Stroll along San Gabriel’s mission district during Chinese New Year and you’re likely to see red and gold paper lanterns with Chinese calligraphy hanging outside of 261 South Mission Drive—stately home to dim sum and Cantonese restaurant Mission 261.

Granted, Chinese décor at a Chinese restaurant doesn’t lend itself as an element of surprise, especially if it embellishes dynastic mimetic architecture. Nor is it unusual to find authentic dim sum restaurants in San Gabriel Valley—an area richly populated with Chinese communities and center for international landmark Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights.

But at Mission 261, it’s different.

Relative to the neighborhood’s homage to Spanish colonialism, Mission 261 shouts of cultural incongruity. Down the block is Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, which today celebrates the Eucharist with multi-ethnic parishioners. Its own architecture is late 18th century adobe style with large dining areas featuring hybrid décor of Mexican artwork in upscale Hong Kong style banquet halls.

I spoke with proprietor Harvey Ng, who opened the restaurant 4 years ago. Ng recently hired general manager Robert Hung and executive chef Danny Lee to build on its growing customer base.

How does Mission 261 form the cultural bridge from the surrounding Chinese population to the mission community?

We did a lot of research when we purchased this building and thought it was a good location for a Chinese restaurant. The city of San Gabriel also thought it would be a good idea since the Chinese are also a part of early California history.

The Chinese influence on California dates back to 1850, during the Gold Rush. With this location, your restaurant pays excellent tribute to this. How does Mission 261 encompass the authentic Hong Kong dining experience?

When I go to a restaurant, I don’t like if it’s dirty, smelly or has bad service. With Robert, who’s worked in the restaurant business for 20 years, we’re accepting the higher quality dining experience for Chinese restaurants—one that reflects the real standard of Hong Kong. Our Hong Kong customers say they can’t tell the difference between our restaurant and one in Hong Kong because we’ve captured its trend of higher quality cooking.

Chef Danny says the succulence of the Shu Mai (pork dumplings) is because they’re freshly steamed, one of the benefits of ordering from checklists as opposed to from rolling carts?

Yes, the checklists started with the upper class in Hong Kong so they could enjoy dim sum made to order.

How popular is Mission 261 with the global Chinese community?

The economy in mainland China is booming so a lot of Chinese are doing business in America. We cater to a lot of Chinese who come here and need to entertain their business partners. Our restaurant serves a lot of celebrities, politicians and high officials from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

It' popular with other communities as well as local city officials.

We’re always working toward mixing our customer base. That’s why we’re here...to introduce authentic Chinese food to Americans, Mexicans—the entire neighborhood.