Philadelphia Dim Sum

[vigna]

Does anyone have suggestions for a good dim sum brunch in Philadelphia's Chinatown? Some chinese friends of mine will be in town this weekend and we'd like to feast on dim sum. The problem for me is that I've been totally unimpressed so far with the brunch offerings in Philly's Chinatown and I'm reluctant to suggest a restaurant for the group. It would be great to hear your advice.

[herbacidal]

Dimsum here is fine, but I wouldn't say it's especially good as compared to dimsum anywhere else in the US, or in the world for that matter.

That said, try Golden Phoenix or Ocean Harbor, both on the north side of Race St., the first between 9th and 10th across from the Verizon building, the second between 11th and 10th, a few doors west of Chung May supermarket.

[sara]

Lakeside Chinese Deli is the best I've had in the area *that's not saying very much but still, you wanted a place in Philly.* No carts, but cheap prices, nice service, and I'm usually one of the only Caucasians in there.

[herbacidal]

Lakeside Chinese Deli is the best I've had in the area *that's not saying very much but still, you wanted a place in Philly.* No carts, but cheap prices, nice service, and I'm usually one of the only Caucasians in there.

Yea, hafta say, I've never heard bad things about the place. And I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be that crowded.

[Andrew Fenton]

I've been to both Ocean Harbor and Lakeside; they're both fine and do the trick. Bear in mind that Lakeside isn't a traditional, with-carts, dim sum experience: you have to order the food you want.

[stephenc]

My family usually goes to Ocean Harbor because they've been doing so for years.

They're all basically the same. Some do certain dishes better than others, but they're all generally comparable.

[Scoats]

I like Ocean City on 9th Street and Golden Pheonix on Race. I'm not a big fan of Joy Tsai whatever; it's OK but seemed a little lesser and a little pricer than the other two. I like Ocean Harbor on 9th. as well

Thinking on it, I probably give the nod to Golden Pheonix.

Lakeside is supposedly the best Dim Sum in Chinatown. I have yet to go there, though I'd like to. From my experience "Best of" is usually disappointing, but I still want to get there.

[SG-]

Lakeside is supposedly the best Dim Sum in Chinatown. I have yet to go there, though I'd like to. From my experience "Best of" is usually disappointing, but I still want to get there.

Not sure I would consider it the best but it does have some good items esp. the taro croquettes and wontons I find to be the best in chinatown. Really lacks atmosphere and the bustle of a regular dim sum place though but good fall back if you don't want to wait in line at the other places.

dim sum names and pics

http://www.members.aol.com/dimsumlist/page4.html

[rlibkind]

dim sum names and pics

http://www.members.aol.com/dimsumlist/page4.html

What! No photo of chicken feet on the AOL page!

[Chuckles52]

GAWD!!!! Reading these posts just got me to salivating like a dog. Gotta go in this weekend and get my dimsum fix!!! Thanx to all for the idea.

[vigna]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. It turns out that my guests had already decided on the Imperial Inn, a surprise to me, but they had made a prior visit to Philadelphia and had liked the Dim Sum offerings at Sunday lunchtime. I hadn't been there in years (it was once a highly rated restaurant, but has not been talked about much for quite a while). I have to admit that the food was really quite good. The Dim Sum plates -- squid, all sorts of dumplings, sticky rice, crispy duck, and those buns stuffed with pork were all delicious. Less successful were platters of noodle dishes prepared to order. I would certainly return to the Imperial Inn, but I would also like to try Lakeside, Ocean City, Ocean Harbor and Golden Pheonix as well, as per the suggestions on this thread. (I agree with Scoats that Joy Tsin Lao is not up to par.)

On an unrelated note, after this feast, we all walked over to the Kimmel center to hear a spectacular recital by Hilary Hahn and Natalie Zhu. I can't imagine Bach partitas played better than by Hilary Hahn and the two performed a knockout Mozart violin/piano sonata. I consider myself very lucky to live in Philadelphia, not only a top restaurant city, but a fantastic world class classical music city. In fact Hahn and Zhu are locals! (Has anyone out there heard the recent Mahler's 3rd symphony played by the Philadelphia Orchestra? Wow, that was also fantastic!)

[percyn]

Visited Lakeside Deli for Dim Sum today... and it was excellent !!

I ordered the Dim Sum sampler

and sticky rice, steamed in lotus leaf

Even though I had to wait 15 min for the wait staff to clear some tables and another 20 min for my food, both dishes were excellent and worth the wait.

[shacke]

Apart from one trip to Joy Tsin Lau maaany years ago and a meal at Ocean Harbor, I always had my dim sum at Imperial Inn.

It's been about 2-3 years, but we went back for dim sum to Imperial Inn today. It's as good as I remember it but I was thinking ... "Hmm, I wonder what's the latest word on Philly dim sum on egullet?" It's been a while since it was discussed here and with the comings and goings of restaurants in the area, I figured I would ask if anyone has other newer go-to places.

Evan

Edited August 20, 2006 by shacke (log)

[Greg Ling]

Imperial is better than it has been for years. the tripe and steamed spareribs are my favorite in chinatown. phoneix is good too. if you go to ocean city next to sang kee it is better than harbor and try the salt fish and chicken fried rice.

[lancastermike]

For those visitors to Chinatown from other places, Lakeside Deli is great. We like it as they are always so friendly.

Perhaps it is the safe and not the most adventuresome choice; however we make it a destination when in Chinatown

[mrbigjas]

did i ever tell you about my shame at lakeside? i ordered the mixed tripe plate. and the waitress came back and was like, you know, that's the plate with like intestine and uterus and stuff, not just tripe, do you really want that? or would you rather have the regular tripe plate?

and i was with people who weren't eating either one anyway, so i figured i was going to have to make a dent in it myself and what if i didn't like it? so i wimped out and got the regular plate. which was delicious.

oh well next time.

[Andrew Fenton]

See, that's why you need to plan these things well in advance, like any good military campaign. I bet that with a little organization, you'd have had no problems getting a crew together for a big ol plate o' uterus.

But as they say, you go to dim sum with the army you have...

[VictorFiorillo]

Maybe we need an Egullet bus trip to Jing Fong in New York.

[herbacidal]

Maybe we need an Egullet bus trip to Jing Fong in New York.

←

From what little I know, is Jing Fong really worth the trip?

Now a NYC snack tour on the other hand, that'd be worthy of a bus trip.

[philadining]

A hungry, if small, band of eGulleteers headed to Ocean City restaurant at 234 N 9th St in Chinatown for dim sum on sunday. It's traditional cart service, with the expected offerings, and all in all we thought it was very good. Servers were friendly, and were pretty good about describing things in English if we needed. It was busy, but not packed, so we didn't have to wait, and lingered at the table without feeling guilty, because there were always a few open.

As always happens, we might have gotten a little over-exited early on, requesting one of almost everything that came by at first. We probably should have paced ourselves, because we saw a few good dishes roll by later, after we were over-full.

Between three of us we had:

Steamed Ribs, Pork Shu Mai (front)

Har Gao (shrimp dumplings)

Tofu Skin Rolls with Pork

Sticky Rice

Char Siu Bao

Rice Noodle Rolls with Beef

Some sort of noodley thing.... maybe yam noodles or something?

Eggplant

Congee

Steamed Meatballs

we thought they were Cilantro and Pork dumplings, but the didn't taste all that Cilantro-ish... but they were good!

Sticky Rice balls

Sweet Sesame Balls

Custard Tarts

So, that was about 15 dishes, PLENTY of food for 3 of us. $40 for all of it. Great value, I think...

I really enjoyed it. Nothing was especially exemplary, nor was anything especially bad: I'd say it was a good solid dim sum experience. It's certainly not world-class dim sum, maybe not even the "best" in town, but it was very good.

I think I might like many of the specific dishes better at Lakeside, but there's something fun and serendipitous about carts. I wouldn't be reluctant to come back here.

Any other current faves for places with carts?

[Diann]

Phil, your photos rock. To paraphrase Daniel in the STH thread, I was there, and things didn't even look that good in person. Your photos give everything a luscious glow.

Serendipitous is totally the right word for cart-based dim sum. That or "fun and chaotic". My problem with carts is that I feel obligated to order EVERYTHING I might possibly want on one cart as it comes by; that way, in case the cart never stops by my table again, my bases will be covered. Unfortunately, that leads to bad timing of dim sum (items getting cold, people filling up too quickly, etc.)

It was fun, though, and foodwise everything was solid, except maybe the har gow (gao?), which were a bit gluey.

[mrbigjas]

A hungry, if small, band of eGulleteers headed to Ocean City restaurant at 234 N 9th St in Chinatown for dim sum on sunday. 

hey we were there too! i didn't see you guys.

we thought they were Cilantro and Pork dumplings, but the didn't taste all that Cilantro-ish... but they were good!

i think those are pork shrimp & watercress. (edited to say i mean, if those are the same ones we ordered which looked similar, i think that's what they were. if not, obviously, nevermind)

I really enjoyed it. Nothing was especially exemplary, nor was anything especially bad: I'd say it was a good solid dim sum experience. It's certainly not world-class dim sum, maybe not even the "best" in town, but it was very good. 

I think I might like many of the specific dishes better at Lakeside, but there's something fun and serendipitous about carts.  I wouldn't be reluctant to come back here.

Any other current faves for places with carts?

we always end up there, because our friend who has a standing monthly dim sum thing always has it there...

a couple of things you missed: their braised chicken feet are addictive if you like chicken feet. they're heavily scented with star anise and have a decent green chili bite to them. they're kind of a lot of work though, as chicken feet always are.

they have a bun that they make with yellow bean paste and preserved egg in it, which i like a lot.

they do the soft tofu in sugar syrup that the folks i go with always order and love, but i've never really seen the attraction of it--i mean, it's OK but kind of bland, and i'm not all that into sweets really.

anyway, just like you guys, we also ordered too much too early and by the time the clam and snail cart came around, we were too full. i always miss that.

Edited November 6, 2006 by mrbigjas (log)

[I_call_the_duck]

Beautiful pics as usual, philadining. I salute you guys. 15 dishes amongst the three of you? Then again, knowing you three, I'm not surprised.

Serendipitous is totally the right word for cart-based dim sum. That or "fun and chaotic". My problem with carts is that I feel obligated to order EVERYTHING I might possibly want on one cart as it comes by; that way, in case the cart never stops by my table again, my bases will be covered. Unfortunately, that leads to bad timing of dim sum (items getting cold, people filling up too quickly, etc.)

←

I do exactly the same thing. I also worry that they'll run out of something good.

We ate at Dim Sum Gogo in New York yesterday, which did not have the cart experience. I haven't had a chance to post on the NY dim sum thread yet, but what was lacking in the fun "point and pick method" was redeemed by fresh, tasty dim sum. I wouldn’t say it was the best I've had — it was also more expensive than most places — but it was pretty good.

[philadining]

Yeah James, we noticed the clams too late too, and I swear I saw a guy eating curried octopus, but hey, next time! And all three of us were of the opinion that chicken feet are just too much work... Those might have been pork, shrimp and watercress dumplings, I'm thinking watercress seems a more plausible flavor than cilantro in what we had. Usually, if I eat a dumpling with shrimp in it, I am not a happy camper, but maybe I got lucky and got a low-dose one. As Diann said, it's pretty common in Cantonese cooking to just toss some shrimp into most anything, because, you know, it will be better!

And as much fun as the carts are, I'd trade them for the much more delicate and fresh offerings at Dim Sum GoGo in NY any time. I love that place. pix>>

[mrbigjas]

Yeah James, we noticed the clams too late too, and I swear I saw a guy eating curried octopus, but hey, next time!  And all three of us were of the opinion that chicken feet are just too much work... Those might have been pork, shrimp and watercress dumplings, I'm thinking watercress seems a more plausible flavor than cilantro in what we had. Usually, if I eat a dumpling with shrimp in it, I am not a happy camper, but maybe I got lucky and got a low-dose one. As Diann said, it's pretty common in Cantonese cooking to just toss some shrimp into most anything, because, you know, it will be better!

we had curried squid, but i didn't see octopus. but i was on the side of the table away from the carts so i couldn't see everything.

i think diann is right. someone we were with hadn't really been to dim sum before, and was asking about what was in each thing, and at one point we just told her to assume that everything was pork and/or shrimp unless we said otherwise...

i don't think chicken feet are too much work. i used to, but then i realized that since a dim sum dish of them only costs like $2, i could get them, gnaw off whatever i felt like gnawing off, and leave the rest without feeling guilty...