Elite - Monterey Park

Oh Elite Restaurant... Why can't you expand to fit more people? Yes, I am one of your pious followers who will wait almost two hours for a **** meal! In fact, I am under the herd of sheep that helplessly bleed – desperately hope that one day you will be great enough to accommodate more of us without sacrificing the quality of your fantastic dim sum a la Empress Pavilion. Unfortunately, you are still a limited facility that serves your suspected mortals the privileged few who can make it through the strict lines. I can't say I'm a yum cha/dim sum connoisseur. I have not tried these brunch favorites in mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan. In fact, my experience is limited to restaurants in LA/Chicago areas, so be with me. But I have to say some of the best dimming-sum dishes I've ever had were in the holy walls of the elite. Pink shrimp wrapped in translucent reisteig or juicy BBQ pork packed in fluffy white rolls. Savory Kongee packed with pork and duck eggs or chicken and rice in lotus leaf. Almost every dish we had was perfect and paired with tea to cut through fat – it was a pleasant experience. However, one misstep was the chicken feet – it did not taste very good; I definitely had better. Otherwise, the meal was excellent and affordable! We ordered 10 dishes and our bill came to $48 total for a party of four! That's cheap. Surely much cheaper than a meal for four in other restaurants! Maybe for the Dimm sum Snob, the price and the dishes may not be on par, but I had no problems. Sure, the service is missing and some dishes are not my favorites, but most of what I ordered was quite delicious and the overall experience was great. I know that my family and I will return if we are looking for a few dimming sum for brunch!

I can't believe how good it was. When I was here for the first time, I thought it was like that. But I also knew I was bored with what my colleagues ordered. And their oversized siu mai somehow freaked me out. But this time Elite won me. Everything was so fresh and had really good flavors. And I was defeated by the extra big siu mai. I think there was only one mistake: the baked Scallops Turnip cake, it was Gooey and Bland. There were BIG lovers of shark fins in the shark fin-red shells. Their version of the suen jook roll, Bean Curd Wrap oyster sauce, was delicious, good balance of pork and veggie ingredients, great flavors, and again, so fresh. I personally think bamboo mushroom makes everything better, and really liked their bamboo pitch (I am sure they meant Pith) sea cucumber wrap. The dish of shells in black bean sauce that came around on a tray was excellent. We eat this all the time, and they were right out of the wok and in our mouth, without too much corn starch. All we had was really good. I'm now ranking Elite over Sea Harbour. And I think Triumphal Palace. Although I would have to return to Triumphal before I can be sure. One thing that is safe, but the service at Elite was good!! Not like all this cruelty at Sea Harbour and triumphal.

Sui Mai is the best sum