For over 125 years, Chinese food in the United States was synonymous with San Francisco. As the major port of entry for Chinese migrants and by far the largest population of Chinese residents in the United States there was nothing surprising about this. But with the final repeal of the last vestiges of the Chinese Exclusion Laws in 1965 spawning a new wave of Chinese immigration. three large Chinese communities of approximately equal size developed in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, such that the three areas jockeyed for leadership as the best destination for Chinese dining. Somewhere in the 1990s, Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley took the lead, which they have maintained until the present time.
But in one particular genre, dim sum, San Francisco is the undisputed leader, surpassing Los Angeles sometime in the past 10 years or so. After two fact finding trips this past August and October, I concluded there are probably at least 15 Bay Area dim sum restaurants better than the best dim sum restaurant in the Los Angeles, whatever that best restaurant might be (I haven't figured that out). As a result, I decided that I wouldn't even bother to eat dim sum in Los Angeles until something better came along. And fortunately, that something better has arrived with a branch of Palette Tea House opening in Tustin. Palette is part of the Koi Palace family, Koi Palace revolutionized dim sum in America when it opened in the late 20th century, when it introduced a higher quality, more refined brand of dim sum. However, about 20 years ago, Sea Harbour and a number of other restaurants opened in the San Gabriel Valley featuring dim sum served not on carts, but rather prepared to order from customer check sheets. This provided even a better product since all dim sum items were served fresh, and new and better dim sum varieties which could not have been practically served via cart, but shined under a cook to order system. However, there has been little improvement in Los Angeles area dim sum in the past 15 years or so, while the Bay Area adopted, and then mastered the art of cook to order dim sum.
Even in soft opening with a limited menu, Palette surpasses anything else currently available in the Los Angeles dim sum market. Here are the items we had during our inaugural visit to the Tustin branch of Palette.
Snow pea leaf with garlic. This dish turns out tough at many restaurants but is nice and tender here.
Cucumber salad with wood ear fungus. Mostly cucumber.
Wagyu XO fried rice.
My favorite--typhoon shelter XO shrimp dumplings
Lava buns.
An unexpected treat--bang bang chicken wings
Shrimp and pork siu mai with fish roe. As good as it looks.
Crystal har gow--a classic done well.
Multiflavor rainbow xiaolongbao. I even liked the habanero flavored one.
Lobster har gow--why not?
Steamed bbq pork buns.
Egg tarts need to be worked on. That's what soft opening is for.
Golden swan durian puffs. Was great when I had it in the Bay Area, but something was missing here.
Soft opening menu.
With Palatte's track record and my past experience with numerous Bay Area visits, I'm not terribly concerned about a couple of rough spots here. When we went to the soft opening of their Las Vegas location exactly two years ago, it wasn't pretty. Today it's probably the best Vegas dim sum off the Strip. Can't wait to go back early next year to Tustin when they have their full menu and have taken care of the kinks.
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