Triumphal Palace

This is the worst restaurant I’ve been to. I used to live above this restaurant then my friends said, «let’s have a chinese new year dinner here.» Yes, Asians always look younger than the actual age, but this is an Asian restaurant and they treated us as if we’re like teenage kids who come to nice restaurants with no money.
The waiters were definitely rude. They purposely made a lot of noises when serving as if they’re throwing all the plates onto the tables and trust me, I almost screamed if my friends didn’t stop me. When the food came, the order size were so tiny that it’s ridiculous for the price. Then the bills come, yes it’s very expensive but hey we’re ready to pay that amount when we decided to come, but the manager or the waiter who handed us the bill looked at us (literally more than 10 of us) like we didn’t have that much money to spend.
Taste wise, this restaurant is not bad, but service just bring down everything.
Seriously I hope their service now is better than when I was there, if not, I don’t think this restaurant would survive. As for my experience, it was very disatisfied completely…

This place is now called Lunasia.
Pretty much the same menu as Triumphal but shitty service.
Great dim sum! I love this place! It’s clean and good! Try the taro cake with XO sauce! so darn good! and the OG stuff like har gow and beef /​shrimp rice noodle rolls are the bomb! The sticky fried rice is yummy as well. They even have the sweet ginger soft tofu dessert! My only gripe is you have to order from a checklist… i like ordering from carts just like they do in HK.
Please note I haven’t been to HK in years but i have been informed that they do checklists as well now. Over are the days the old ladies bump our elbows with carts!

Executive Summary:
Food: B+
Service: B
Environment: A–
Value: B–
Food is good. It’s not spectacular, but the nature of menu based (versus cart based) dim sum is that it comes out hot and fresh. The selections are nice as well.
Service: I read some complaints of poor/​apathetic service here, but we experienced very good dim sum service, which is equivalent to semi-​mediocre American restaurant service. I like the two-​sided dim sum menu. I think the next release of this menu should be picture based, perhaps on a tablet PC or a picture menu you can access from your iPhone/​smart-​phone via browser. You could then make your selections and send them straight to the kitchen! Cut out another hand-​off in the dim sum supply chain.
Environment was excellent. The restaurant is very nice in the daylight and the tables are generously spaced apart — very rare in Chinese restaurants. My six year old said to me, «Daddy, it’s weird in here because it’s not noisy.» I really enjoyed the less frenetic experience at Triumphal. BTW, this name nearly approaches Japanese levels of literary hyperbole!!!
Finally, price — $ 4 for 5 haw gao? Didn’t anyone tell them there’s a recession!!! Practically everything good on the dim sum menu is an (L), thus $ 4. Anything labeled (L)arge should make me think «Wow, that’s a lot of dim sum in one steamer.» Five haw gao in one order — how many parties of five are there? Dim sum should never be served in a prime number. If it has to be a prime number, make it small so that ordering multiples makes sense. Ordering two orders of five for a party of six is just no good.
Overall, I like, but I don’t love.

I really liked this place my cousin brought me to. It was much nicer in the décor dept than other places I’ve been to and the dim sum was delicious.
I’m not sure how much it was as I didn’t pay, which might have affected my rating ;) But I’d come again as everything was fresh and all the shrimp and scallops dishes we ordered were perfect.
We were there late about 2pm and the restaurant promptly closes at 3pm so if you want the good stuff get there before me or they’ll be none left :)
PS — I just read in LA Weekly that this place got a mention in Michelin’s restaurant guide. Is that good or bad… u decide…

First of all, you gotta love the name. Leave it to the Chinese to come up with an over-​dramatic name. Triumphal Palace sounds like a joint where foreign diplomats and royalty go to get buffed out. Unfortunately, it’s just another Chinese restaurant in Alhambra.
The LA Times gave this place 3 stars! I don’t think this is a 3 star restaurant. However, I do consider Triumphal Palace to be the best dim sum in the LA area. I only recommend this spot for dim dum. I evaluate dim sum along the following dimensions:
1) Selection– they have a wide selection that goes well beyond the ubiquitous shumai and har gow dumplings.
2) Freshness– they cook their dim sum to order!!! So the dishes arrive hot and fresh.
3) Execution– preparing dim sum involves very delicate hands. For example, the thickness of the skin on various dumplings is a very reliable indication of the quality. The thinner, the better.
Triumphal Palace has a very unique ordering process. Typically, old Cantonese women roll carts around the dining room trying to sell you chicken feet and steamed pork buns. Not here.
The server gives you a sheet with all the dim sum menu items. To order, you simply need to check the boxes next to the menu items. This is brilliant. The kitchen fires the food as it is ordered. This ensures that your food arrives hot and fresh. It also eliminates the waiting game. I don’t know about you, but I hate having the same cart filled with everything that I DO NOT WANT TO EAT circle my table twenty times before the «good stuff» arrives. The only trick here is that you actually need to know what you want to order.
So here is a reliable guide for all you illiterate dim sum eaters:
1) shu mai (tiny open-​faced pork and shrimp filled dumplings)
2) har gow (tiny white rice flour dumplings filled with pink colored shrimp mousse)
3) steamed pork buns (white buns with a sweet pork filling)
4) steamed rice flour roll: shrimp, pork, or chicken (these look like white colored crêpe like rolls made of rice flour that’s steamed)
5) sticky rice wrapped in tea leaves filled with Chinese sausage and mushrooms (self-​explanatory)
6) Fried Turnip Cakes with oyster sauce (tiny rectangular shaped cakes speckled with ham and herbs)
The rest of the list starts to get crazy. We’re talking chicken feet, tripe, and beef tendon. The prices are expensive by dim sum standards. I don’t mind paying a few extra dollars for good dim sum in a CLEAN restaurant with CLEAN WASHROOMS. Nuff said.
Triumphal Palace is on my Fave 25 for best Dim Sum.

I like this place because it’s not as noisy as other dim sum places. Plus, it’s visually appealing and clean inside. The sheets of paper used for ordering are neat because it’s different, and I actually prefer this method because I like looking over all my options at once before proceeding to order. I am used to and like the traditional dim sum ways, but this provides a cool alternative.
I think I remember the mango pudding dessert being pretty good. Other stuff is good too, but nothing particularly stands out.

Solid dim sum joint. Not sure why people are complaining about the experience or authenticity of ordering vs. carts. In Hong Kong there are places with carts and there are places where you just order. Also noted that on the back side of the chinese ordering check list is the same menu in English.
Was impressed with the quality of the standard dishes and also noted that many of the tables had ordered larger dishes along with the dim sum. The place was deservedly packed. Service was really no better or worse than your standard dim sum place. I was surprised that this place wasn’t that large.

Thank god I’m just a simple white guy that still doesn’t know the first thing about dim-​sum. For me, if it’s hot, cheap, kind of meaty and doesn’t taste like ass, I’m a happy camper.
The crew decided that we all should have a Saturday morning dim-​sum meal. Sweet! This place is non-​cart, as many have stated, which is fine by me. While I enjoy seeing the food before I pick it, it irks me the slightest bit wondering how long that food has been rolling around for. So to Judy’s horror, Simon did most the ordering and we ended up with about a 50 – 50 split of dumplings to other random Chineser food. Fine by me.
The first highlight of the meal was the fried chicken. I haven’t had really good chicken in a long time and I bet it will rival the chicken I’m going to have in KY in a couple weeks. The skin was super crispy with just enough batter to not be overpowering. It was served on a bed of chili peppers and other spicy bits.
Next came everything. Some porridge, beef noodles, dumplings, turnip cake, yadda yadda yadda and a bunch of desserts.
By the end I was so stuffed I couldn’t eat the leftover desserts. The one misstep was that we never got our duck. Don’t know what happened there but I’m glad it didn’t make it. It would have been a test of my manhood to eat any more than I did. For $ 13.50 a person (6 of us) I was more than happy. It was definitely cheaper than Sea Harbour and I think I liked it more as well.

my fav dim sum place so far… price is high but… yum yum dim sum fun!!! its clean (looks), pretty contemporary, staff is… fast but not very friendly. maybe because i dont speak chinese. i like the fact that i can check off the dishes in english on the menu and just hand it over. no flagging down carts or getting run down by them.
my favs are
egg rolls
the fried mochi ball thing with the meat inside…
turnip cake
this rice roll with meat inside… that thing was good!!! i dont remember what its called.
shu mai
mm… have been there about 4 times in the last two months. cant wait to go again =d

Once upon a time I was a dim sum snob, it is my native food. Since I moved to SoCal a few years ago I pretty much have been abstaining from dim sum due to repeated disappointments. Through Unilocal grapevine I came upon this place. After reading the reviews I was skeptical but decided to give my dim sum roots one more try.
This place has no push carts. You order your dishes by marking off a form. It is all in Chinese. They might have an English version but not on our table.
Within one minute of our order, the porridge came. That definitely was not the 1^st dish I was hoping for, o well. Porridge was ok. It wasn’t pipling hot. I know it is over 100 outside but porridge should be hot.
Siu-​mai came next, there was 5 to an order. O no, I ordered too much food then. The siu-​mai is pretty nice, has a hint of fermented black-​bean flavor with dried scallops in it. This is a 4.
Eggplant stuffed with fish and shrimp paste — it is cooked with panko and fried to a golden brown. Nice texture, good temperature. Wish the fish cake is more juicy. The sauce could be better too. This cost $ 7.5.
The shark-​fin soup dumpling has a very good broth and they serve it with red rice vinegar. The broth has a clean taste to it. Fillings was decent with shrimp, some shark-​fin and crab in it. The skin was not too doughy. Decent but still not to the standard of the top Bay Area places. This dish defines whether the place is a high-​end dim sum place for me. They serve it so I guess they try to be one but not quite there.
Shrimp rice noodle (cheung fun) was not good. Dried skin and no detectable steam. The shrimp has a good crunch to it. The sweeten soy sauce also was uninspiring.
The place is clean and modern so this is non-​Chinese friendly assuming they have English menu.
I don’t like to order from the form. At least the way they do it here. The dishes came out too fast and I hate to see dim sum sitting around getting cold. Each time someone carries a few dishes and walk near our table I get anxiety since there are already 3 — 4 dishes sitting on the table.
We ordered a lot of food and it came out to be $ 53. This is about par with BA top end dim sum places. My quest continues. SoCal still does not have a top-​end dim sum places when measured against the standards of the BA and Vancouver — the Mecca for Cantonese food.
4 for interior and cleanliness
2.5 for overall food (some dishes are only a 2)
1 for order system
Please note the score in on my own ‘absolute’ scale, not relative to other socal dim sum places.
PS: I ordered other dishes but this is getting too long.
I just ate the left over stuffed eggplant and the oil does not taste fresh. I deducted ½ a star.

Does anyone know how I can give less than 1 star? I need to know for this review.
This place is NOT REAL DIM SUM… it’s like calling Panda Express authentic Chinese food!!! Anyone who gives this place a high rating have no idea what dim sum should taste like. All their flavors are off, especially their Shrimp Har Gow which was made with Maggi seasoning sauce (MSG soy sauce). My family is from Hong Kong, which is pretty much the Dim Sum capitol of the world. I’ve eaten enough dim sum to know that Maggi does not belong in dim sum!!!
The place has been «modernized/​westernized». I’ve got to saym they are the cleanest dim sum place around, but we all know that means jack when it comes to Chinese food. For a place that seeks «westerner» taste, their service was horrible. I actually had a «dim sum» lady say «kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme, kewme,» I’m not kidding you, she was trying to say «excuse me» to a group of people behind my table waiting to be seated. she got louder and louder. I don’t think she realized that it wasn’t that she wasn’t loud enough.
Anyway, don’t come here if you are looking for authentic dim sum, I’d say try Empress Harbor in Monterey Park. they are not as clean, wait is long, but their food is authentic and made by «Chefs» from Hong Kong, not underpaid Mexicans with no clear direction, experience and guidance and what the end product should look and taste like!

5 stars because I don’t know where to get better dim sum in LA. If this was in the Bay Area, I’d probably give it 4.
I first read about Triumphal Palace in the New York Times, which has let me down when it comes to Asian foods (e.g., Momofuku). However, this article cited Carl Chu’s «Asian Food Finder: Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley», which is a compilation and review of a ton of Chinese restaurants. Since I was desperate for good Chinese food, I was willing to blindly trust a random Chinese guy’s opinion and bought the book. Then I headed to Triumphal Palace. Since then, I haven’t gone anywhere else in LA for dim sum.
I’ll explain my dim sum rating methodology: I look at the rice noodles. I once read that the test of a good dim sum chef was whether or not they could turn out good rice noodles, because they are simple, but finicky. Technique is important here. The best rice noodle is soft, chewy, and holds its texture. The rice noodles at Triumphal Palace do just that, so when they’re wrapped around shrimp or bbq pork, they hold up well. They’re also great to eat when they’re served plain, rolled up into penne sized pieces, and dipped in a sesame-​based sauce. They would be good dipped in hot sauce, too.
I really have a problem with complaints about the cost of «expensive» dim sum. Usually you get what you pay for in dim sum. It’s already pretty cheap, considering it’s labor-​intensive to make and you’re eating a lot of seafood. I’d rather know that I’m not going to get sick eating good shrimp rather than take my chances with stuff that’s been sitting around just a little too long. I’m not sure how much cheaper dim sum at Triumphal Palace can get, but I think it’s worth driving from Orange County and paying for.

Variety and good execution and fresh. That’s it. Those are the things that make a dim sum place good. Triumphal Palace has it all.
It took me forever to come here because of a general gut feeling that turned out to be wrong. I was so very pleasantly surprised by Triumphal.
I’m all about variety when it comes to dim sum. I’ve been eating it all my life, and get kind of bored with the same old same old. We did get some obligatory har gow, but skipped the siu mai. Got a ton of food. My fav was the pea shoot and seafood dumpling.
Everything was so freshly hot. It was great. I was a bit disappointed about the shrimp cheung fun, the dish by which I judge all dim sum places. I still have not found the dim sum place that does this well. Ocean in Chinatown used to make it perfectly for many many years, but then they had to go and change it, ruined it.
The entire staff at Triumphal sucked. The host, everyone at the host station, the waitstaff: all rude, unfriendly, completely inhospitable. Everyone was frowning the whole time. I had made reservations well in advance and they didn’t bother to hold any tables for me, but we ended up getting the two large tables in the private room, so that was good.
But we had a great time. And the dim sum was really good, so I will definitely be back.

I was going to say something about how this place has «triumphal”-ed over my previous favorite dim sum joint (888 Seafood), but I think I’ll spare you. But, Triumphal Palace really is quite exceptional. Classy décor, prompt/​no-​nonsense service, parking’s a cinch, tableside Kleenex packets! It’s smaller than most dim sum places and not nearly as loud and annoying. You order the dishes from a checklist and they bring it to your table, instead of having to flag down the crazy ladies with the metal carts (which is STRESSFUL, is it not).
The dishes are a bit more expensive compared to other dim sum places, but that’s because the quality is exponentially better. The siu mai is one of the best that I’ve ever had, really plump and juicy and flavorful, and the shrimp cheong fun (rice noodle wrapper/​rolls) are AMMAAAAZZINNNG OMG. They put leeks in them– leeks! Who woulda thunk it? Shaolongbao’s are tiny but excellent, and you can never go wrong with chicken feet.
We also ordered the turnip cake stir-​fried in XO sauce and the steamed fish rice noodle soup. Both yum-​tastic.
The only bad thing that I can say about this place is the wait, which can get pretty bad on busy days/​peak meal hours. But worth it.

For many years, I have always gave an opinion of dim sum in SGV are overrated (they are!). To my amazement, I didn’t think I was going to really find a decent one until this place was suggested to me.
My search for dim sum places had already been extend to Seafood Harbour, 888, Elite (not as elite as you think), Ocean Star, Empress Harbor, Mission 261… I can go on, but these places are good, but nothing to rave about.
My expectation for this place was very low. I was optimistic, but will be satisfied if I didn’t have to wait for a table. In one afternoon, I decided to invite a group of friends to join me on my first outing here. With a good news of being able to reserve a table for dim sum without the lousy prefix banquet menu, I was able to secure a table for 10 people.
The good news got even better as the table was in a private room. It felt like we were treated royalty. Our group sprinkled in one at a time at 5 – 10 minutes apart. The wait staff was nervous about getting an order in as I decided to wait until everyone was in before ordering.
The way on how dim sum order works in this place was that you need to fill out a quantity number for the items you wished to order. Like a sushi call list, you will need to determine before hand on which items to order. The advantage of this type of ordering is that you will get the item hot and fresh. The disadvantage was that you don’t know whether or not is enough for the table.
Yep, you got it… we over ordered by a huge bunch. We ordered 32 items for 10 people.
We decided to split between the conventional items (hai-​gaw, shumai, the greasy pork ribs, beef ball, turnip cake, BBQ pork buns) and the «on menu» items (combination fried noodles). The conventional items were tummy stuffers and I overestimated on how fast these things could fill you up.
What I didn’t realized was that a lot more dishes starts to fly in like chicken steamed buns, two different types of dumplings (one of them was a xiao long bao) and we also ordered beef tripes and chicken feet. We had gone overboard and was induced into a food coma shortly after.
Majority of the food we got was very good to what we have expected to be. There are no real nasty bunch in the items we ordered except for the combination noodle because the food was way too much. Majority of the dishes was nicely presented or not breaking down like what I got from 888 or at Ten Ten Seafood.
The final tab came out to be around $ 25 each with sales taxes and tips included. So we got off lucky because we took home at least half dozens of full boxes of leftovers.
With the dim sum lunch gone off without a major hitch as the service was much better than anticipated as they were pretty much got everything what we wanted at the time. As I was saying, it seemed like we were treated with royalty when were in that private room. Plus I was close to the door and they had to see me waving one time to come to me right away.
Normally I would give this place a four star, but the accommodations and service made the lunch more than bearable and plus nobody in my group gave me a rough time about it. (that is always good in my book). With the extra nice touches, I decided to be extra generous and push up a star for this place.
Since I had such a good experience, I came back here again to test out their Peking duck based on Judy W.‘s recommendation in her review. Yes people, you got to try that if you are here.
The only major gripes was the over ordering of food on my part and the group had the common decency to do it in my back. (hahaha, thanks guys!). Plus with no carts, it also meant less employment opportunities for the much needed senior citizens ladies. Boo on that part.
After all this, I probably here over the other places because it’s less crowded, nicer surroundings, better service, and most important of all… food that will put you in food coma. Thanks to Judy M. for her recommendation of the place!
For once, there might be hope for SGV for a dim sum place. Give this place a try on a Saturday afternoon when there is a less crowd.

We drove out to Alhambra for a dim sum lunch hosted by Mike L at Triumphal Palace. Lucky us since we managed to score a private room. There were 10 of us and I got to meet some new Unilocalers as well as revisit with those I’d met before.
The restaurant is really nice and new, décor is upscale in the Chinese restaurant sense — not dingy and disgusting! There is underground
parking which is free, but if you’re a bit late then it might get filled up rather quickly.
The dim sum doesn’t arrive via push carts, but you have to order them off a list. We left the ordering to Mike and I think we ended up with enough food for 15 people. I liked most of the items we tried and a few which were just so-​so:
Siu mai: pretty good here — I’m not a siu mai fan usually
Har Gow: the shrimp were weird as they were two medium shrimps and there were no bamboo shoots in ‘em.
Turnip cake: this was not very good, too doughy and not fried too well
Chicken’s feet: very well done, fell right off the bone
Beef Ball: nicely flavored although could’ve done with a little bit more preserved orange peel
Ginger and scallion tripe: excellent! very flavorful and nice texture
Rice noodles with sweet and sesame sauce: I liked the sauce but felt that the rice noodles were a little too firm and cold as if they didn’t steam it fresh
XLB: gross! don’t order them here.
The rest of the dumplings had way too much wrapper — thick and gooey: scallop, vegetarian and the one with peanuts in it.
Chicken buns: nice filling but again, bun to filling ratio is too much (bun)
BBQ pork buns: lil guy ate 2 of these so they must be good
There were a lot more items but I’m in too much of a food coma to list them all. You get the gist!
I’d give them 3.5 stars since overall it was good even if some of the items weren’t all that stellar and being the generous person that I am I’m bumping them up to 4. I had a really great time as usual with a great group of people!

Sorry charlie,
We drove all the way out to Alhambra because the New York Times article described the food like the second-​coming of Christ meets the invention of soy-​sauce. It particularly went on and on about the roasted duck.
If I ever meet the author of that article, Mark Bittman, I owe him a punch in the nose.
Triumphal Palace? Disappointing Dwelling.
— — — — — –
UPDATE 6.1.2008
Your ass is mine Bittman

Pretension and dim sum do not go together. I came here for the food, not the warm wrapped towelettes or the stiff, borderline snooty, host. If the food were hot and tasty, I wouldn’t care. But my har gow came out cool and rubbery. My soup was not steaming.
I’ll give them two stars for the cleanliness and fast service, but what good is that when the food is not up to par.

January became the start of my 12 month odyssey checking out a different Dim Sum restaurant a month all over LA County. My trip started last month with Triumphal Palace in Alhambra.
Triumphal Palace is one of the Dim Sum restaurants where dim sum is ordered off a menu versus getting them off runaway carts. This is only my second experience with ordering off a menu and I have to say that I really prefer it that way. With carts, it sometimes feels like you’re a mad dog rushing after a speeding cat. You either catch it or you get completely left behind. Now how frustrating is that? At least, with a menu, you’ll definitely get what you order eventually. Anyway, on to the food.
My dim sum that morning consisted of 15 various dishes. Of the 15, there are two I would never order again. One was the House Special Dumpling in Supreme Soup Stock. I didn’t taste the soup so I can’t speak to it, but that Special Dumpling was definitely not that special. It was rubbery. Enough said.
I also didn’t fare well with the Shanghai-​Style Dumplings. With them being referred to as Shanghai-​Style, I was expecting «juicy» dumplings, but I should have lowered my expections because there was really no broth to be found.
Of the 10 left that were savory options, 4 stood out for me. One was the Rice Noodle with Hot and Sweet Sauce. I loved the duality of sauce flavors and I liked the fact that the noodles weren’t sticky-​starchy and had a nice smooth eating texture to them.
Second was the deep fried chicken wings. The skin was golden and crispy and the chicken had a tanginess-​hotness to it that I liked a lot. Third was the deep fried shrimp in seaweed roll. Deep fried seaweed is quite crunchy and when combined with deep fried shrimp, it’s quite easy to enjoy every bite of this fun pairing.
Last was the Sticky Rice in Lotus Wrap. The rice was moist and had just the right consistency of being «sticky» without being over done. As for the flavor, I appreciated both the sweetness of the rice as well as the savory aspect of the meat and sauce that was part of the rice.
As for the 3 desserts we shared, one item caught us by surprise. We ordered a «Sweet Sesame Ball» and was expecting the round sesame-​coated bread balls with some kind of sweet bean paste and got something not fitting that description.
Instead, what came to us were these three «dough-​like» spheres coating with something powdery and inside was more of a runny black bean liquid. Interesting flavor, but not what we were looking for.
Overall, when looking at my Dim Sum experience at Triumphal Palace, I’d say that our Dim Sum choices were for the most part, good solid dishes. While I did have my favorites, there wasn’t anything in particular that would make me want to take a special Dim Sum trip back to Triumphal Palace at this point.
Perhaps a second visit with different menu choices will garner me a better culinary experience, but for now, Triumphal Palace wasn’t quite the triumph for me just yet.
To see pics, go to:

Modern and unique presentation of traditional HK dishes. I had yet another bday meal here and was pleasantly surprised by the yummy foods and modern atmosphere of this Alhambra eatery… it ain’t no shau mei!
Everything was yummy and I enjoyed my long life noodles… I hope it works! :)
*Check out my photos at Triamphal to see how unique everything looks!*