Restaurant Review: Michelin-Star Hong Kong Dim Sum

This is a Guest Ghost Post. It’s a guest post because the experience was not mine, it was my husband’s. But he doesn’t write, so I ghost-wrote it for him. I don’t think he writes at all. In fact, the only things he reads are Harry Potter and the Bible. One of the many reasons we get along!

On his last trip to Hong Kong, his hometown, he tried a Michelin star restaurant, a dim sum place called Tim Ho Wan. He promises to take me when we next go to Hong Kong. I’ve never eaten in a Michelin-anything restaurant!​

Dim sum, for the uninitiated, is a Cantonese-style breakfast/lunch food consisting of small, shared plates of dumplings, meats, tofu, buns, and other steamed or fried treats. It’s really a fun and lively eating experience because the servers usually bring the food around on carts, everybody picks what they want, things get loud, and you can spit bones on your plate.  Taste everything and get more of the yummy stuff when the server comes back by, while avoiding anything you don’t fancy. Cantonese restaurants are generally cacophonous, servers are brusque, and the food is delicious.

The exterior of the restaurant is a standard for a Hong Kong mid-size restaurant--not too elaborate.

A picture menu is in the window.

The interior is shiny and noisy. This is pretty spacious for a Hong Kong restaurant!

​The server slaps down your utensils.

And gives you a menu. At Tim Ho Wan, they don’t bring the food on carts. You check off the dishes you want on the menu.

Here’s what Sam and friends ordered:

Baked bbq pork buns. They take pork and turn it into a desert. You can’t go wrong with this one.

Steamed beancurd skin roll filled with meat and vegetable. If you don’t like beancurd (tofu), this is a good time to start liking it.  It’s the little pillowcase that the meat and veggies sleep in. Just try it.

​Chicken feet! No lie, these are chicken feet. I personally don’t enjoy them because there’s not much meat, and you have to work pretty hard getting it off those tiny little toe bones. (Sam says Chinese people love to wrestle the meat off the bones--it’s a kind of sport.) The flavor is is terrific, though. You just put the whole toe in your mouth, chomp around to get the meat, and sit out the bones. Yes, on your plate. Everybody’s doing it.

Vermicelli roll stuffed with beef. Ok, you can take this one to the bank.

Vermicelli roll stuffed with shrimp. Also bankable.

Steamed dumplings in chiu chow style. These dumplings are a treasure trove of veggies, shrimp, and nuts. The nuts give them a nice texture.

Meatballs.  Enough said.

Steamed pork dumplings. Just that. Simple, tasty.

Steamed shrimp dumplings. This one is the classic dim sum dish. It’s just shrimp in a rice wrapper. So why is it so good? I have no idea, it just is.

Sam usually ranks our local California dim sum restaurants anywhere from 3-7, and Hong Kong’s dim sum places from 9-10. This one, however, he ranked 13! The dishes were comparable to other restaurants in selection and style, they were just better in every way. The wrappers held the dumplings together without falling apart when you transport them to your plate. The shrimp was perfectly cooked, retaining a bouncy texture. Everything just tasted better than usual. Nothing was smushy or undercooked. The service was fast and professional, no American-style kissing up, but prompt and with a good attitude.

By the way, Chinese restaurant waiters operate differently than American waiters. They aren’t assigned to particular tables in Chinese restaurants, and every waiter waits on every customer. No waiter is going to tell you his name and assure you that he’s there to take care of you tonight. He will never come back to your table to make sure you have everything you need. There will be no smiling. If you want something, wave. They split all the tips, so it’s probably fair. It’s just a different system.

I can’t wait to get to Hong Kong and try this place! We’ll see if my American taste buds can discern the difference between delicious and exceptionally delicious.