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2.2 - Elite Restaurant

Posted on January 16, 2008
Filed Under Best of the Best, Cantonese |

I found out about Elite from my fellow food blogger Alicia. She’s one of the few Chinese food bloggers I read regularly — partly because she’s like me, a Chinese / Taiwanese transplant living in LA, and partly because her photos are exceptionally good.

We’re going to do something new and experimental this week, I’m going to include comments from Miss Susan, a second foodie who went with me on this meal. I’ve always wrote very little on my entries so hopefully this’ll be a fun addition to the blog. Here goes…

Miss Susan and I arrived at 11:30 on a Saturday and the line was out the door already. And since this place is kind of small, they were calling the numbers out only once in a long while. We waited 40 minutes for a table for two. We were STARVING!!! I grabbed a menu and started checking things off furiously.

Chicken feet! This was very very good, my American(ized) friends tend to shy away, but I grew up eating all parts of chicken and pig and cow, so this is normal stuff to me. I’d recommend this dish to all of you who’ll try it.

We followed it up with this great rendition of turnip cake. Usually turnip cake is formed in a block about the size of a deck of cards, fried on a cart and delivered to you three slabs on a plate. This is turnip cake stir-fried with X.O Sauce. Great flavor with an awesome spicy kick near the end.

Miss Susan: The soft texture of the fried turnip cake slices combined with the crisp bean sprouts and green onion is an excellent combination. In addition, the egg on the side and the sesame seeds sprinkled on top really add to the flavor. The best part of this dish is the surprising spicy kick which has each bite appealing to the taste buds.

Pork Shu-Mai. I was blown away by how big and chunky these were. Very good flavor as well. I hate it when Shu-Mai is too fatty or greasy but these were very well controlled.

Miss Susan:The pork shumai is juicy and delicious. The smelt eggs on top provide a colorful touch and adds a bit of crunchiness to the shumai.


Baked turnip cake. This was basically a pastry with liquified turnips on the inside. Very mellow and unfortunately this feels a little lost when compared to the heavier and great flavors of the other (Durian) pastry.

Miss Susan: The turnip pastry share the same flaky shell as the durian pastry. Inside, the turnip is sliced into thin strips and mixed into a gooey sauce. The turnip and sauce does not have much flavor to it. This is a great dish to order if you like more natural flavors to your food.

Baked Durian Pie. This is amazing, AMAZING stuff. Durian, as you know, is a very pungent fruit, despite the foul smell, though, the fruit flavor is unbelievably good, I just dislike the mushy texture that the fruit tends to have. Here the texture is much improved by the baked crust of the pastry and the incredible flavor of the Durian is unleashed. Fantastic stuff. My favorite dish of the day.

Miss Susan: Durian Pie…FANTASTICAL! Durian is known for its overpowering smell, but this dessert provides a great durian taste without the pungent smell. The durian filling within the flaky shell has a great consistency similar to that of apple pie.


Shrimp rice noodles. They actually did a twist on this classic Dim Sum dish by adding in asparagus for texture and a bit of flavor. It works very well.

Miss Susan: The shrimp rice noodles at Elite does not come with the sweet soy sauce normally found in this dish. Although the shrimp were plentiful in this dish, the lack of sauce made it a little bland.

Leek and shrimp dumpling. HUGE! Delicious! Excellent texture on the skin, generous fillings.

Miss Susan: Shrimp and leeks in a chewy wrap. Dip it in the soy sauce provided and it is just delicious.

Bean curd wrap w/ oyster sauce. Okay, the name does not do this baby justice. This is absolute comfort food. Veggies, mushrooms, and supposedly abalone wrapped in tofu skin drenched in a fantastic oyster sauce.

Miss Susan: This meat and vegetable wrapped in a tofu wrap sits in a dish of oyster sauce. The tofu wrap really picks up the oyster sauce and combines terrifically with the meat and vegetables.

Shrimp dumplings. Once again I am blown away by the sizes of these things. It seems like they crammed two full sized shrimps in here. This was great.

Miss Susan: Elite’s shrimp dumplings are just exploding with shrimps, literally. The wrap is chewy and great, but perhaps a thicker wrap would be able to balance out the large shrimp content a bit better.

Home Style Sweet Pancake. I have absolutely no idea what’s in here, I think there’s coconut but it didn’t really show up very much. Good stuff, though, the cake is chewy and had a light sweet flavor.

Miss Susan: The sweet pancake merges many Asian flavors into this wrap. The cream filling is joined by crunchy peanuts and coconut shavings. A great dish to end the meal with.

Miss Susan specifically asked for this and ate two. That’s all I need to say. Okay, yeah, it was really good.

Miss Susan: These torched egg tarts are incredible! The flaky crust is not too oily like at some places and the custard part is smooth and almost melts in your mouth. The torching gives this dessert a crème brulée feel to it.

We were stuffed at the end of all this. We were so hungry we just went nuts with the menu, thankfully they missed a congee. We had to take a couple of items home as well. This place is off the hook good. The turnip cake and the durian pastry were definitely way up there. Everything else is impressively solid. Service was decent, and when the food’s this good, I don’t really care if they’re not at my table the instant I need something. Highly recommended, especially if you consider yourself a Dim Sum snob, this place is head and shoulders above the rest.

One thing that warrants special mention is the hilarious mistakes on the menu. Jelly fish was listed as “Jerry Fish” and Dessert was “Deeert.” Oh, it’s so crassic.

Elite Restaurant
700 S Atlantic Blvd
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 282-9998

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