Breakfast Under Pressure: Dim Sum at Empress Pavilion

Filed under: Downtown, Eat — StyleGuide @ 8:45 pm

If your idea of an enjoyable weekend breakfast doesn’t involve people screaming at you in Chinese while shoving steaming steel carts at you, then maybe dim sum at Empress Pavilion isn’t for you.

But if you are up for a little adventure with a cosmopolitan feel, this is the place to get big heaping spoonfuls of it for not a lot of cash. 

Dim sum, typically referred to as Chinese breakfast food, looks like little appetizers or pastries.  Women push steaming trolleys the size of shopping carts around the dining room, offering guests different types of dim sum served three or four pieces to a tin.   

My first visit was stressful because we were a table of neophytes.  There’s no time to acclimate yourself to the regulation basketball court-sized dining room or peruse the menu (I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a menu).  The mayhem begins the minute you take a seat. 

The carts come charging, and we learned quickly to just say yes to a whole bunch of stuff (2-3 tins or plates of dim sum per person).  Otherwise, after the initial onslaught there can be a wait before carts return to your part of the dining room.

This is the sweet spot — when the pressure ends and you can sip tea, sample the flavors, relax and chat.

We’ve eaten like kings till we were stuffed for as little as $8 a piece.

Price:  $-$$

Where:  988 North Hill St., Los Angeles, Ca 90012

When:  Go early on weekends (9 or 9:30 a.m.) to avoid the lines

Call:  213-617-9898

www.empresspavilion.com

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