Chef Tony

Everything tasted pretty good, but most was sweeter than I expected. Menu comes with a paper and pen so you can fill out how much of everything you want, they leave it at the table so they can reference if needed, which it was! Both of the buns that I ordered an individual of, they served as a set and it had to be corrected (they took what they brought, I had to wait for a new individual order to be brought out). After they take your order, they leave a receipt paper on top of the menu paper so they can cross it out as it's served, but that one doesn't say individual vs set. They also took a while to come back with the check after taking my card even though there were only 5 other tables seated at the time.

I ordered:
1 chrysanthemum tea: very good - $2.80 charged per person not by table
2-set juicy pork dumpling: standard soup dumpling - $3.60, but was free as part of grand opening deal
2-set shrimp/pork dumpling with black truffle sauce: good but didn't take a pic - $4
3-set baked BBQ pork bun French-style: very thin layer of filling, very sweet crispy topping - $7.80
4-set wonton in special house sauce (spicy shrimp): not spicy, more like sweet/sour sauce - $8.80
1 deep-fried steamed bun: came with a sweet dipping sauce, basically a donut hole they cut in half; good but I didn't realize it was a dessert, was listed with steamed foods - $1.80
1 steamed lava salty egg yolk dessert bun: very good, runnier yolk than I expected but I haven't had this type before - $2.80

Even though is it by the same people as Sea Harbour Seafood I felt like I enjoyed the dishes at Sea Harbour seafood more. The Siu Mai, Har Kow and the Durian Pastry stood out to me and I felt like deserve the "hype" and worth the money. However, the rest of the dishes were mediocre and if I were to pay this much for dimsum it better stand out a lot more than other competitors.

I appreciated that they gave 2 free dishes per person (not per table) for the first 300 customers. That was definitely great marketing on their part and made the first experience even more worth it. Service is excellent and they kept asking us if we need more tea etc. Our server was very attentive.

I was also disappointed how they couldn't make the certain dishes we ordered either. (Like the rice noodle dishes which is like a dimsum staple).

Chef Tony has the potential to be amazing, but it fell short of that expectation.

I came on the grand opening day and was one of the first 300 people in line -- primarily for the free 2 dim sum dishes that they promised. When I sat down, I could tell that Chef Tony wanted the decor to be on par with the upper echelons of dim sum restaurants. Everything was simple, cleanly decorated, and felt like it was in its place. However, what disappointed me was the food.

Out of all of the dishes that we ordered, the har gow, durian pastry, and siu mai were the only ones which really stood out. The har gow was interesting as they infused the exterior skin with truffle oil, but I was disappointed with the shrimp. The durian pastry was done well. It had a warm, crispy exterior and a durian filling that was reminiscent of simpler days. After taking the first bite, I immediately scarfed down the rest of the pastry. I think the only caveat that I have regarding the dish is the amount of residual oil that was on the pastry, but that is a minor setback since I realize that is what makes the dish crispy. Lastly, the siu mai with truffle was delicious. It combined a juicy pork and shrimp interior with a moist skin which was topped off with a modest amount of truffle on top. Out of everything, I think the siu mai was the best item that we had. Every other item had its own unique drawbacks which, if I were to ever come back, I would not order them again. Although, even though quite a few of the items weren't tasty, I would definitely compliment the presentation that Chef Tony decided for each dish.

The service for Chef Tony was great, though I was slightly confused in the beginning about who to ask for service as the uniform for both the servers and the people delivering dim sum was similar. After observing the employees, I soon was able to distinguish the different roles that they had. Also, I could tell that the servers were still trying to learn the tables and get the routine down -- especially since I don't think they had such a busy day before the grand opening. Although, after asking for something, the employees would get it done quickly and well.

Overall, I would rate Chef Tony as a 3/5 stars. It has the potential to be great with a few excellent items, but it was outshadowed by an overwhelming number of mediocre dishes. In addition to that, the price-point for the items that we ordered was definitely on the higher end. If I were to go to a dim sum restaurant that was in a similar price range, I would just go to Sea Harbor as the food items are consistently good. In the end, my ranking for higher tier dim sum restaurants, as a whole, are as follows:

1) China Red
2) Sea Harbor
3) Elite
4) Chef Tony
5) Tim Ho Wan

I don’t need to lie. This dim sum place restaurant is the best in Pasadena even though it is in soft opening phase. I don’t know why everyone is giving this restaurant a low rating (3 stars only). I feel these people don’t really know dim sum. In my opinion, their dim sum is in par with the good dim sums in HK.

Since we want to try out their dim sum and give our friends who are exciting about this new dim sum addition to old town Pasadena some feedbacks. We did ordered a lot this time for two of us. The good thing is that unlike other dim sum outfits. this restaurant offers individual order for dim sum rather a set of 3 or 4 for each order. So two of us, this is perfect. We ordered two dim sums per item.

The Chao shao Baos were very fluffy for both bake and the steam ones. The bake one was a bit stingy on the Chao shao fillings. For the turnip cake, I tasted real turnip and some fried shrimps, again very authentic Cantonese style. I also noticed that they make the usual shao mai and Shrimp dumpling with truffles which added great flavor to the dim sum. For my favorite dim sum, glutinous rice tamale, they disappointed me as the rice was not mushy and hard to eat. Maybe was just his batch tasted bad.

For dessert, chef Tony got creative. He make a very cute and plump bunny with the otherwise boring coconut jello dessert. Every one was ordering their cute coconut jello bunny. So we ordered two bunnies as well and they do taste very good. We were going to order their egg tart but we were so full and had to reserve the order for our next visit. We will be back to try more of their dishes. They open from 11pm to midnight for all day dim sum.

For parking, we parked at the parking garage in Raymond and Green. First 90 minutes is free.

I never used to paid over $20 a person for dim sum, but here you can easily paid double than that. Some item are cook and only available here like the squid ink lomein or hawgow with gold flakes. But 4/5 items is wildly available other dim sum places for much less.

Cone here if you like charcoal, squid ink, or truffle item. Otherwise is wasted of money. But for foodie then this is a spot should try and is after good to add finally something creative from dim sum in LA. This us a sister branch of sea harbour. But item here are more high end.