Palette Dim Sum

Although Orange County has several notable dim sum restaurants – Seafood Cove 2 and Seafood Paradise in Westminster, China Garden in Irvine, and Capital Noodle Bars in several cities – their menus of Chinese small plates overlap a lot: The best reasons to prefer one place over another tend to be quality, style of service (carts/no carts), and your geographic proximity. In 2025, Palette Dim Sum could change that equation, bringing legitimately new recipes and an elevated dining experience to The Market Place in Tustin, where it will replace the former Chinese/Japanese “Asian bistro” Wokcano.

Palette Dim Sum is being touted as Southern California’s first location of the Bay Area’s Koi Palace (1996) and Palette Tea House (2019) group, which operates the Palette location shown here in San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square. Some of their unique menu items include pan-seared black pepper beef soft buns, green garlic dumplings with Spanish iberico pork and kim chi, “typhoon” crispy shrimp ha gow, taro puffs in the shape and color of black swans, sea bass and caviar dumpings, abalone siu mai, and black squid dumplings. Lobster ha gow arrived with a butter-filled pipette, a cute touch, and everything we tried was quite good.