Visit #1 ·
★★★★★First time at NBC Seafood in Monterey Park, and I came correct — showed up right when they opened on a Sunday, got seated fast, and let the carts do the talking.
Dim sum service here is cart-based, which I prefer. You actually get to see what you're ordering before it commits to your table. The har gow came out tight — thin skin, shrimp filling that had some snap to it, not that mushy paste texture you get when places are moving frozen product. The siu mai had good pork-to-shrimp ratio, properly seasoned, not over-salted. Basic benchmark stuff, and they cleared it.
The char siu bao — baked, not steamed — had that lacquered top, slightly sweet, good pull on the dough. I've had better filling elsewhere but the execution on the bread itself was solid. Turnip cake was pan-fried well, crispy exterior held up, didn't fall apart when I picked it up with chopsticks. That sounds like a low bar but you'd be surprised how often places miss it.
Room was loud, packed, chaotic in the way that a good dim sum hall should be. Service was efficient but transactional — cart staff moves fast and they're not waiting for you to make up your mind. Know what you want before they get to you.
What I'm watching on the next visit: consistency. Did I just catch a good morning, or is this the standard? Cart timing matters too — some items were hitting the table hotter than others, which usually means they're not running a tight rotation on everything.
One visit doesn't tell you much. I've got receipts going back to 2019 on places I thought I had figured out after round one and got humbled by round two. NBC earns a return. That's all I'll say for now.