The Mirage of a Classy Chinese Restaurant
A few days ago on Thursday evening, the Fiancee and I boarded a plane after work for a very brief trip to LA to scout out wedding ceremony and reception sites. I was a bit cranky on the plane, as I had managed to catch a nasty, snotty cold a few days prior which didn't seem to be getting any better. That, and I was pretty idle at work for most of the week until the day before I had to fly out when a huge ton of work hit me and I was stressing out about getting some tangible results out so that it didn't seem like I did nothing the whole week.
But anyway, we landed in LA really late on Thursday night, showered and then went to bed. The next day would be a busy day visting several reception sites that I had researched earlier. Initially, when I first starting thinking about how my wedding would be, I imagined a smaller, more intimate event with about 150 people max, preferably 100. The wedding might be at the Glass Chapel (Wayfarer's Chapel) in PV, and the reception would be catered with rich, luxurious French food served by white-tuxedoed waiters under a tent lit by lanterns and the moon overlooking the cliffs as ocean waves pounded agains the sides.
But then reality hit. I'm Chinese, and so is my Fiancee. I'm the first to get married among my siblings, and he's the treasured boy of his clan. When I annouced to my cousin at her wedding of nearly 300 guests that my event would be much smaller with about 150 people max, she smiled and then laughed a "you poor, naiive little girl" laugh. I suppose I should have known better since we were cousins and shared much of the same extended family. About a month after my cousin got married, my parents called to let me know that they would probably need space for about 100 guests on their side. The Fiancee's mom already had a list of 100 people from his sister's wedding a few years earlier. That was already 200 people without any of our friends. Now I was looking at a guest list of at least 250 people, maybe even 280-300!
With that, the Glass Chapel having a max capacity of 100 disappeared along with my white tuxedoed waiters and the tent overlooking the water at night. It would never work with 250+ guests, and the cost would be astronomical. As my vision came crashing down, the Fiancee decided to alert me that the majority of our guests would be Chinese people of my parent's generation that could care less about the decor and beautiful everything of the whole event, but would care only about the food. And with Chinese people, the only good food is well-prepared Chinese food, meaning that the only way to please our guests would be to have a Chinese wedding banquet. It was now raining, and pouring heavily. In denial, I didn't want to think of the wedding anymore.
But as is always with me, I came around to the idea a few weeks later when I decided to search wedding venues online. I wasn't too keen on the Chinese banquet idea, so I only checked out American style wedding packages. In these past couple of years, the Fiancee had managed to turn me into a bit of a foodie. As I scanned the reception menus, I was really turned off at how ordinary the menu items were. Nothing seemed appetizing, and the packages were so restrictive in not allowing outside caterers and dictating where your cake had to come from. With the capacity I needed, most of the reception sites had to be banquet halls which looked fine, but not spectacular. It was then that I decided, out of curiosity, to see what a Chinese wedding banquet menu would include.
But where would I find these restaurants? They weren't listed as options on the usual wedding sites such as theknot, officiantguy, herecomestheguide, or other similar wedding sites. So, I googled "Chinese wedding banquet Los Angeles". The results turned up various people's blogs and chat threads of people that had either been to a Chinese banquet wedding recently or were Asian American brides searching for "classy" Chinese venues just like me. Through these sites, I discovered that Prince Seafood in Cerritos, CA was quite popular amoung Chinese American brides for it's elegant decor with good Chinese food. I immediately googled their website to see a sample banquet menu which made my mouth water after previously reading through the bland American options of chicken, beef and rice pilaf. It was then that I decided to focus on having a Chinese banquet reception. The Fiancee was quite pleased that he wouldn't have to battle this one with me.
Equipped with his new TomTom and my list of about 10 Chinese banquet sites, the Fiancee and I set out a little before noon on Friday to San Gabriel. The Fiancee was quite excited to try out his latest gadget, which he set to have a British female voice directing us around.
Turn right at the road ahead.
In about 800 metres, turn right.
In about 400 metres, turn right and enter the motorway .
Turn right and enter the motorway.
We were now on the 110N, getting ready to catch the 91E to the 710N to the 10E, off at Atlantic Blvd.
Exit the motorway and turn right. Turn right. Turn right. Turn right.
LANYTransplant: Persistent little lady, isn't she?
After a few more twists and turns we were at our first destination: Capital Seafood Restaurant on Garvey in Monterey Park. At first glance, the place looked horribly disappointing located in a run down strip mall with a cracked parkinglot surrounded by cheap looking storefronts. But when we opened the doors and went it, it wasn't bad. The place had a maximum capacity of 60 tables (10 ppl per table) and was nicely decorated, bright with chandeliers, gilt column pillars and a decent-sized dance floor. But our party would only fill up about half the restaurant. The restaurant was one big open space without any private rooms, meaning that they would only put up partitions (not tall enough to even come close to hitting the ceiling) to section off our area. I was turned off by this, but wanted to keep an open mind, considering that the interior decor was passable and the menu quite appetizing.
Next, we noticed that the next restaurant, Empress Harbor was right across the street and moved our car into their parking garage. Again, this was another tacky looking mall, but at least not so run-down as the lot at Capital Seafood. The minute we walked into Empress Harbor, we wanted to walk out. The interior decor was painfully plain, screamed Chinese dim-sum house, and had absolutely no ambiance. As we were about to walk out, I noticed a sign advertising a banquet room and VIP room. Could it be that there was a nicer room available that we weren't seeing? Nope. The Fiancee asked, and the manager stated that we were standing in the banquet and VIP room which they would create by putting up partitions to section off our banquet area.
Next, we were off to see Ocean Star which was down the block located in another mall. The interior here was a little bit better than Empress Harbor, but still very Chinese restaurant looking and completely unimpressive. The only good slightly better thing about this venue was that their partitions were attached to the ceiling, so they could create a space almost like a private room, but the location and decor was just so tacky!
By now, I was highly discouraged, thinking that there was no way to escape having a tacky Chinese wedding banquet. Nothing would go even remotely as I had once planned. Now I understood why my coworker who faced a similar situation decided to run off to Mexico and get married on a beach with a few close friends attending only. There would be no family at all until she flew back to the States where her family would throw her a tacky Chinese wedding banquet.
Despite being close to hitting this point, I hopped back into the car with the Fiancee and headed off in the wrong direction to our next destination: NBC Seafood.
LANYTransplant: Where am I going? Did you turn off the TomTom? Why is she so quiet? She's got nothing to say for once?
Fiancee: Ooops! I shut her off. I'll turn her back on.
After 400 metres, turn left and make a u-turn.
LANYTransplant: 400 metres? Seriously, I don't know how far that is. Why doesn't she know street names?
[Because I'm British! You asked for a British accent to direct you around!]
Make a u-turn. Make a u-turn.
LANYTransplant: Why am I making a u-turn? Is that right?
Make a u-turn.
Fiancee: Hmmm...not sure. Just keep going straight. Give me a few minutes to look this up.
Make a u-turn. [Turn around you stupid morons! You're going the wrong way! You have no idea where you're going! And why are you looking things up on a map?! What was the point of buying me if you're not going to trust that I'm programmed to be right when it comes to directions!]
Make a u-turn.
Fiancee: Hey, turn around. You're going the wrong way. We're headed the wrong direction.
Make a u-turn.
LANYTransplant: Guess she was right.
[Damn right I'm right!]
A few minutes later, we'd arrived at NBC Seafood. The outside looked a bit more promising than the rest, but the inside was the same Chinese restaurant feel. There were no private rooms, and the place would be sectioned off with low-reaching partitions. As this was the fourth place we'd been to, and all disappointing, I'd given up hope that any other Chinese restaurant would be any different. I crossed off 3 or 4 other places, not wanting to waste my time even looking at them. I only had enough energy to be disappointed looking at two more places, and then I wanted to call it a day.
The Fiancee programmed the address for Mission 261 in the San Gabriel Valley into his TomTom. It was about 3 miles away, located in the Mission district away from all of the tacky strip malls and complexes of Monterey Park. As we drove through the area, we were charmed by the old, Spanish architecture of the area. Finally, we were in front of Mission 261 which looked nothing like a Chinese restaurant on the outside. It looked like an old Spanish adobe house and had a quaint outside patio for outdoor dining. When we walked in, a manager led us down a long corridor into various private rooms with elegantly high ceilings. The place looked nothing like your typical Chinese restaurant. Both of our eyes lit up. The manager showed us the largest room, capably of holding 280 - 300 people with a stage area up front. The furniture looked a little shoddy, but that would be taken care of with decorative seat covers and table linens that could transform the room into an elegant wedding banquet with a delectable Chinese menu. Now, I was really excited! I wouldn't have to run off to a Mexican resort!
With this, the Fiancee and I hopped into the car and hit mad traffic en route to our final destination: Prince Seafood in Cerritos. In the car, the Fiancee talked of how he loved the Spanish architecture of the Mission 261 restaurant's area. The restaurant also had a huge parking lot off to the side that could accomodate a large wedding party.
About a half hour later, we'd arrived at Prince Seafood in Cerritos. Having just come from a charming Spanish-style town, the parking lot and surrounding areas of Prince Seafood were nothing special, but not as bad as the first four restaurants we visited. When we opened the doors to the restaurant, I was quite amazed. The interior had elegant, large glass windows, high ceilings and beautifully covered tables and chairs with a capacity of 25 tables (250 people) in a nearly private room (the main entrance stayed open, but the room would be completely yours). My eyes lit up again. Two elegant Chinese restaurants with exotic Chinese menus!
Mission accomplished. Our work was done for the day.
But anyway, we landed in LA really late on Thursday night, showered and then went to bed. The next day would be a busy day visting several reception sites that I had researched earlier. Initially, when I first starting thinking about how my wedding would be, I imagined a smaller, more intimate event with about 150 people max, preferably 100. The wedding might be at the Glass Chapel (Wayfarer's Chapel) in PV, and the reception would be catered with rich, luxurious French food served by white-tuxedoed waiters under a tent lit by lanterns and the moon overlooking the cliffs as ocean waves pounded agains the sides.
But then reality hit. I'm Chinese, and so is my Fiancee. I'm the first to get married among my siblings, and he's the treasured boy of his clan. When I annouced to my cousin at her wedding of nearly 300 guests that my event would be much smaller with about 150 people max, she smiled and then laughed a "you poor, naiive little girl" laugh. I suppose I should have known better since we were cousins and shared much of the same extended family. About a month after my cousin got married, my parents called to let me know that they would probably need space for about 100 guests on their side. The Fiancee's mom already had a list of 100 people from his sister's wedding a few years earlier. That was already 200 people without any of our friends. Now I was looking at a guest list of at least 250 people, maybe even 280-300!
With that, the Glass Chapel having a max capacity of 100 disappeared along with my white tuxedoed waiters and the tent overlooking the water at night. It would never work with 250+ guests, and the cost would be astronomical. As my vision came crashing down, the Fiancee decided to alert me that the majority of our guests would be Chinese people of my parent's generation that could care less about the decor and beautiful everything of the whole event, but would care only about the food. And with Chinese people, the only good food is well-prepared Chinese food, meaning that the only way to please our guests would be to have a Chinese wedding banquet. It was now raining, and pouring heavily. In denial, I didn't want to think of the wedding anymore.
But as is always with me, I came around to the idea a few weeks later when I decided to search wedding venues online. I wasn't too keen on the Chinese banquet idea, so I only checked out American style wedding packages. In these past couple of years, the Fiancee had managed to turn me into a bit of a foodie. As I scanned the reception menus, I was really turned off at how ordinary the menu items were. Nothing seemed appetizing, and the packages were so restrictive in not allowing outside caterers and dictating where your cake had to come from. With the capacity I needed, most of the reception sites had to be banquet halls which looked fine, but not spectacular. It was then that I decided, out of curiosity, to see what a Chinese wedding banquet menu would include.
But where would I find these restaurants? They weren't listed as options on the usual wedding sites such as theknot, officiantguy, herecomestheguide, or other similar wedding sites. So, I googled "Chinese wedding banquet Los Angeles". The results turned up various people's blogs and chat threads of people that had either been to a Chinese banquet wedding recently or were Asian American brides searching for "classy" Chinese venues just like me. Through these sites, I discovered that Prince Seafood in Cerritos, CA was quite popular amoung Chinese American brides for it's elegant decor with good Chinese food. I immediately googled their website to see a sample banquet menu which made my mouth water after previously reading through the bland American options of chicken, beef and rice pilaf. It was then that I decided to focus on having a Chinese banquet reception. The Fiancee was quite pleased that he wouldn't have to battle this one with me.
Equipped with his new TomTom and my list of about 10 Chinese banquet sites, the Fiancee and I set out a little before noon on Friday to San Gabriel. The Fiancee was quite excited to try out his latest gadget, which he set to have a British female voice directing us around.
Turn right at the road ahead.
In about 800 metres, turn right.
In about 400 metres, turn right and enter the motorway .
Turn right and enter the motorway.
We were now on the 110N, getting ready to catch the 91E to the 710N to the 10E, off at Atlantic Blvd.
Exit the motorway and turn right. Turn right. Turn right. Turn right.
LANYTransplant: Persistent little lady, isn't she?
After a few more twists and turns we were at our first destination: Capital Seafood Restaurant on Garvey in Monterey Park. At first glance, the place looked horribly disappointing located in a run down strip mall with a cracked parkinglot surrounded by cheap looking storefronts. But when we opened the doors and went it, it wasn't bad. The place had a maximum capacity of 60 tables (10 ppl per table) and was nicely decorated, bright with chandeliers, gilt column pillars and a decent-sized dance floor. But our party would only fill up about half the restaurant. The restaurant was one big open space without any private rooms, meaning that they would only put up partitions (not tall enough to even come close to hitting the ceiling) to section off our area. I was turned off by this, but wanted to keep an open mind, considering that the interior decor was passable and the menu quite appetizing.
Next, we noticed that the next restaurant, Empress Harbor was right across the street and moved our car into their parking garage. Again, this was another tacky looking mall, but at least not so run-down as the lot at Capital Seafood. The minute we walked into Empress Harbor, we wanted to walk out. The interior decor was painfully plain, screamed Chinese dim-sum house, and had absolutely no ambiance. As we were about to walk out, I noticed a sign advertising a banquet room and VIP room. Could it be that there was a nicer room available that we weren't seeing? Nope. The Fiancee asked, and the manager stated that we were standing in the banquet and VIP room which they would create by putting up partitions to section off our banquet area.
Next, we were off to see Ocean Star which was down the block located in another mall. The interior here was a little bit better than Empress Harbor, but still very Chinese restaurant looking and completely unimpressive. The only good slightly better thing about this venue was that their partitions were attached to the ceiling, so they could create a space almost like a private room, but the location and decor was just so tacky!
By now, I was highly discouraged, thinking that there was no way to escape having a tacky Chinese wedding banquet. Nothing would go even remotely as I had once planned. Now I understood why my coworker who faced a similar situation decided to run off to Mexico and get married on a beach with a few close friends attending only. There would be no family at all until she flew back to the States where her family would throw her a tacky Chinese wedding banquet.
Despite being close to hitting this point, I hopped back into the car with the Fiancee and headed off in the wrong direction to our next destination: NBC Seafood.
LANYTransplant: Where am I going? Did you turn off the TomTom? Why is she so quiet? She's got nothing to say for once?
Fiancee: Ooops! I shut her off. I'll turn her back on.
After 400 metres, turn left and make a u-turn.
LANYTransplant: 400 metres? Seriously, I don't know how far that is. Why doesn't she know street names?
[Because I'm British! You asked for a British accent to direct you around!]
Make a u-turn. Make a u-turn.
LANYTransplant: Why am I making a u-turn? Is that right?
Make a u-turn.
Fiancee: Hmmm...not sure. Just keep going straight. Give me a few minutes to look this up.
Make a u-turn. [Turn around you stupid morons! You're going the wrong way! You have no idea where you're going! And why are you looking things up on a map?! What was the point of buying me if you're not going to trust that I'm programmed to be right when it comes to directions!]
Make a u-turn.
Fiancee: Hey, turn around. You're going the wrong way. We're headed the wrong direction.
Make a u-turn.
LANYTransplant: Guess she was right.
[Damn right I'm right!]
A few minutes later, we'd arrived at NBC Seafood. The outside looked a bit more promising than the rest, but the inside was the same Chinese restaurant feel. There were no private rooms, and the place would be sectioned off with low-reaching partitions. As this was the fourth place we'd been to, and all disappointing, I'd given up hope that any other Chinese restaurant would be any different. I crossed off 3 or 4 other places, not wanting to waste my time even looking at them. I only had enough energy to be disappointed looking at two more places, and then I wanted to call it a day.
The Fiancee programmed the address for Mission 261 in the San Gabriel Valley into his TomTom. It was about 3 miles away, located in the Mission district away from all of the tacky strip malls and complexes of Monterey Park. As we drove through the area, we were charmed by the old, Spanish architecture of the area. Finally, we were in front of Mission 261 which looked nothing like a Chinese restaurant on the outside. It looked like an old Spanish adobe house and had a quaint outside patio for outdoor dining. When we walked in, a manager led us down a long corridor into various private rooms with elegantly high ceilings. The place looked nothing like your typical Chinese restaurant. Both of our eyes lit up. The manager showed us the largest room, capably of holding 280 - 300 people with a stage area up front. The furniture looked a little shoddy, but that would be taken care of with decorative seat covers and table linens that could transform the room into an elegant wedding banquet with a delectable Chinese menu. Now, I was really excited! I wouldn't have to run off to a Mexican resort!
With this, the Fiancee and I hopped into the car and hit mad traffic en route to our final destination: Prince Seafood in Cerritos. In the car, the Fiancee talked of how he loved the Spanish architecture of the Mission 261 restaurant's area. The restaurant also had a huge parking lot off to the side that could accomodate a large wedding party.
About a half hour later, we'd arrived at Prince Seafood in Cerritos. Having just come from a charming Spanish-style town, the parking lot and surrounding areas of Prince Seafood were nothing special, but not as bad as the first four restaurants we visited. When we opened the doors to the restaurant, I was quite amazed. The interior had elegant, large glass windows, high ceilings and beautifully covered tables and chairs with a capacity of 25 tables (250 people) in a nearly private room (the main entrance stayed open, but the room would be completely yours). My eyes lit up again. Two elegant Chinese restaurants with exotic Chinese menus!
Mission accomplished. Our work was done for the day.
posted by LANYTransplant at 11:42 PM
1 Comments:
so which one would it be? prince or mission?!?!?!? i agree the high ceilings are definitely a good call for a huge "yellow" party! Forget about the food!!!! just remember to throwing in some Johnny Walkers or XOs for each table!!!!!!!
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