great expectations

Mission 261 is smack in the middle of San Gabriel's historic mission district. From the outside, it looks like someone slapped a couple of red 3-feet high chinese lanterns on Spanish revival government building and called it a day. Hmmm. Well, that's OK, because the L.A. Times loved it, and the L.A. weekly said that this place 'easily had some of the best dim sum in California at the moment.'
Inside, its cavernous. There are dining rooms and long hallways on either side of the entry. We are promptly dropped off at a banquet table in a large ballroom of mostly empty tables. At 11 am on a Sunday, Dim sum prime-time, there are only 2-3 other parties of diners there. Between the 5 of us, we excitedly peruse the two doubled-sided, letter size menu flyers bequeathed upon us. Look, all of those things Jonathan Gold talked about were there: the deep-fried 'bees' of [edit]shrimp and salted egg yolks, the exquisite looking custard filled dumplings shaped like little bunnies...can't wait!
Oh, a word of warning, no waitresses will come to your table to take your order. Nor will any dim sum carts come clanking about to tempt you with irresistable displays of dumplings and other delicious delicacies. Fill out your order form (all in chinese) and order by number with the supplied miniature pencil. Then hold it up and hope that someone notices!
So here are some highlights:

Seafood Bees: Kindly of homely looking huh? These looked so much cuter when professionally lit by the folks at the L.A. Times, but hey, they were deep fried so whatever.


Har Gao: these were killer. perfectly plump and delicious.


General Something's dumplings: stuffed with glutinous rice that was sprinkled with ground pork and boiled peanuts these were a wonderful surprise.


Rice Dumpling. Again, sticky rice but this time laced with pieces of chinese sausage wrapped up in a bean curd wrapper, then topped with shredded egg and green onion. Like a chinese mini handroll.


Bean curd Roulade. These inside of this crisp bean curd concotion revealed a soft multilayered stuffing of... bland bean curd. 'Roulade' sounded much more exciting!


Green tea dumplings. Little soft dumplings wrapped in banana leaf and stuffed with pork with just a hint of green tea in the dough. Delicious and novel!


Custard Bunnes. Aren't these adorable. The filling was yummy but the shell was a little chewy and dryish.


Coconut delight. Stiffer than jello, this creamy dessert was refreshing and a hit.

So looking over my list, I'm starting to get a little hungry again, so the food there wasn't a complete write-off. But it certainly didn't live up to its press, and I don't think we'd recommend it. Aside from the lackluster service and ambiance, there was a regrettable episode where several of the water glasses were found to be contaminated by a mysterious black floating 'thing.' Turns out it was bits of tea from sloppy handling, but nonetheless not very reassuring, especiallly since the place got a B from the county health inspectors. I think we're gonna be going to Din Tai soon.
Mission 261, 261 S. Mission Drive, San Gabriel, (626) 588-1666. Dim sum served Mon.–Fri., 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sat.–Sun., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Full bar. Lot parking.