Dim Sum Dynasty

[jwjojo]

From Beekman Wine website:

(beekmanwine.com Good listing of BYO restaurants)

Sum Dynasty took a long time to open at the former site of the Sounding Board, but the wait was definitely worth it. This white tablecloth restaurant is one of the finest and most interesting Oriental restaurants in the area. As its name implies, Dynasty features an enormous selection of Dim Sum, but only on Saturday and Sunday from 11 am until 3 pm. A terrific introductory “Dim Sum Club” is available at other times as an appetizer. The entree selection is enormous with traditional Chinese offerings, as well as many unusual dishes (Filet Mignon, Veal Chop, Rack of Lamb, etc.). The sauces show a refined touch. This is a restaurant to come back to. Dinner for two is only $42.

Anyone try this place yet??

[dumpling]

I've eaten in and had take out from there.

I've had their lobster with ginger and scallion, manchurian rack of lamb, their Cantonese chow mein as well as a variety of dim sum on prior occasions.

I went there today for lunch and had a dish off their lunch menu - Seafood in XO sauce, as well as a variety of dim sum.

The verdict?

Interesting place. Dishes you wouldn't find elsewhere, interesting high end items. But a mix of things, not just high end. But certainly different menu.

The lamb was excellent as was the lobster. They forgot the spinach that was to go with the lamb and the lobster dish was a little small. But both dishes make me think of them fondly anyway. The Cantonese chow mein was also very nice.

If they were uneven in things at that time, I think they have worked it out based upon my visit today. Service was attentive and flawless. Their hot and sour soup with the lunch menu was good(and not just "brown"). Seafood with XO sauce cme with big pieces of seafood-shrimp, scallop and squid, and a very nice XO sauce.

Of the dim sum, they are all solid, though some not as good in my mind as Silver Pond in Fort Lee. Lovely cha siu bao-mini roast pork buns, great ratio of filling to bread and light wonderful dough, better than the cha siu bao at SP. Siu mai and shark's fin dumpling not quite as good. Not bad, just different, and I prefer the SP mix of ingredients on the siu mai and shark's fin dumpling.

Nice crabmeat money bag dumplings. Crispy, crunchy quite tasty when topped off with a little dipping sauce.

My feel is that the dim sum is solid but strangely, given the name of the restaurant, I think it is the dinner menu that may have more to plumb, rather than the dim sum menu. Not that that was bad.

All in all, a place well worth exploring. (Don't be afraid, Jasper, go in).

Edited November 10, 2005 by dumpling (log)

[Jason Perlow]

Rachel and I had a really nice lunch at Dim Sum Dynasty today. This is a place we definitely will be going back to, as a nice (but more expensive) alternative to Silver Pond, which is our regular place. As Dumpling says, there are a number of items here that are not your typical Dim Sum parlor fare, and they are definitely worth having. Its an attractive, clean restaurant which is a great venue for a classy Chinese luncheon.

Please forgive me that I shot these on a Treo 600 and not on a decent camera. I'm still holding out on reviews of the new Sony unit this week before I buy a new camera.

Har Gow (wrappers over whole shrimps, excellent), Pork Shu Mai (very good), and Chicken Sticky Rice wrapped with lotus leaf (I prefer the Slilver Pond version)

Pork Spring Rolls

Chicken Sticky Rice Interior

Meat wrapped with yuba bean skin. These were denser than Silver Pond's and with a less gloppy sauce. Not better, just different.

These are some sort of vegetable dumplings with peanuts, which we thought were just OK.

Char Siu Bao, which came out piping hot from the oven. These are almost ethereal, not as dense as some of the others we have eaten and have a great BBQ Pork filling. Probably some of the best I have ever had. Definitely order this.

E-Fu Mein braised noodles, with mushrooms and yellow leeks. Really good.

Fried Pork Dumplings. Slightly on the doughy side but still very good.

These are some quails which were being passed around, which we didnt try.

Gai Lan with Oyster Sauce. These were particulary young and tender stalks.

These are deep fried smelts of some kind, which we didn't have.

These are the deep fried Money Purses with crabmeat. Also very good.

Lo Bak Ko, turnip cakes. Didn't try them.

Roast Duck. Also didn't try.

[Anonymouze]

Jason I always love your pictures... however for those of us who know not what some of those dishes are could you pretty please add under them what they are? Thanks a whole big bunch. P.S. Do they have a link or site? Also do they have a "dim sum" cart every day? Thanks! You're the best!

[Jason Perlow]

Edited for your pleasure, Stacy.

The dim sum carts are only on the weekends from 11 to 3. During the week you can order certain dim sum items a la carte.

I haven't found a web site for it yet.

[Jason Perlow]

One other thing I want to add -- I didn't get any photos of them, but they have a nice selection of premium loose leaf Chinese teas, which are served in individual glass Bodum tea pots. One of the teas has actual floating flowers in it.

The regular, non-premium tea selection is Oolong, Jasmine, and Black tea, which you get free of charge.

[tommy]

i wouldn't order anything but dim sum. and perhaps some chinese vegetables.

[dumpling]

Glad to see that Jason and Rachel have made it here too.

Although this restaurant does not have the carts during the week, they still have a reasonable selection of dim sum.

I agree, the char siu bao are perhaps the best I have ever had too. I note that Jason had the baked. I had the mini steamed ones. Just wonderful.

They also had chrysanthenum tea, an uncommon occurence among Chinese restaurants not in NY. This may have been the tea with the floating flowers upon which Jason commented. Alan and I had that when I was last there. While it was not served with the sugar in it as it is often served in NY, it was nonetheless nice to try since I haven't had it in a restaurant in quite some time. Most people would like it with the sugar in it, but it is fine for me served plain this way too.

Tommy, you're missing out if you're not trying some of the other things.

[tommy]

Tommy, you're missing out if you're not trying some of the other things.

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i mean to say that i would stick to the type of food described above (some of which is not on the regular menu, and most of which falls under 'dim sum' in my mind, right or wrong).

in other words, stay away from the "chicken with garlic" "pork tenderloin", which is the type of stuff that populates most of the menu.

i should note that my experience has been limited to delivery. but if i were to actually go out, i'd just go to china 46.

[Jason Perlow]

I would tend to agree with tommy if it were not for the fact that the area is sorely lacking in really good dinner choices for Hong Kong style restaurants where you can get good renditions of seafood dishes like Lobster Cantonese and such. China 46 is excellent and they have some great seafood dishes but it is not Hong Kong style. For example, I like Silver Pond's Dim Sum, but I've been less than enthusiastic about their dinner service. So I want to try Dim Sum Dynasty for dinner at least once.

[tommy]

unfortunately, this restaurant, unlike china 46, seems to have americanized dishes interspersed among more authentic dishes. since my knowledge of hong kong style cuisine is limited, perhaps i'll wait for more reports so i know exactly what dishes to order. most of these dishes, i'm thinking, wouldn't travel well, so i'll be forced to go out to the restaurant instead of relying on delivery... at which point i'll probably just go to china 46 for non-hong kong style.

hunan villa in ridgewood also serves some hong kong style food. the chef spent some time in one of the hotel restaurants in hong kong. they don't offer sit-down service. just delivery, which boggles the mind. and as with dim sum dynasty, their authentic dishes are buried on the menu, and some aren't listed at all. one does well when going to the restaurant to talk to the owner about what's good that day.

[Lutece]

Hunan Villa in Ridgewood has the best chinese around. Very fresh, and not overly salty. Too bad its only take out but we love it

DimSum Dynasty has great dimsum, but ...some of the regular lunch dishes during the week were a disappointment. Stopped going there after getting a shrimp with veggie dish , with veiny small shrimp which was a big turn off.

Went today for dim sum and everything was excellent.

We especially loved the dumplings with snow pea greens and shrimp. But, everything was as good if not better than silver pond and we've been going to silver pond since we lived in queens, many moons ago.

The service was great and so was the tea.

Jason's pix just about cover all that we ate.

Its a great addition to Ridgewood and very authentic indeed!

Has anyone tried the newest Thai that opened next to ivangie yet?

[Jason Perlow]

Lutece, when were you there? We were there today at around 1-2PM.

Had the Seafood Pan Fried Noodles which I thought were excellent, as well as a number of new dimsum items (tried the quails, which were very good -- snow pea shoot dumplings, excellent -- deep fried squid tentacles with cashews and green pepper, excellent -- Galbi-like mini veal chops in a soy glaze/bbq sauce, excellent)

[dumpling]

Hey Jason

Sorry again that we couldn't sit with you guys. Scott was home from school and that was kind of our private time together. We have a tradition of just having some private time when he gets in and the rest of his family doesn't even come. That way he gets to talk about his parents if he wants too I guess I'm kind of like the favorite aunt.

Anyway thanks for sharing-that triangle thing and the galbi like ribs were nice.

[dumpling]

Jason

wasn't able to access your pm.

[Jason Perlow]

Yeah, it said you didn't have permission to receive one... is your inbox/outbox full? Try deleting a bunch...

[docsconz]

My wife and I had lunch there last Friday. We shared the chicken hot and sour soup (good), the pea shoot/shrimp dumplings, golden crab claws, spring rolls, shrimp dumplings and beef chow mai fun. The dim sum was the best I've had in a while as it was all extremely fresh and hot. I found what I had to be much better than Silver Pond of late. Many of the fried dishes there that have come from carts have been cold and greasy. Not so these. The beef in the noodle dish was excellent though a bit sparse. the noodles themselves, however, were no better than ok.

We made the mistake on Saturday night of ordering take-out from Ying-Ying rather than the usual Hunan Villa.

[Jason Perlow]

Many of the fried dishes there that have come from carts have been cold and greasy.

The key to both Dim Sum Dynasty and Silver Pond is getting there at the right time. You don't to go Silver Pond, for example, after 1:30PM -- and you never, ever want to take anything off a "Mixed" tray. Ever. You follow that rule, you will never get cold fried items at Silver Pond again.

At Dim Sum Dynasty, they told us the best time to be there is at 12 noon, because then a lot of stuff is just getting out of the steamers and the fryers and they are putting them in the oven to keep warm.

[tommy]

We made the mistake on Saturday night of ordering take-out from Ying-Ying rather than the usual Hunan Villa.

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a bigger mistake i cannot think of.

[docsconz]

We made the mistake on Saturday night of ordering take-out from Ying-Ying rather than the usual Hunan Villa.

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a bigger mistake i cannot think of.

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At this point neither can I- at least not in the realm of food.

[docsconz]

Many of the fried dishes there that have come from carts have been cold and greasy.

The key to both Dim Sum Dynasty and Silver Pond is getting there at the right time. You don't to go Silver Pond, for example, after 1:30PM -- and you never, ever want to take anything off a "Mixed" tray. Ever. You follow that rule, you will never get cold fried items at Silver Pond again.

At Dim Sum Dynasty, they told us the best time to be there is at 12 noon, because then a lot of stuff is just getting out of the steamers and the fryers and they are putting them in the oven to keep warm.

←

I've never been to Silver Pond later than noon. I had the worst soft-shelled crab ever there. In fairness, I have had some very good dishes too, but my experience is too stay away from the fried dim sum and go more with the steamed. At DSD, it seemed as if everything was prepared to order for us on Friday. Of course they didn't have the carts nor the selection that generally goes with them.

[dumpling]

I tend toward the steamed things at Silver Pond too.

I think that when I went duirng the week at DSD that some of the stuff was actually better than the weekend because it was made to order. When I went recently on the weekend, the cha siu bao and a couple of the steamed things were still good, but not quite as transcendent as during the week.

That said of course there isn't the selection during the week that you can get on the weekend.

[Lutece]

Many of the fried dishes there that have come from carts have been cold and greasy.

The key to both Dim Sum Dynasty and Silver Pond is getting there at the right time. You don't to go Silver Pond, for example, after 1:30PM -- and you never, ever want to take anything off a "Mixed" tray. Ever. You follow that rule, you will never get cold fried items at Silver Pond again.

At Dim Sum Dynasty, they told us the best time to be there is at 12 noon, because then a lot of stuff is just getting out of the steamers and the fryers and they are putting them in the oven to keep warm.

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You are so right about that. I think we might have been sitting right above your table on sat between 1and 2!! I really wanted some of the stuff u were having.

Were you sitting at a round table, with a couple, eyeing your food above you??

That was me!!

I wanted those pan fried noodles, but we couldn't eat anymore.

Thats why its better to go with a group.

I convinced my girlfriend to go with me again on Sun and she was slow and we didn't get there till after 1 30 and nothing was as good as sat

Except, the chinese broccoli, must have been freshly prepared it was so good, but the selection of dim sum was limited.

I love those snow pea greens, all the veggies in fact.

I bet they're stealing a lot of business from the rest of the chinese places i used to go to in ridgewood. I hated that yin yang place by the way.

[dumpling]

Looks like we were all there on Saturday!

Edited December 1, 2005 by dumpling (log)

[Anonymouze]

We ate at Dim Sum Dynasty for xmas/Hanukkah Days today...

Let's preface by saying Don't eat the duck it was all bones and just fatty skin with the skin being the only edible thing... they need to find out to remove the bones and then sliver the meat off like some places do... not just hack a duck into pieces and serve it.

The selection wasn't bad there were about a dozen+ different items. We had the lotus leaf rice (so/so), the roast pork buns (very tasty - YUM), the baconwrapped shrimp (disappointing) the tofu skin (greasy!) and shark fin (yum) dim sums which were good... we had the taro root appetizer with the sauce which was good and the chive and shrimp and the shrimp dim sum too which were good. I guess maybe I anticipated more than I got. ::shrug:: there were about 8 tables full (half the restaurant) with mainly jewish and asian clientele interesting mix... I only knew they were jewish because they mentioned something about going home and celebrating hanukkah or lighting hanukkah lights.