Our Dim Sum gathering was at Golden Dim Sum, 10600 Bellaire, about a half mile outside BW8, on the right side of the street headed west, just before Kim Son on the left. I’d never heard of it before and it’s easy to miss, back in the corner of the center with a small street side sign.
It is our host’s favorite place, I’m told. Arriving about 11:20 on a Saturday, it was only about 25% full but filled up by noon and stayed packed with a line of waiting customers at the front of the restaurant. I was told it’s even busier on Sundays. It was more than 90% Asian clientele.
We started wth several dishes to share off the regular Cantonese menu. You order off a menu (displayed on the website); there are no carts. Once the food started arriving, my group went into a boarding house feeding frenzy. This was not a group of foodies taking time to compare the finer points of dumplings and steamed buns, etc., this was a bunch of ravenous animals. I had a blast and will look forward to going again (as well as trying some other dim sum places where the experience may be a bit less frenetic). I was sitting next to the host who did all the orderng and kept shoveling food onto my plate saying ‘You ordered this, eat this.’ I had no idea what some of it was and several things I asked for never appeared.
I thought the pork and shrimp shiu mai was much better than Dim Sum to Go but not the shrimp dumpling. The baked milk custard bun was light years better. I’ve had better versions of the fried turnip cake and steamed bbq pork buns. I was seated in the corner, opposite the point where the servers put the dishes down on the Lazy Susan and missed out on several dishes I wanted to try because they were all gone by the time they got to me including the fried pork dumplings and fried shrimp puff. But I was stuffed and my friend kept shoveling food onto my plate and got a to go box for me.
There was absolutely no time for pictures. Next time, I will just leave the camera at home and be much more aggressive in asking and reaching for what I want. And pick my place at the table more carefully.
We ordered 18 dishes, I think. There were 11 of us and the bill came to $105 and some change. With tax and a 25% + tip, it was $13 a person, a bargain for all that food. We paid cash which gets a 5% discount.
Besides the pictures on the website there are several hundred photos on Yelp!, many uploaded by the owner, and a short video of the interior of the restaurant. Yelp reviews are all over the place, of course.
So when are we going to have a dim sum get-together? Give me a couple of weeks to recover from this one and I’m ready to eat!
