Dim Sum in NJ

[Rachel Perlow]

Rosie's thread about Thai restaurants inspired me to start this one. We like going to dim sum, a Chinese brunch of dumplings and other delights, about once or twice a month. I would like to have more options of places to go to, so please respond with any Chinese restaurants you know that serve dim sum. Please include location and whether they serve it only on Sunday, all weekend, or everyday, with a short blurb of how you like it. Here's a good tip for all dim sum places: I try to avoid taking anything from a mixed tray. If there is more than one type of dim sum on the tray then it has already made at least one trip around the room and is probably cold.

I'll start:

Silver Pond, 230 Main St, Fort Lee, Bergen County - everyday. On par or better than Chinatown, they have a liquor license. They have another location in Queens, they used to have one in East Hanover, but it closed. The steamed stuff comes around in carts, the fried on waiter carried trays. Some of our favorites include their salt & chili shrimp and mai fun noodles in superior sauce with leeks, in addition to all the dumplings. Try to arrive before noon or you'll have to wait on the weekends.

Noodle Chu, 770 US Hwy 46 West, Parsippany, Morris County (across from the Holiday Inn with the Harolds) - weekends. This place is very good too and can get crowded if you arrive late. They also have an assortment of roast meats to choose from hanging in the back.

Dim Sum Dynasty, 75 Franklin Ave, Ridgewood, 07450 - (201) 652-0615 (See eG Thread), aiming towards the high end and more expensive than the others, but excellent Dim Sum.

[bpsklar]

What about China 46 and John's Shanghai in Edgewater? They both have dim sum sections on their menus

[Rachel Perlow]

China 46 doesn't really do a Dim Sum brunch though. You can order dim sum, and they'll bring it to you from the kitchen. But it isn't the same kind of almost instant gratification walking buffet experience of the steam carts and waiters offering you tasty morsels in small portions that is Dim Sum. I don't know about John's Shanghai. We had dinner there once, we'll have to check and see if they really do a Dim Sum lunch or it is just what they call their appetizer section.

[jsibley]

China Gourmet in West Orange, quite near Pal's Cabin and just of 280 has quite good Dim Sum. They tend to have a lot of Chinese customers, which can be a good sign (if they are Chinese with good taste). Like many Dim Sum restaurants, there can be a lull in the service, if you happen to get there at the wrong time, but the food is usually quite good.

[jsibley]

There is also a restaurant in West Orange that is almost right across from the Turtle Back zoo. I only had their Dim Sum once, but it seemed quite promising. Maybe someone will drive by it and post the name?

[Rachel Perlow]

We went to Kinara last week and I stopped into John's Shanghai to check. They serve dim sum on the weekends, but you order it from the menu, and the rest of the entire menu is available too, so same as China 46.

[Rachel Perlow]

I had the most delicious dish at dim sum todat at Silver Pond in Fort Lee. It is scallops with black bean sauce. The scallops were obviously live right before being cooked. They have all the coral & stuff still attached, and the main muscle so sweet. It was very busy as usual, but maybe even a little more so due to Father's Day. If you haven't been it's worth the trip. Get there before noon on the weekends.

[Rosie]

We haven't gotten there for dim sum yet but recently had an outstanding dinner at Ocean King. We ordered off of the Chinese menu. Cold noodles were the best I have had in a long time, followed by stuffed tofu, eggplant and peppers and then a seafood noodle dish where the strands of noodles were twisted together to look like shrimp.

[Jason Perlow]

Ocean King is a solid Dim Sum restaurant, but we havent been there in over a year. Same with Noodle Chu in parsippany, both were our mainstays in the morris county area when we were living there.

[Rachel Perlow]

Read on Table Hopping with Rosie 5/28 that Ocean King in Livingston has closed. It was an excellent and very busy dim sum restaurant when we lived in the area. Had anyone been going lately? Did their clientelle drop off suddenly in the past few months or has it been a more gradual decline?

[hscottk]

I'll start:

Silver Pond, 230 Main St, Fort Lee, Bergen County - everyday. On par or better than Chinatown, they have a liquor license. They have another location in Queens, they used to have one in East Hanover, but it closed. The steamed stuff comes around in carts, the fried on waiter carried trays. Some of our favorites include their salt & chili shrimp and mai fun noodles in superior sauce with leeks, in addition to all the dumplings. Try to arrive before noon or you'll have to wait on the weekends.

Rachel,

How busy does Silver Pond get for dinner on weekends? We were actually planning on doing Dim Sum tomorrow evening, and I wasn't sure if the wait would kill us.

We recently waited 2 hours for a table at Sally's Pizza last weekend, so we're waited out.....

[Jason Perlow]

I really think you would prefer to go to China 46 instead of Silver Pond for dinner. Silver Pond really excells at its dim sum during lunchtime on weekends, although it is a fairly serious Hong Kong seafood restaurant. It does NOT do dim sum during the evening! Should you go Silver Pond for lunchtime on a Saturday or Sunday, be sure to get there between 12 and 1. Typically there isnt more than a 10 minute wait to get in.

China 46 of course is Shanghainese, and not Hong Kong style, but they really excell at seafood dishes, particularly ones with shrimp and crab and whole fish. China 46 also does VERY good soup dumplings as well as pan fried dumplings, which are very dim-sum "like" things.

[hscottk]

Jason,

Thanks for your help (as always....)

It's too bad, because I really wanted to have the 'carts' experience, and we're already scheduled for Jean Georges for lunch. Oh well.

If I wasn't starting this stupid diet on Sunday, we could go then.

Then again, there's always next week....

[byarvin]

Hi everyone. I just thought I'd chyme in with a few dim sum suggestions a bit farther south.

Both the 1-9 Seafood Restaurant on Route 1-9 in Avenel and the Wonder Seafood Restaurant on Route 27 in Edison offer the "cart experience" on weekend mornings. Both offer modern Cantonese seafood cusine at other times.

Not dim sum in the technical sense, King's Village, a bit farther south on Route 27 (but still in Edison) offers a Northern Chinese "Dim Sum" menu. Not the "cart experience," but delicious all the same.

[Jason Perlow]

In the Star Ledger today there was an article about Dim Sum in NJ by Pete Genovese.

What are your favorites in Northern and Southern NJ? Everyone knows my current favorite is the special $12 Sunday Brunch at China 46 in Ridgefield -- although it is not a traditional Cantonese dim sum, being a Shanghainese restaurant. For true Hong Kong style dim sum, my favorite is Silver Pond, in Fort Lee.

I also really like Noodle Chu in Parsippany on weekends, but its been a while.

[BrianYarvin]

Jason:

The StarLedger seems to have missed much of what's good in the central part of the state.

The 1-9 Seafood Restaurant on Route 1-9 in Avenel leads the pack in my opinion and the Wonder Seafood Restaurant on Route 27 in Edison is also quite good. Both of these places are solidly Cantonese.

I would place the 1-9 in a sort of dim sum stratosphere along with the Ocean Palace in Brooklyn and the late and lamented Jade Palace in Flushing.

Quality New Jersey Chinese restaurants seem to cluster in two areas; in the North around Route 46 and in the center of the state around Edison and Highland Park.

****

The Shanghai breakfast tradition is another story entirely - if you're looking for that sort of thing down here, King's Village on Route 27 in Edison is almost a specialist in these dishes as is one of the stalls at the Hong Kong Supermarket in South Plainfield. Neither of these places can be even remotely considered a "fine dining" destination in the same way that China 46 or the 1-9 Seafood restaurant, but that doesn't make them any less fun to visit.

[jo-mel]

Brian --- About those stalls in the Hong Kong Supermarket------

There used to be a supermarket in the New Brunswick area, I believe on Rt. 18 S. It was owned by the former owner of Maxim's and she was/is from Hong Kong. The store had many stalls -- all the regions of China, dim sum, sushi, noodles etc. It was a wonderful place for lunch. But it closed down.

Is the place in So. Plainfield like that?

Jason, I've had dim sum at China Gourmet, but it was so long ago, I've forgotten it. My most recent was at Triple Palace in NYC, but in NJ, China 46's spread was my latest. I'm going there again, on Sunday.

Joy Luck Pavilion has a great menu, but I haven't tried their dim sum -------yet. After that article, I must go!

[BrianYarvin]

Jo-Mel:

I believe that this is the very same management. Indeed, this was once a Maxim's store. It's at the corner of Oak Tree Road (of Indian Restaurant fame) and Park Avenue in South Plainfield.

The stall vendors change fairly frequently and their quality often varies too, but as of this week, there is a bakery with bubble tea drinks, a soup noodle shop that features amazing hand-cut noodles and nice warm containers of soy milk, a Sichuan noodle and cold dish stall, two sisters who sell wonderful Taiwan street and snack food, a Shanghai style bread and dumpling place, and one of those three-dish steam table operations all the way in the back.

And of course, there's a pretty good Chinese grocery there too. (Actually it's amazing if you're used to Manhattan Chinatown, but in the NJ ethnic food universe, it's the grocery stores, not the restaurants that make the biggest impression)

I"m in this place at least twice a week.

[jo-mel]

If you see a tall striking Asian woman, mod dress and plenty of make-up, that might be the owner. I'll have to take a trip down there and check it out. Food stalls are wonderful places!

But you are right about the NJ supermarkets. They have come a long way in the past few years. Big, well-stocked, and the range of items is quite complete. Of course there is nothing quite like going into NYC's Chinatown and visiting the stores there, but out here -- no parking or tunnel costs. Kinda nice!

[irongut]

Traditional Dim Sum at China Garden in Clifton on Main Ave. off rt. 3 is pretty good. It is a few blocks away from Costco , across the street from a cemetery. They don't have the waitresses rolling the cart with dim sum. You have to order it on the dim sum menu. For hong kong style entrees & noodles are good there too. If we have big family get togethers, we usually go with to China Garden & order their preset banquet style dishes.

China Chef in Secaucus serves good dim sum on the weekends as well.

[dumpling]

There used to be a place in a strip mall out in Princeton that had really lovely dim sum and a bit of a creative chef. Think it's gone now; does anyone know? Sigh!

[titmfatied]

Not dim sum in the technical sense, King's Village, a bit farther south on Route 27 (but still in Edison) offers a Northern Chinese "Dim Sum" menu. Not the "cart experience," but delicious all the same.

←

Just wanted to update the threads with King's Village reccomendations to let everyone know that they are now closed as of 11/20/2005.

[Jason Perlow]

Also note the Dim Sum Dynasty (Ridgewood) thread.

[Rosie]

Not dim sum in the technical sense, King's Village, a bit farther south on Route 27 (but still in Edison) offers a Northern Chinese "Dim Sum" menu. Not the "cart experience," but delicious all the same.

←

Just wanted to update the threads with King's Village reccomendations to let everyone know that they are now closed as of 11/20/2005.

←

King's Village is closed for renovation. They should reopen in about a month.

[andrewhwest]

We happened to go to the 1-9 Seafood Restaurant this Saturday. The food seems to have slipped a bit, or at least quality control. It was not quite as busy as I remember from previous years. And out of the 8 - 9 dishes we picked, two were inappropriately cold. Some fried dumplings felt like they had been cooked, then refrigerated, and not even fully warmed. Same for some small fried fish. They warmed the dumplings for us when my wife complained, but that took them 15 minutes. The food tasted okay.