Restaurant: 海珍大酒樓 888 seafood restaurant [1, 2]
Location: 8450 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 573-1888
Date: December 19, 2019
Cuisine: Cantonese Dimsum
Rating: good cart dimsum
We had such a good banquet dinner at 888 Seafood a couple of weeks ago that we decided to return and try their dimsum during the day. It should be noted that 888 has been around for a long while — decades — and is still a cart place. I.e. everything rotates around on the steam carts.
Har Gow. Shrimp dumplings. nice.
Shrimp and Scallop Dumplings.
Vegetable Dumplings.
XLB (Xao Lao Bao). Pork soup dumplings. These were tasty, but a bit sticky and pasty.
Shrimp and Vegetable Dumplings.
Shu Mai. Not a bad version of the classic.
Pork ribs. Ugly but delicious.
Beef balls. Also ugly but tasty.
Shrimp Chow Fun. Good for this dish.
Eggplant and Shrimp Paste. Black bean sauce. A little more unusual.
Greens with Sauce. Comes on the dedicated greens cart.
Crunchy top pork buns. A bit sweet and really nice texture.
Baked pork buns.
Shrimp paste with Green Pepper with Black Bean Sauce. Pretty good, actually.
Chewy Pork Dumpling. I always like this texture.
Tofu. Very light and delicate. Nice soft texture.
Bean Curd wrapped veggies.
Cantonese Luke Warm Roast Duck. Pretty juicy, but very luke-warm, almost cool.
Pork Hock with Bok Choy. Delicious! Several people popped their pig’s feet cherry on these.
Fatty Beef Ribs. Rich sauce and thick slabs of beef that didn’t seem so Chinese.
Chicken Feet in XO sauce.
Seafood on crispy Chow Mein. Yum!
Pineapple Buns with custard and real pineapple chunks — great. Had several even though I was very full.
Macao Tart — ok, a bit mild.
Dimsum at 888 was solid, but not particularly interesting or super fresh. Definitely a notch or two down from the made to order places. Shells were a bit “sticky” which indicates they have been sitting in the steamers for a bit while they wheel around. Non dimsum dishes were more interesting. This is more like the way SGV dimsum was 10-15 years ago.