China Red

Best dim sum in the San Gabriel Valley. It’s a bit pricier than other dim sum restaurants but the quality and service is top notch. It’s nice that we don’t have to chase down the dim sum carts and get mean looks from the cart ladies for not ordering if we don’t like the items in the cart.

Solid portions and despite the bad service reviews our food came out fairly quickly (sans the pork bao).
Tea and water were constantly refilled and the servers cleared everything promptly.
As for the food…
The real standout was the golden bun — creamy and sweet with the perfect bite on the bread.
Pork bao was solid as well and I was pleasantly surprised by the fried rice which was quite well spiced and mixed.
All the shrimp dishes had large shrimp and perfect soft noodle wrappings.
The last one I really enjoyed was the fried taro «nest». The texture alone is pleasing both visually and on the palette.
Overall solid offering but not quite pushing it to the elusive 5 star. For now I’ll leave that last star where it belongs in Hong Kong.
This is still worth a visit — don’t miss it when you are in the area!

Pro: Little wait time on a Sunday noon. Friendly staff and fast service.
Con: Food… The egg tart was still raw in the middle and the dumpling taste like its been re-​heated one too many time.
Verdict: Won’t come back… Especially when there are so many competition around the SGV.

It’s getting quite crowded during lunch hours and we have to queue for a seat.
However, the food here is definitely worth ur wait. The steamed shrimp dumpling, the pork&shrimp dumpling, the steamed shrimp rice noodle roll, the chicken feet w/​black bean sauce, the honey walnut shrimp&the braised string bean are really delicious. There is only one dish which I’m not so satisfied with is the pork ribs with special garlic, as the pork ribs is quite bland&dry, hope there is a improvement in the future.

For dim sum, the service here is slow. Waited 15 minutes for already pre-​made dishes such as congee and soup to arrive. However, I will say, the quality of the food is good, and still worth the wait.
My favorite dish is the Beef Tripe (Niu Bai Ye). I know this is an ordinary dish that you can find at any Cantonese restaurant, but what’s different is that they use a lot of fresh ginger, which adds a nice heat to the dish. I also liked the Sticky Rice Wrap and Chicken Feet, a nice balance of savory and sweet.
Tip: the parking lot gets packed. Had to wait 5 – 10 minutes for a spot. Come early!

yum! Love me some dim sum. It is hard to find a really great dim sum place in Minneapolis or maybe it’s just hard to drag my hubby along with me! This place does not have the dim sum carts. You order the dim sums off of a menu and the servers enters your order into the computer and then bring the food out when it’s ready. I went with a bunch of extended relatives so there was lots of variety! Food was pretty decent and fresh for the most part. Very busy parking lot! It took a while to find parking. I suggest getting there about 10 minutes before hand to try and find a spot.

Based purely on the food, this place is a five star. Probably the best dim sum I’ve eaten in the San Gabriel Valley. I had the usual dim sum favorites (har gow, siu mai, etc.). They all blew me away. Haven’t had dim sum this good since I was in Hong Kong. All were very scrumptious and flavorful. However, the golden lava bao sealed the deal. You definitely won’t find a place that makes it as good. Soft bun on the outside, oozing goodness on the inside. Great food, definitely plan on coming back multiple times.
The wait times are as expected of dim sum places, especially from 9am to 1pm (around 20mins to 40mins). I came on mother’s day and waited nearly 2 hours. No complaints there.
My knock on the place is that they had actually forgotten our number. Additionally, the tea game is weak here. It was lukewarm (even after getting a refill) and not very enjoyable.

Why is the service so awful and the food so good???
I had THE WORST experience here as far as service goes. I was eating out by myself on Mother’s Day. (It gets worse).
I waited over an hour just to be seated. Plenty of large parties who arrived after me were seated like 30 minutes before me.
Then once I have my teeny table, I immediately ordered my food since I had plenty of time to read the menu.
After 30 minutes I get one dish. 30 minutes after that I’m annoyed as hell, full off 2 pots of tea, and ready to leave. I tell the server I waited too long and I wanted to cancel my order. Less than a minute later my full order is on the table. Wtf.
My food:
Pan fried pork sesame thing– soooooooo good. I didn’t really like the dipping sauce. But dang these were good.
Egg tarts– good. Lots of crust but the crust was good.
Shrimp dumplings– fresh and tasty.
Lava buns– two were overlooked and the third was perfect.
Sooooo… Yes the food is great. My overall experience was still awful. I would go back on a weekday right when they open.

Been here twice now and will definitely be back again. A little on the pricier side for dim sum, but hey, it’s still dim sum so your bill will be much lower in comparison to any other style sit-​down. Quality and location justifies the means for us.
Parking gets full quick, but there’s an overflow lot right next door. The décor of the main room is noteworthy, clean, and open. Unfortunately, the first time we ate here, we got seated in the smaller room that appears to be used partially for storage. We sat in the very corner, behind the door so it was a bit uncomfortable to say the least. Eating while staring at the old storage wall and back of the door, while knowing there’s a big, nicely decorated room next to you was a bit disappointing the first time.
Tip: if you’re bringing out-​of-​towners or anyone you’re trying to impress, make sure to request NOT to sit in the small room. It kind of makes you feel like peasants.
Overall, dim sum here is better than average, so it’ll most likely become our go-​to place for quality and location. The more people you bring, the more you can try.

Most of the dishes were great: tripe, abalone sticky rice, golden bao, crispy tofu skin roll, beef rice roll.
Some were okay: shrimp dumpling, neat taro golden filled bao.
Chicken feet were meh.
There were several dishes I wish I could have tried if we had more people.
It was average for price. Not super cheap but good quality and quantity for the price.

Recently visited China Red for a late dim sum this past Sunday with some friends. The restaurant interior is modern and stylish and they offer a range of traditional Chinese tapas including chicken feet, har gaw, shu mai, among other things. I was disappointed by their turnip cake as it was not crispy enough, but aside from that one item everything was pretty good. Two thumbs up!

yes. better believe your eyes. i’m giving a dim sum place 4 stars. wtf.
first of all, this is not your typical dim sum place. they do not push carts over here. you will need to order everything off of a menu and wait for your food.
this dim sum place is clean and well kept. i’ve been to some dim sum places that look like a cdc contamination zone.
the reason i give this place such a high rating, is that this is the first place that introduced me to the golden lava baos. holy shit. if you’ve never tried them before, trust me and come here and order it. they have two versions of it. the regular baos, and the taro baos. both baos will contain the golden lava. i don’t know how to describe it, but i imagine its the same feeling you get when drinking liquid gold while winning the lotto. you just feel like a million bucks.
the other food we got were also tasty and memorable, but the golden lava baos were the best item bar none.
as for the line/​wait: the wait was not too bad. we came during lunch hour during the weekend, and i thought the wait time would be killer, but we were able to get seated in roughly 15 mins.

Still very, very good, but there is a huge difference between dine– in and take out.
With dine-​in you get it fresh out of the steamer and the oven. If you do not eat the foods for a while then the foods get moisture from the heats of the foods and the air and get soft. So this foods are best eaten in the restaurant.
Have their potstickers… it is so so.
About parking this is the limiting factor for the business. If you are not at the restaurant before 11 on the weekends, you are not going to park in their lot. So the message is to get there early – especially the weekends.

Brought my boyfriend here for dimsum this morning, he loved it. He’ve been to many dimsum places around the area, and was impressed by the interior decoration– very Chinese and traditional.
We came here around 11:45am on a Monday– President’s day, as expected there was a wait. We waited for about 45 minutes. Quite a long wait but it nothin new, most dimsum places have long wait.
We ordered 7 dishes for two person.
1. Pork and shrimp dumplings
2. Steamed pork ribs
3. Chicken feet with black bean sauce
4. Chicken bean curd with cordyceps flowers
5. Crisp cream yam bun (Best dish!!)
6. Steamed beef rice noodle roll
7. Steamed asparagus shrimp rice noodle roll
All these dishes are in the Medium size category, priced $ 3.68 each dish. Fairly expensive compared to other dimsum places but the quality here is sooo much better. Each dish was so tasteful and refresh. My favorite dishes are the Steamed asparagus shrimp rice noodle roll and Crisp cream yam bun! Crisp cream yum bun has melting egg yolk inside that covers with purple chewy bun that taste like mochi. It was so so good. I ended up eating two of them and wanting to take an order to go (but didn’t). This is a MUST order when you come here! Perfect dessert to end the meal.
Ps. Some pics from last visit overlapped today’s review. Bottom 7 dishes was from today.

Good modern small-​ish place. The dim sum can be hit or miss but is generally good. Parking can be hit or miss also.

Some price here are unreasonable. I won’t come here again unless I want to waste another 600 bucks for a crab

Service: Quick and decent.
Food: Mediocre.
1. Pan fried shanghai style pork bun: ³⁄₅; I’ve had better. Not much flavor in bread or meat.
2. BBQ pork bao: ⁴⁄₅; meat to bread ratio was fine and flavor was fine. No wow factor though.
3. Pan fried leek dumpling: ²⁄₅; gelatinous skin was too thick and not pan fried at all. Seemed to be steamed. Flavor was enjoyable just because I enjoy leek.
4. Shrimp rice noodle: ⁵⁄₅; I liked this one. Sauce was not too salty and the rice noodle ratio to shrimp was perfect. Too much rice noodle is just unappealing.
5. Golden lava bao: ³⁄₅; the bread was not my favorite. It is the soft, white type. The filling was great though. The bread texture just ruined the bao though — if it is more like the browned, sweetened type, it would have been perfect.
6. Pan fried Goya: ¹⁄₅; these were absolutely terrible. It had a weird, lemony dish soap taste. It was also very greasy and bland. There are many places that charge less than $ 4 for three pieces with much better flavor. The skin thickness was fine though.
7. Tea: $ 2.56 for two people? I know other dim sum places that give you the tea for free. Now I’m sitting here writing a review so I have time to finish drinking the tea I had to pay for. It doesn’t taste like premium tea either, unlike the free tea at the other dim sum place.
In summary: I’m not impressed. I’m not disgusted either, but next time I won’t be letting my girlfriend pick the place for lunch.

Food was really good (nice and hot) but it took a while to get the dishes. Ordered 5 dishes that came out to $ 24. I’m not Chinese, so I couldn’t read the menu, but they did have English descriptions, so that helped.
How to order: there are 2 columns of boxes. The left column is for the first course set, and the right column is if you want a second round. The waiter will take your menu, and they will serve the dishes when they pass your table.

Very very large portions. I came here right when it opened with one friend and we couldn’t finish all of it. Ate the golden creamy Bao, which were oozing yellow sweet custard. So bomb! I’d forgo the pork soup dumplings, very mediocre. Service was a little slow for how empty it was but that may have been because they had just opened.

I have a love/​hate relationship with this place. Love, because the dim sum is cheap and reliably delicious. Hate, because more often than not the service sucks. But I can bare a little crummy service in exchange for those amazing purple gateways to heaven, picking clean the plump and juicy chicken feet, and chowing down on the leaf wrapped sticky rice and meat. And the turnip cake… A moment of silence please…
Ah the dim sum is sooo good! The aforementioned are faves but I’ve had and enjoyed various things off the menu. My coworker and I will come for lunch and are usually served pretty quick. Sometimes an item is forgotten about and never brought out (even when brought to the staff’s attention) or coming out 30min later. If you want extra chili than the measly bit they give you they WILL CHARGE you for it under tea. That surprised us and the second time they told us chili was included with tea, so you pretty much HAVE to have tea (at least it’s decent tea). And slow service checking out. But like I said, I’ll put up with it (don’t they know it) for the great food.

This is my favorite dim sum place in the San Gabriel area. It’s nice and close to my parent’s house. The food’s really good and the price is good as well. Eating here will not break the bank or empty your wallet. The only bad thing about this place is the parking lot. It’s pretty small and definitely isn’t big enough for the amount of people that wants to eat at this place. I try to get here on the weekends before 11am so parking is never really an issue at that time. I refuse to go any time after that because I just don’t want to deal with the parking situation.
The one dish I always order when trying out a new dim sum place is their har gou (shrimp dumplings). It’s a hard dish to get right and make tasty. The skin has to be nice and thin and still chewy and with a bit to it. Obviously the shrimp inside has to be fresh and not mushy. You’d be surprised how many places screws it up. This place has one of the best shrimp dumplings around. Probably the 2^nd best that I’ve ever had. This is how i know this place is good.
Definitely give this place a try. The service here is okay but it’s a dim sum place, you’re not here to be waited on like at booshie restaurant. You’re here for the food dammit!

Really good dim sum. There is no dim sum cart. You have to order from a waiter. Large portion, and you can taste the good quality ingredients. Delicious Shui Mai and Har Gow. Very happy with our experience at the restaurant.

China Red has some creative as well as traditional dim sum offerings, most of which are good.
GET:
–Shumai. They make these right.
–Spareribs
–Hahm Sui Gok was light and crispy
–XO sauce fried turnip cake. Greasy but oh so good. Dat XO sauce though.
OK:
–Chicken’s Feet could be better. Texture was not as soft but flavor was good.
–Special Cheong Fun was interesting as they had lightly panko-​crumbed shrimps inside.
–Fried sweet potato custard yolk fritter. Hmm, this was interesting. I am used to the custard yolk but not in this weird fried taro tasting fritter. I’d get it for kicks but it is REALLY FILLING.
A simple aside, as I don’t want to draw attention to it, but the soup dumplings/​XLB were not that good. Not sure why my friend got them save for the fact he just wanted them. But as a rule of thumb, I never get these at dim sum places as they hardly make these well. Remember, this is dim sum, not Din Tai Fung. That’s down the street though.
A huge YES to go to dim sum here!

The place is super busy especially on the weekends. It is helpful to bring a Chinese friend with you because the menu is in Chinese and I don’t read Chinese. The food was really tasty: Shrimp Dumplings, Seafood Chow Mien, and the Egg Tarts. The service was attentive considering that is not always the case in Chinese restaurants. I stayed away from the exotic stuff like Chicken Feet and other dishes I did not find too appetizing. This is a NO CART establishment which is a definite plus. Overall, I had a good experience here. There is a large parking lot in the back.

first time eating dim sum? wanting the true authentic dim sum experience for a newbie? this ain’t gonna be your spot. they don’t have little ladies with the push cart going around. you order off a sheet and they bring the food out to you. i personally kinda like being able to see the food being pushed around. it makes me feel like i am in asia. if you don’t care or are a seasoned veteran when it comes to dim sum then i say go to china red.
ordered:
*sizzling beef udon– flavorful. it’s actually pretty good. my husband and i were quite surprised. honestly we didn’t have much of an expectation for this dish as we usually order this dish at many hong kong cafes and my husband ultimate favorite is JJ café for this. but i would have to say that china red is a good second runner up.
*rice noodle wrapped with shrimp-​not bad. you can’t really go wrong with this dish. make sure you ask for extra soy sauce.
*xiao long bao– definitely ain’t the best when you have din tai fung down the street. but if you just need a quick fix then i say why not.
*siu mai-​bigger than other dim sum places. not bad in taste. make sure you ask for the chilli paste to dip it in.
overall, they didn’t have everything i typically like to order at other dim sum places i.e. the sweet tofu dessert, the fried shrimp paste in the sugar cane stick, etc. but it’s definitely one of the better tasting dim sum places around. do they get packed on the weekend? the answer is yes. so be prepared for a long wait. prices to me are a bit high but if its fresher and tastes better than other dim sum places than i say why not?!? you get for what you pay for right? service is not that great. we kept having to ask for refill on water, for the udon noodles as it was a good 10 minutes after we finished everything else before it even came out, etc.
tips:
*big parking lot in the back.
*cash and credit card accepted.
*separate gender restrooms with more than one stall for the female side.
*many staff does understand english.
*they do banquets here as well.

I was impressed; on point dim sum. Maybe because it’s newer and hasn’t decreased in quality/​condition yet. Usually, at dim sum, the small little plates are chipped, the coated finish is scratched, the chairs are sagging, walls are oil stained and faded, quality of the food isn’t the same. This place is not that. May get there in a couple months, years, but not today. Good food and competitive price.
They don’t have the ladies pushing the metal carts. Instead, you mark the desired plates on a menu and they take it and bring you a checklist. As they bring plates, they will cross it off the menu. We ordered the leek dumplings, Macau egg tart, sizzling beef udon, some bean curd thing, bbq pork bun. Leek dumplings were good, has shrimp in it too. Macau egg tart is different than the baked egg tart; the Macau one is bigger and has a delicious crust. The sizzling beef udon was a little oily, but that is expected.
I will return, but it gets BUSY. I can see why— because the place is good! They charge for tea. I believe it’s 2.56/person. They come around often to refill the pot.

Not your traditional dim sum place but hear me out, you order through a menu. Is it better? Some might say yes because it’s cook to order and not been in a cart for hours until it’s sold.
I’m starting to like the idea of just cook to order. I get so tired and fed up hunting down the things I want, like popular items and hard to get items like chicken feet and short ribs. With a menu you order off of you get exactly what you want and it comes hot and fresh. Quality is better than some.
The dim sum here were a lot bigger than the ones in SD… (Duh, SD doesn’t have good dim sum). The rice noodles with shrimp was thicker and yummier, they don’t however put the sauce all over it.
Service was meh. Sometimes we got attentive service other times we couldn’t even get water. Side note they put a pot of tea on your table automatically and charge you for it… How do you reject something that you didn’t know you had to pay for when tea is free at most dim sum?

High chair– yes
Changing table — no :(
Not stroller friendly, unless you have a super thin one.
Ever since Elite went downhill, I’ve been coming here. Their dimsim is mostly good but really inconsistent. My new favorite thing to eat is their yam cream balls. The purple fried balls with oozey eggy cream is amazing when it is fried just the right amount of time to get crispy without song or the eggy thing inside. So far they have only gotten it right 2 out of 4.
I’ve had really good turnip cake and not so good.
Good rice rolls and mushier than desirable.
Etc etc. You get the picture.

Pretty standard dim sum but pretty pricey. There are three different tiers priced at $ 2.38, $ 3.38, and $ 4.38. You won’t see old Asian ladies pushing around carts here, instead you check off what you want from a paper menu.
Hostess was extremely friendly though and tried to make conversation with us. She also apologized for the wait, which was understandable since we had a big party.

I have no complaints about this dim sum place! I was so thrilled when I found out it’s a menu order dim sum versus the chaotic cart version. I’ve had too many terrible experiences with cart ordering from them not coming to our table and not getting all that I really want fresh!
China Red serves just that, fresh dim sum. They give you a small menu, you check the first or second box indicating one or two trays and the dim magic begins. We ordered hot and sour soup to start (not from dim sum menu). It came out fresh, piping hot and flavorful! Not salty and you know it was just prepared.
From the dim sum menu we checked off the steamed shrimp dumplings, steamed veggies dumplings, minced pork fried rice, Chinese broccoli and pork buns. We were happy happy!
Hot tea about $ 1.50 each.
The place is very clean and it’s not overly crowded like most dim sum places. It’s was a very pleasant dim sum experience. Our waiter (s) were very attentive. Big plus!
I will be back for sure!

Of all the dim sum places that we’ve been too, China Red is the one that we frequent the most. It’s a favorite for the fiancé’s family.
It’s a pretty good dim sum restaurant. They don’t have push carts so everything is ordered from the menu. It’s not necessary to come here with someone who speaks Chinese since the menu does come with images. But to get the wait staff’s attention, you’re gonna need to be vocal.
The restaurant is somewhat ‘upscale’, and I use the term lightly, so you’re gonna pay a little more for food.
As with any dim sum restaurants, if you decide to come here during the weekend, expect to wait. And a very long wait at that. They don’t take reservations for parties of 6 or more.

Amazing place for dim sum! The portions are reasonable, all the ingredients are fresh, and the food comes out quickly for the most part. I have pretty much tried a bit of everything and have not been disappointed, although I could have done without the durian dish (see my photos).
The energy in the restaurant is fast-​paced, and unfortunately, I have seen waiters display their stress by shouting at one another across the restaurant or simply rushing past tables and not stopping to listen to customer’s requests. One more downside is that they may forget an order that you put in; it has happened twice to us. The way the menu is organized is good because they have pictures, but I would suggest one laminated menu for pictures (save on ink!) and one paper with larger cells/​boxes where people can clearly mark the quantities they want of each item.
Aside from the rushed atmosphere and them forgetting a dish or two, I have always left full and happy with the quality of food they serve here! :)

The food is great. Service is ok. Wait is super long.
Came here on a Sunday around 1:30 and had to wait 35min for a table. By the time we sat down half of the dim sum items were sold out which was very disappointing. The items we got were pretty good, most of them. The taro cream bun was super tasty and the cream center melted in your mouth. The xlb was not very good at all, thick skin and not very fresh. The pork balls were very good. Chicken feet was mediocre. Really wanted the egg tarts but they were completely sold out.
Parking was nightmare.

Yay: Love, love, love the baked BBQ pork buns and the Portuguese egg tarts. Five stars for those! Four stars for the house special rice roll and the minced pork donuts which are pretty good.
Boo: I didn’t care for the texture of the steamed shrimp dumplings. The shrimp are like, really solid and kind of crammed into the dumplings, like little pebbles of shrimp. Not a fan of the texture. And I really didn’t care for the chicken feet in black bean sauce. I felt like a gringo leaving all those feet uneaten but I’m sooo not into flabby chicken skin. I thought it would be crispy for some reason? The menu is like 8 pages long and they have multiple versions of everything so if you’re not Chinese it may take you a while to wade through it to get exactly what you want. They have like three different chicken feet dishes, multiple egg tarts, etc. A friend recommended everything we ordered and it took me some trial and error to mark up the right things.
I’d definitely be back for some more pork buns and egg tarts! They were only like $ 3 each and overall our bill was only like $ 20 something. Go early on the weekend, it can get really crowded and the parking lot gets packed.

Cantonese Food. The name makes you think it’s not Cantonese style but from another region. The restaurant sits right next to a KFC. The driveway is very narrow for a two way traffic. Parking is very limited and the nearby parking spaces is destined for KFC.
As you walk into the restaurant it is a quaint little place. It’s not very big but it can accommodate a large group of people because of big round table towards the back. The food is brought out to you on trays so there is a order sheet for you to check off on what you would like to order. There are no ladies pushing these carts around for you to see what type of dim sum item is in the cart.
They do have menus with pictures as a reference and guide if you have no idea what you want to order. The food is pretty tasty and fresh, flavoring is very good not too sweet not too salty. One thing I liked from there with this bun that have a customer inside which is sort of runny so you cannot cut it in half to share but I recommend it.
This place is more of a three-​and-​a-​half star the only reason why they did not get for is the parking was such a pain in the butt overly crowded and the wait could be long so be prepared to wait. Service was wasn’t bad there are times when you have to wait to get it serviced attention for whatever you need but overall not bad.