Top Island Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Alhambra

As someone from Guangdong, there’s a special kind of feeling when it comes to having morning dim sum. This morning, I made a point to visit a well-known, long-established dim sum restaurant here in Los Angeles. Before 10 a.m., the place was already packed—grandpas and grandmas gathered around the tables, sipping tea. That familiar scene brought me a quiet sense of comfort. After all, the true food lovers always arrive early.

Walking in, you’re greeted by a spacious, bright dining hall. The big LED screen and live seafood tanks give the place a bold, lively feel. As soon as we sat down, a server handed us the classic paper dim sum card. But what made me smile most? They still have dim sum carts! The auntie pushed her cart around, calling out: “Freshly baked pineapple buns Har gow, siu mai, BBQ pork buns” In that moment, I felt like I’d been transported back to my childhood—weekend mornings at a tea house in Guangzhou with my parents.

You pick your dim sum right from the cart, and they stamp your card on the spot. It’s simple, personal, and full of warmth. Compared to today’s “contactless” QR code ordering, this style feels more like a cozy little gathering. Even just chatting with the staff feels heartwarming.

The dim sum here is fresh and the flavors are spot-on—many dishes still carry that traditional Hong Kong-style touch. It’s the perfect spot for family and friends to gather, sip tea, and catch up. Honestly, this is what happiness looks like.

🫖 Little tips: From Monday to Friday, there’s a 10% discount during morning dim sum hours—a great excuse to slow down and enjoy a peaceful weekday. Plus, both the Rowland Heights and Alhambra locations are now offering summer specials like the “Abalone Trio” and “Lucky Seafood Trio” all day long—no need to rush in early to enjoy...

Update:

Opened for indoor dining today. We were one of the first ones to patron this restaurant. The restaurant has taken all COVID-19 measures to ensure the safety of their customers. I felt safe to dine here.

The waiters seemed to be eager to please their customers and we got very good services from them. Foods came out very fast. We ordered our dim sum and the they came out in less than 5 minutes.

This restaurant had mediocre dim sum as I remember it before the pandemic. Today, the dim sum seemed to be outstanding. I think they have changed their dim dim chefs. The steam BBQ pork buns were exceptionally tasty with the fluffy buns. I also like their egg tarts which offered flaky crust and soft egg custard fillings. The best one we had today should be their Chinese sponge cake.

Besides dim sum, the restaurant also offered lunch special dishes which included all my favorite Chinese foods such as Kang boa chicken, sweet and sour pork, string beans with minced pork and more. The prices were very reasonable ranging from $7 to $10.

I understand they also open for dinner indoor dining. We will be back to try their dinner dishes soon.

“End of the update”

Good value food. Typical Cantonese restaurant with good dim sums and ok banquet dishes. Typically we come here for dim sum. This time, we had our early CHINESE New Year celebration banquet here. There are a few dishes on special promotions. For the Crab and lobster, you can a dish of one of these seafoods for $6 a pound if you spend over certain amount in the restaurant. The crab is very tasty with garlic in steam. All other dishes are the usual Cantonese style. For banquet, you will get a good value out of...

If there's a 'zero' star, this is it, very unhappy service people. Felt like we're begging for food there. Good Chinese friends recommended this place so my wife and I stopped by on our half-way home from a long road-trip for Dim Sum today. Disappointed at the services there and felt discriminated against non-Chinese speaking folks. Big boss, manning the register at the back with an attitude, set us down at the very back corner table (out of site with many carts blocking our table). (1st sign) He simply toss the ordering ticket like it was a dirty napkins onto the table like not wanting us there. (2nd sign) No service cart came for over 10min then finally one showed up but lady left her cart next to our table after being upset. 2nd cart lady didn't want to show us what dishes she had...she got mad at us when we ask to see since we didn't speak Chinese. (3rd sign) I asked the young waiter, who don't speak much English, for a rice dish since no more cart came. He brought the 'big boss'...big boss was upset and ask rudely..."What do you want?!" So, I request him for the rice dish but decide to get it as take out since I lost my appetite at this point. I noticed the workers were upset but I didn't expect the big boss to be so rude also. This is what I called "First and last time" place. To Top Seafood Island Restaurant: If you don't want my money...there's many places that does... I'm not Chinese but...