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Ocean Star

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TravelQueen2001
TravelQueen2001
First Reviewer
3 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
3
Reviews
4
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1-3 of 3

Simply Not the Best...

  • January 9, 2009
  • Rated 1 of 5 by Lovefood from san Gabriel, California
I was very disappointed by the dim sum. It is not traditional and very fusion. It lost all the real taste. This restaurant maybe big but lacks of food and services.

Ocean Star Restaurant

  • January 30, 2004
  • Rated 3 of 5 by BeTheBuddha from Los Angeles, California
This place serves typical dim sum, such as shu mai and shrimp dumplings. Parking is limited at this plaza (park in the back). Similar to Empress Pavilion, this restaurant has one big banquet room. Ladies with dim sum make their rounds with the carts. Ocean Star does offer a little more exotic and traditional Chinese dim sum fare, such as pork blood soup (it look like red tofu). Service is fair, but could be better.

From journal All Asian (Restaurants) Do Not Look the Same

Editor Pick

Ocean Star Restaurant

  • March 12, 2001
  • Rated 4 of 5 by TravelQueen2001 from Los Angeles, California
Ocean Star Restaurant

The dim sum here rocks! My favorite dim sum place in Los Angeles, and I don't mind the drive if I get to have the sticky rice wrapped in tea leaves! OK, this fabulous restaurant is not in Chinatown, it's in Monterey Park, aka "the first suburban Chinatown." Quite an experience to come to this neighborhood off the 10 freeway (exit Atlantic Blvd) not only for the fine dim sum fare (and it's so good that coming for the food would be enough for most) but to experience the vibrancy of an evolving ethnic neighborhood. A bit about the neighborhood before I tell you more about the food at Ocean Star: this ethnic enclave is quite different from a traditional Chinatown because it's based on a suburban model (read: you need a car). Drive on Atlantic Blvd to get a glipmse at the number of Chinese businesses on strip malls, offering all kinds of products and services: restaurants, tea and Chinese medicine stores, book stores, banks, supermarkets. It's worth stopping at any of the supermarkets to buy great cheap fruits and vegetables, as well as tea and other products you may want. Monterey Park is a rather recent phenomenon -- it has become a Chinese enclave in the last 20 years (mainly Taiwanese, and thus Mandarin-speaking, as opposed to Chinatown which is more than a 100 years old and has traditionally been a Cantonese-speaking area).
More about the restaurant: there are generally long waits here on the weekends, and you can sit on the couches of the waiting area and look around at the fish tanks and the paintings, as well as the almost-all-Chinese clientele: quite a cultural experience without leaving the LA area. You'll get seated in a large dining area with hundreds of tables and dozens of servers pushing tin carts full of the most delicious food: shrimp dumplings, sticky rice, pork buns, and lots more. The staff often does not speak English, but you'll make yourself understood by pointing at the dish you want. An amazing cultural as well as culinary experience.

From journal Ethnic L.A.

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