Holy mackeral. How did I not know about this place? But where can I find the sandwich menu? Doesn’t seem to show up anywhere!!!
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Sadly, I haven’t had Bay Area dimsum since late 2019, before COVID hit… I used to do a ton of lunch meetings and while most in my profession choose steakhouses / fine dining, I would often do dim sum. If you get up there, my favorites were Yank Sing (incredible quality / execution, but very pricey and a more limited menu), Koi Palace (still very very good, slightly more reasonably priced and a more diverse menu + they have a bunch of offshoots like Dragon Beaux) or City View (was close to my office in FiDi, really good and more reasonably priced). After COVID, I never could convince my family to go with me and I have only now started doing lunch meetings 
I do need to go to Lunasia for their non dim sum items. I suspect I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I love that type of prep of pea shoots!
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Thank you! Just curious, at that price, is 1 enough for a hearty adult appetite? Those sound fantastic and I cannot wait to try it out when we’re back in town.
I like about 1.5 for lunch.
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have you tried the lunasia mothership in alhambra? the last time i was there was a couple of years before the pandemic but our meals there have all been far better than this one at the torrance location. torrance just doesn’t have the “home” population or the competition to force the quality control of the sgv location. it’s true dim sum 101 was much better, but they also had a very edited menu.
all that said, lunasia, torrance is so much better than anything available in the twin cities that i am never going to refuse to eat there. and with dim sum 101 gone, it’s more convenient to our base in seal beach when we’re visiting than to drive to the sgv.
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I haven’t made it out there yet! Sadly, my wife is not a big dim sum person, so when we venture to SGV, we’re generally doing other types of Chinese. And my in-laws live in Arcadia so when we do dim sum with them, it was almost always China Red (which I think is closed now) although we did Tony’s once, which I enjoyed albeit very pricey…
Yeah, I was bummed to see dim sum 101 go. Like you said, very solid dim sum but too limited a menu.
And you’re right, Lunasia is better than anything else in the area. I just wish they could nail down some of the little details 
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Still a very reasonably priced meal! can’t wait to try it!
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Did you get the egg tempura?
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Yes it’s that slightly mangled thing at the bottom left
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Get a sandwich and an order of tortilla. Or two house bocatos. Definitely the best sandwich they offer!
Eat them right away, they serve them hot and it is so delicious eating them fresh.
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Finally had a chance to eat at Lunasia for dinner. Some quick thoughts:
- It’s always a shame when a restaurant interior is brand new, but feels really cold. Don’t know if its the lighting (too white, not enough yellow) or the seat booth covers (that look sort of gaudy), but my wife and I both agreed it feels a bit depressing to eat there at night. Hard to explain, because we compare to Northern Cafe in Gardena where the interior is nowhere near as new or nice, yet it somehow feels warmer?
- Har gow - lol, even in person, its disgraceful. 2 of our 4 were burst open.
- However, as I suspected, I much prefer the cooked dishes!
- Gai lan - perfectly boiled, thick stalks were still slightly al dente, thinner stalks were perfect. Add your own oyster sauce, which we prefer. Super simple dish that doesn’t always get done well…
- Pan fried seafood noodles - noodles were nicely crisped on the edges, sauce could have been slightly more salty / flavorful. The seafood was perfectly cooked - ingredients were fresh and shrimp had the right snap, the calamari was tender but not to the point of mushiness and the fish was cooked just through
- Chicken corn soup - one of my takeout favorites and my only note here is the in person bowl is much bigger than the takeout container! We got six full bowls out of it, so everyone was happy
- Roast duck - I thought this was excellent. My nit would be the skin wasn’t quite crispy enough and the cutting was a bit sloppy. However, the duck was perfectly (that word again) roasted where the meat was tender but not overcooked. And it was really flavorful, both of the duck and the seasoning.
For me at least, the dim sum is serviceable but nothing special and the ambience is lacking, but, I think their cooking skills to be excellent whether it is veggies or meats. AND I love roast duck and to have a place 5 minutes from home that makes it really well is a very welcome addition!
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Got the family combo at full house plus.
Mongolian beef
Gan pong shrimp
Tang soo yook
+
Jjm
This meal was really high quality. I thought it was pretty good last time but this meal moved into the good/really good category. Everything was well made and the shrimp was fresh and snappy and tang soo yook were super well fried. Jjm was very rich without being overly salty.
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Love their food. And the owner Roy is such a good guy… Always high quality ingredients, from our weekly meals there!
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Very sad news, it seems that Alpine Village Market is shutting down at the end of the month. I heard that the employees got word yesterday and that they won’t be restocking the shelves, so go load up on sausages, chocolates, bread, mustard, and beer while you can 
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WHAT?! I’m super sad to hear this. There were always folks there and they were the best place for half baked Prezels for a party and a huge selection of European beers. A real loss.
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I went a little before Christmas to grab some things and found out they had been buying their meats from a distributor for a while. It seemed the writing was on the wall but I didn’t want to report it in the hopes they might turn it around.
A real shame. Alpine Village was the only legit central European butcher in the region.
We really are going into an endgame where there’s going to be nothing interesting left here. Step off the plane at LAX and welcome to Dallas/Ft. Worth.
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The deli seemed to have quite a bit of stock left (and a very long line); the rest of the store looked like post-Zombie apocalypse. Partner and I were starving, so I got a bag of puffed peanut snacks, which is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever eaten. We also got a pre-cooked Polish sausage and just started eating that in the parking lot.
After walking around the Village, we headed off for lunch. Partner nixed Korean (I wanted tang su yuk so badly!!!). Wadatsumi was closed when we arrived, as was Nozomi, so we ended up at Torihei, which was indeed
I don’t know if it’s a Sergio-specific thing, b/c we had a lovely meal there (our first) maybe a yr ago.
Today’s meal was crap (although partner and I agreed a more accurate and diplomatic description would be “adequate,” lower case “a” on purpose). Totally edible, but it all just felt so… indifferent. I guess the karaage had been fried, but that crust was so think and weak. Good flavor, though. Isn’t it usually served w/ some kind of dipping sauce? Chicken thigh skewer not very flavorful, skin was floppy. Oyako-don was the best of a very weak bunch (fine but a bit sweet). The soup accompanying it tasted like water w/ some vague flavoring added. Special shrimp was… okay, I guess? It tasted… grilled.
We were physically full but left feeling unsatisfied. Hrs later, I am still full. But I do not feel like I have eaten well today.
Weirdly anxious service from the older server only made a blah meal more awkward. I think it might have been kind of obvious we weren’t enjoying the food.
The bill was really low, so that was a plus.
Maybe Sergio comes out for the dinner crowd? While we ordered different dishes last time, the quality of the food we had today doesn’t remotely resemble what we had on the previous visit.
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