Lobster at $3.99 each! What's not to like about that, especially when its preparation is so tasty?
A friend and I went to Ocean Star to celebrate Girls' Night Out and ordered the lobster special (and a scallop & vegetable dish that was delicious). We were (1) disappointed and (2) outraged. What we got for $3.99 was the end of the tail (where it fans out), the end of the head, part (and only part) of a claw, and the body part. Almost nothing to eat. When we asked about where the rest of the lobster was -- specifically the meaty part of the tail and the claws, we did not get a satisfactory answer. All we were told was that it was a small lobster. Hello! The good parts weren't there.
The Chinese couple next to us had a lobster, and the amount of lobster on their plate was twice what we had.

We'll never go there again, which is a pity, as the flavor of the food was good. And I used to love their dim sum.

About 1 1/2 years ago we went to Ocean Star based on a friend's recommendation and liked it a lot. The service was good. The food was excellent. We had a great time.

Since then, we've returned twoce and both times have been amazingly disappointing. I don't know if we just got crazy great seating last time or the right hostess, but service has been utterly slow to non-existant. The food we got on our second visit was actually cold when we got it and not very tasty. I'm going to give them one last chance, but for now I'm going to stuck with the Empress Pavillion.

a very poor rating due to service! I don't know if I had bad service due to me not being Chinese but based on the reviews I think it's across the board. When I first came in and was brought tea, the white tea container was spotted with tea leaves and was obviously dirty. I actually wanted to leave right then, but the place was pretty crowded around 10:30 a.m. so I thought I would still give it a try. The cart girls were very nice. I did NOT have any customer service issues with the cart girls...BUT the MALE waiters,, ALL OF THE MALE WAITERS are very rude. In the end, I asked for to go containers and one of the male waiters kept on saying ok you pay me now, you pay me now $15 you pay me now VERY VERY RUDELY and he rolled his eyes, as I was packing things in my hand. I asked him can I pack my food first. He said because we are busy, you pay me now. I will never come back ever again do to the service!!!!!! The food wasn't too bad, but not great!!! All of the individual portion size were way too small leaving the texture of the food mostly of rice wrappings. The only positive I would say is the price. I think many people come back because the price is very reasonable but I would never compromise price for service!! Or lack of...

May be the service is not that good. But their food is not that bad.You shouldn't order something that you don't know.You have to make sure it's not a vegetrian restaurant.It's ur fault not their fault.You have to blame on urself but not them. But they should improve in the way to treat the customer.

The service is terrible. The waiters and employees are not courteous, nice, friendly, or professional at all. The food is decent but quickly becomes worse just from how awful the service is. Clearly, customer service training is needed for all employees working there. Please do not visit, then perhaps they may start treating customers with some respect to earn business back. There is no excuse for such crummy service!

Great Chinese Food! I recommend the Ginger Chicken and the Baked Squid with Spicy Salt (that's what it's called) but it's fried and it's just seasoned with salt and peppers. To die for!!! Some of the best chinese food i've had. The service isn't great but that's not what i'm there for. And if you're polite you shouldn't have an problems.
And just so everybody knows - especially vegetarians (this means you ChineseFoodConnoissuer) - imitation crab is made out of fish!

Worst chinese restaurant in the world period. The service was horrible, the waiters are rude to the point you want to rip there heads off, Most do not speak or understand english, which made it quite dificult to order anything. The place is a mess and really dirty. The food tastes like cardboard boxes and even in some dishes, it tasted like metal and those carts with food were dispensing propane gases right into my nostril. The menu doesnt describe the item carefully either, I orederd the imitation crab meat dumpling and went to eat one when I tasted shrimp, I'm a vegetarian. Worst, worst, worst and even worst restaurant ever, If I could give zero stars I would.

We've tried many dim sum restaurants in this area, and Ocean Star on recommendation. We were seated promptly, but in 40 minutes at the restaurant were able to order only 3-4 dishes. This is because we were not seated on an aisle, and every cart seemed to turn the wrong direction. I felt like standing on my chair and yelling for service. I didn't. We were so hungry that we finally hailed over a taro cake cart and seemingly feasted. We soon regretted that because it was so greasy. 20 minutes later we were lucky and got our favorite-- shrimp noodle, which was OK. We had only ONE dumpling cart pass in those 40 minutes despite about a dozen passing along the aisles, and the supposed vegetable dumpings had a very gamey-tasting sausage; we returned that one and ordered a vegetable dumping from a waiter. That waiter then avoided our table (like the carts did), and we abandoned all hope. Submitting to the dumpling gods' disfavor, our fourth dish was a cold sesame bun with red bean paste, which was filled with a pocket of oil. 6 hours later, the taro cake is still turning in my stomach.

I went to the Ocean Star with a big group of people and were seated in this stage-like area that had 2 steps to get up to. As a result non of the dim sum carts could go up the stairs. None of the servers bothered to check on us and ask if we wanted any of the food, they just kept walking by. We literally had to get out of our seats when we would see a cart and go up to it to see what they had and if we wanted any. Making it worse, someone left out group and someone else came late and sat down to join us. He asked for a plate, chop sticks and water literally 8 times before anyone brought it. I honestly don't think the waiter understood what we were asking for. When we did finally get some food, none of it was anything that I was say stood out as being good. It was okay, certainly not bad, but definitely nothing that I would say was particularly good. I love Dim Sum but I will never go back to this place. Go to the Empress in Chinatown instead, the food and the service are both infinitely better.

If you're in LA, make some time to drive to Monterey Park to try this place. Pace yourself when ordering. Don't jump in and order everything you see right away, because they have so many variety of dim sum, you'll be full and saying to yourself I should have try that instead of two orders of Har Gao! Har Gao (steamed shrimp dumpling) by the way, is done the way it should be. Perfect skin, fresh filling!