Restaurant: Ocean Star Restaurant
Location: 145 N Atlantic Blvd #201-203, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 308-2128
Date: October 6, 2015
Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum
Rating: Mediocre cart dim sum
I go out to the San Gabriel Valley all the time, and I figured that I ought to give one of the old school cart dim sum places another try.
Ocean Star has been around forever. In fact, I think I ate there sometime in the 90s.
The place was mobbed, and it wasn’t the youngest demographic in the world. The lobby too had that over-the-top SGV 90s decor. Look at that chandelier, the marble, the cove lighting.
Same thing goes int he enormous and chaotic hall.
Chicken soup with scallop wonton. Ok, basically one giant wonton.
Shrimp rice noodle. One of the better dishes. The usual sweet sauce.
Shu mai. Not the best shu mai by any means, but certainly edible.
Har gow. Just so so. Not bad, but a little “stale.”
Lotus wrapped sticky rice.
Mushy and not very good tasty.
BBQ pork. This was pretty tasty. Sweet and fatty.
They had those crazy crispy cruller rice noodle things on the cart. Didn’t try them though.
The food was lackluster. They had a large variety — if you managed to hail the right cart — but almost everything I tasted was a bit flat. Almost freezer burned. Really, for being out in the SGV, this is no better than The Palace in Brentwood. More options perhaps. The food quality might even have been a bit worse.
Service was kind of typical. They were nice, but I couldn’t manage to get either mustard or ice water. I did get tea and the check. It also took a while for the carts to come to me and when they did, I kept getting the lame carts, like the congee one, or the vegetables, or the tripe. It took a real while before I got the actual good stuff.
Prices are cheap. So if you like to pay less for worse, and join the crazy crowd of seniors, Ocean Star is your place. I’ll go to Elite or King Hua.