Sea Food Paradise — Restaurant in Westminster

I had high expectations. It's the best they could do.

The tents covered much of the restaurant including taking away some parking spaces. We almost went to the Buffet restaurant next door. Customers eating outside (parking lot) gave me the impression the restaurant doesn't have space or is not serving inside. But we gingerly walked in - and we were greeted by a CHAOTIC atmosphere. Loud noise of buzzing customers drowned the staff who welcomed us. We were sitted close by the kitchen.

NO MENU OFFERED. We sat there for a few minutes. Good thing we are familiar with Dim Sum, but we were hoping to get some of the menu items like duck, etc. Regardless, dim sum carts were not really going around. I only saw TWO CARTS with dessert items, not the main flares like Siumai, Porkribs, Hargow, etc.

The lady pushing the dessert cart asked what we wanted to order, I asked for the familiar items mentioned above, and some of the lotus ricecakes and flans she had on her cart. The lady left her cart in front of us for a good ten minutes and came back with our requests - THAT'S THE 3 STARS ALL FOR THIS WONDERFUL WOMAN. She went out of her way to serve us, albeit 10 minutes of staring at her almost dying food items on the cart. We received FIVE Dim Sum items - all from ONE CART LADY directly going to the kitchen to get our food.

SADLY, all five items failed our expectations in food presentation and flavor. All looked like it's been sitting on the hot counter for hours. They were also my personal favorites. I usually order two bowls of each yet we could not even finish one bowl. I did however cleaned the spareribs (because I was already starving).

For the first time in our DIM SUM experience (since childhood), we had FOUR LEFTOVERS from our first order, did not bother to get them doggie-bagged, and decided not to anticipate fresh new carts coming out of the kitchen.

We were very disappointed. I am sure this is a very popular restaurant for the locals. We are from the North San Diego county line who are consistent visitors of Monterey Park, Diamond Bar, and Rowland Heights Dim Sum restos. Maybe we caught a bad day? Not sure. First impressions are very important. So glad our clients rainchecked our lunch invitation this day. I think we will stick with TinTin of Anaheim instead.

Good luck and hoping for a better...

Update to May 13, 2025: Unfortunately, I will no longer be eating here. I ordered some dim sum to go, char so bao, this morning from a woman who was to put it mildly, snarky. I apparently walked into the middle of her adding up some receipts. I got two orders of the large buns and one order of the smaller steamed buns. Each order is three buns per order. I didn’t mind the increase in price because I’ve eaten here many times before with my family. I might as well have bought microwave food. The large buns were room temperature and dried out. There’s maybe a tablespoon of meat in these buns. I believe char siu bao means bbq pork bun. They should just rename them dried bao. The large buns are dry to the point of being stale and tasteless as well as the meat filling. In fact it tasted like soy sauce over some old pork. Very disappointing and such a waste of time and money. When you choose an establishment over all the other establishments that offer the same thing you should consider it a privilege to have customers. This woman who took my order scolded my understanding of what she said but I gave it back to her, that I just came to order food (not to trouble her or make her mad). In spite of this woman’s rudeness, I still enjoy the memories of bringing my mom here for her lobster and dim sum. No reason now for my family and I to ever come back again.

Former review: This is one my family favorite places to go to for dim sum but they also have tasty Asian dishes to chose from. I have found in the past that if you can't/don't speak the language then unfortunately service might suffer for it. Once, my son and I sat at our table waiting for someone to take our order. Lots of older female servers walked by us a few times but NO ONE stopped at our table. So we made do with dim sum but it wasn't what we went there for. My recent visit was for take out for the baked and steamed char siu bao and sesame balls. I also got egg custard that I thought was too runny and another bun that my daughter liked. My mom always got the lobster and greens and my brother would order beef and some veggie dishes. We always...

We normally go to the other competitor but Paradise has an advantage because they offer outdoor dining while other dim sum places are take out only.

We got here 10 minutes before they opened at 11. So the dining area was not yet completed with decorations to make it look more inviting.

I love that the tables were lined with paper and disposed of after. Each table is a square shape but can extend to become round and seat more. The first cart that came were the basic items that you normally see such as har gow, shu mai, and chicken feet. They were steaming hot.

I asked for the flat rice noodles stuffed with bbq but she said not yet and only had shrimp in this second cart along with baked bbq buns. So we got the shrimp. Then the next cart of egg tarts, bean curd, and steamed bbq bun came. We got bbq bun and egg tart.

Overall the food was mediocre. The chicken feet must have been steamed for an infinite amount of time because it fell off the bone so easily that it was weird! The har gow was decent, good ratio of shrimp and it didn't have a fishy smell. It also didn't detached from the shell so easily. My favorite was the shrimp flat rice noodle. It's a whole shrimp but beaten where it's flat and clumped together. The rice sheet wasn't as thin as I'm used too.

The servers wore masks and gloves. They refilled my water without touching my cup, which is how I think it should be for less contact. What I didn't appreciate and it's common at Asian restaurants, is that they can't seem to be patient and wait until you leave to clear out the damn plates! They weren't even seated to capacity. We're in a middle of a pandemic and I would sure feel more comfortable of they kept their distance until customers are gone. Here I am, unmasked and putting left overs in a box, then I have a presence on the side of my shoulder reaching over to grab plates and asking if I was done? How rude.

We ordered salted fish fried rice the next morning as take out. It was a Saturday morning and boy they were busy! Indoor dining was open and they had more...