Empress Pavilion stops serving dim sum, will open only for private parties

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Clockwise, from top left: Seaweed salad, honey barbecue pork crispy pie, sauteed shrimp with honey walnut and sesame balls filled with red bean.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Sticky rice with chicken and sausage, wrapped in a lotus leaf at Empress Pavilion in Chinatown.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Patrons dine at the Empress Pavilion in Chinatown.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Empress Pavilion’s pork and shrimp shiu mei.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Crystal shrimp dumplings.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Honey barbecue pork.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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A server prepares offerings for diners.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Sauteed shrimp with honey walnut.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Shrimp and cilantro dumplings.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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A server presents steamed buns to a diner at Empress Pavilion.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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The dessert cart at Empress Pavilion.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Coconut with red bean jello dessert.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

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Mango pudding molded into the shape of fish.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

By Jenn HarrisColumnist

Dec. 23, 2015 8 AM PT

The Empress Pavilion restaurant in Chinatown is now the Empress Pavilion Banquets and Events Center. The Hong Kong-style restaurant in the Bamboo Plaza, known for its dim sum, transitioned to an events center Dec. 7. That means no more dim sum -- or dinner.

The restaurant, which was open for almost 25 years before closing in 2013, then reopening in October 2014, will only be open for private parties and events.

Fans of the dim sum will have to go to owner Andy Lau’s other restaurant, Ocean Seafood, located two blocks down Broadway, for the shumai.

In Jonathan Gold’s review earlier this year, he had this to say about his experience in the Empress Pavilion dining room:

”... Rows of empty tables yawn into the distance. There are more chandeliers in the dining room than people. You know that the Kenny G blasting from the ceiling will haunt your dreams. You feel like the last man on Earth. You are handed a menu ... from Ocean Seafood.”

Shumai monster. Follow me on Twitter @Jenn_Harris_

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