Empress Harbor

Sometime early last year my wife and I and her family enjoyed an excellent dim sum outing at Ocean Star seafood in Monterey Park, and despite the plethora of good times and good eats I experienced, my mother-in-law gave an emphatic thumbs down to the food and to the service. On our way out of the restaurant, mom-in-law unloaded her tale of the aforementioned bad food and service to some random patron waiting outside, who in turn mentioned to her that she should try the neighboring restaurant, Empress Harbor. Now mind you that conversation was spoken entirely in Cantonese so none of us are quite sure of the exact dialog, but I do know that after leaving Ocean Star, Empress Harbor was on her hit list.

So, many months later we find ourselves sitting in Empress Harbor and about to enjoy another family meal that hopefully will meet my mom-in-law's standards for fine Chinese cuisine. Located in a two-story shopping center directly south of the one that houses Ocean Star, Empress Harbor is a large Chinese-banquet style restaurant with lazy-Susan tables, gleaming gold accents along the walls, a hurried staff, and an unmanned bar that doubles as storage for dusty boxes of red wine. It's one of those places that just shouts "bustling".

Empress Harbor serves dim sum and from what I hear it's quite formidable, but we're actually here for dinner and upon arrival we noticed that most of the restaurant was occupied by a large wedding dinner taking place. Luckily we're able to commandeer one of the last empty tables in a small room away from the wedding festivities.

We're handed menus and in our usual tradition, each of us selects a dish for the table. My brother-in-law and I start with a refreshing Tsing Tao while others sip on tea.




They might have other beers but when you just ask for "beer", this is what you're given.


We kick off our dinner with something we almost always order, honey walnut shrimp:


It's hard to screw this up--I mean we're talking about fresh shrimp coated with a honey-mayonnaise sauce and served with chunky, candied walnuts. Empress Harbor's version is a hit with our table. Generous portions of plump shrimp were cooked nicely and exuded freshness, but the sauce was a little too thick for my liking. The walnuts help cut into the creamy taste and texture, and a little steamed rice worked to balance the overall richness. As good as this was, the version I had at Newport Tan Cang was far better.



A hot plate of sizzling beef shows up next on our table:


Hot oil splatters onto the table cloth and smoke fills our eyes as our server rests the sizzling iron plate in front of us. As soon as the beef has cooled slightly, I go in for a piece of tender but very fatty and heavily oiled beef. It's seasoned nicely, very delicious and not at all gristly. And I love the caramelized onions and could easily scarf down an entire sizzling plate of these. I've had this same dish at countless other Chinese restaurants and it's hard to say how they all compare, but this was one was quite good.



Sea Cucumber with Chinese broccoli:


This was my mother-in-law's pick and she liked it. Whew! Unfortunately though, I didn't. The sea cucumber was overcooked and thus was chewy and lacked delicate flavors that I've become accustomed to with good preparations of this sea creature. It also had a sight fishy smell and there was too much sauce--in fact the sauce dominated the taste of the sea cucumber. I'm not certain the others in the group liked it, so I did my best to clean the plate, and mom-in-law took care of the last piece. The fact that she liked and that I didn't might mean something--she is from southern China after all, where as I grew up in, well, the south bay :). I'll just say that this didn't come anywhere close to the sea cucumber dish I inhaled during my Hong Kong trip.



Moments later our dish of scallops and asparagus arrives:


This is another typical Chinese dish that we tend to order. A generous supply of scallops and perfectly cooked asparagus make this a standout dish for me. I'm not sure how this is cooked, but I'm guessing they blanched the asparagus and then quickly stir fry them along with the sliced scallops. Everything is lightly coated in a mild sauce, allowing for the taste of the fresh scallops and crisp veggies to shine.



My dish arrives last, sauteed eggplant with pork:


Chinese eggplants and a heaping mound of ground pork are stir fried in peanut oil and then served on a hot plate. This is obviously not a dish your doctor would recommend eating on a regular basis, but there's a reason why this tastes so good. I would have loved larger eggplant pieces and crispier bits of pork, but otherwise this was a very good and very savory plate of eggplant. A sprinkling of chopped green onions counteracted the heaviness of the eggplant, which was so cooked through that it practically fell apart in my chopsticks, or was that sloppy chopstick handling on the part of this blogger? No matter, I cleaned this dish with no help whatsoever.



At the end of our meal, we're given little tubs of mango pudding:



Not bad, but the thick consistency was more like jello than pudding. My wife mentions a strong taste of mango but I could barely taste any with mine. I could have done without this, and yet I still finished it before everyone else. We pondered over making a trip to Phoenix bakery for more desserts, but being pressed on time, we decided the end the night here.

Overall this was a fine meal and Empress Harbor holds up well with the many other excellent Chinese restaurants in the area such as NBC, Ocean Star, Elite, and Seafood Village. The menus at these places are vast; pages and pages of fine print for you to analyze can make it challenging to select a few good dishes, which is why it's best to visit with a large group. Mom-in-law was happy with the food and with the service, and I left stuffed and very satisfied. Empress Harbor earns an easy recommendation from me.


Empress Harbor
111 N. Atlantic Blvd
Monterey Park, CA 91754