King Valley Tea House, Pinole

Folks in western Contra Costa County have enjoyed good dim sum for almost four months at King Valley Tea House, Annie Li and Cheng Zhao's third restaurant and their first to offer dim sum. The wife-and-husband team also own China Delights in San Ramon and Pinole.

Three specialty chefs head King Valley Tea House's three separate kitchens: dim sum/pastry, barbecue and the kitchen that produces the rest of the primarily Cantonese-style menu.

Li stocks six tanks with live seafood, such as Dungeness crab, lobster and sturgeon, which are featured specials. Try mild, delicately flavored gai choy - Chinese mustard greens - perfectly cooked in broth then topped with Hunan ham slivers ($8.95/$5.95 for dim sum).

A few dishes labeled spicy turn out to be quite mild, such as chicken with spicy garlic sauce ($8.95).

I'll be going back for the dim sum ($2.50-$5.95), which can also be ordered to go. Besides always-popular shrimp dumplings and steamed pork buns, you can select chicken siu mai with dried scallop ($3), pork ribs in black bean sauce ($2.50) and seaweed salad with miniature octopus ($5.95).

If you go for weekend dim sum, the 149-seat dining room will likely be full. So plan to get there early and bring your appetite.

Vitals: 795 Fernandez Ave., Pinole; (510) 724-1668. Lunch and dinner 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. daily; dim sum 10 a.m.-3 p.m. daily. Beer and wine. No reservations for weekend dim sum.

- Lynne Char Bennett, lbennett@sfchronicle.com