Sea Empress- South Bay, Los Angeles

One food-type I miss in living in LA is the authentic Chinese food (and by authentic, that completely encompasses cheap.) Yes, you can argue that Monterey Park and Arcadia are around the corner, but I don't justify driving over 20 mins to get to my Chinese food. To narrow down even further, dimsum is only served for brunch/lunch and again I don't feel justified in going more than 20 mins. out of my way to find good dimsum. Trader Joe's dimsum just doesn't cut it sometimes, and spending more on gas than my food is even worse.

Finally, my point. Sea Empress (the sister restaurant to Empress Pavilion in Monterey Park or somewhere far like that) in the Gardena-area has amazing dimsum for super duper cheap. It's an average $2.85 for your classic dimsum dishes, and $4-something for the bigger dishes. They have everything from shrimp dumplings to chicken feet, all tasty and authentic. The only dish I'd stay away from is the Shaolong Bao, which if you're looking for a tasty Shaolong Bao (aka Juicy Pork Dumpling, aka Soup Dumpling) then refer to Din Tai Fung.

Anyways, go here for a VERY cheap and delicious mix of dimsum goodness that's more local to LA than Monterey Park or Arcadia. The cart ladies loved us so much they even hooked it up with a free noodle-thing. Another plus- they take AmEx.