if you’re familiar w/the monterey park area and its ridiculous plethora of food options, you’ll know that the place for dim sum is nbc.

sadly, we were diverted to ocean star for dim sum as nbc was closed (most likely for a private event).

an impressively massive banquet hall with high ceilings and rolling push carts (w/small but fierce asian women behind the helms) are all featured at ocean star, but the food is disappointingly mediocre. boo.

I agree that Ocean Star is inferior to NBC. Much of the dim sum here is somewhat bland, and missing that umph which makes NBC so great. Some dishes plainly lack much flavor (like the meatball dish), while others just lack the type of quality I expect from dim sum (some of the dumplings). While the restaurant is huge, and not too shabby looking, don’t let that fool you. Once you sit down and look at your plates, things don’t look so impressive. We didn’t have to wait though, and since it’s so big that turnover rate is probably high. So Ocean Star seems like a good place to go if you are craving dim sum and don’t want to wait in line for a powerhouse like NBC restaurant. I feel that a lot of restaurants have tastier dim sum than here though, so I might choose to go to another dim sum place anyways. It’s important to note that some of their dishes are delectable, such as the shao mai and BBQ pork bun, but those should always be tasty anyways.