Hello Kitty 中菜軒 Restaurant Review

If you’re following me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I recently visited Hong Kong and Shanghai with my family.  It was quite a challenge to visit HKG in the summer as the high humidity really elevated the summer heat that my family is so NOT used to.  Anyway, we still had a blast visiting family and friends, plus exploring new places and food.  We also planned a surprise lunch for our Little Girl to the Hello Kitty Restaurant (Hello Kitty 中菜軒) during our visit in HKG.  And we also invited our Niece to join since she’s also a big Hello Kitty fan! 



It’s a super cute restaurant with all the Hello Kitty décor that you can think of!  From the tea pot, to the serving plate!  We ordered a pot of jasmine tea to start the meal and the tea was fragrant with a beautiful floral aroma.



Even the wet napkins were package with the infamous Hello Kitty logo.



I love this ceiling light (see picture below)!  So adorable and I don’t mind to have it hanging in my living room, at all (given that I am not really a Hello Kitty fan myself)!



The restaurant itself was not too big, probably there were less than 20 small tables or so all together, along with a private dining room.  The picture below was one of the décor inside that room.




Let’s move on to the food we had, shall we?  We came here for Hello Kitty, so, we ordered most of the items that had the shape of Kitty.  Please keep in mind, not all of the items on the menu came with the image or shape of Kitty.  You can click here to see the restaurant menu.  Only those with pictures shown on the menu came with the Kitty (or the bow) shapes.  The rest are just regular Dim Sum or dishes that you can find in most Chinese restaurants. 



Here are the close up of each item that we tried.  The picture below is the Shrimp Dumplings (Hello Kitty 蝦餃皇).  Yes, only one out of the four dumplings really came with the Hello Kitty face, the rest are just decorated with the bow.  Taste wise, it is okay, or I rated it acceptable.  Definitely not the best Shrimp Dumplings in town.  But the most important thing is that the little girls were so excited and happy with the food!



Up next, it’s the Lava Custard Buns (Hello Kitty 流沙包).  The taste was good, but the bun to filling racial was a bit off.  I was expecting a little bit more filling than what they had.



Up next was Shrimp Wrapped with Rice Noodle (鮮蝦仁腸).  It’s a popular Dim Sum dish served with light soy sauce.  This is my Boy’s favorite dish.  I did not get to tast it as the kids finished them in no time!



The picture below is the Steamed Chinese Sponge Cake (Hello Kitty 馬拉糕).  The taste and texture was alright.  Again, there’s room for improvement in the taste and texture aspect, but they are simply adorable to look at. 




We also tried the Deep Fried Sticky Dumpling (Hello Kitty 蝴蝶角).  It’s in the shapes of the Hello Kitty Bow.  Inside was minced meat wrapped with sticky rice dough and then deep fried.  Taste was good, but it has less fillings compared to most restaurant with the same dish.  I give it the benefit of the doubt since it’s not in the traditional oval (or American Football) shape that can hold a lot more fillings than the bow shape. 



We also ordered some stir fried broccoli but didn’t take a picture of it because there’s no Kitty image on it.  Last but not least, the main dish we had was Shrimp with Egg Whites over Rice (Hello Kitty 翡翠蝦球蛋白飯).  The light green layer on the bottom was the steamed egg whites.  The shrimps were fresh and bouncy and the seasoning was right.  It’s a cute dish, but the steamed rice didn’t taste that fresh.  Not sure if it was due to molding the Kitty shape in advance that caused it? 



Over all, if you’re aiming for good Dim Sum and Chinese dishes, this may not be the restaurant that you want to pick especially with the prices that they’re charging.  However, if you have little Hello Kitty fans in your family, they will for sure enjoy this place a lot as they get all the Hello Kitty fixing that they can get in a meal!  I was glad that I took my Girl and my Niece there for lunch!  The excitement and smiles on their little faces make everything worthwhile!





More information for this restaurant:
Click here to the restaurant’s website for menu, address and phone number.

Restaurant Review Disclaimer: uTry.it restaurant reviews are solely based on our experience at each restaurant we visit.   They were just our opinions.  uTry.it and its owner were not compensated in any way to dine at these restaurants nor to write reviews.

Lunasia Chinese Cuisine (凱旋宮) Dim Sum Restaurant Review

Last week, we visited San Francisco (S.F.) for the kids’ Spring Break vacation, more about that in the next posts.  We do have some friends and relatives residing in S.F.  So, naturally, I asked one of them to recommend a good Chinese restaurant to us.  Her reply was a little shocking to me.  She said the Chinese restaurants in S.F. are not quite up to par and they would travel to Los Angeles (L.A.) when they want good Chinese food.  I haven’t been to San Francisco for a while so I took her words for it.  So, today’s Dim Sum restaurant review is from one of my favorite Chinese restaurant located in….guess where?  L.A. of course!  Sorry to those folks in S.F., but after trying one of the “better” Chinese restaurants in S.F., I do have to agree with my friend that L.A. has better Chinese restaurants, over all.  



Lunasia is one of my favorite Chinese restaurants for Dim Sum.  Dim Sum (點心) refers to a style of Cantonese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates.  Eating dim sum at a restaurant is usually known in Cantonese as going to "drink tea" (yum cha, 飲茶), as tea is typically served with dim sum.  The picture above is the tea menu available at Lunasia.  Each one is unique and pairs well with the food.



The picture above is the Pork Dumplings (鹹水角).  This is one of my favorite things to order at Dim Sum restaurants because of the unique flavors and texture. Also, it’s a lot of work to make them at home.  The dough is made out of gluten rice flour so it’s sticky and chewy.  The dumpling is filled with pork, some pickled veggies and this one comes with shrimps as well.  Then the whole thing is deep fried (something I seldom do in home cooking) to obtain the crispy shells.  The picture below shows you the inside of the dumpling.



Next, we have Pan-Fried Turnip Cake (香煎蘿蔔糕), see picture below.  Since I do make my own during the Chinese New Year, I do prefer my own version because I put more fillings into them.  Don’t get me wrong, these are quite good compared to many other restaurants out there.  Also, I don’t make them often as there are quite some steps involved.  So, this is a very good option when we crave for the turnip cakes.



The one in the picture below is the Home Style Chicken Wrap (順德大良雞卷), comes with a sweet and spicy sauce underneath.  The fillings obviously is made with ground chicken, and mixed with some mushrooms.  Then it’s wrapped in bean curd skin  (腐皮) and fried.  The flavor was great and it was quite delicious.  It has the balance of savory, sweet and spicy all in one bite.  The only drawback was that there were only two of us, and this is quite a lot of meat to consume.  So, order this if you have a bigger party to share with.



Next, we tried the Braised Mushroom with Brown Sauce (烤夫), see the picture below.  It’s a very famous dish originated from Shang-Hai (上海).  In addition to the braised mushrooms, there are also wheat gluten (麵筋), and black fungus in this dish, served with a sweet and savory brown sauce.  My Hubby (the Shang-Hai-nese) said this was very authentic and yummy.     



Up next is one of my favorite vegetarian Dim Sum dishes, Veggie Bean Curd Wrap (羅漢腐皮卷).  The fillings were bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots, all wrapped with Bean Curd and fried to crispy perfection, while the veggies inside are still juicy and tender.  I highly recommended this one.



The picture below is Egg Roll Rice Noodle (街邊炸兩腸粉).  This name was taken from the restaurant’s online menu.  However, the “Egg Roll” doesn't quite fit with the actual dish here.  This is actually the Chinese savory doughnut (油炸鬼), not egg roll, wrapped with a thin layer of rice noodle.  The sauce is a very low sodium soy base sauce, topped with toasted sesame seed.  And it’s perfect to dip into a little Hoi Sin Sauce (海鮮醬), that's serve on the side.  The savory doughnut inside is still crisp and the rice noodle wrapper should be silky smooth and tender.  hm….I love this one!  And not too many restaurants offer this dish anymore because the savory doughnut is another difficult item to make. 



Can you believe the two of us ate so much food, and it was for lunch!?  Yes, we did.  And up next are Shang Hai Pork Dumplings (上海小籠包).  Shhhhh….but I do like those from (here) way better!  But when you crave for these along with other dim sum, go ahead and order these.  These are very decent, in deed.



Last but not least, you can’t go to Dim Sum without ordering Jumbo Shrimp Har Gow (蝦餃皇), a.k.a. Shrimp Dumplings!  These were some of the best Har Gow I've had at Dim Sum.  As the wrapper outside is super thin, the shrimp filling is juicy and super bouncy, just how a great shrimp dumpling should be! 
 


To put things into perspective, check out the picture below to see a comparison of the size of the Har Gow and my fist!  Yup, they don’t call these Jumbo Har Gow for no reason! 



If you’re interested in visiting Lunasia for Dim Sum, you can find more information below.  Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy today’s post.  Take care and eat well!

Lunasia Chinese Cuisine (凱旋宮)
Address and Phone number:
500 West Main Street Suite A
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 308-3222

Restaurant Website:
http://www.lunasiachinesecuisine.com/lunasia

Restaurant Hours:
Dim Sum: Monday - Friday 10am - 3pm
Saturday, Sunday and Holidays 9am - 3pm
Dinner: Monday - Sunday 5pm – 10pm
 
 
Restaurant Review Disclaimer: uTry.it restaurant reviews are solely based on our experience at each restaurant we visit.   They were just our opinions.  uTry.it and its owner were not compensated in any way to dine at these restaurants nor to write reviews.