Everything is just OK nowadays. Dimsum just doesn’t hit like it use too. Just go to vancouver
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I thought Tim Ho Wan was scooped up by Jollibee. Did it seem corporatized to you?
Not really–except maybe the higher level of competence.
To me, Tim Ho Wan was always more of a one-trick pony, with their baked char siu bao. But even that bun is now reliably replicated (and replicated well) by Long’s Family Pastry in Chinatown…
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BRB going to Vancouver
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Certainly it was a one trick pony in the US branches and +1 on Family Pastry. But the Hong Kong branch of Tim Ho Wan was great across the board, obviously to be Michelin starred. Looks like the parent is serious about their US operations. Not just with the revamp of Irvine but also rumors of a San Gabriel Valley branch. You don’t go there unless you bring your “A” game.
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Upgraded menu, hopefully to match what you get all over the San Francisco Bay Area. The Alhambra Lunasia has added a couple of nice new items lately, so I’m hoping to see a bunch more at the new Pasadena location.
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They lost me at ordering from iPads splayed out at the table. Hopefully the upgraded version will have more existent levels of service.
So why is the SGV so rife with “meh” dim sum places?
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Something happened around 2010 or shortly thereafter where local dim sum stagnated while the Bay Area took off. Interestingly this coincides with the relative collapse of the Cantonese banquet market in the San Gabriel Valley, especially the past decade with the contrasting skyrocketing of such facilities in the Bay Area in the same time frame. The link being, of course, that all these facilities serve dim sum at lunch. We’ve lost Ocean Star, King Hua and Empress Harbor, while Five Star consolidated with the San Gabriel Hilton. Meanwhile the biggest Cantonese restaurant in the country just opened in Castro Valley of all places, while the new Koi Palace flagship later this year might top that.
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Labor got old, expensive, and hard to find.
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isn’t the reason really shifting demographics in SGV? SGV was predominantly cantonese for the 80s/90s, shifted into more taiwanese entering (and exiting), now it’s mostly mainland chinese.
Low demand, even lower demand for high end dimsum.
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Certainly part of the story. But on the other hand Bay Area folk seem to flock down here to get Hong Kong style cafe food, which is not terribly prevalent up there. So being Cantonese is not the entire answer.
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I don’t think there’s any shortage of HK cafe food in the Bay Area.
Compared to Los Angeles, there certainly is. Blue Sky in Belmont is so busy you can’t get into it. And I know people who drive from the Bay Area to nondescript places in the SGV just to get HK cafe food.
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Covid didn’t help. Sea Harbour took a year or two to bounce back.