![]() All the restaurant’s dim sum items are also made by hand daily. Items were made-to-order, coming out to the tables hot, instead of sitting for long stretches in the push carts. He initially implemented the practice at his second Sea Harbour restaurant in Vancouver 25 years ago (his first location was in Zhongshan) to make the food fresher for customers. There are no dim sum carts at Sea Harbour, which might seem commonplace now, but wasn’t 21 years ago when the restaurant was among the first in the area to ditch the carts in exchange for ordering off a menu. An abstract triptych with geometric shapes in red, gold, and black takes up nearly an entire wall of the main dining room. More modern interior flourishes include elegant blue chandeliers hanging from the ceiling that match the cobalt walls. Rows of aquariums built into a wall hold live crabs, lobsters, fish, and geoducks. Inside Sea Harbour, the lively 8,000-square-foot dining room features chairs covered in traditional square geometric patterns surrounding white-tableclothed round tables with lazy Susans. There are no dim sum carts at Sea Harbour, which might seem commonplace now, but wasn’t 21 years ago. “That’s why I got the roosters.” The updated version of that dish he now serves at Sea Harbour comes as tender chicken slices punctuated with truffles. ![]() “Back when I owned a restaurant in Zhongshan (a city in China’s Guangdong province), it was famous for a salt-marinated chicken dinner dish, something that was big in China at the time,” says He in Mandarin through a translator. Even the roosters out front have become something of a landmark - diners, including myself, often tell friends and family to meet at the “dim sum place with the roosters.” Since it opened in 2001, Sea Harbour has established itself as an institution. A chef who’s been in the industry since the early 1980s, over the last couple of years, He has opened two new Chef Tony sister restaurants in Arcadia and Pasadena, which offer more casual, new-school takes on dim sum than Sea Harbour’s more traditional Cantonese fare. The secret to Sea Harbour’s success has a lot to do with the ingenuity of its 57-year-old owner, Hui Dong “Tony” He. The scene has been a familiar one for over two decades now, despite the plethora of dim sum options in the San Gabriel Valley. Customers mill around two rooster statues flanking the sides of the massive standalone building, waiting patiently, sometimes for hours, for plates of shu mai, har gow, steaming congee bowls, and shrimp-studded rice noodle rolls. Drive by Sea Harbour in Rosemead on a weekend and there are almost always droves of people waiting outside to snag a table for dim sum.
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