Empress Pavilion Shrimp har gow at Empress Pavilion
Chinatown was a main hub for dim sum before San Gabriel Valley earned its destination status. Now, the Chinatown Business Improvement District is about to reintroduce the neighborhood's eats with a crawl designed strictly for grownups.
This Thursday, April 18, the non-profit organization will host a nighttime dim sum crawl with beer pairings from local and regional breweries.
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There is, as always, a bunch of fun articles in the most recent issue of Lucky Peach (theme: Chinatown), with the most handy being Carolyn J. Phillips's succinct guide to dim sum that doubles as a CliffsNotes version of a typical dim sum menu. But maybe you don't want to conspicuously reference Lucky Peach while seated at a communal table at Sea Harbour, or maybe you'd prefer not to tear out the article so you can keep the issue nice and pristine. For you, and everyone else without a hard copy of the magazine, the guide was just excerpted and posted on BuzzFeed. Print away.
C. Wei Har gow
Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4), we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes.
John Zhong Shu mai at Elite Restaurant
80: Shu mai at Elite Restaurant.
Elite Restaurant in Monterey Park has a reputation for being one of the most civilized dim sum palaces in town -- if you're accustomed to waving down rattling food carts or boxing out a table of grandmothers for the last order of har gow, you'd probably find the attentive table service and the subdued vibe a bit of a surprise. Things are mellower here. The flaky egg custard tarts, dainty things tinged with a bit of caramelized sugar, taste like they could have been flown in from the finest Paris patisserie.
Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant in Rosemead is the embodiment of Chinese haute cuisine. The management runs the show, and everyone else from the chefs to the waitstaff is at their call. Walk in during slow hours and you'll probably see a group of men dressed in crisp suits exchanging business cards around a pot of tea and the restaurant's finest silverware. Business cards are exchanged the Chinese way -- they're presented and held out with two hands. Tea is mandatory, and the waitstaff makes sure clients' cups are never empty. There are a lot of people behind the scenes at Sea Harbour. They even have a food and beverage consultant. And they have spectacular dim sum; in fact, we think it's the best dim sum in L.A.. 
John Zhong Har Gow
Los Angeles is a special place. While the rest of America opts for eggs and a mimosa on Sunday mornings, a good portion of Los Angelenos prefer Chinese banquet-style restaurants for their weekly fix of turnip cake and tea. The long impatient lines and lack of parking spaces on Valley Boulevard is proof of that. 
Clarissa Wei Har gow
With the San Gabriel Valley, the city boasts so many of the top Hong Kong-style restaurants in the United States that it's hard to pick just one -- much less ten. Many of the menu items are identical, service is notoriously lacking and the wait time can reach up to two hours in a crowded parking lot. Even the decor is similar. And in the SGV especially, a lot of the top restaurants have at some point or another swapped chefs or owners. But the distinctions, however subtle, are there. Turn the page for our round-up of the 10 best dim sum restaurants in Los Angeles.
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Ben Calderwood One appendage demands another
The parapets of New Capital Seafood pierce the haze over San Gabriel, visible for a good distance along Valley Boulevard and Del Mar Avenue. The 11.5 acre shopping bazaar in which it sits may be anchored by 99 Ranch and Focus Department Store, but this is New Capital's court, and climbing to the 4th floor banquet hall feels like seeking an audience with royalty. The musty glass elevators pant skyward in fits and starts, crowded with fellow supplicants. When the doors open on the antechamber you must shoulder past the throng and claim a number, which will be barked back at you via microphone. Eventually you are passed like human chattel from one headset-equipped steward to the next and ultimately into the sprawling dining room, where your meal--and your audience--awaits.
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