Sea Empress Seafood

I’d give it zero stars if I could… the place is just disappointing and a sad representation for dim sum. How can anyone screw up shrimp dumplings ha gao? They did! Mushy, nasty, not fresh shrimp. Their radish cake was cold, wet and also mushy! The service was atrocious. Kept asking for dishes and nothing came out! This was a Sunday… prime day for dim sum and yet they had nothing available! What is up with this place?

We were on the way to Los Angeles and looking for a breakfast place. I found Sea Empress Seafood Restaurant perfectly on our way. We decided to have our dim sum fix there. We waited at the parking lot for a few minutes and got our table as soon as they opened. The restaurant looks a little dated. But who cares! We want to have our dim sum breakfast. The dim sum is pretty good. They're hot and fresh. We got what we wanted and were back on the road in less than 45 minutes.

TW: mold, ants TLDR: I, (a vegetarian), did not have a good experience at this place and I am not usually the type to complain (I’m very chill and can put up with a lot) but this time is different. I love dim sum and have never had these issues at any other dim sum place I’ve dined at. This was the worst meal I have ever had. My main issues: -no vegetarian options and no transparency about the lack of said options -sub-par service -MOLD IN THE BATHROOMS -I FOUND A LIVE ANT ON THE TABLE Good things: 1) the egg tart desserts were warm and delicious 2) the little food I could eat was seasoned very well and tasted not amazing, but fine 3) servers brought my family plenty of wet cloths for the crab 4) The staff was nice and they were willing to make substitutions when possible. I do not think they were trying to avoid us by walking away too quickly, I just think they were just focused on getting the food out as fast as possible. I have worked in the customer service industry before and currently work in client services so I know what it is like to juggle a million things and talk to people. A server warned me when I was about to eat an egg roll that it had chicken in it. I appreciated that because we shouldn’t have just assumed the egg rolls had chicken in them. I don’t think that was marked on the menu though, but I appreciate the server warning me. Section 1: Lack of Vegetarian Options and No Transparency The servers were very confused when we asked for vegetarian dishes and made it seem like an inconvenience. Chinese restaurants usually have no shortage of vegetarian options. There are also many Chinese vegetarians. If I had not dined at several dim sum restaurants with an excellent variety of vegetarian dishes, I wouldn’t have been so confused. It is fine if a restaurant is not for vegetarians, I just wish they would have said that on their website. This was the first time I have ever had to specifically order egg rolls and pan fried noodles without any meat or seafood. There would normally just be different variations of things on the menu. They are leaving money on the table. And a warning for vegetarians: this is a dim sum restaurant that will bring the live seafood to your table before others eat it without warning (which they have every right to do) but just be prepared for that but just be aware of that, if you choose to go here despite my urging that YOU SHOULD NOT. Section 2: Sub-par service: They refused to give us the table with the lazy susan even though we were the only people in the restaurant and they had at least one available. My parents and sister are physically disabled so they had a lot of difficulty passing large dishes across the table. We had difficulty fitting everything on the table and often had to stop eating dishes early and ask the servers to wrap up our appetizers so there would be room on the table for our entrees. The language barrier was not an issue for me at all and I told off my Karen mom for having an issue about it It was just the fact that the servers would just walk away in the middle of us speaking to them so they got a lot of things about our order wrong. Section 3: MOLD IN THE BATHROOMS AND AN ANT ON THE TABLE This place is the dirtiest restaurant I have ever been to and a WALKING HEALTH VIOLATION. I have not had any issue with the conditions at any other dim sum restaurant or Chinese restaurant in general. My sister, her partner and I were wondering why the bathrooms smelled so funny only to discover that were was dark-colored mold on the toilet pipes. In college, I lived with a disgusting roommate so I KNOW what mold looks like. Other reviews have also had mentioned the bad bathroom smell. We refused to use the bathroom and I usually will use any bathroom, no mater how gross if I really need to. But I just couldn’t do it. I literally excused myself to go to the bathroom in the nail salon next door and texted my sister and her partner where to find an acceptable bathroom.

The food is pretty good! We ordered a few of the dumplings, one meal off the lunch menu, and a chow fun dish. I recommend the Fried taro and the pork shu mai as those were our favorites. The sweet and sour pork was also good, the beef chow fun with gravy was a bit plain but still good.

If you are looking for a decent Chinese food near Torrance or Redondo Beach, Sea Empress is definitely a good one to try. Dim Sum is not available after 2.30pm though.