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.

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.