The fried items came first, I guess because steamed items take longer. This has always bugged me about eating dim sum, because I like to start my meal with the lighter, steamed dishes first. But in Chinese restaurants, no one really cares about the order of courses. More often than not, dessert is the first thing to arrive because it’s pre-made.

Taro dumplings, or in this case, taro balls, were the first to arrive. When I bit into them, oil from the pork filling oozed out. The outside was not exactly fluffy, but you could definitely taste the taro. However, they were extremely oily, inside and out – if I had known what they were, I probably would not have ordered them.

Shrimp-stuffed eggplant, an item I’ve never seen before, turned out to be a better decision. The seasoning was good, and the shrimp was succulent in the eggplant. However, the eggplant was a little soggy. But then again, eggplant is extremely difficult to do right.

Steamed spare ribs, a staple of Cantonese dim sum, is one of my favourites. Spare ribs in Chinese is pai gu, which is what this site is named after². These were a little under-cooked – done right, the meat should be hanging off the bones and the cartilage soft. But as always, these steamed spare ribs were savoury and glistening with fat.

Fung zao, or Phoenix talons according to Wikipedia, are marinated chicken feet. They are steamed until they are soft and a blushing red. They are not easy to eat gracefully, but appearances aside, they are kind of delicious – that is if you like chewing on mostly skin, tendons, and cartilage.

Yes, we ordered the “tofu wrapper with pork, mushroom, taro, and duck web.” I had to see what it was! As you can see from the picture, they really need to work on the presentation of this dish, it did not look appetizing at all. And it didn’t taste much better either. I should have known – I mean, honestly, how do you expect someone to eat anything wrapped with duck feet? We ended up having to break the wrapper apart and eat it in pieces. Inside the wrapper, aside from the duck feet, there was a chunk of pork and shrimp, as well as two blocks of taro. It all tasted the same really, except the duck feet, which tasted kind of funny, and not in a good way. This was one of those dishes that sounded, looked, and tasted strange.

As if to save us from the awkwardness of eating something we weren’t sure about from the beginning, this steaming, delicious rice casserole arrived. I love rice casseroles because of the way the rice at the bottom of the casseroles is hard. And with the right casserole dish, the rice is far more aromatic than rice from a rice cooker. This rice casserole was just right.

We saved the dessert for last: egg custard tarts. These were an astounding success, the tarts were fluffy and the egg custard was not too sweet and perfectly gelatinous.

The servers were very attentive as far as dim sum places go, although I couldn’t tell if I should attribute that to their good service or my attentive companion³. The food was average but prices were cheap, and the washrooms were relatively clean. However, with Ambassador Chinese Cuisine in the same plaza, I would rather spend the extra few dollars and go there instead.

Rating:

1. Ok, very debatable, but humour me.
2. Although when I named this site, I was thinking of tang chu pai gu where mean sweet and sour spare ribs, but they are black and not the same as “sweet and sour pork” in American-Chinese cuisine.
3. Servers in these places usually don’t come and refill your water on their own accord, so it may have just been that my companion was very good at beckoning them over.

A group of friends and I joined the frenzy one rainy Sunday noon. Given my preference for northern Chinese food, I hadn’t been to a Cantonese-style dim sum place in a long time. I let my friends do most of the ordering since they had been here before, I just sat back and prepared to eat.

Crispy shrimp cigars were spring rolls shaped like straws, with a single shrimp in each. They were so cute! The spring rolls were crispy and golden. Perfection.

Pan-fried pork and shrimp dumplings were a little burnt, but the wrapper held strong. The filling was average, mostly pork and chives with some little dried shrimps.

Pan-friend bean curd rolls had a vegetarian filling in a bean curd wrapper. The bean curd tasted surprisingly fresh.

Dessert in the form of steamed egg custard rolls arrived too early in the meal, but were light, fluffy, and not too sweet.

Steamed shrimp dumplings in a translucent wrapper sprinkled with roe, stuffed with plump pieces of shrimp. So tender, so delicious.

Steamed shrimp and roe shao mai, in a surprisingly tough egg wrapper. Not as tender as the steamed shrimp dumplings.

Jellyfish and mango salad was cold and refreshing. The biggest surprise? The jellyfish did not taste like canned jellyfish.

Steamed pork rice noodle roll. It was soft and delicious, especially with the light house sauce. If I knew how to make rice noodle rolls, I’d make them every day.

Another dessert that arrived in the middle of the meal, tapioca jelly cups, each with a different ingredient in the centre. One had red bean, one had egg custard (?), and one had a cream-coloured filling that I didn’t get to taste.

Coconut tapioca dessert, with chunks of real coconut, honeydew, canteloupe, and of course, tapioca jelly. Anything with coconut tastes good to me, and honeydew is only my favourite melon, so of course, I loved this.

Another bean curd roll, this time with a savoury ground pork filling that included wood ear (mu er).

This was also a steamed pork dumpling, but the wrapper is made of tapioca as opposed to flour. The filling did not hold together very well though.

The last to come was also the one we were dreading the most: curry octopus. One of my friends had ordered this on a whim/dare. It was a bad decision. The octopus was hard to chew and the curry was more messy than it was flavourful.

Desserts came at the same time as entrees, service was mediocre, but what do you expect from such a large banquet hall? At least the bathrooms were clean. The prices are reasonable, and (I am told) the quality of food is consistent, which is the biggest draw for its loyal customers.

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