Dining details: Triumphal Palace

Triumphal Palace

Rating: ***

Location: 500 W. Main St., Alhambra; (626) 308-3222.

Ambience: San Gabriel Valley Chinese with a smart contemporary decor, ruched Austrian drapes at the windows and lighting that doesn’t glare. A smaller dining room can be closed off for private parties.

Service: Accommodating and intelligent.

Price: Appetizers, $7 to $39; main courses, $9 to $32; live seafood, market price; dessert, $2 to $7; roast suckling pig, $188 (by advance reservation only).

Best dishes: Salt-and-pepper crab, steamed live prawns, fire-roasted pork belly, pan-fried clams in black bean sauce, pea shoots, rice hot pot with Chinese sausage, ox tongue in red wine sauce, lamb chops in honey and pepper, steamed whole rock cod, roast suckling pig.

Wine list: Limited. Corkage, $10 for the table, no matter how many bottles.

Best table: One in front of the big picture window.

Details: Open 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday to Friday; 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Beer and wine. Street and lot parking.

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.