Lunasia Dim Sum House

Very, very delicious Dimsum! Well worth your buck! It may be a little pricey compared to other chinese restaurants, but if you’re looking for quality dimsum this the place to be!
My Ratings for what I tasted:
Jumbo Pork & Shrimp Siu Mai — ⁵⁄₅
BBQ Pork — ³⁄₅
Beef Rice noodle — ²⁄₅
Beef Ho Fan Noodles — ⁴⁄₅
BBQ Pork bun — ³⁄₅
Spare Ribs w/​Black Bean Sauce ²⁄₅
Jasmine Tea — ⁵⁄₅
Service — ⁵⁄₅
You may be felt like your rushed but that’s because they’re just so many people coming in. So I suggest if you come in on a Sunday, make sure you come in early or reserve for a party of 5 or more because the wait gets crazy.

Excellent dim sum. The shumai was moist and flavorful. I might say this is my new favorite dim sum spot. The price is excellent for the quality and portion.
Probably coming back in couple of days.

This place is differnt from general dim sum restauraunt.
Service is pretty good. They foods are delicious.
I like this place

There are three food items I am Well versed on, Tandoori Chicken, Jerk Chicken and Duck… The first time I tried the duck here, I was pleasantly surprised to get a well made ½ duck at such a great price. Crispy skin. Yet succulent duck. This time not so lucky :(
It felt as if I had been served the «Charlie Brown xmas tree» version of duck. I was left wondering… Who did I piss off? The duck this time around was anemic, dry and tasteless. Was this duck meant for making duck stock? Because I was literally picking at bones. So disappointed.

Solid food, bad service
We came in a group of 12 for a friend’s birthday. The food was good, jumbo shumai, and seems to be popular with a diverse crowd… But their service was subpar.
Because it was my friend’s birthday, we brought a cake to eat afterwards. When we asked them if they could clear the table and bring the cake, they did NOT do anything and we had to ask multiple times. When we finally got the cake, the table was still covered with plates and cups and they did not wipe the tables nor bring napkins for us to do it ourselves.
Sad because we were told for our reservation, 18% gratuity would be added automatically, but they rarely came by :/​
TL;DR: Come in small group for good service.

Came here for a birthday dinner for my husband. Unfortunately they don’t take reservations for smaller groups, but when we came in there was no problem getting seated.
They provided us with a menu which has check boxes to select which items you want. We reviewed the menu and checked off a bunch of boxes. When the guy took our order we didn’t realize it but he missed a few boxes we had checked off — which worked out in the end because we were full.
As far as food goes, I am not a huge Dim Sum kinda person, there are a few dumplings I do like but for the most part there isn’t anything I am obsessed with. My husband loves it though so he was digging in and really liked the XL versions of some of his favorites. I was really looking forward to the soup dumplings but found that they were not consistent and very hit and miss. Some were juicy some were not at all.
The service was also lacking here. Never got a water refill, never got checked on. Once they ordered they took off only to be seen when dropping off food.

Maybe a 3.5 to the Alhambra Lunasia’s 4. This location has slightly better hours (no break between lunch and dinner service on weekends) and a different vibe… AKA you will likely not hear anyone ordering in Canto and you will instead hear a Rihanna song at some point playing over the speakers. You will likely not see anyone wait to eat and you will instead see a white family fumbling with chopsticks (or me, fumbling w/​chopsticks). It’s not that busy here compared to the Alhambra location (I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait for a table here??). Food is on par w/​Alhambra Lunasia if not a little bit behind. But overall good.

The dim sum here is pretty good, as well as the environment which is clean and modern.
We had ordered the chrysanthemum tea to warm up our stomach 1^st, followed by the jumbo pork&shrimp Siu Mai, the jumbo shrimp har gow, the steamed rice rolls w/​shrimp, lunasia deep fried chinese drumettes, the honey walnut shrimp&the pan fried string bean w/​steamed rice.
And We did enjoy the meal.

You always want, what you can’t have… like Chick-​Fil-​A on a Sunday, or dim sum in the late afternoon…
Oh wait, Lunasia has you covered for dim sum! Yes, that’s right, they serve dim sum ALL day! They have a picture menu which is super helpful because half the time I can’t remember what all the dishes are called.
Their dim sum is good, not the best I’ve ever had, but considering they serve it all day long, I’m a fan. And to top it off you get a free workout while trying to pour hot tea from their iron kettles!

Looking for awesome dimsum without the rude service? Lunasia brings next level dimsum quality with exceptional service. The wait can be pretty long, but if you have a larger group and make a reservation, you might just walk right through the crowd of people waiting. I was thoroughly impressed by this spot. Great job Lunasia.

THE GOOD
The deep fried fish balls were bomb and I’ll definitely order them again. The fish balls tasted like a hybrid fish and shrimp ball, but that’s ok as it’s more flavorful. Yummy! They were deep fried with a fresh almond coating that was crunchy and crispy which complemented the soft and slightly chewy fish balls perfectly. This is really 5 stars!
The bean curb skin wraps served in a bowl of broth were very nicely done. They were absolutely delicious and beautifully presented. This dish is quite rare in North America, and so far I’ve only found it in Koi Palace in SFO and a few other places in Vancouver. (Most dim sum places serve bean curb wraps in a dish with gravy, which is popular very easy to find.) A solid 4-​star entry!
THE BAD
It’s another one of those Americanized dim sum restaurants where the dumplings are supersized with a complete disregard to delicacy.
The pork & shrimp siu mai was average at best by SGV standard, and a lightyear away by Asia’s standard. They were huge though. Size matters, I guess?
The pork sparerib was another mediocre dish. Yes, portion size was huge. But I would really prefer a smaller dish with better quality meat and a stronger black bean flavor and aroma.
THE UGLY
The beef siu mai was not even authentic and tasted terrible. It’s supposed to be made with cilantro and should have a soft and moist texture. But no, they got the recipe completely wrong.
Again, supersized but with a complete lack of authenticity and delicacy.
The rice noodle. Thick. Hard. Dry. Horrible texture. Nowhere near what it’s supposed to be.

I’m trying to avoid writing 3 star and under reviews — so what pushed me over the edge here?
The cooks got me turnt up on msg. I had to head home immediately and slept out the coma in 4 hours.
And I’ve never had so many pimples in my life. Ruined first date meets! Thanks to you oily food!
It did taste good though, eh I’d rather go to King Hua.

Some of the fanciest and best dim sum I’ve ever had! As soon as you walk in you’ll see large orchid plants on any of the empty tables and the tables set to impress.
This is not the type of place where they come around with the cart of food and you just point to what you want. All you do is simply check off what you want on an order form and hand it to your waitress. The food will come straight to your table within 10 minutes. Now, the portion size on a lot of the food is huge! We ordered fried rice with our meal and it was a massive bowl that 5 of us could hardly finish. The bok choy and all different kinds of dumpling we ordered were very good! The only thing was the didn’t have white vinegar, a friend I was eating with loves that, but that was the only thing they didn’t have.
I highly recommend stopping by and enjoying a massive meal! Be sure to arrive early, all the tables filled up quickly!

I am glad we finally got to try this place. I was told by some people that it would be more expensive than China Red (in Arcadia) or other dim sum places, and they were correct. Each order was $ 4-​$ 5. I expected this place to be a diluted version of Asian food but I was surprised at the menu and the food quality here! The menu had both dim sum and Chinese food. I have no idea why people would come here for pricey Chinese food but I would say the dim sum is worth trying.
Here is what we got:
1) B.B.Q. Pork Rice Noodle Rolls — This is unique, and unlike the usual shrimp/​green onion stuff I usually get. I liked this dish a lot because the BBQ pork was probably fried a bit so it wasn’t soft like I expected it (like in pork buns).
2) Jumbo Shrimp Har Gow — Very tasty and great quality shrimp in this. But nothing too special and definitely not worth $ 5.28 :(
3) Jumbo Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai — This was great because it is even bigger than the ones you get at China Red. This was one of my favorites!
4) Hot Almond Milk W/​Puff Pastry — This was a really cool dessert. The sweet almond milk is hot and you push the puff pastry into the milk so you can eat it together, or just dip the bread in the milk as you go.
We enjoyed the meal over all. The service is great, which is probably why some people like to come here instead of dealing with places that push around dim sum carts. It is a different, more modern atmosphere/​environment and it is located in Pasadena, which probably warrants the higher prices. I probably would not come back too often because it is overpriced. This is considered a one time try for me.

This is a very cross culturally friendly dim sum restaurant. The pros about Lunasia are the pros about, let’s say… VIP Harbor Seafood. What I mean by that is this.
Lunasia vs. VIP Seafood
Noise level: Quiet — moderate /​Loud!
Ambiance: Comfortable /​Hectic
Service: Friendly /​Unless you speak Cantonese, it’s going to be tough…
Speed: Quick /​Instant
Carts: none, order from pamphlet /​they mob you at first, then it’s tough to get them to come back. Lol.
I guess it depends on the mood you’re in. I like both styles.
The taste of the food is great at Lunasia.

The original Lunasia Chinese Cuisine is located on Main St. in Alhambra. Lunasia Dim Sum House in Pasadena opened in January 2015 (a little over a year ago). My parents live in Pasadena so every time we want dim sum, we had to travel to San Gabriel or Arcadia.
It’s funny, but both my husband and sister’s husband don’t really care for dim sum so whenever my sister and I are craving it, we usually go with just our parents. I was so happy that there was a dim sum place finally in the Pasadena area. They are on Colorado Blvd across the street from Paseo Colorado and BJ’s. Note that if you park across the street in the Paseo parking structure, Lunasia DOES NOT VALIDATE.
As their website states, they are «modern Chinese dimsum and cuisine» so you won’t find the ladies pushing the carts and yelling out what dishes they have. They have those nice colored menus and you mark off which dishes you want to order.
We arrived right at 11:00AM without a reservation and were seated right away. However, if you have a party of more than 4 people, I would recommend a reservation.
We got many of the classic dishes like Shrimp Rice Noodle, B.B.Q. Pork Buns, Steamed Pork Buns, Steamed Chicken Feet, Shanghai Juicy Pork Dumplings, Shrimp Har Gow, Pork & Shrimp Siu Mai, Baby Bok Choy in Fish Stock, Chicken Fried Rice, Seafood Tofu Soup, and Eggtarts for dessert.
The service was pretty good and we had to get to-​go boxes at the end for the fried rice, boy choy, and buns.
For 4 people, our bill came out to $ 80 (so $ 20 per person). Although we may have ordered a bit too much, I thought each small dish ($ 3.98-$ 5.98) was pricey compared to other dim sum places. Again, I guess you are paying for the location and fancy modern design.
Overall, we enjoyed our meal and very cool that it’s so close to my parents.
²⁵⁄₁₀₀ Reviews for 2016

Dim sum here is excellent… I either liked or loved pretty much every item we ordered. Over ordered, but dim sum leftovers are the best! Some items I loved: chicken feet, spinach n shrimp dumplings, fried taro, pan fried turnip cake. The only thing I wasn’t happy about was the pork belly. They really skimped there.
Service was fast, there’s always a waiter you can flag down for drinks, sauce… I wish they had the sauces on the table. It’s annoying to have to ask for every. kind. of. sauce. Hot mustard. Soy sauce. Chili oil. Chili paste. Vinegar.
Not too keen on the dining area, such a big open space. Felt kinda exposed… people were openly staring at two girls downing a 6-​person meal. Also, not loving that they don’t push the dim sum carts around but rather offer you random items on trays, apart from ordering/​checking off the picture menu. Maybe it’s a space thing.
AND… Not loving the low A/​C aspect, lots of people so I was pretty damn hot by the end of the hour.
Still… Food n service are very good.

A bit more expensive than other dim sum restaurants in more Asian cities/​areas, but it was worth it because nothing here is too heavy or too oily. I was very happy with almost all the dishes we ordered.
I’ll start by saying that you should not order the short ribs because they are painfully salty.
The Bao is good but nothing great and you’ll get filled up too quickly by the spongy bread.
The Shu Mai, sadly, was not good. It wasn’t bad, but it lacked depth. It just tasted like a meatball.
Everything else was great and the egg custard tarts at the end look small but once you pick one up, you’ll realize how dense and generous they are.
I wish this place were closer to my home, but then again, it might be a blessing in disguise.

Pretty solid dim sum spot in Pasadena located smack in the middle of Paseo Colorado. If you’re here on a weekend, I’d recommend coming before 11 to get a spot as the lines here get pretty crazy.
If you’re here on a weekday, I’d arrive before 12 for secure seating. The restaurant has both an upstairs and downstairs and has some pretty solid dim sum options.
My boyfriend and I ordered:
Siu Mai (⁵⁄₅) — they’re freaking HUGE here and taste packed full of shrimp and other goodies. I’d highly recommend them.
Turnip Cake (⁵⁄₅) — this one arrived a little late but was well worth the wait. Size was good and taste was nice and flavorful.
BBQ Pork Bun (⁴⁄₅) — good, but I’ve had better. The top glaze made the bun a tad too sweet in my opinion but the char siu inside was pretty delicious.
Beef Noodle Roll (⁴⁄₅) — pretty solid! I’d definitely get this again next time. The flavor was good and noodle roll to beef to sauce representation was perfect.
Char siu (³⁄₅) — this failed for me; the flavor wasn’t as good as Sam Woo and it tasted almost like a honey glaze on top that threw off the flavor for me. I probably wouldn’t get this again.
Overall I think we would be back one day. The total bill with Jasmine tea came out to $ 30 for the two of us. Service is better than most Asian restaurants and all the servers can understand and speak English pretty well.

Best dim sum place to go in Pasadena! Right, because there is no other dim sum place in Pasadena!!!
A very nice, clean and modern decoration, not the cheap Chinese style. Service is much better than the stereotype Chinese service. Upstair seat is quieter relatively. Go there super early during weekend to avoid lines.
The menu is a little limited, but their egg yolk buns are the best! Food is of good quality, authentic.