Monday, March 29, 2010

VIP Seafood Harbor: Getting your Dim Sum fix if you're unwilling to make the drive East

After filing a police report for my burglarized car and dropping my car off at the mechanic, I wanted to grab food but at somewhere close by that I could walk to. Dim sum came to mind. Yes I know, there is no good dim sum on the Westside. In fact, VIP Seafood Harbor is the only one place that serves it, 7 days a week no less. Yes I know that a lot of Asians are going to cringe that I would even consider this joint vs. making the 20+ mile drive east to Alhambra. Don't hate. If you lived in the Westside, you'd know that we Westsiders don't like venturing outside of our little bubble. VIP Seafood Harbor is a convenient walk for me, they serve all the typical dim sum dishes, it'll satisfy my craving, I actually like the food, this will do the trick.

At least they have carts (although not all the cart-pushers were Chinese), I've been to some restaurants in SF that didn't have them.

It's the weekend, I gotta have my mimosas, even with dim sum.

Rice noodles/cheong fun. Filled with plump shrimp and doused with soy sauce. The noodles were fresh and not starchy so it didn't seem overly filling.

Duck dumpling. This isn't your typical staple dim sum but I was intrigued. It wasn't that great as you couldn't taste the duck. In fact, it tasted like it could have been any other meat.

Siew mai. I usually order the shrimp version but this pork and mushroom was good as well.

Taro cake/wu gok is deep fried mashed up taro and mushrooms. Very greasy but yummy. I like the flaky breading that crumbled so easily.

Char siew bao. BBQ pork bun is probably the most popular dish and seems to be the favorite of all the Caucasians that I know. I like the baos but I'd rather get my carb count from dumplings or rice.

Glutinous rice which is sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf and filled with pork, mushrooms, Chinese sausage and egg yolk. Flavorful and delicious. I especially liked the fatty piece of pork.

I always have to order chicken feet at dim sum. It encompasses all my favorite parts of the chicken: skin, cartilage and bone. And I'm pretty damn skilled at cleaning the bones out. The chicken feet was gelatinous and coated with a spicy, black bean sauce. It's not for everyone but it's one of my favorites.

Despite what people may say about how VIP Seafood Harbor is not the most authentic place, I still think it's good dim sum. I'd rather eat at somewhere a smidgen less "authentic" instead of making the drive to some over crowded spot in the Eastside. Also, being able to walk home and burn off some of those calories consumed was an added bonus.

Hits: glutinous rice, chicken feet, cheong fun, mimosas available, westside location
Misses: duck dumpling
Rating: ***

VIP Seafood Harbor
11701 Wilshire Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 979-3377

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear this is the only edible dimsum on the west side. Actually visited once, and ran into a HS ex-gf. Good times cuz there is.. MIMOSA!

stuffycheaks said...

it's walkable from my place, so that's good enough for me. But really, it wasn't bad at all.