Lobster House

It’s not very clean and it’s a vietnamese owned dimsum place. Dimsum is Cantonese… all of the selections I’ve tried tasted way off and not fresh. Wouldn’t come back, prices not worth it either.

Closed/​out of business. Everything is gone except the outside sign.

I’m giving them two stars because the food was good — what we got of it. The rest of the experience was terrible.
We went in on a Saturday night and the place wasn’t particularly busy. We stood there for several minutes wondering where all the staff were and if maybe we shouldn’t just go across the street to Vien Dong, when someone finally noticed there were customers waiting and seated us.
We had come for the dim sum, although the regular menu looked tempting. The dim sum menu is limited to about 16 items, mostly the standards. After waiting 10 minutes for the server to come back, we ordered a total of 5 dim sum items.
What we got was pretty good. But we only got 3 of the 5 dishes we ordered. A request for water was also ignored. The server would disappear for long stretches in the kitchen. When she came out it was only to make a beeline to the table she was serving and right back into the kitchen. After almost half an hour of waiting and trying to get her attention, we gave up on getting the rest of our food and went to pay the bill.
The place is depressing, the service is terrible, and only the food kind of saved the experience. It’s a shame because this is obviously a family-​run restaurant and I’d love to support it, but it’s also a poorly-​run restaurant.

The friendliest owners and good food to at a very reasonable price. I have eaten here several times and enjoyed everything. Some of the best sticky rice in lotus leaf I have eaten and I have been to chinatown in both San Fran and NYC.
Tables sometimes feel a little sticky but the trade off is a good one for me. No other dim sum in Tacoma to my knowledge and I love shrimp balls and hum bow

My husbands co-​worker told us about this place. We’ve been to the Torta place next door and of course Vien Dong down the street plenty of times and have passed this little gem.
I remember checking out reviews about a year ago and not seeing any good ones decided to pass on trying it out. But this particular co-​worker usually doesn’t do us wrong.
Walked into the place, and I can see why some would think its «dirty». I personally don’t care if a place is «dirty» as long as the food is good. It was empty as I imagined. We were greeted by a very nice lady. Menus aren’t very big but the dim sum menu had some of my favorites, so I wasn’t upset.
We ordered the BBQ pork Chow fun, egg rolls, shrimp rolls, Xiu Mai, and hum bao (I probably butchered those spellings lol).
Chow fun was good, lots of meat and very flavorful. Egg rolls were super good! Plenty of meat and veggies, Xiu Mai was GREAT! Very flavorful and juicy, hum bao was just ok. Had almost a curry taste to it.
While we are feasting on all of our food the cook came out and said he had made some special hum bao’s and asked if we wanted an order. We did and goodness it was great!
Total bill for all that food was $ 23. We ate until we were stuffed and still had plenty left over. So great prices for what you get.
Its not Seattle dim sum but it will do when I don’t feel like taking the ferry over.

This place needs to be introduced to soap and water! Come on… the table looked like it had been cleaned with a dirty rag, the menu stuck to my fingers and the condiment containers had remnants of someone else’s meal dried upon them… YUMMY!
I went for the DIM SUM, which was just OK but there sure aren’t many choices. Won’t go back though due to concerns for my immune system! Too bad!

Jan 18, 2014 — CLOSED
I love dim sum, I had the shrimp balls, and shrimp rice noodles. Excellent. Yes the décor is spare, but the prices are inexpensive. What I appreciated was the excellent service, and the fresh food. I thought it was awesome to see the various authentic recipes and not just festival foods that american’s are used too eating. Lots of fresh seafood and duck dishes. Pls make this a fav and support the only true Chinese restaurant in the area. I am also interested in checking out the Asian shops in the area. Some people think the area is a bit rough, just old, and somewhat poor. The food here is excellent.

I love dim sum, and though the Lobster House doesn’t have a huge dim sum menu, they have three of my favorite things: shrimp dumplings; stuffed steamed rice in lotus leaves; and, Chinese broccoli. They also have good hum bao, and steamed meatballs. The place is small, but clean. They don’t have enough business to push around a dim sum cart, so one must order from a menu, but it’s served quickly, with a smile and nice and hot. They also have a standard menu with standards from other provinces. But true to the Cantonese-​style, they serve several types of congee; and my favorite chow fun (wide rice noodles). We ordered beef chow fun, and it was delicious.
The food was reasonably priced. We ordered four items from the dim sum menu, and two items from the standard menu — those with a pot of nice oolong tea came to about $ 30. The leftovers are in the refrigerator.
We’ll go again, for sure!

They don’t have much option on their dimsum menu, however what they have on there are all very good.

Good service. Dim sum selection limited and so so. Also had Sichuan tofu which was bland. Rice was barely warm

Found dim sum in Tacoma! BUT it wasn’t really what I thought it would be… I agree with fellow Unilocaler Jay S’s review… it seems like a hit or miss and unfortunately our Sunday early afternoon visit was somewhat of a miss.
Tacoma has so many different types of neighborhoods and Lobster House is in south Tacoma which is. hmmmmmmmmm…we found parking right in front of the restaurant and didnt feel like parking in the «safe» rear parking lot. Once we were in, it was EMPTY EMPTY EMPTY… the young waiter himself was sitting down eating and checking his phone… there was only one older couple.
We got seated, got some hot tea and unfortunately it was dim sum the dim sum menu way… no carts which I expected with only two couples in the restaurant that included us which I was pretty sad about… dim sum isn’t just about the food. it’s about the environment… the hustle bustle of folks, the sounds of rolling carts and the surprise of every variety of delicacies that come at every turn… being in Hawaii, obviously I’ve seen some of the best dim sum that could be served so this was definitely a sobering experience… it was very quiet and very empty and just very sad.
I give them at least stars for the dim sum we ordered. it was pretty good and fairly cheap but again very limited in the options you can pick from in their one page laminated menu.
I guess I have to go up to Seattle to get better dim sum in the area.

Delicious fresh made to order dim sum and excellent Chinese dishes. Dim sum is steaming hot and made to order. Only drawback small dim sum menu but all the favorites. Best thing is they served dim sum all the time. Finally good dim sum in Tacoma!

This place had good service and food the first few times. But as of lately anything good has dies out. The last time we went my husband ordered pan fried cod. In their menu all the description said was Pan fried cod. He can’t eat spicy, and we get it an there were a ton of peppers and pepper flakes in it. So we sent it back. They said they will make us a new one. 10mins later the waiter bring out the food and to us it appeared they just washed off the peppers and put it back on the plate. We could still see pepper flakes on the fish and plates itself.
I felt so insulted. As of we’re so stupid that we can’t tell they just washed it. The fish taste like tissue paper and had no flavor. We will not return here. It’s very sketch if you can’t even remake a new dish for us. How can you run a business like that?

The food was very tasty. Good flavors. Great service. The young man at the front was very friendly and patient. He explained all the dishes i asked about. Atmosphere was nice. Kinda of small tables are setup good. With a full house could be a little loud. Overall good restaurant and delicious food. And the Dim Sum was good as well

Nice Dim Sum — served more ala carte than from a cart. Not the biggest selection but the basics are here, reasonably priced and served with a smile. I also ordered a soup noodle bowl — a great value. I visited about a month ago — sorry for the late post.

One of the most authentic Chinese places in Tacoma! Finally something almost as good and inexpensive as something in the intl district in Seattle! The spareribs were delicious and I can finally have salty fish and chicken fried rice 2 minutes from my house!!! Very attentive customer service. The dim sum was a little slim but the sticky rice was fantastic (ate it too fast to get a pic) Sui Mai was typical and good and the shrimp balls were good. Can’t really go wrong with those. Very excited to have this restaurant in our neighborhood! Can’t wait to go back and try the special fried chicken.

Read about the Lobster House on the TNT blog and gave it a try. The previous reviews are right on! While the décor is an early work in progress, the food definitely is not. Every item they brought us was delicious and some were an adventure! The «football» is an amazing contrast of sweet and savory at the same time, and served cool! And the siu mai… was the best I’ve had. The only borderline dish was the steamed spare-​ribs that were a little too tough.
If you are in the mood for Dim Sum, have never tried it, or are just looking for a delicious meal, don’t let the looks or location stop you from one of the most flavorful experiences you will have.

So happy to have this restaurant in our neighborhood!
Although it’s Spartan in appearance, the food was delicious, and the service was pleasant and prompt. We did not go for the dim sum, preferring to order old favorites from the menu on our first outing, especially since our 7– and 2-​y-​o were with us. Started out with some very tasty and respectable-​tasting egg rolls, followed by squid in black bean sauce, salt and pepper prawns, and Mongolian beef, which were pleasantly spicy for our adults pallets but a bit too much for the kids. Nope, spice-​cutting milk is not on the menu for the little ones. However, we made a late order for some nice bland chicken chow mein, and the kiddos were set. As we were finishing up we were brought some of the promised «footballs,» a new experience for DH and me, and we loved the introduction to dim sum!
We’ll definitely be going back, again and again and again! :-)

DIM SUM! The very first dim sum joint in Tacoma, Pierce County, or south of Kent probably. I read the article about Lobster House on News Tribune and went straight there.
They have dim sum menu and regular food menu. Although some food I ordered (steamed spear ribs, bean curd, har gow/​shrimp ball) never showed up, I must say they’re still learning how to handle large crowds. And they said they just didn’t expect that many people will show up today (they totally underestimated how badly we were craving for dim sum). They usually offer made-​to-​order dim sum, but when it’s super busy, they switch to a more traditional style — show up with whatever they have and ask if you want some (no cart though).
Their food was pretty good! Big juicy siu mai/​meat ball, HUGE mai gai/​sticky rice (the biggest I’ve ever seen). I also got shrimp fried rice. Nicely seasoned, not sticky, shrimp was tasty. Like it.
They also serve congee/​rice porridge, hot pot, lots of seafood menu (including lobster of course), etc. Their menu isn’t all that extensive, but you’ll find something you want easily. However, not a lot of vegetarian options if you can’t take seafood.
I don’t think they serve classic dessert for dim sum though… sesame ball and egg tart. Nice warm egg tart would be the best to finish off dim sum in winter.
Kid friendly. Take credit cards. Street parking.
I’ll go back to try more! I hope you will check out too. Worth saving a trip to Seattle.

Amended to 3 stars ⁸⁄₁₂ due to inconsistency. I cannot highly recommend a place that so many people have visited to find cold food (including myself) and quality issues. I really hope Lobster House will turn it around because we lack dim sum completely otherwise.
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Bottom Line: Tacoma finally has dim sum, real dim sum. It’s cheap and good ($ 10 or less per person). Entrees are good as well — not pale imitations of Chinese American classics or over sauced nightmares, nor a guess at what Americans want. When I say «good», I mean just that, no more or less. It’s solid, the flavours are right. It won’t knock your socks off if you’re an aficionado. Service is attentive; they’re happy for your business. On the downside, the dim sum choices are limited and it’s a bit drab inside.
Four stars for the above reasons and because we need to turn out and support this enterprise: Tacoma is long overdue for a good Chinese food restaurant and the menu is sure to grow with the clientele.
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The ongoing joke I’ve had with my cousins is that Chinese food won’t return to Tacoma until they complete Reconciliation Park. (The park is so-​named in remembrance of an unfortunate episode in Tacoma history during which the Chinese residents were driven out of town…)
Lobster House is a sign that the park is near completion. We finally have a decent, real Chinese restaurant in Tacoma. The abbreviated dim sum menu has all the basics: hum bao (steam buns), siu mai (meat balls), har gow (shrimp balls), sticky rice, beef balls, spare ribs, chicken feet, rice noodles, and congee. Cheap: most items are less than $ 3 an order.
These are the flavors one expects from a competent dim sum offering. I found the siu mai particularly flavourful and the bao dough fragrant. The ribs had decent flavour, but needed a little longer to soften up. No mai gai had solid taste, but the leaf was disintegrating when we opened it.
Other items we sampled on our first visit were also good. The salt and pepper squid was plentiful, crisp, and nicely fried with loads of garlic and peppers. Beef chow fun was well prepared, came to the table steaming hot, but needed more seasoning. Both were less than $ 10.
Lobster House is a bit depressed in its appearance; the dining area is sort of like a conference room at a hotel. It was freezing when we went in… to their credit, they turned the heat on within 5 minutes of our arrival. (We saw them go to the panel and flip it on) A derelict seafood tank sat near the cashier’s counter, which seems to hint they will do «live seafood» as they advertise on the sandwich board.
If you’ve been waiting for dim sum to come to Tacoma, whether it’s because you miss the tradition or are a culinary adventurer in search of a new venue, this is it. Let’s support them!