Lunasia Chinese Cuisine

101 Best restaurants of Los Angeles

@latimes

"#66 I’ve spent many Sunday mornings over the last year eating my way through the San Gabriel Valley’s dim sum stalwarts, and I return to Lunasia in Alhambra more often than any of the others. I’m not alone. Weekend daytime waits can run an hour or longer; it’s never a bad idea for one member of a group to go early to add their name to the list. The payoff is consistent, polished dim sum classics: the translucent wrappers of har gow encasing pieces of shrimp with some actual snap to them; glossy baked pork buns; beautifully textured taro cakes with lap cheong; thin rice noodles rolled around crisp youtiao and greens. Lunasia’s reputation for dim sum has grown so outsized that the owners serve it for dinner, too. I’d argue instead for a nighttime family-style meal of tradition-minded Cantonese cooking; begin with the restoring broth made from stewed Silkie chicken and ginseng. A second location exists in Pasadena, but the Alhambra original sets the benchmark. Beer and wine. Street and lot parking. Credit cards accepted."