Yum Cha Cafe

I went in to my favorite Yum Cha Café on February 17, 2013 and found out that this one is closed!!! I asked the cashier inside the Thuan Fat market and she said that it closed Monday, right after the New Year 2÷11÷13. Total bummer because now I have to go to the other one on Magnolia and Westminster. The parking sucks over there and it’s hard to get back on Westminster to make a left on Magnolia to get back on the 22 freeway. Plus it seems smaller at that one and they don’t have as much of a selection.

Now if you can’t make it to Monterey park for dim sum on a Sunday morning, and you’re stuck in the orange county area, you could do far worse than by choosing to come here for your dim sum needs.
I love their shrimp har gow. And at around a buck and a half, you can’t go wrong. Sure, it’s cheaper else where. But I was craving it and it delievered on all fronts of flavor blast in my mouth. Oh yeah!
The prices all around are pretty cheap when you look at them and for what you’re paying, Besides, when you’re done eating, you can finish your grocery shopping since you’re in a market.
Double score in efficiency.

yes!!!
cheap dim sum!!!

YUMMY CHEAP YUM CHA !!!
My vietnamese friend and I went to grab something to eat on her lunch break.
It is like foodcourt inside of Thuan Phat Market.
What we got today …
2 orders of sticky rice
2 orders (6 pieces) of vegetable dumplings
1 order (3 pieace) of shrimp dunplings
1 order (4 pieces) of pork shumai
1 order (3 pieces) of egg tart
Total: $ 10 (includes taxes) & NO TIPS :)
I will definatelly come back this week !!!
Most Items are 3 pieces for $ 1.49 or $ 1.19.
Very Cheap and food is decent !!
They have deep fried stuff, breads, desserts as well !
Perfect place to get party trays!

I love this weird dim sum bbq café in an asian market. I can’t resist the BBQ combo plate. I mean come on, Duck, bbq pork and half a roast chicken over a bed of white rice and pickled cabbage. I always ask for a side of the bbq sauce the pork rests in all day, so tasty poured over the rice! All that for only $ 4.79! Around the corner they have a dim sum counter that offers all the usual’s and more for around a dollar or two. I getting hungry just thinking about it. I think I’m gonna try the duck noodle soup tomorrow, can’t wait!

Yum Cha Café is YUMmy! OK that was a really trite thing to say but let me tell you that this place has a good balance of value and taste. No, it is not the best Dim Sum you will ever have but, yes it is good enough to be thoroughly enjoyed especially since you can leave with a full belly and a full wallet. Make sure you come early as you can since the Dim Sum is not made fresh throughout the day. They have pretty much all of your Dim Sum favorites here too! I’ve had their crisanthemum tea and it’s pretty good. Their Dim Sum sauce is homemade and pretty decent! The ladies that serve the food are really nice! I like it here! This place is inside a large Asian Market which is in a large shopping center so you needn’t worry about parking. My only problem with this place is that they do not have enough condiment baskets for all their customers. We had to ask our neighbors for their basket so we could get some Sriracha. Plus there do not seem to be enough tables when the place gets busy. Thanks to the world famous Elizabeth V. for letting me know about this place!

Sometimes you don’t want to deal with the hustle and bustle of a busy dim sum restaurant on a weekend morning, so Yum Cha Café is the perfect alternative… I’d even say just skip the restaurant scene altogether and just come here!
Yes it’s dirt cheap and I for one don’t really notice the quality lacking. Sure the turnip cake isn’t as crisp and piping hot as it could be… and yes, it’s missing that quintessential egg, but you got to cut corners somewhere.
To order:
— 1 order of shumai
— 1 order of fried donut stuffed with crab meat
— 1 order of chicken feet
— 1 order of turnip cake
— 1 order of chive/​pork dumpling
— 1 order of steam pork buns (which comes with an additional as that was the special of the day)
Let’s play Price is Right…
a. $ 5
b. $ 10
c. $ 15
d. $ 20
Yes, all of that food only came out to B. $ 10. I was shocked at how cheap it was… and this was only trying like 15% of their total offerings. I’m worried that I know how accessible this dim sum is to me. Can’t say it would hurt my wallet at all… but my waistline, now that’s another story…

*Just so you know, Yum Cha is located inside of a grocery store (not sure of the name)…you’ll see it on the right when you walk into the store.
This is where we run to when we are in the mood for some dim sum, but don’t have time to go to Dragon Phoenix.
The dim sum is pretty good and the price is right! And be sure to look for their little signs showing which items are buy 2 get 1 free … sometimes it’s easy to overlook the signs. The ordering process can be a little overwhelming cuz if they are busy, you have to move quick! You need to point at what you want and tell them how many ORDERS you want … cuz some things have 2 – 3 pieces per order… they get kinda funny when you try to tell them how many PIECES you want!
Also, I like to keep a little running total in my head of how much I’ve spent, but I’ve noticed that they are right on when totaling my stuff!
Some of our favorites are the shiu mai, meat & veggie patties and sticky rice cake! Their pork baos are just ok, but we usually get a few anyways … my kids seem to like the baked ones better than the steamed.
This place can get busy, so be sure to take a number!
Oh … and most importantly … they are Cash Only!
Enjoy!

I know this isn’t top quality dim sum. But you know for the price and the instant gratification of being able to chow down your food, instead of having to wait 45 minutes for a table and waste more time chasing the proper cart down… this takes the cake for me. Although, I think they’ve raised their pricing (it is no longer $ 0.99 for an A).
The pricing as of last week is as follows:
$ 1.19 for an A entrée: sil myl, buns, turnip cake, etc.
$ 1.49 for a B entrée: sparerib, har gow, chicken feet, rice noodle, egg tart, etc.
$ 3.59 for a C entrée: congees, vegetable
$ 3.79 for a D entrée: noodles, rice noodles in soup
Still, one of the most affordable meals in town. My girlfriends always laugh at me because whenever we’d go, I’d order a huge stack of food for less than $ 20 and we’d be eating dim sum leftovers for days :)
They also have BBQ duck, pork, soy sauce chicken, etc. so if you aren’t much a dim sum person but want to have a quick & cheap meal, this is still worth a visit.

You win, Yum Cha. I’m now taking you of my next to review list.
I’ve been going to this place way before I understood the concept of dim sum.
To me, this is just a place where you point at what you want and hope that they understood you and give you the right one. Also, not the place to be indecisive and hold up the line.
My fave item is their brown sugar rice cake. It reminds me of the one that my great grandma used to make.
Sometimes, they would have buy 2 get 1 free deals. They had it for siomai for a long while. They also had it for veggie buns, which I didn’t care for much although I did like the bread.
They also sell noodle soup for about $ 3 and change.
It’s not a small bowl either. I always end up sharing mine and it’s good for two people specially if you order a bunch of other items.
Bring your own water or buy boba tea in advance as they don’t have water here.
I’ve yet to figure out what kind of drinks they sell here, I’m guessing tea based on the pictures posted on the wall.
I’ve noticed that they’ve increased their prices and they are no longer .99 cents each.
Even though I don’t speak Vietnamese, the workers don’t intimidate me and I always get the friendly ones.
Cash only!
PS. Please note that this is my personal «I’m a fan» rating. I am aware that there are better dim sum places out there and I don’t recommend this for anyone looking for the real deal because the only deal here is it’s fast and cheap!

I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it, but this place is fast and cheap.*
Other than that, it’s what you pay for – acceptable and there’s no doubt it’s dim sum, but the quality is low. It’s a good place to stop if you want a quick and dirty dim sum fix (or I suppose if you want a side of sesame balls with your banh mi from the Lee’s across the lot).
One thing I will advise, if you don’t speak Vietnamese or Chinese, you should either know exactly what you want (and frantically point to it while waving the number of fingers representing how many orders) or be a bit adventurous in what you’ll end up eating. Maybe there are some people who work there who are willing/​able to communicate in English what a given food item contains, but I’ve never come across any; I normally get a blank stare from the moment I say «Hello,» so a general knowledge of basic dim sum items will help.
Did I mention it’s fast and cheap?
*I’m really hoping the rest of the Unilocaly folks know I’m being a smartass. Oh please, oh please, oh please.

It’s more like 3.5 stars but I gave them 4 because it’s so cheap haha Prices are cheap, service is fast, but quality is just okay/​decent. It’s a to-​go dim sum place located in the supermarket so you can just point at what you want and they pack it up. All items are about $ 1.00-$ 1.50 which is pretty cheap for dim sum. I’m sure it’s not going to be the best dim sum you’ve ever tasted, but it gets the job done when you’re in white-​washed Irvine and the closest place for chinese food is Sam Woo’s.

This place gets 4 stars because it’s cheap, fast, and decent dim sum.
Compared to dim sum found at Chinese restaurants, it gets about 2.5÷5 stars. But it’s in a different category because it’s fast food dim sum, so keep that in mind when you eat and review here.
I had like 6 different items and all tasted average or decent, not great, not horrible, just average. You simply point to what you want, pay, and eat. You don’t have to wait for any old grumpy lady to push her cart near your table. You don’t have to fight with other Asian people in trying to get the attention from cart ladies. And it goes without saying, you won’t have to tip.
The quality will never go near a sit-​down restaurant, but I knew that walking into the store (it’s inside the grocery store btw).

This place is situated in the asian grocery store next to Target. I went here at around 5:30pm and there was NO line. I don’t think they get a lot of customers at this hour, so the dim sum isn’t freshly made and has been sitting there for a while. I could just tell because the food wasn’t hot and it was hard.
The prices are very cheap though. I would come back around lunch time when the food is fresh.
There are tables to sit and eat, which is okay… if you don’t mind the grocery store shoppers to stare at you eat as they pass by lol.

$ 11 was enough to stuff my mom and me. Great tastin dimsum for a fraction of the price compared to those ladies with the carts. This is definately a food to go type of place. You can eat there but the tables are in a market area which is busy and usually not very clean. I would suggest this for anyone who has a dimsum craving but has no time for a sit down restaurant.

Dim sum to go. Hmm, that’s a good concept if you are not into experiencing little carts of dim sum rolling around you every so often.
Located in Thuan Phat Market, Yum Cha offers a good variety of dim sum. This is probably a good place to go if you are concerned with the amount of food you intake. You have more control of the amount you eat, instead of just ordering like nuts if you were to be at a dim sum restaurant.
Not too shabby for the price and for take out food. Less than $ 1.50 for your typical dumpling.
Just perfect for a quick solution to hunger.

OC Foodie trip stop #2.5: 2.5 Stars…
It is what it is… cheap dim sum. Not great. Not bad. You just pick out the stuff you want through the glass. Although, I wonder how long it was sitting out? Eh. for 99 cents. I’ll eat it. Maria and I decided to take it to go since we were on a mission… find cookies/“banh”. The service is barely there. I always felt there was a strong language barrier that I had to overcome. Thankfully I had my trusty good friend… the finger, to point and show how many I wanted.
Thanks to Maria for treating me to it.

It’s the same Yum Cha Café as the one I visited in SD. I ordered Shrimp Har Gow for $ 1.39 and tried the Shrimp Wonton for $.99. There are some tables in the vicinity to sit and eat, but we ate as we shopped.
Not the best, but it’s some good, cheap dim sum…

Super cheap dim sum to go… to make me feel less gluttonous when I eat all this food in the privacy of my own home =)
This is not a Chinese restaurant — in fact, it’s found inside the Thuan Phat market on the corner of Brookhurst & Westminster (behind Lee’s Sandwiches). This place has both dim sum and BBQ meats such as chicken, duck and pork for sale. There’s a few small tables but I wouldn’t recommend eating here — it’s definitely a to-​go type of place. There’s tons of selection… the food is set out hot so all you really need to do is point & say how many you want. I really wanted to eat dim sum but didn’t feel like sitting in a restaurant by myself so I opted to buy it here — then the bf decided he wanted some too, so I just bought a ton of food to take home & share. Our order included:
3 orders pork shu mai (4 pieces)
2 orders har gow (4 pieces)
1 order baked BBQ pork bun (3)
1 order shrimp flower ball (3)
1 order steamed chicken bun (3)
1 order chao tom (shrimp ball on sugar cane) (3)
1 order sesame ball w/​red bean paste (3)
1 order egg custard tart (3)
TOTAL = $ 13.58!
Beware of pushy old ladies who will go in front of you — especially on weekends. You can’t really be polite, stand & wait your turn because there’s someone who’s probably shorter than you but louder than you who will cut in front of you. =) I went on a weekday afternoon so it wasn’t bad but trying to get food on the weekend in Westminster is an entirely different story.
Dim sum in Little Saigon is usually cheap to begin with but this is ridiculous! =) Eleven orders of food for less than $ 14 is a good deal and was more than enough for two of us sharing — we had some leftover as well. A lot of items are only $ 0.99 per order while the «pricey» items for dim sum cost $ 1.39. You can also get noodle or rice soup for $ 3.99 but I didn’t try these.
I know it’s not the same as getting to pick items off the little metal cart with older ladies yelling at you in Vietnamese but it certainly good enough for me to enjoy in front of the TV at home. =)

Another First To Review from yours truly!
$ 15.00 for lunch in this recession filled economy… unbeatable prices alright at least with my experiences of Dim Sum. This particular location is located within a local Vietnamese Supermarket in my hood of GG (Vien Dong III). At first glance, when I was craving some Dim Sum, I swore how challenging it was to believe there were some spots that had it on a sunday afternoon (after 2pm, which is rare within the Westminster/​Garden Grove area).
A friend of mine and I called up to see if they were open and ‘lo and behold of course they were. After a short detour from the Bank of America we went inside the supermarket, go into the line, and ordered the following items:
About usually 4 pieces per each order so…
–1 order of Hargow
–1 order of Vegetable Dumplings
–1 order of Crispy Fried Coconut Hargow
–1 order of Chicken Feet
–4 orders of Shiu Mai
–1 order of Spare Ribs
Everything was delicious, except the Spare Ribs and Chicken Feet. The Chicken Feet wasn’t too my liking but if you like nibbling on Foghorn Leghorn’s corns and bunyans, be my guess. The Spare Ribs were just disgusting, it was pasty and powdery as if it were marinated in sewage water (my friend and I; spat it out in a heartbeat). The MVP for the entire meal was the shiu mai, I knocked out all of them into the bowels of my stomach (eat your heart out Kobayashi). Overall, this is my new go-​to spot for Dim Sum, whenever the cravings come around.