A long-time LVA favorite (especially for their hot & sour soup), this wallet-friendly neighborhood Chinese restaurant specializes in seafood and is open until midnight daily.
This restaurant was reviewed in the November 2002 LVA; some of the information contained in this review may no longer be accurate. “Diamond,” as it’s simply called by regulars, enjoys a sort of cult status with locals in the know. It’s a little place at the corner of Sahara and Valley View, where you can get salted shrimp with head and tail, fabulous chow fun, seafood-chocked hot pots, great greens in oil and garlic, and what just may be the best hot and sour soup on the continent. The Diamond menu is epic, and includes dishes made from live lobster, crab, shrimp, and cod that are pulled from giant aquariums set up in the back of the restaurant. Take-out for four on a recent visit was $31 and there’s currently an after-midnight menu with ten choices priced at $4.25 each. Open seven days a week from 3:30 pm to 5 am (4 on Sundays), this is also a premier late-night dining play. Note: There are two other Diamond China restaurants in town. They too are good, but distinctly more Americanized than the original. In the words of a Diamond-Sahara waitress, “Come here for the real thing.”