King Hua Restaurant

The assortment of dishes for our brunch was amazing! The food was authentic and inspired, freshly made to order and well prepared. We had the dim sum and other dishes that were reasonably priced. I particularly liked the bbq pork buns and shrimp dumplings. The service was very good, despite being busy for the new year celebrations.

One of the best dim sum spots in the SGV and closest to those traveling from outside the area from the Westside. The quality of the dishes is far above those on the Westside and Chinatown and even most in the SGV, so be prepared to have some of the best dim sum you’ve ever had. Not super-​oily or anything, there are also plenty of non-​pork options. You won’t regret getting any of the coconut filled desserts or rice porridges. Get there early on the weekends to beat the crowd.

It was strange that they charged $ 1.20 (or so — can’t remember exactly) per person for tea and sauce but they were so stingy with the sauces. We had to ask for soy sauce and chili pepper but they didn’t give us the bottles. There were 6 of us and they gave us the one set of 3 little sauce dishes with a bit of soy sauce, the rooster chili sauce (not even the normal chili sauce you would usually find), and… I think the last dish was vinegar.
Our waiter was very kind and informed me that I definitely ordered too much and told us he would remove items for us. He definitely knew what he was doing because he removed a lot of items and we still walked away very full. Food and service was good but we definitely left not as happy because of the sauce options.
Price was a bit higher than dim sum places from Philly. As other reviewers stated, you order from a menu. It is hard to gauge how much food is enough. Each item is about 3 pieces. It was also nice that servers would offer to cut portions in half with scissors they have readily on hand.

King Hua is a Cantonese dim sum restaurant located in Alhambra. Parking is very easy, but usually is busy on the weekends. From morning to early afternoon is their dim sum hours and at night would be their seafood and dining hours. They do not push those carts you are used to seeing at dim sum restaurants, so you would have to order what you want from their menu.
I always go for the typical dishes when we go for dim sum here: Chicken Feet, Shiu Mais and Har Gow (shrimp dumplings), Tripe, Cha Siu Bao (pork buns), and everything else you would typically find at a Dim Sum restaurant that you can find.
This has been a family favorite that I would recommend if you’re in the area and want some good quality Dim Sum!

This is actually 3.5 stars. The taste is authentic, and the tea is very good. Especially, I like the fried dishes. We ordered fried calamari, bean curd rolls, and mayo scallop. All of these are good. Steamed rice roll (coeng fan) is also good.
Now the not-​so-​good parts. Parking is hard, wait time is horrible (both waiting for a seat and waiting for food), and you’d better cross your fingers that you get what you ordered. We arrived on Sunday 11:20am with a party of 7, and have our seat around 12:20pm. Ordering is just like other Dim Sum places, where you put numbers on a sheet of paper, and we got only 75% of what we ordered keyed in their system (so we spent 25% less, how considerate).
So, the verdict is that I would probably try other Dim Sum places next time. But if I happened to be nearby with a smaller group, maybe I’ll come back.

I’ve only come here a few times with my family. The food is decent, service is ok, but the price is on the expensive side.
Usually packed on weekends. Parking is shared with other business in the plaza but it’s pretty spacious. Street parking is also available.
This isn’t the ordinary Chinese dim sum where the Chinese ladies push the cart and they yell out what they got. This is more upscale and its fresh made to order. They give you a menu and you just choose which ever item you want, just mark it down on the paper menu. When you are done, give it to one of the waiter and they will put in the order. Now you sit back drink some tea and all the food will start coming!
I usually like to order fried turnip cake, rice noodles beef, baked bbq pork buns, chicken feet, egg tart, pork and shrimp dumplings. Sometimes other stuff on the menu that sounds yummy!

King Hua was hands down one of the best Dimsum places I have ever been to.
In a way you could say that it was sorta terrible because it made me realize that I have been eating mediocre dimsum all my life. But at the same time, I am happy that I finally made it out because it made me see food I am extremely familiar with in a different light.
So i ordered the usual, Har Gow, Siu Mai, Spare Ribs with black bean sauce, Char Siu Bao and Chicken Feet. which were all great but i think the best thing that i ate here was the 流沙包 (Liu Sha Bao) which is a salted egg bun. I have had salted egg before but not in a dimsum context. My friend from HK who recommended this place was dying because it was so good. And so was I.
The 流沙包 just pops in your mouth as soon as you take a bite so be careful because you’ll probably spill the molten yolk into your shirt if you don’t watch it! But trust me, GET THIS!
King Hua also strikes me as fancy, there are no carts, you order everything through the servers. Which is fine, it just made me miss the «hustle» of fighting for your food in dimsum places.
Oh, they also have Xiao Long Bao! which was so good by the way! Its like a one stop shop of all the great chinese food things that i crave for!
Will definitely be back and will definitely recommend to people!

This is my go to place for dim sum. I know a lot people like the ones with the cart that comes around cause it’s «fresh» or something but I find it tedious to be eating and then getting out of my seat to find more food. Here there is a menu (with pictures for us non Chinese character reading people) and you mark what you want. Everything comes from the kitchen hot.
My favorites are the shu mai, the juicy steamed dumplings and #123 the beef noodles. Must have every time. The rest of their food’s pretty good too.
Get there before 10am weekends to avoid lines, although when I went yesterday (Sunday around 11:30), we had a two person party and was seated immediately even though there were people waiting. Lesson learned: come with a small party.

Oh, where are you Ton Kiang of San Francisco of the early 2000’s & Empress Pavilion LA Chinatown of the 1990’s? Both had sublime, complex, well seasoned dim sum that made you yearn & come back. I remember the fine details of the Siu Mai at Empress Pavilion which had an ultra thin wonton skin that allowed the bottom to be translucent to reveal a small, curled, whole shrimp. The finely minced pork meat had the earthy flavor of fermented daotsi along w/​a bit of oyster sauce, garlic, white pepper to impart a slight smokiness & piquancy. These two places show the nuances of intricate culinary skill at its best. Now, a culinarily viscerated Empress is revived after a long hiatus & Ton Kiang now barely limps along… What happened to the excellent chefs who lead this dim sum avant-​garde?
I asked various Chinese whom I had met at the exemplary Mako Sushi in Little Tokyo, DTLA about where I could have good dim sum, and several referred me to such places as Elite, Sea Harbour, King Hua. So conferring w/​Yelp, I chose King Hua, which means Capital China, an auspicious name, that might recapture the essence of good cooking which was so prominent at Empress & Ton Kiang of old. We ordered:
1) Siu Mai (shrimp & pork dumplings) which were meaty & porky, but sprinkling of Masago fish roe which might be appropriate on Sushi added an overly artificial sweet ocean taste that detracted from the earthy pork. Perhaps Shi-​take (shee tah keh) mushroom on top would have added an earthy forest nature to the Siu Mai.
2) Steamed Shrimp & Scallop Dumpling was delicate in texture as well as flavor.
3) Fresh Shrimp Dumpling w/​chives adding a nice oniony, garlicky, funkiness
4) Deep fried egg rolls were dry & mostly flour based «skin» & totally a waste of money. The Imperial rolls/​Cha Gio at Quang Trung in Little Saigon would have been infinitely better.
5) Fried Rice w/​minced beef & satay sauce was lifeless & looked dark brown & leaden from the dark sweet satay sauce.
6) Jing Pai Gwut/​Steamed Spareribs in Dao Tsi/​fermented black bean was fatty, tasty w/​a salty good earthiness. Watch out for the shards of sharp bones hidden inside.
7) Gai Lan/​braised bright green Chinese broccoli that had thick rounded crunchy stem & nice soft leafy leaves accompanied by a small saucer of oyster sauce straight from the bottle.
8) Off the dim sum menu was standard thin vermicelli-​like chow main noodles deep fried covered w/​wok sauteed julienned pork & vegetables thickened w/​corn starch. It was flavoured w/​a bit of oyster sauce, but proved to be bland & insipid.
One Big Problem w/​the dim sum menu is that it doesn’t tell you how many pieces to an order so that it is difficult to know how much to order for one particular dish so that everyone has at least one to sample. We were a group of 4 people, & many of the orders were only 3 pieces. Asking the harried waiter how many pieces for each order of many items in a crowded dining room is rather awkward & an imposition on the poor overworked waiter.
Harking back to the «golden» dim sum of Empress & Ton Kiang at their apogee, I must say that the dim sum at King Hwa is decent, but certainly does not reach the highs that I have experienced in times past. I realize that some of the things that I had ordered such as the Chao Fan/​fried rice & the Chao Mein are for amateurs, but I also had non Chinese food savvy guests that I felt I had to cater to their needs. 3– Unilocal stars for food that is adequate.
A real deal for those living in the South Bay would be to go to China Buffet which is AYCE w/​very competent cooking going on w/​a wide range of non-​dim sum food that tastes even better since the price is absolutely a bargain.

As far as Dim Sum places goes, this would be in the middle of my list. King Hua has been around for awhile and I hadn’t been back for about 5 years. Considering the length of time between visits I give them credit for not really changing at all.
My friends and arrive came around lunch time and walked in and were immediately seated. The server brought us Jasmin tea and it was good. Our food arrived pretty promptly and was nice and fresh and warm! Personally I have a penchant for the spicier variety of life and they even had my chili oil! That made me very happy! When our other friend arrived she ordered a whole other round of dim sum, all of which came out quickly and warm and fresh like our first round.
Suggestion: Definitely start off with the #1 and #2 if ever you have dim sum anywhere!
It took a little while for us to get a waiter to give us our check, but I think that is the norm at these types of restaurants.

Hi, my name is Wendy and I am addicted to dim sum.
You should know I was an active member of Dim Sum Anonymous, abstinent for almost 20 days before my complete relapse. My ill chosen sponsor, Mr. B, stopped hearing my desperate pleas for help, and my son woke me up this morning with this lurid Sunday morning suggestion. We are all now sitting here, loading our small plates with second helpings of har gow and char siu baos. Mr. B and I need an immediate intervention. The other two, sitting across the table, are in equally dire straits but do not recognize their addiction.
This is the kind of place where carts are banned, a thing of the old régime. A long list of their offerings is placed on your table along with a small pencil, and you indicate what and how many you think you will need. My problem was thinking those at my table of four could consume all that I dared to order. Their problem was, we almost did.
Let see, one #1 Shrimp and Pork Dumpling, three #2 Shrimp Dumpling, three #6 Steamed Black Bean Spare Ribs, two #15 Steamed Bbq Pork Baos, one #16 Steamed Shrimp and Pea Tip Dumplings, one #31 Deep Fried Eggplant stuffed with Shrimp Paste, one #36 King Hua Baked Chicken Salad Bun, two #37 Baked Bbq Pork Bun, one #45 Deep Fried Shrimp Roll with
Seaweed, one each #50 & #51 Steamed Rice Noodle (one with minced beef, one with shrimp filling), and two #69 King Hua Custard Tarts. And a partridge in a pear tree… better known in these parts as a half Roasted Duck (Mr. B’s choice; he was afraid we didn’t have enough).
I miss the carts. Always loved chasing the carts only to find out they had the dirty dishes, or giving the ladies the stink eye if they dared to ignore us (which they did again), muttering «你每次都吃太多!» Or worse. (Google says that means «You always eat too much». Don’t be impressed, I’m not bilingual, I cut and paste.) But surprisingly, we enjoyed nearly everything. My personal favorites were the duck, #25, #36, and #50.
Our bill came to somewhere in the neighborhood of $ 110. Cough cough. That’s ok, this *is* my birthday month. Besides, we usually do worse when it’s Mr. B’s birthday. And besides, the other family members who could not make it were included in the take-​home booty; they are going to get their own box full of steamed baos and custard tarts.
No pictures today. I figure that mine would be lost in the redundancy that already shows in Unilocal’s gallery. And as I battle this addiction, Carole King (who is even older than me) will comfort me:
«You’ve got to get up every morning
With a smile in your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You’re gonna find, yes you will
That you’re beautiful as you feel»
For right now, Carole, I just feel stuffed. But it feels so good.

5 stars for service, 4.5 — 4 stars for food.
We had two tables of the most expensive banquet menu, which we revised, twice for my parents 50^th wedding anniversary.
Five stars for the suckling pig – one was brought out whole, with flashing red eyes, and then two pigs were served cut, on the platter with eyes still lit. We also enjoyed the fresh fish of the day, lobster, peking duck with buns, and the dried scallop with greens. The fried rice with scallop and bacon was good – perhaps I just prefer the common chai sui pork and shrimp; the chicken with ham and vegetable was certainly fresh; the bird’s nest soup was fine; but I didn’t care for the crab claw with shrimp, as that just tasted like it was processed with filler, like fish ball. Overall, it was very good.
We had a private room, separated by partitions, for our 24 attendees, with plenty of room, and additional tables for cake, extra plates, drinks, etc. We had at least two servers at all times, who changed our plates in between courses, filled our water, and tolerated the little kids running around, without any complaint.
We elected to pour our own sparking cider and cut the cake, and we were not charged any fee for bringing those in.
Daniel, a manager, was very accommodating to my menu changes and requests; revised the prices; they took a $ 100 deposit to hold the reservation; and charged an 18% service fee which was very reasonable.
We would come back here.

Food was good, but they got our to go order severely wrong, so we had to go back.
We ordered the Spiked Sea Cucumber with Jellyfish in XO sauce with Ground Pork for my dad, because he loves sea cucumber. Instead they gave us Cucumbers and Jellyfish. We had to waste time driving back and forth.
When we did get our correct order, though, it was good. The sea cucumber wad soft, the jelly fish was good as always, and the sauce was solid.

This place has quickly become a favorite for dimsum.
Some things to keep in mind:
*You can be sure to expect at least a 30 – 45 minute wait (if you’re lucky) anytime after 11am on a weekend. Get there as soon as it opens if you want a table, stat.
*Know what you want before getting there and order it all at once (including condiments and water). Once your order is in, it’s really hard to get someone’s attention.
*There are so many good things to order from. Definitely try their pork and shrimp shumai, shrimp hargow, baked pork buns, side of pork, fried rice, and juicy pork dumplings. You won’t be disappointed.

I came here for a wedding banquet dinner, which of course has a set menu. Their restaurant can seat around 30 – 40 tables and they have a decent amount of people working here.
Wedding dinner:
First course was a meat medley. BBQ Pork and jellyfish made up most of it. It was decent enough (³⁄₅). The jellyfish was spicy, and so that made it pretty great to eat.
Then came asparagus with shrimp and cashews, a different hit on honey walnut shrimp which usually comes up. The shrimp wasn’t fresh, but the asparagus had enough flavor. Topped with cashews which gave it a good crunch! (³⁄₅)
Winter melon with scallop with choy and «fun see». Meh. (1.5÷5)
Fish stomach soup– Different, kinda liked it. Must add with vinegar. They do have MSG here, as you can taste it (³⁄₅)
Then came the surprising part
A singular plate of sea cucumber, abalone, and fish _​_​_​_​. This was made to perfection. Had the perfect taste, and when you mix it with the sauce, it tastes amazing. Would eat again, probably expensive. Really expensive. Everyone got their own plate, along with own fork + knife (¹⁰⁄₅)
Chicken– Dry. Had sauce. Still dry. (1.5÷5)
Lobster– Definitely not fresh, looked a little old as well. Definitely has seen better days. (²⁄₅)
Fish– Different then usual– had good taste and the sauce that came with the fish was pretty chill (⁴⁄₅)
Fried rice– No taste (1.5÷5)
Bird’s nest in papaya– Surprised me, was sweet and never had had one of these before. Again, everyone got their own. You got a spoon and scooped it out. It was fun. Sweet, but in a good way. Especially bird’s nest which is expensive (⁸⁄₅)
Red wine was cheap, service was good (because each server had their own station they had to go to, so you always got attention). You had a table in the back where you DIY your own iced water, so that was a plus.
Would I come back here again? I probably will because someone will have some sort of party here again. Just like NBC Seafood Restaurant. These are the top two hahaha.

We were nearby and didn’t want to wait for another ½ hour to get to the dim-​sum place we initially picked. Since King Hua was 2mins around the corner and Unilocal reviews look pretty good, we decided to give it a try.
We were seated right away. The menus were on the table already. After looking through and choosing our orders, we had to flag down someone to place our order. Kinda off since the restaurant was pretty empty at 11:30am. Anyways. We declined hot tea and waited some 15mins for our plates to show up. All but one of our plates arrived all at once. Have to say the $ 1.99 items on special were disappointing. Only 2 bao with barely any filling to taste. Very doughy. The corn kinda fritter was odd and off. And not happy with the measly 5 pieces of limp dumplings. The short ribs that I always order for dim-​sum were sun-​par. The only thing we enjoyed was the chive dumplings. Plump and juicy. Wish we just ordered 5 of them.
We had to again flag someone for the check. And were surprised to see a Tea & Sauce charge of $ 1.20/pp. Again had to flag a waiter to get the manager. Just reminded him that we did NOT order tea. And he just walked away. Guess he’s going to adjust the bill? Okay, he’s at the register, guess he is. Okidokie. Whew. Glad I didn’t have to «discuss» the sauce charges.
I’ve had much better dim-​sum abc this is likely a one time try and move on. Nothing terrible, didn’t blow us away.

DIM SUM at its best.
There are so many places to get dim sum in the SGV, but this one is one of the better ones with NO CARTS which is my preferred way. Order a la carte and wait for the fresh steaming hot plates. Excelllent.
I can’t say there’s anything i didn’t like: YOU CAN’T GO WRONG CHOOSING WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED because of the many times i’ve been here, each dish has always been great.
Parking: large lot shared with other businesses but can get packed. Just go far away.
Wait time: Semi-​bad. On a weekend around 11am, wait around 30 minutes. Around 12−1pm, wait can be between 45−60min depending on size of party.
GO EARLY!
Service: to my surprise, service was fast and effective albeit inattentive.
Price: Definitely the priciest of all the Dim Sum restaurants in SGV valley. But worth it. People, stop complaining about overpriced dim sum, when you know what’s good, you’ll understand why dim sum is priced this way. For a large party of 8 people with hungry half guys/​girls, average will be $ 20/​pp.

King Hua is a very typical good SGV Chinese restaurant. It has an extensive menu with all the typical items one might expect at nice Chinese restaurant and they serve dim sum during the day. Dishes are authentic and flavorful and all that I would hope for from such an establishment.
I had the honor of being a guest at a Chinese wedding banquet at King Hua. I have been to quite a few of these gigs in my lifetime, and this was one of the better ones I’ve attended. The food was on point! I especially liked the peking duck with buns and the lobster with ginger and green onion. The skin on the peking duck was super crisp and savory and the meat was tender and rich. The buns were fresh, moist and slightly chewy, and the accompanying plum sauce was perfectly sweet and tangy. Many Caucasian people realized they liked duck and Chinese food that night.
Service is acceptable. The night of the banquet, the managers made sure that our food came out quickly and plates were cleared promptly. It was far from friendly but very efficient.
There is ample parking in the lot behind the restaurant. Be careful of reckless drivers/​parkers!

Here’s what I’ll say is great about this place: it feels higher end than most Chinese food places. They must have renovated because you can tell that all the tablecloths and napkins are of high quality. The staff is friendly and attentive.
It’s a bit pricey especially for the Alhambra area. I know they’re trying to compete with Newport and ya know, it’s pretty good. But I’ll say it needs to be a bit cheaper still. The portions were not as big as we expected for the seafood dishes. The steamed chicken was larger than expected though. The pics you see here are of the size of half of a chicken so that particular dish is of good value.
It wasn’t super busy when we came on a holiday Monday at 5:30PM. Plenty of parking here or in an adjacent lot unlike Newport.
A little known fact: the head chef at Urasawa loves it here! He told us so!

To me, the drive to Alhambra is almost like an eternity. I rarely go there. Friends who know me know that they’ll have a better chance finding me in San Francisco or Vancouver than in Alhambra or DTLA.
But friends who know me also know that I’ll go anywhere — even to the corners of the World — to find good dim sum.
And the drive to eternity… I mean Alhambra… today was certainly worth it.
It’s around the same caliber in quality as well as price range as Elite (Monterey Park), Sea Harbor (Rosemead) or Happy Harbor (Rowland Heights).
$ 2.88÷3.88÷4.88÷6.28÷7.88 for small, medium, large, special, chef.
One major difference that separates it from the rest of the other players is some of their creative dishes that you cannot find anywhere else. We tried 2 of them today and we were impressed by their uniqueness and yumminess:
– Chestnut and shrimp dumpling: It’s like a shrimp dumpling (har gow) with chestnuts (yum!) and some finely chopped green onions, celery and cilantro.
– Deep fried tofu wrap with taro paste: It’s like a hybrid (or fusion) of a fried tofu skin wrap and a taro puff. Crispy on the outside and filled with a yummy taro paste inside, it’s a must-​order for any taro lover!
Other staples like pork spareribs, daikon cake, egg rolls etc. were also yummy. We wish we could order more food and try more items but we were too full.
Their menu is so extensive that I must come back soon and try a lot of their many other dim sum items. This place is a must-​visit for a dim sum lover.
Even if you have to drive to eternity… or Alhambra…