Don't wanna be a dim sum dummy
 

Intrigued with this idea of dim sum as we've never "done" it. Family of four will be in Chinatown while in San Francisco and considering trying dim sum but don't know the ins and outs of it.

Saw EasyTraveler's suggestions of best places to try in Chinatown, (New Asia, Meriwa and Gold Mountain) but need to know how this works....

Cost? Per item or you get certain number of pieces?
Given a menu, or take from trays?
Does everyone at the table take the same things or each person chooses what they want?
Do you keep track or the server?

Any and all help and explanations are appreciated.

For trolley service, cost is per plate/bowl etc. You'll be able to see how many pieces or the size of the portions etc. as the trolley comes to you. Take what you want and others do the same - it's all intended for sharing, but of course you don't have to eat the chicken feet that Uncle Harry orders. Usually the restaurant will have a charge slip at the table where the server will check off the items as you get them, then when you're done they'll total up the damages.

What is the approx cost of each item at above mentioned places in Chinatown?

Hi, mwessel!

no "dim sum dummies" anywhere, just dim sum eaters! :)

The dim sum experience should ideally be a "rolling cart" experience, although some restaurants (because of lack of space) will have a sheet at each table listing all the dim sum dishes available. This doesn't allow the diner to actually see the dish before ordering it - could be a disadvantage.

That's why I recommended the bigger, more cavernous places in Chinatown.

The cost varies according to the restaurant and the size of the plate. There are usually three sizes. As a cart rolls by your table, you stop it and point to the plate you want, the server puts the plate on your table and marks a card that is divided into four rows. The first row is for the cheapest dishes - anywhere from $1.98 to $3.98 (Yank Sing would charge the higher rate). The next row is for medium priced dishes - $2.98 up per plate. The third row is for the higher end plates - $3.98 up. The final row is for specials that you might order.

At the end of the lunch, all the marks are added up and your total s presented to you.

You will also be charged either 50 cents to $1 per person for tea or $1/more for a pot of tea regardless of the number of people. Soft drinks, obviously, are additional.

Each plate has three to four pieces of each item. How you divvy up the pieces is up to you. Most diners just dive in and snatch a goodie before someone else dives in (just kidding!).

I'll do a bit of searching and give you a better idea of pricing. (I'm on my laptop and it's giving me fits - don't know how to do frames yet!)

OK, here are a few search pages to give you some idea.

sanfrancisco.menupages.com

scroll down to "dim sum" and you can check out some of the prices listed by restaurant. not all restaurants list their menus.

yelp.com

type in the restaurant name and city and get current reviews. Some reviews also have pictures. The one for New Asia has some photos that show the size of the dim sum dishes.

Sorry, have to post in pieces! :)

On menupages, Four Seas (one of the restaurants mentioned in the other dim sum thread) lists the following:

Small plates $2.25
Medium $3.00
Large $3.25

Yank Sing is cleaner, more user friendly, but their prices will be about 1 1/2 to 2X as much as other places.

If you budget $15 per person at one of the average, cheaper restaurants, you'll have more food than you can consume.

One tip: order a fried rice or noodle dish.

Will post more - after breakfast for me! :) Nah - western breakfast...

Thanks so much easytraveler and gardyloo....this really sounds like fun and something we would get a huge kick out of as a family.

Our oldest daughter is vegetarian. Will there be a way for her to tell which little pieces are sans meat? Can you tell by looking only which ones are sweet versus savory etc? I guess thats just half the fun, eh?

Also love that menupages site. Will be browsing that to get a good idea of how much we really need to plan on for meals out.

Start with a few plates of steamed items like har gao (shrimp dumplings), sui mai (pork dumplings) and char su bao (buns with bbq pork), then the fried pot stickers, spring rolls and wu gok (taro turnovers). This is where I have to order the chicken paws with black bean sauce as I am Uncle Harry's in-law. Noodle dishes (wide or angel hair like) can be had vegetarian or with chicken, pork, beef, shrimp added.

For vegetarians, there is a large variety to choose from too. And save room for dessert, custard tarts, mango pudding, sesame balls stuffed with red bean paste to name a few.

How to order dim sum like you're a pro.


Try to arrive around 11 or 11:30. That's when yesterday's leftover dim sum has been served to the earliest arrivals ( :) ) and the fires have been stoked to roaring so you're assured of hot, fresh plates.

There may be a bit of a wait.

Then your number is called and you're led to a table by a waiter. As you seat yourself, the waiter will be waiting, do NOT expect bowing deference from dim sum waiters. That kind of attitude belongs in 1930s Hollywood movies. Expect some version of Hop Sing in Bonanza.

The waiter is standing by waiting for your TEA and DRINKS orders. Say "kok bow" if you want caffeinated tea, or "kok fa" if you want just flower petals tea. At the same time, order your soft drinks - Coke, etc.

This is also a good time to order a SPECIAL: chicken fried rice, beef chow fun (broad noodles). There's a small menu at the table listing the different specials. These plates are usually about $10 and really should be used if one is concerned about the total cost of dim sum. Cheap but delicious filler.

The waiter will place a 4x6 card on your table. This is the tracking system - no, not for satellites - for your orders.

If you went into one of the cavernous restaurants (my choice is still New Asia in Chinatown), you will see ladies rolling carts around. As each cart stops by your table, you choose what you want from the cart, then the lady-cart-roller will stamp/mark your 4x6 card. One dish, one mark.

The haughty, remote waiter will bring your drinks and the tea. You will probably not see him again until he brings the special order or else he will respond to your frantically waving your arms around signaling much distress. Be sure to signal MUCH distress, any other stress level will not get his attention. (Just kidding!)

With the lady cart rollers, do not expect any English. That's why it's good to go to cavernous place with carts where you can see what you order before placing the order by just pointing.

The prize carts are those with the steamer baskets. Food on those carts are usually so steaming hot you can still see steam sometimes. From these steamer basket carts you can order the following:

HAR GOW ("har" like "hardy har har" and "gow" like "how now [brown cow]")

SEW MY (like in "sew my button")

BARBECUE PORK BUNS ("barbeque" like in...nevermind)

Otherwise, you're on your own as far as what to order.

If you see long green vegetables, grab one of those, because there aren't too many vegetable dishes during dim sum. The sauce on top is oyster sauce.

When your teapot runs out of water, just lift the lid. The waiter will magically appear to refill it with hot water.

When you are finished with your dim sum meal, catch any waiter's eye, raise your arm and make a writing motion. They'll understand that you're done and will come and total up your bill.

et voila! Monsieur Wessel, you're a dim sum pro! :)

One thing I've noticed some places is that as soon as you sit down they will start bringing you the most expensive dishes -- the ones with whole shrimp or scallops for example. Take your time or you may fill up on the most expensive dishes before you even see the various dumplings.

And I will say, I agree with easytraveler. Normally we do a lunch and for a total bill of $25 or so we are stuffed and pleased. But we ate at the big Yank Sing off Market Street. We didn't find the dishes anything special, except they were at least double the price of anywhere else we've had dim sum in SF. And after we paid our bill (over $ 60 -- I just checked my journal) we left and both discovered we were still kind of hungry.

easytraveler, i love your dim summing like a pro!

bookmarking. doing a dim sum get together with friends and want to sent pointer along. thanks!

wonder what's a good one in houston....

If I'd go to a Dim Sum by myself, I'd be in a vegetarian trouble.

I was with a Chinese person who ordered dishes for me, and whatever she ordered wrong, there were people to eat, 6 of us, and she'd get another, this time vegetarian dish.

Food was served family style, meaning they put a plate or a bowl in the middle of the table, and everybody can get as much as they want.

We had some kind of a blank receipt which the waiters would stamp each time they give us food. You see the food on the plate before you get it.

It's more like a reversed buffet where you don't have to get up to fill your plate, it comes to your table.

Oh, yes, and try this dessert Shanghainese mentioned:

"sesame balls stuffed with red bean paste"

this is soooooooooo good! don't worry, no taste of beans!

No it's not easy to tell is a dish is vegetarian. I think you'll need to try and ask your server or perhaps the host who seats you.

Nor if it is sweet or savory. You can sometimes kind of get an idea by how things are grouped on different carts.

We've had dim sum (though not in S.F.) since my son became vegetarian, and he did get enough to eat, but it wasn't easy.

Here are some vegetarian items that I can think of (I don't know all the names for everything):
- Sesame balls (kind of a dessert item, but they're so good)
- Steamed vegetables, like broccoli
- Taro. Where we go, they're flat rectangles, kind of look like tofu, that are fried. Takes some getting used to.
- Rolls filled with bean paste

We talked to a server (not much English), and they did bring out a special order of something vegetarian for him, though I can't remember what it was.

And remember that "vegetarian" doesn't always mean the same thing - keep saying "no meat, no fish, no shrimp, no scallops." Sometimes "no meat," to some people, means "no beef" or "no pork" but not no seafood.

You'll love having dim sum - it's near the top of our to-do list any time we go to S.F., including the kids!

The vegetarian might be better off simply ordering a dish from the regular menu. You can do that at a same table where others are having dim sum.

Easy, you need to submit that to a travel magazine!

Whenever DH and I get to Boston we have Dim Sum on Sundays, late morning. Since there is just the 2 of us (most plates have 4 pieces)and we want to try a variety of dishes...we'll bring along some Gladware to take the extras home!

Hi, Grasshopper! Good to see you here! Do you want to know why I think you never come to our GTGs? It's because you're a food critic and you want to remain anonymous! :)

mwessel: I'm with Suze on the vegetarian thing.

I'd suggest that while you are waiting for your number to be called, you ask for a regular menu, read it together with your vegetarian daughter and decide what dishes she might like from the regular menu - you might want a vegetable dish along with a vegetarian fried rice or chow mein dish. Two dishes should be more than enough for her.

Take the menu with you and when seated, just show your choices to the waiter.

It would be almost impossible for you to tell without communicating with the cartlady exactly what is in the wrapper and therefore what is/is not vegetarian.

Faina' suggestion of the sesame balls is great. They will usually be on the dessert cart - along with the mango pudding, etc. They are perfectly round balls about 1 to 1 1/2 in in diameter. The cartlady will usually ask if you would like to have it cut in half. you can if you want to, most people find it easier to eat when cut. The Cantonese word for sesame balls is JEAN DU-YI.

Lexma's list is a good one for vegetarian dishes.

Another tip: when you are first seated and the waiter is still there: ask for FORKS and for WATER, if you need those.

Another tip: when the tea arrives, fill one teacup and and dip the tips of your chopsticks, forks, and the entire spoons in the hot tea. It's the Asian way of sanitizing the utensils.

Unless you're really clean freaks, then you need to go to Yank Sing, the above is the way to have clean utensils.

Yet another tip: for tea, you can also order "Jasmine". Jasmine and kok bow are two of the favorite dim sum teas.

maria-so: glad you enjoyed the tips! If you need to find a restaurant in Houston I'd suggest going into the Asia forum and just start a new thread, "Calling rkkwan..." He's a regular on the Asia Forum, is originally from Hong Kong, and lives in Houston. He'll probably be your best source.

For a lot of pictures, go to yelp.com and type in Yank Sing. Lots of picts there!

Enjoy! :)

I would love to go to a GTG but I always seem to be going the other direction when they occur. Tomorrow night I have a corporate event I have to attend.

My husband & I went to Lichee Garden in SF, recommended by the Aqua chef Laurent Manrique.

It was the real deal, great food, cavernous, with carts, etc. It was a little confusing as we're not dim sum pros. We just pointed. I got a little panicked when I realized how much we ate and asked for the bill. It was $16.

1416 Powell Street, 415-397-2290.

Also the cart ladies have scissors and will cut the dim sum into halves again for you if you ask.

Not much vegetarian. Order noodles right away - or soup noodles - for the vegetarian - or to share for all.

thanks easytraveler! i will be calling for rrkwan now!

I have often shied away from Asian food because of a nut and peanut allergy.

Do these items turn up in dim sum?

For a dim sum novice in San Francisco, the answer is obvious: Treat the pros to lunch!!

By the way, the chicken feet are not as bad as they sound. They really are delicious. I'll fight Shanghainese for the last one!

Just a side note for vegetarians, I don't know if there are restaurants in SF with a large selection of vegetarian items. In Hawaii, Legend has many vegetarian dim sum items. So once you turn pro, come on over to Honolulu!

This is just such great information! Told the family about the whole idea of dim sum and they are game. The vegetarian daughter is also an avid learner of languages so she has decided to learn the Chinese phrases she'll need to be able to ask which dim sum are without meat.

I am making an index card full of all your tips and suggestions to bring along. My kids are rolling their eyes at me.

We've actually had the sesame bean paste balls and you're right.....they are very tasty!

maria_so - I was referred to Fung's on 59 by rkkwan. I definitely enjoyed going.

http://www.fungskitchen.com/

christycruz -- you pals with tre super chef Manrique?! I adore Aqua, I think it's the best seafood restaurant in N. California.

mwessel, why i'm going tomorrow is because of your thread! THANKS!

moldy, yeah rrkwan suggested that too but he said that it would be very busy during the weekend and you had to order from the sheet - no cart. I really liked the cart experience the last time. I think we'll go for Ocean Restaurant.

Ha, yes, the chef and I are great pals, only he doesn't know it. I read his recommendation in Sunset Magazine.

thanks for this post mwessel! We had a great time at dim sum yesterday. We ordered (pointed) about 15 different items (we had to learn how to say no to ourselves. we wanted to try everything!) Out of the 15, I didn't like 3 items, and my husband and friend didn't like only 2. We all agreed the shrimp balls and shrimp cakes (both on the expensive list) was tasteless. The other one i didn't like was the tripe - they liked it but I think I just couldn't handle the thought of eating tripe. Other than that, we had alot of favorites.

I have to say the staff was quite nice. The cart ladies that didn't know how to speak english were not rude. Actually, one who noticed I particularly liked something took the time to show me what it was on the sheet (they had a sheet with all the food too). I ordered the flower petal tea (they gave us chrysanthimum - is that the same one?).

Dim sum is alot of fun! We did dim sum all the way and will definitely be back.

Thanks for recommending rrkwan easytraveler. He sent us to the right place!

maria_so....Isn't this just the best resource! So glad you benefited from the question as well and found a great dim sum place in Houston.

Just in case I haven't beaten this subject to death....

When the cart comes by, is it filled with a wide variety of the small, medium and large plates or does each cart contain mostly the same types of dim sum and you just wait til the next cart if you want something different? Have noted possibility of more expensive items coming by first neopatrick. thanks.

How often do carts come by? Is dim sum usually a long long lunch?

Is there unspoken dim sum etiquette...like you only point to one plate from each cart?

hi mwessel,

well, from our experience this past weekend, when the cart comes, usually it contains little metal cannisters or plates that have food. they will open cannisters tops for you to see what's inside then you decide yay or nay. there are different items on some of the carts - i guess the more popular items hare in multiple carts. They come around quite often but if you like something you've had, our waiters were good to go get us some more too. Most of the time, the shrimp ones were the most expensive. We also ordered the flat wide noodles with beef and chinese brocolli -not ont he dim sum carts but ordered from the waiter. I guess it depends how long you last. We were starving by the time we got there (what with the spring forward on Sunday) but the good thing about dim sum is the food can get to your table before the drinks can! We ate rather quickly then had to tell ourselves to slow down. I would think we were there for only an hour or so. Turnaround was quite quick but it was packed full of patrons. We steered clear from chicken feet but was game for just about anything else (excepr for tripe for me). The best were the different types of dumplings. If they have it, try the pork stuffed fried puff balls. You have this wonderful experience of crispy on the outside, gooey chewwy in the middle and pork.

You'll have fun. Enjoy and yes, I love this forum!

ohh yeah, and they stamp your card and the card adds it up for you as they stamp along. so we guessed on how much the drinks and noodles with beef & brocolli was and we kind of knew how much damage we'd gone through. Amazingly though, with 3 of us and a generous tip, it was only $19/person and we were stuffed!

Hi, Maria!

I'm so glad to hear that you had a wonderful time at the place recommended by rkkwan! He's such a wonderful resource for Houston and for a lot of travel topics!

Yes, the flower is usually chrysanthemum for the dim sum tea.

mwessel: it's hard to say how often the carts come by. It just depends on the teahouse. At a large place they should be pretty continuous.

HOWEVER, you will not always get the same items coming around, so if you see something you want or like, grab it. This is not an exercise for the shy!

There should be at least 60 to 200 different items offered for dim sum. You can one or two items off a cart or none at all. There is nothing mandatory in dim sum except to select what you want when it comes around. You can order 2 or 3 of the same item, 2 or 3 different items, or nothing at all.

The cart lady will let you know what her things are and you can just say no, or I want only one of that.

When the steamer baskets come around, you can also ask to see what is inside. She'll lift up the lid and let you take a peek inside. If you like it, take it. If not, just shake your head or hand.

Some may try to press items on you, but you are always free to accept or decline.

Dim sum usually runs from 10am to 2pm but you don't have to stay the whole time! :)

Hi Easytraveler,

yes, had a most wonderful time. i'mthinking we want to go again this coming weekend.

mwessel, just go with an adventurous spirit. Remember if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it and it's cheap cheap cheap so no worries. you don't know you'll like it if you don't try it though so keep an open mind.

the $19/person included a beer each and the tea....not bad at all.

Loved the title. You got some good advice so I don't need to add. Just have to say that another funny title could be "Don't want to be a dim, dim summer. OK, back to my coffee. ((C))

Bookmarking, so as not to be a dummy.

Just wanted to post my recent forages to two dim sum places in SF Chinatown:

1) CITY VIEW (on Commercial, just slightly east of Kearney)

Very small restaurant for a dim sum place

Some carts, but also some trays, the carts had a mixed bag of selections, more selections than usual on a single cart

Very clean 4* (on a scale of 1-4)

Food: 2*

I had the SEW MY and it was tired, indicating it was old - didn't perk up and say "Hi!"

the Shanghai-style Hsiao Lung Bao must have been made in Moscow. Really strange bao! It had more vegetable than meat and was SOGGY!

Prices: Outrageous! They charge $3 for a small plate, $3.50 for a medium, $4 for a large plate, and $5 for a "special". I saw nothing that we ordered as anything approaching "special" but we were charged for two "specials" anyhow. Plates that are usually small or medium in other dim sum houses were categorized as "large" here.

I saw a lot of people with travel books in hand. This restaurant must be making the rounds of guide books. Certainly a lot of round-eyes in there and only one table of Asians (must be Japanese tourists - LOL!). NO local Chinatown people were anywhere in sight, not a good sign.

Recommended only if you are super clean freak, need cloth table cloth and cloth napkins. Not a real dim sum experience.


2) NEW ASIA on Pacific. It's been awhile since I've been back there and it was a pleasant surprise. They've spruced up the place, new wall paper and paint, new uniforms for the cart ladies (purple), but the blaring number calling remained the same. Sometimes the maitre d' would forget to announce the numbers in English! So, you need to go back and make certain they haven't called your number. Don't be shy! Huge cavern of a place with lots of noise, seating 300, 400, 500 people.

Very good food: 3.5* The quality of the food had gone down in the recent past, but it's come back up. The Chinese broccoli was crisp and sweet, the SEW MY was fresh ("Hi! Hi!"), the special roasted duck dish was great. The sesame balls were a disappointment - not all red bean paste inside, but had some yellow filler with a small dab of red bean paste about the size of a dime ("what this yellow stuff???")

On the shrimp plates, both City View and New Asia passed the test. What's the test, you ask? Glad you have an enquiring mind! The test is that there should be whole shrimp inside the wrappers, not some mushy shrimp paste. Good, whole, crunchy shrimp! :)

The front of Meriwa was in scaffolding, so Meriwa may be temporarily closed.