Empress Pavilion

They are reopened and back in business! Food is still great but I feel like people don’t know they’re open again? The crowds of people coming over the weekend has drastically reduced. Go there now and check them out! Best dim sum ever!

One of the few places to get good Dim Sum west of Monterey Park where the more delicious and authentic Dim Sum places are found. The usual array of Dim Sum dishes are here, including many variations of Shu Mai, chicken feet, turnip cake, ribs, BBQ duck and pork in a variety of wrappings, and desserts galore. The most popular dish at this restaurant is a wrapped noodle around meat (shrimp, beef or BBQ) called tsang fun which means «long noodle». This dish is often too chewy or the noodles aren’t as palatable at other restaurant, but this place gets the texture just right. When we last visited, we ate a good sized meal for $ 30 — great value for Dim Sum in my opinion. There is always a wait to get in, but the hostesses are excellent multi-​taskers and work at lightning speed to get you seated.

Closed as of ¹²⁄₇. Boo! It’s only open for large banquets now. Too bad the mall owner never kept up his end of the bargain, as usual. The mall is the same condition (terrible) as when the Empress closed last time, despite promises to spruce it up and fix the escalators and elevators.

Better triple check your check. They charged us for tea and I specifically said NO tea. Thankfully we caught it. I also requested for xiao long bao and they said they don’t have. Oh yeah well I sure saw it on two tables. And I was done eating myI can’t believe that. We go for that xiao long bao for the kids cause they love it. That makes me so upset with places like this. Next time I will not ask the cart women but ask the waiters dudes.
I will say the other dim sum is good. Food taste fresh. Carts are all over. Service is friendly. They do say their thank you. And they understand English. Parking is in the building. You can get it stamped.
By the way I don’t think the reservation thing works. I made one for 12pm but the ladies were not listening to me. Weird

Call it a comeback! Before the days of going to Monterey Park and the SGV, Empress Pavilion was the place to go for dim sum. This place closed down a number of years ago after competition from restaurants in the SGV. I recall coming here as a kid with long lines and Bamboo Plaza was flourishing. Empress Pavilion under new management has done a great job of making this restaurant a lot nicer. You can tell from the amount of employees, clean restaurant and restroom.
The food here is good at best. The carts that stroll around from table to table are attentive. Seems as if they’re on commission or something like that. They push dish after dish in your face which I prefer opposed to no attention. Many dishes are served warm. The only dish I wish they had that was warmer is the pork belly. Other than that, they serve the typical dim sum.
Service here is good. The interior is nice and there are some private areas aside from the large banquet hall which I like. Make the place feel alive. Parking is abundant and they validate 1hr with a $ 5 max.

I came here for a quick lunch during work and it hit the spot. I was surprised to return to this place after their reopening to find that the upholstery’s been updated because I do recall it used to have a very grimy and dated feel. Now it’s just less dated, but I’m not gonna complain if the service and food are decent. There was no wait on a Friday and the parking was easy. I was also impressed by the cart-​pushers (sorry don’t know the proper name) because they used true teamwork by using wireless headsets to communicate with each other on the inventory we were seeking (we happened to be asking for chicken feet at the time). Dim Sum Swat Team!

newly improve empress pavilion. the place is cleaner than previous years. there were more carts rolling out and more food than you can handle at once. the ladies with the carts swarm your table as soon as you sit down.
take your time with dim sum. drink your tea. enjoy your Sunday.

In a pitch and really bad dimsum cravings, we made the 20mins drive to Empress Pavillon since we didn’t have time to go all the way to SGV. Happy there were no line to wait, still shocks me. We were seated within 30secs and barely a minute later, we had 4 dishes on our table. Talk about efficiency!
Pleasantly surprised by the improvement in service and the cart ladies this time around. One cart lady even noticed us turning our tea pot cover upside down and she came over to get our tea pot refilled. Really enjoyed the Duck, not greasy and super crispy skin. The pan fried dumplings were also a twosome pleaser, plump and filled with water chestnuts and Chinese greens. Could have used more meaty pork filling though.
Price are still on the high end but bumping it up one star for the convenience and better service.

Came here yesterday and boy the service was lousy and the servers were rude. Kind of gets old after awhile.

My parents and I came here to have lunch two weeks ago right after we got off from a four day cruise.
The food, specifically the dim sum, depends on what you order from the cart. The shrimp dumpling or har gow was okay. Nothing special. Siu Mai was better as well as the preserved duck porridge and the shrimp rice rolls.
I have to say that I like this place when it was under the previous ownership. It’s too bad that the landlord raised the rent so high that the previous owners had to give up on this place. Everything before was excellent and prices were very cheap. The boba tea was the cheapest, period. $ 1.88. Yes, I’m not kidding! Even my now 9 year old nephew liked it.
I would much prefer going to the dim sum restaurants in the Monterey Park/​Arcadia area.

I have to say, the fresh faced Empress impressed me today. I like the newly renovated place. It’s difficult to find a dim sum place that appears clean and polished. The state of affairs in the restrooms will give you the tell-​take sign of whether you should continue waiting or just pass your wait ticket to someone else and leave. Thankfully I neither had to wait nor leave this time.
Service was prompt. It was not busy when we came in at 2pm.
Prices have gone up though. A plate of Beef Fried Rice is $ 11.95! The bill for four of us came out to be $ 75, a bit pricey when compared to places in the San Gabriel Valley area.
Quality of food was ok. May give it another try if I’m in the area again.

Empress Pavilion is open again! I went here with my ex husband for a private group event on 10÷14÷15. We had a 9 course meal. Everything was delicious. Service was spectacular.
Our speaker was Gil Garcetti, the 40^th District Attorney of Los Angeles. He recently published his 7^th book, which is absolutely astounding.

Definitely a fan of Empress Pavilion. Great spot in the heart of Chinatown. It’s your typical dim sum experience – carts pedaling past you with the aroma of sheer tastiness in the air.
My favorites are the ha gao (shrimp dumplings) tsu mai (pork dumpling), and ha cheong (shrimp crêpe).
Oh yeah, and only for the brave: chicken feet.

Had lunch here on a Friday afternoon. I hadn’t been here since they reopened under new ownership so we got a small group together to check it out. There wasn’t a wait like back in the days in the old Empress Pavilion’s prime. At 12 noon, more than half the restaurant was still open for seating.
The food is good but not as good as say Elite, Sea Harbour or Lunasia in the SGV. I would it is WAY better than Ocean Seafood down the street despite being under the same ownership. Empress Pavilion definitely has a better chef.
The prices are $ 2.68, $ 3.68, $ 4.68, etc., per dish. A plate of something «special» like walnut shrimp is $ 7.99. A plate of baby bok choy with oyster sauce is $ 6.99. Other special orders like crispy egg noodles/​chow mein (liang mien huang, for example) are about $ 15. My favorite dish was the beef tripe.
They validate your parking for 1 hour. Anything past an hour is $ 2 per 30 minutes.
I wouldn’t mind coming back if someone else wanted to but if guided by my own taste buds, I’d trek out to the SGV.

They did a good job on the remodel. I’ve been back three or four times since they reopened and each time, the place is practically empty which means all the dim sum carts make it to the table in no time.
High points are the convenient location in Chinatown, no wait time and the piping hot dishes. One downside is that the prices are much higher than places in the SGV. I’d still probably come back out of convenience, because the dim sum was good.

I will keep this one simple.
Empress Pavilion has been around for a long long time in Los Angeles Chinatown. Recently remodeled. The food is ok. Recommend the egg tart and the green tea red bean pudding. Other food is just average. Price is higher than average. The dining population is mostly non– Chinese.
Positive:
1. The dining area is nice and clean. Nice enough for wedding banquets.
2. Easily parking in validated parking structure.
3. No wait on a Sunday afternoon.

It’s hard to believe this place reopened after several years. We came here for dim sum on a Sunday afternoon and unlike in the past, there was no waiting outside or in the lobby. The place had a lot of tables available. The dining room looked very nice and elegant and the restroom was modern and clean which is unusual for a Chinese restaurant.
The food itself was very good. If you are interested in avoiding crowds, not having to wait, and not having to drive all the way to Monterey Park or San Gabriel, this is a good alternative for dim sum. They validate parking and we were here several hours and only had to pay $ 1 to park in the structure. Unfortunately, there aren’t many shops open in the plaza to browse and look around in.

Old school dim sum (coming from a Cantonese boy from SF) located in LA Chinatown.
Décor is new, service solid and efficient, food carts readily accessible.
If you got a craving for shrimp dumpling, mushroom dumplings, scallop dumplings, sesame balls, spareribs, sticky rice that peels beautifully from the encased leaves, 15 layer jello, etc., This is the place.

A newly renovated dim sum restaurant, Empress Pavilion, with its 2.5 star rating, seems to have provoked the ire of many DTLA residents, which is actually confusing to me, because I actually had a great experience. I’m a dim sum junkie and while it’s not the best dim sum I’ve ever had, the food does not disappoint. The restaurant itself is very nice, and the renovations make the overall experience brighter and more elegant. You can get $ 5 flat rate parking in Bamboo Plaza, and you can get it validated at the front desk for a free hour of parking. Large parties didn’t seem to be too much of a problem, so you shouldn’t have to wait long to get seated.
My favorites included the fried turnip cakes, which actually had some texture, and you could still taste it even if you doused it in oyster sauce. The chicken feet were also not too soggy and actually prepared with delicacy, as the skin was not falling off the bone, as it typically does when mass produced. The shrimp dumplings were pretty big and had the right amount of tenderness and bite. Just about everything else was pretty standard, but still delicious. The waitstaff was also very fast and attentive, something I’m not too used to in Chinatown in New York, so that was a pleasant surprise.
Price-​wise, it came down to $ 15 per person, which included tip and tax, so I don’t know why people are complaining about the price, because our group of 5 ate pretty well. I can see if it was dirt-​cheap back in the day, but $ 15 including tax and tip isn’t really that bad. If it was a divey, dumpy place, then I’d have some complaints about paying more, but with the renovation, it is one of the nicer dim sum places I’ve seen. Overall, come here for some decent dim sum in a nicer setting.

Its new! Its Improved!
Its renovated and clean. Brand new front doors. New lighting and the girls have new uniforms. Everything has a new facelift and the food is the same good quality.
Thank You!

The food is okay.
My family and I have been coming to (old) empress pavilion since I can remember as a small child. When it closed, we were so sad! We actually started to go farther, and into the San Gabriel Valley for dim sum.
Needless to say, this place is NOT the same as before. The Owner (who also runs Ocean Seafood) has basically made this a second Ocean Seafood location, but named it Empress Pavilion. No go.
The food is eh.
The gailan is $ 8!!! Who does that?!
The spare ribs were bland. Just by looking at the dish, you can tell it wasn’t the same recipe.
I had to flag down 3 people to order the dumplings I wanted, whereas with the old Empress Pavilion, they were always readily available.
Hot tea is $ 1.20 PER PERSON.
Our bill came out to $ 80 between 5 people and we didn’t even order noodles or anything from the kitchen — just dim sum!
I’m happy I got to try it, but I will not go back.
The décor is nice and updated. The tables and chairs are new, too… but it doesn’t help the fact about the food.