Dining details: New Concept

New Concept

Rating: ***

Location: 700 S. Atlantic Blvd. (at El Portal Place), Monterey Park; (626) 282-6800.

Ambience: Medium-sized Chinese restaurant with a more refined atmosphere than most. The decor features bamboo-patterned wallpaper and color photos of dishes in ornate gold frames. The place has an avid following of Chinese food aficionados.

Service: Accommodating and helpful. Good English spoken.

Price: Dim sum, $1.98 to $5.98 per item; appetizers, $4.80 to $22.80; most other dishes, $8.80 to $18.80 and considerably more for pigeon or live seafood at market price, which can be as high as $40 per pound for live Alaskan crab; desserts, $8.80 to $22.80.

Best dishes: Dim sum, soup dumplings, Macau roasted pork, prawn with oatmeal, salt pork with greens, rock cod hot pot “Taiwanese style,” steamed rice noodle with beef or spare ribs, baby bok choy in fish sauce, pan-fried Dungeness crab in chile sauce, live Alaskan king crab three ways, pumpkin tapioca, sesame balls filled with tapioca, sweet papaya and snow frog fat soup.

Wine list: Small selection of safe California labels. Corkage, $10 per table.

Best table: A corner table in the back.

Special features: Two private rooms.

Details: Open Monday to Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for dim sum; daily for dinner from 5 to 11 p.m. Beer and wine. Lot parking in front.

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.