Hong Kong-Styled Empress Pavilion

There it sits, a huge spanking new shopping mall filled with the fresh smell of damp cement. It’s hard to believe it’s Chinatown. The escalators that silently whisk people from level to level inhabit an almost empty space, and most of the shops have yet to be occupied. Still Empress Pavilion, 988 N. Hill St., (213) 617-9898, the lone occupant of the mall, is already packing them in.

And no wonder: normally you’d have to drive to Monterey Park to find one of these enormous restaurants in the Hong Kong style. In the daytime diners sit back and watch the carts filled with dim sum passing by, stopping one whenever a particularly delectable tidbit floats into view. Was it my imagination, or were there more carts than are usually found in a dim sum palace? At night the place is fancier, with real linen napkins and one of those giant menus off which it takes forever to order. Day or night, bring a wrap. Like most of the huge Hong Kong restaurants, the temperature in this place is absolutely Arctic.