The texture was a little weird, as it was about half peanuts/half meat, but it had a complex flavor I'd like to try again.Īlthough we've just started, I think Jade Garden will emerge as one of the best, if not THE best dim sum place in Seattle. I'm not sure what it's called, but it's a dumpling with a clear wrapper, similar to har gow, but filled with ground pork and shrimp, peanuts, and some sort of brown sauce. I've eaten a lot of dim sum in my day, and I'd like to think I've tried just about everything, but I encountered something completely new today. I like the steamed ones better, but these came around first :) I liked the strong star anise flavor, just wish the soy flavor could've been there to round it out.īaked char siu bao were perfect - fluffy buns with a sweet glazed top, and sweet barbecue pork inside. They tasted as if they were either not braised with the sauce, or not braised for long enough. The feet themselves were bigger and had more meat/skin on them, but they seemed to be missing something. Jade Garden's had a stronger star anise flavor, but otherwise just tasted a little weaker. The one dish that Honey Court did better than Jade Garden was the chicken feet.
I preferred the shrimp and chive dumpling to the har gow, because it didn't fall apart quite as much, plus I loved the strong chive flavor. The wrapper for the har gow was a little flimsy, but it didn't really effect the taste, just made eating a little frustrating. All were delcious, although the eggplant was room temperature, verging on cold. We tried several different shrimp based offerings, including fried shrimp-stuffed eggplant, har gow and pan fried shrimp and chive dumplings. These two things set the pace for the rest of the meal, which was as close to San Francisco or Vancouver dim sum as I've found in Seattle. The noodles were slippery and very fresh tasting, encasing some nice sized shrimp. The siu mai were very juicy and flavorful - probably a lot of pork fat involved. We started off with two dim sum standards, a good way to judge the overall ability of a dim sum place: siu mai, and cheong fan. The restaurant is a definite step up in decor from Honey Court, but with Chinese restaurants increase in decor can often mean decrease in flavor. As good as our Chinese food is here, Vancouver's selection (particularly in the Richmond area very close to the US border) is much, much better and more authentic.Jade Garden is pretty well known as one of Seattle's top dim sum places, and this could easily be seen by the packed house on a Tuesday morning. :(ĮDIT: I'm also going to echo tikitoker's idea of eating in Vancouver. Carts come around very rarely, so the experience becomes more about trying to get food rather than eating it. Most of their food is quite spicy though!įinally, I've found that Koi's in Bellevue has great-tasting dim sum, but their service lately has consistently been horrible. They're the only place in the area that does Beijing Dry Pot, to the best of my knowledge.
Some folks I know from Chengdu are fairly obsessed with a place called Spiced, just across the street from Crossroads Mall. The owner is really friendly and makes you feel as though you're eating in his home. If your family doesn't care too much about atmosphere, Yang's Dumpling House is a small and hidden gem that does one thing and does it very well.
However, they don't take reservations and they get quite a big crowd around 6:30-7, so you may want to pick an atypical time or plan for a 30-45 minute wait. In terms of authentic Chinese food in general, a few recommendations come to mind:ĭin Tai Fung is, according to Taiwanese friends of mine, extremely consistent in their food (the xiao long bao supposedly weigh and taste exactly the same as they would in Taiwan). All my recommendations are out East because I live in Bellevue.įor dim sum, I would recommend Imperial Garden (near Ranch 99 in Kent), or Top Gun in Factoria (only go to Top Gun for dim sum because dinner there is terrible).
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