Recommendation for Chinese Banquet Restaurant in So.CA/LA area

Re: Recommendation for Chinese Banquet Restaurant in So.CA/LA area

• will47 member

  

  February 2011 edited December 2011

  How many tables are you planning to have?
  
  We were looking at smaller places, and checked out Elite（名流山莊), Lunasia (凱旋宮), Sea Harbour (sort of), and Mission 261. Elite seemed to have the best food at the time, though apparently their chef moved over to Lunasia recently. The first 3 of those are all fairly small, so if you have more than 15 tables, they won't work. Theese are all fairly well rated places as far as Cantonese style seafood / banquet food.
  
  Elite... went to a banquet there once, and everything was good, and the space is fairly nice, but they kind of screwed us over. They told us we didn't need to reserve until 3-4 months in advance. We came back before that, probably 6 months in advance still, and they had booked our date to someone else. Food at Lunasia seems to have maybe gone downhill a little bit recently, at least in terms of dim sum.
  
  For slightly less conventional choices, you might also check out Full House in Arcadia or Happy Harbour in Rowland Heights.
  
  We ended up going the hotel route; we'll be doing it at the Universal City HIlton; I've heard mostly good things about the food there, though we didn't try their banquet food, as they make you book an entire table (at almost full price) for a "test run". As far as hotels, there are a couple others in the area that have in-house Chinese kitchens

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• Starprint

  

  May 2011 edited December 2011

  I agree w/ Will47 in terms of how big a space you need. We are expecting about 250-300 at ours so I needed a larger place. I checked out Empress Harbor. Its in a dead plaza which was a minus for us, although i guess that means ample parking. But food was good. Decor was ok and a little old. We also checked out prince seafood in Cerritos area. Beautiful decor, as i love the high ceilings but the food was ehhh, and the chairs were wobbly. Also they can'thold more than 150-200 per space. Their layout was weird in that there is a smaller space upstairs and a "larger" space at the ground floor. B/c our party will be large they suggested we split our guests btw upstairs and down. A big no-no for me. We have gone to a few weddings at capital seafood. Parking is horrendous, decor is vegasy, and food is decent. We went to see NBC Seafood. Its large, parking is ehhh and food is ok. We chose to do have our reception at King Hua. The chef from Sea Harbor left to go here, so the food is good. Decor is modern and parking seems pretty good.

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• will47 member

  

  May 2011 edited December 2011

  I will say that we and our guests were super impressed with the food at the Hilton Universal City. I'm vegetarian, so didn't try anything off the standard menu, but my now-wife is a pretty discerning food critic, and she thought the food was excellent. We got a lot of good comments on the lobster, roasted chicken, and the steamed fish.
  
  Depending on what you get, it will probably end up being more expensive (and complicated) than a restaurant, and the location is a bit less convenient, but they do have a wide range of room sizes available, and the decor is Ok, if a bit dated.

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