A & W Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Los Angeles

We had just come into town and we wanted to have dim sum for a light lunch somewhere on the way to UCLA. I googled good dim sum places and this one popped up so we decided to try it. It was late afternoon so there was hardly anyone there. The first person you saw was this lady behind the counter when you went in. She did not smile but did ask how many people and we told her two.. So she told this other lady to sit us at a table. Both women were not very welcoming. The lady that sat us down starts rolling the dim sum cart to us. At 2pm there wasn't much to choose from. We ordered the sui mai,the shrimp and scallop dumpling and the fried sesame balls. She almost just started to put a variety of steamers plates on our table but we didn't want what she had in the cart. We ordered the house special chow mein. The food was disppointedly ok. The shrimp scallop dumpling skin was soggy and the flavor was ok. The sui mai wasn't bad but it might have been better if we had come earlier and these item came out piping hot from the big steamer. The fried sesame balls were fresh and delicious. We had two orders of that one with red bean and the other with yellow bean. Yellow bean was our favorite but they ran out. Since there wasn't a lot to choose from the dim sum cart we ordered the house special chow mein. When it came out I was surprised how it was fried up. There were more noodles than there were meat or veget . It was pretty skimpy on the added ingredients that is supposed to be in that chow mein. The third lady that served us was the nicest one there. The chow mein was ok. It did have flavor but it did not have the wok fire and flavor you would find in really good Chinese restaurant. I was disappointed with the quality of food served there and the unfriendliness of the front desk and the first waitress. I will not...

Reason for visiting: late Mother's day dinner Date/time of visit: Friday night, ~7:30 PM Pacific Parking: can be found in the lot next to the restaurant or on the street Party size: 13 Environment/ambience: wasn't too busy for a Friday night. It started getting busy as we were eating; CSUN had a graduation around the same time. There are fish/lobster tanks the kids can look at. No TVs. Place was relatively clean. Large round table will fit roughly 12-13 people comfortable; comes with a lazy susan (round serving table in the middle). Service: was good, better than expected for a Chinese restaurant. They include tax when they calculate the tip so make sure to check that; they also have the option for large parties to decide how much you want to tip if you tell them ahead of time. Otherwise they will include the tip with the bill, which includes the tax which isn't right (even though they said it wasn't included). This was the main reason for my rating. Food: was good. The house special lobster, beef loc lac (beef chunks), fried pork chops, and salt and pepper shrimp were all good. Cost: not too bad, came out to ~$36/person,...

I must have passed this place 1000 times without even thinking of going in. On a recent Monday, a friend invited me to A & W for lunch. I didn't know what to expect. I was greeted by a beautifully decorated interior and by a staff that spoke little to no English. Thankfully my friend spoke with the staff in Chinese, her native language, ordering various small 'baskets' of Dim sum and Dumplings. Everything was delicious. Some items where straightforward, such as 'pork in a dumpling' or 'shrimp in a dumpling', while others more interesting combinations with more complex flavors. Since a cart is brought to your table, from which you get to pick what you'd like, I never bothered to try and memorize names of items. We accompanied the meal with tea. Since she paid for the meal, I have no idea about cost and how reasonable it might be. I know it us a very unique experience for this part of the San...