The Hong Kong based chain specializing in Dumplings and Dim Sum has newly opened in New York, a block from Union Square facing the Hyatt Hotel. Steamed vegetables, steamed rice rolls, fried and steamed dumplings, baked barbecue buns, steamed pork, sticky rice in lotus leaves and beef balls are some of the items pictured on the placemat and ready to be ordered.
The Dim Sun specialist seems to be famous as the place was full on a Tuesday evening. People come here as of six for an early dinner where the vibes are positive, the music is loud but enjoyable, waiters come from Asia, gentle and polite in a classy golden and well lit setup.
I felt transported... the green color used everywhere, the golden circles decorating the walls, the open kitchen occupied by Asian staff... a piece of paper is handed to you - write your choices and hand them to the waitress.
Several plates, different presentations, soy sauce everywhere... the experience is bizarre!
The food looks weird!
- A metal bowl of rice topped with chicken chunks that look raw and a shiitake mushroom in the middle. Rice and chicken are both very well cooked, moist and tasty. Soy sauce adds the saltiness this dish needs. I loved the chicken's quality, it has a white color and is so very well cooked that it crumbles under the chopsticks.
- Congee looks like a rice soup with pork chunks and preserved eggs. Didn’t understand what I’m eating... a soup?!
- Plain rice rolls look and feel like jellyfish. Steamed rice paste rolls. A chewy bizarre feeling but they’re not bad.
- Pan-fried turnip cake! Didn’t like it at all!
- Deep fried eggplant with its skin with a shrimp ball on top. Deeply fried, bathing in soy sauce. Good only if the eggplant peel is removed.
- Steamed egg cake, feels like a sweet soufflé. A spongy and airy cake with sweet notes. A bizarre creation!
- Steamed Tofu with fish cake on top. All I felt is the soy sauce taste, a watery jelly tofu, and the fish cakes. Not bad for an overall bite.
- Blanched lettuce: why the hell did I order boiled lettuce? I felt stupid!
Finally! It seems all of the above was a waste of time. The dumplings are the best here and the only thing that’s really memorable! Shrimp dumplings, four of them, a jelly envelop, a flavorful mashed content of shrimp. After finishing I noticed that the most popular order on all tables was the baked barbecue pork buns which you'll have to consider because I didn’t.
This restaurant has already opened nine locations around the world so it seems people like it. However I didn’t understand what I was eating, I found the food to be very complicated and bizarrely textured.
