Sea Harbour Restaurant, Rosemead, CA

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant 3939 N. Rosemead Blvd. Rosemead, CA 91770 626-288-3939 626-307-3939 (Fax)

Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant is one of best Cantonese Chinese restaurants in Southern California, according to several different sources. Foodnut agrees, it continues to be our go to place when we are in Southern California for Dim Sum.

We have been to Sea Harbour Vancouver, Canada and to a location in Zhongshan  – Guangzhou, China, and had solid meals everytime, so it was a no brainer to come here.

This restaurant group has about 30 locations in China. They are known as Harbour City Seafood Restaurant there – Dianping Page for Zhongshan location. This is an 18,000 sq ft HUGE restaurant.

Sea Harbor serves dim sum during lunch, and traditional Cantonese dishes at dinner time. Our last visit was at the end of 2016. Prices were up over 2014.

We found this restaurant better than Elite, King Hua, Lunasia, and several other Chinese restaurants we have tried in the San Gabriel Valley.

Other candidates for top LA Area Chinese Cantonese Restaurants:

• Lunasia Dim Sum House – Pasadena and Alhambra – Dim Sum lunch and dinner! – Just not as good, especially at dinner.
• China Red – Arcadia. Newcomer.
• King Hua – Alhambra – Very Good, but not as good as Sea Harbor
• Shi Hai – Alhambra – Now closed.

Unfortunately we find Koi Palace in Daly City, CA superior to Sea Harbor. It is a worthy fight but the winner is clear.

Decor, Vibe – Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant looks just like the location in Canada. Velvet cream shades, modern wall of decor, recessed ceilings, flowery lights, decor that Chinese restaurants back in the San Francisco area lack. The place was packed with Asians. Several large parties and many families and friends.

Sea Harbour Menu (Click to zoom into any picture)

Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant Menu has a Chinese only checkoff sheet and an English picture menu. The menu is extensive and has many items that don’t exist in our area. The key to this restaurant is that they cooked to order, so everything is hot. No need to worry about coming close to closing time and getting stale items.

Consequently food takes a little while to arrive, and they often run out of items. The waitress told us that some famous dishes include the chicken and pork ginger buns, stewed pork ribs rice noodles.

Sea Harbour Picks:

Fried Squid with salty chili ($6.98) was hot out of the fryer, lots of tentacles, awesome.

Chicken Feet in Herbal Soup ($8.18) bathed in a meaty dong gui broth along with angelica, these are far less greasy than the traditional style. We even like drinking the thick broth! Part of the “From the Chef” section.

Beef Tripe in XO Sauce ($4.68) is labelled OX Omasum in XO Sauce on the menu. It has a slight spicy note but overall is very good.

Vegetarian congee ($4.95) was piping hot and had lily nuts and barley. Good flavored jook hit the spot. Chives and crispy won tons on the side.

Deep fried pork dumplings ($4.68) were 4 super hot, freshly fried, airy, filled with meat, and very good. A bit greasy but well worth the sacrifice.

Crystal shrimp dumplings ($4.68) had four smaller sized dumplings or har gow. Huge mound of shrimp and top notch quality. Firm wrapper. Flavor is not as good as Hong Kong’s best, but superior to most in the USA. In 2016 we notice a dab of truffle oil.

Shrimp and Chive dumplings ($5.88) were large and possessed lots of shrimp and chive blended flavors with each bite.

Chao zhao dumplings ($5) were also hot out of the steamer, and possessed a slight kick.

Black Fungus and Celery Dumplings ($4.68) had 3 good sized dumplings filled with crunchy diced celery and a slight kick.  Good for vegetarians.

Sesame balls ($3.38) were some of the best we have had to date and we have had many around the world. Crisp, not too sweet, a must get.

Baked Low Fat Milk Buns ($5.88) sounded interesting. They are soft and filled with egg whites. Not too sweet and highly recommended.

Shrimp rice noodle ($5.00) was very good with medium sized but fresh, shrimp.

Steam Rice Noodle with BBQ Pork ($4.68) came with soy sauce on the side. Worthy of ordering if you do not like shrimp. Thin low profile noodles and lots of pork.

Radish Cakes with Assorted Preserved Meat ($4.68) is a good version of the classic dish.  Not as special as the XO sauce version at Champagne Seafood in San Mateo.

Sticky rice and meat wrapped in lotus leaf ($5.88) was a solid version of the classic dish. Three medium sized, large egg, soft glutinous rice, and hot pieces filled with lots of meat.

Coconut and osmanthus jello ($4.68) was lightly flavored and not too sweet.

Date Pudding ($3.38) came to us warm and full of layered date juice. An acquired taste, this is well done.

Herbal Jelly ($3.38) was fairly medicinal. Lots of sugar syrup on the side. Nicely done.

Durian Puffs ($5.88) were decent and carefully made and much better than in the past.

OK:
BBQ Pork Buns ($4.68) included 3 medium sized buns with a slightly dry interior.

Pans:
None

Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant had average Chinese restaurant service. We had to grab servers who were running around, to get things done. The dim sum here was fantastic, slightly better than our top pick in the San Francisco Bay Area, Koi Palace.

Everything was hot out of the kitchen, even towards the end of lunch. Items like the Egg Tarts do sell out. The next increment up would be to fly to Hong Kong. If you’re in the area be sure to check out this restaurant, it is worth the trip.

A sister restaurant:

1015 Nogales St
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
(626) 965-2020

 

Restaurant Map: