Popular dim sum restaurant coming soon to Tacoma’s South End
Harbor City, a favorite dim sum destination in Seattle’s International District, will open a second location in Tacoma.
The family-owned restaurant, often found with a line out the door weekend mornings, will take over the former Josefina’s Mexican Restaurant at 4816 Pacific Ave. in the South End.
Ma Dehan, who will run the Tacoma extension with his wife, his brother and sister-in-law, hopes to open by the end of October. They will invest a couple hundred thousand dollars into renovating the space, which Josefina’s owner Rudolfo Garcia closed at the end of January after 20 years in business.
They applied for a liquor license on Sept. 10 after completing state business applications July 27.
The Tacoma menu will mirror its older sibling, deep with dumplings, soups, noodles and fried rice. Known for its fresh offerings and reasonable prices, Harbor City’s dim sum ranges from $3.95 to $5.95, with most hitting around $4.55.
Seattle Magazine praised Harbor City’s dim sum in 2013, especially its crab, shrimp and pork dumplings, as well as dishes like gai lan (steamed Chinese broccoli), Mandarin string beans with pork, mixed seafood noodles, fried chicken feet and an “especially good” cashew chicken. The Infatuation calls it a “real Seattle classic, and a dim sum institution.”
Though the owners live in Seattle, they wanted to grow the business, Ma told The News Tribune in a phone call confirming the opening. They chose Tacoma because there is not much in the way of dim sum here.
Beyond the well-priced wonders of sesame sponge cake, steamed beef balls and lotus seed buns, Harbor City serves platters of salt and pepper soft-shell crab for $8.95, honey garlic short ribs for $9.95 and Peking duck for $16.95. Mains start at $6.95 and cap out at $28.95 for the live lobster congee, but most run around $12 to $16.
HARBOR CITY TACOMA
▪ 4816 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, no phone yet, harborcityseattle.com
▪ Details: estimated opening date at end of October
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 12:09 PM.