. Boring!
I liked that the dim sum items were large, but we ended up spending $ 37.00 for 8 items. Other dim sum places would have easily killed more than 8 plates and would be cheaper. Service sucks — they would be forgetful at getting us things like a menu, extra water glass or even the freaking check.
For this type of paper order dim sum, go to Elite Restaurant in Monterey park. There’s more selection over there and cheaper. Would not come back here. Way tooooo overpriced.

When I go to a Chinese restaurant I don’t expect particularly friendly or good service so this aspect doesn’t usually impact my rating. But I’ll make an exception in this case. Quick and efficient this was not. It was dinner time and the restaurant was packed but that shouldn’t be an excuse. Our order went into the system at 7:29 pm and it took nearly an hour and two admonishments from my mom before the soup came out. The soup! Anyone who dines at a Chinese restaurant knows how quickly this comes out to start off the meal, 5 – 10 minutes on average. But an hour?!
Plus, we only ordered four items. The soup was the third item to come out. By 8:47 pm, we flagged down a server to cancel our last dish. Just as we were finished speaking, it arrived and we decided to keep it.
This was definitely the worse service at a Chinese restaurant I’ve experienced yet. And it wasn’t just us. We looked around and other tables were waiting on food too. I kind of felt bad for the servers who were getting barked at by my mom and other patrons. It wasn’t their fault after all. The fault falls squarely on the kitchen.
It’s a shame because the food was pretty good. The ASSORTED BBQ COMBINATION PLATE and BRAISED VERMICELLI IN POT were both dishes I’d want again. The MINCED BEEF SOUP and LOBSTER were fine too but didn’t stand out for me. You could get those at other places.

S=$ 2.99 M=$ 3.99 L=$ 4.99 SP= $ 5.99 ES=$ 6.99 Tea $ 1.28/person
Dim Sum– No Carts
40% off entire bill for Dim Sum Monday-​Friday
I was enticed by the pinch your cheeks, cuteness, of the Piggy Bao, to dim sum at Shi Hai. Those adorable pink ears and nose along with the 40% off was an irresistible combo.
Shi Hai is a newly opened modern establishment packed to the brim with Asians. I saw no non asians on my visit. The restaurant is clean, shiny and new. The entrance way with its lacquered wood makes you feel like you are entering a very expensive venue. The restrooms are fancy schmancy as well. Unfortunately, they could have been kept up a bit better.
I wouldn’t recommend fried dim sum items here. The fried items soak up grease, and if left to sit too long, taste heavy and oily. Examples: crusted shrimp balls-​fried greasy; golden pancakes with cured meat– delicious initially, greasy once cold; crispy crueler rice roll-​greasy crueler wrapped in slimy rice paper. Yikes!
Stick to the steamed Items and you’ll feel less regret.
The one odd steamed item was the Surf clam dumpling topped with the little orange fish balls that normally garnish sushi. It makes one think you are eating sushi, especially if dipped in the Chinese mustard.
Highlight of the visit was the piggy bao! Cuteness Overload! The wrapper didn’t take on the flavors of the surrounding food and that is always my quality control test for a place that serves wheat bao’s. They pass with flying colors!
40% off means that you can get away with Dim Sum for about $ 10/​person on weekdays, depending on what you order. Pretty sweet deal.

11am to noon on weekends is the peak hour for dim sum in the San Gabriel Valley, so when we arrived at 11:30am on Saturday and found Shi Hai only at ²⁄₃ capacity, we were shocked. There was no wait for a table.
We started off ordering the Taiwan Jasmine tea, which was brewed with tea leaves. Shi Hai’s sitting fee of $ 1.28/person is reasonable given the lineup of fine Chinese tea to select from (Hangzhou Chrysanthemum, Anxi Ti Guan Yin, Fujian Shoumei, Yunan Puer).
We ordered six items to share between two people.
Chicken Feet with Brown Sauce (味醬蒸鳳爪): The skin was soft and slippery, and the chicken feet appeared to have been marinated in a succulent sweet sauce. Rather than smothering the chicken feet with black beans and chili like some other dim sum restaurants do, Shi Hai places the chicken feet over a light broth containing cold crunchy peanuts. The taste of the broth is very similar to the one found in Chiu Chow braised goose, and the use of peanuts confirms my suspicion that there is some Chiu Chow twist to this dim sum dish.
Shi Hai Creamy Bun (世海流沙包): This passed the steaming test, the starchy skin was soft and smooth. Unfortunately, it was missing the most important feature — the burst of hot salted egg filling at the moment my teeth penetrated the skin — as promised by the Chinese description. In other words, the absence of flowing ooze was attributed to the lack of filling inside the bun. Nevertheless, the egg yolk custard taste was on point, semi-​sweet and savory without being overly salty.
Surf Clam and Crab Egg Shrimp Dumpling (北極貝蟹子餃): In my opinion, this dish was more to highlight Shi Hai’s use of seafood and play on texture rather than taste. Not many dim sum restaurants incorporate surf clam into dishes because of it’s firm texture and it only offers a hint of sweetness that is often not noticeable. I didn’t find these dumplings to be too interesting. They were too large to be consumed in one one-​bite, so I deconstructed my dumpling, first devouring the thick chewy skin that encloses a plump meaty shrimp, then dabbing the salty fish roe on my lips, and finishing with a rubbery surf clam flesh. Consumption of this dim sum dish can be a decent workout for the mouth.
Salty Pancake with Assorted Meat (家鄉鹹薄撑): This is a unique creation where the chef swaps the sweet flavor from a traditional sweet pancake (can be found at Elite) with a salty variation. I’ve seen this pancake (round shape) at Hakka-​style restaurants in Hong Kong but had never encountered it in the US. There was spiced Hakka-​style shredded pork scattered over the «pancakes». A must-​order if you are looking for a non-​conventional dim sum dish.
Watercress and Salty Pork Bone Congee (西洋菜鹹骨粥): The best pot of congee I’ve had at a dim sum restaurant in LA. The pot yielded about 5 bowls worth of velvety smooth congee that was primarily flavored with ginger and marinated pork ribs. There was no need to add additional salt or toppings. The watercress was fresh and had a bitter herbal taste (think mom’s Chinese homemade slow cooked soup) that neutralized the savoury flavors from the pork ribs.
Fresh Shrimp Rice Roll (鮮蝦腸粉): Largest shrimps I’ve ever seen stuffed in a rice roll. The shrimps have a fresh refreshing crunch and rich umami seafood flavor. Despite the use of fine ingredients, a heavy pour of soy sauce over the rice roll spoiled the product. It made the skin soggy and too salty, we had to pour the sauce out.
Service was hit and miss. The servers were attentive and frequently swapped out my dirty plates, which is not so common at LA dim sum restaurants. I did not like how the server poured so much soy sauce over the rice roll without asking though, as if we were foreigners. In addition, the rice roll we ordered did not include asparagus as described on the menu. The staff failed to notify us that the ingredient was not available until the order was dropped off, and did not offer a replacement. Communication could have been better.
Shi Hai’s use of fresh seafood and luxurious ingredients might justify the high prices, but it’s not a place too many locals can afford on a weekly or monthly basis. Although I enjoyed Shi Hai’s dim sum, especially the ones with subtle Hakka and Chiu Chow influence, I don’t think I will be returning often unless Shi Hai can offer a 40% off deal on weekends.

This is my second visit here for dim sum as well, I like their food quality, but hate the price and lousy service, But now they offer whooping 40% off discount for weekday dim sun, that’s good enough for me to return and gave this place another shot.
With the deep 40% discount, the dim sum price is on pair most other location and cheaper than a few, I can tell you the dim sum quality is one of better on 626, Jonathn gold said this is the best dim sum in the area. That’s a bit inaccurate, this place is good but not the best.
For the current 40% off price, no doubt is of best bang dim sum, great dim sum in a affordable price. However, the service still weak and need a improvement,