Dim Sum at China One

On the recommendation of some friends, my husband & I made our first visit to China One on 55 yesterday, Saturday, lunchtime.

Signs looked very promising when we pulled into the parking lot to find at least 15 cars already parked there. On entering the restaurant, things looked even brighter. I believe that when you see those from the country of the ethnic restaurant you're dining in, this is a good sign about the food.

Anyway, scanning the small restaurant, I could see family groups of Chinese dining.

We got seated immediately and then I saw the carts. This is an odd sight to me. In London, dim sum used to be wholly served on carts but the majority of the Chinese restaurants stopped that back in the late 80s (or thereabouts). I can only think of one place in London that still does that and that's a popular spot for tourists.

So, we waitied for a cart to come to our side of the restaurant (the dining area is divided into two sides. We were seated in the smaller area). About 10 mins went by before a cart was wheeled our way.

The first choice off the cart was the yam/ham/some kind of veggie patties that are grilled (or possibly fried). I don't know the name and have never known the name. I know them on sight and can recognise them off a menu (but it's the romanized name of the Chinese dish so that's why I can't remember so easily). This is actually one of my favourite dim sum dishes.

However, the three pieces of the grilled yam thingy were cold. Not even lukewarm. This is one reason I detest the dim sum on a cart style of dining. The food should be served at least warm but I suspect that it had originally been placed on the cart hot but since the cart had no heat source, the plate of food was left to go cold.

The dish was quite tasty but would've have tasted much better had it been hot. I would say that this was homemade so the dim sum had some redeeming features.

Soon after, another came by and stopped in front of us. Being a roast duck fan, I spootted the large plate of roast duck with Chinese green veg. I had to have that but again, it was cold. At least the dish had been cooked thoroughly though.

After that dish, the rest of the dishes we chose came from carts that kept the dim sum dishes hot/warm. Amongst the highly recommended dishes are the homemade green onion dumplings and the pork dumplings. The green onion dumplings were enormous (at least compared to dim sum I've eaten elsewhere in the world).

One of my favorite dim sum dishes is the steamed chicken feet and I wasn't expecting to see it at China One and I was so suprised to see that they had two types, spicy or plain. We had a plate of the spicy and they were really hot and spicy.

One highlight in the meal was a dish of cold (and this was supposed to be cold I'm sure) homemade noodles with julienne veggies tossed in sesame oil. Absolutely delicious and refreshingly light tasting.

It occurred to me that some of the dishes that were served during the dim sum from the carts were not what I would consider dim sum. For a start, there was congee, the Chinese rice gruel (probably tastes better than it sounds). Also, the duck with Chinese veg is not something I would expect to have seen.

In total, the two of us didn't manage to finish the six dishes with a bowl of rice each. Along with Chinese tea for two, the total cost of dim sum was just over $25.

One thing I have to point out is that in terms of price, the cheapest dim sum plate was $2.00 and the specials, $3.75(I think). I know that my favorite place in London for dim sum (and arguably the best dim sum I've ever eaten) charges at least the US equivalent of $4 for their cheapest dim sum.

It was a pretty good experience but let down but the dishes that were cold. I can see the benefits of having carts, e.g. see exactly what you want, but I would much prefer to have hot food hot. The cart business has not put me off visiting China One again. I would like to return another weekend, possibly earlier in the day (we arrived about 12.15pm).

On my next visit, I will make room for desserts. Some looked really goood.

Food= 7/10
Quality= 9/10
Value for money= 9/10

I would say that a lot of dishes are pretty authentic because a lot of the diners are Chinese. However, the range of dim sum is somewhat limited (compared to what I've eaten at other dim sum meals) but considering this is the Triangle, I guess this is OK.