Nevertheless, a great deal of tea was consumed in the process. Cart service, a style where diners order directly from carts filled with steamers and ready-to-eat dishes, is definitely part of the popular imagination when it comes to dim sum dining, but most of the restaurants we checked out have taken the menu approach during the pandemic for safety reasons. There are a ton of dumpling restaurants in the Bay Area, but we purposefully kept off the places that weren’t specifically Cantonese dim sum spots. Balancing out the banquet halls are the low-key counter-service spots, where the staff preside over enormous steamers full of lotus leaf-wrapped sticky rice and fluffy char siu bao.Īssociate critic Cesar Hernandez and I visited a wide span of dim sum places throughout the Bay Area - about 50 places - for this list, comparing the execution of basic items like shumai and cheong fun while exploring the house specialities. The nation’s oldest dim sum restaurant, Hang Ah Tea Room, has been operating in San Francisco’s Chinatown since 1920 and just blocks away are boundary-pushing newcomers like Palette Tea House and Osmanthus Dim Sum Lounge, where you can pair your shumai with high-end whiskey. We will go back to Koi as we do like their soup dumplings and price is better but will now include Mayflower as a good alternative, especially if lines are long at Koi.With a long-established history of immigration from China’s Guangdong province, the Bay Area has Cantonese culture and cuisine imprinted onto its DNA. The food at Mayflower came out quicker and hotter and the servers were very attentive to removing empty baskets and dishes. Keep in mind that Koi is not cheap either when compared to other suburb dim sum places. However Mayflower is more expensive (15 to 25%?) but well worth it if you don't want to wait outside in the cold rain and also the ambience, restrooms, table servers, table setting and in general overall experience is much more enjoyable than Koi. Most Dim Sum (har gow, baked cha shu bao, shu mai, fried tofu skin dumplings, steamed pork buns, gai lon) taste a little better at Mayflower but the Shanghai soup dumplings are better at Koi as is the fried turnip cakes. We gave up and went over to Mayflower for the first time. You just wait and wait, till groups your size leaves and they have no idea when that really might be as they have no idea when they seated people before you in your group. There was a big movement of 3 and under, and 4 to 6 people but rather than adjust the table to help get the other groups seated, they ignore that and do nothing. One of the problem is that they do not adjust the tables to help manage and reduce the wait time for groups who have been waiting longer times. But how can you believe them when there still was no movement in the group and there were still the two ahead of us. ![]() Go back to desk and tell them we're leaving and surprise, now they say another 10 to 15 minutes. Note that one of the two tickets before us was waiting 20 minutes more than us So we go up and ask how much longer and was told they don't know so why do they even attempt to tell you 30 minutes? So called Mayflower Restaurant which is close by and they say can seat us right away. Watching the board, no movement for the three 7 to 9 tickets for over 40 minutes. Here's the problem, don't believe the estimated time till your table might be available when you ask the people at the desk. You can also leave your phone number to get a text saying you are 1 or 2 at the top of the list now. They have a nice board to watch your number move up as they seat people with tickets before yours. There are four groupings: 3 and under, 4 to 6, 7 to 9, and 10 or more. If you don't arrive just as they open at 10 a.m., and especially at the time we arrived which was 11:20, you will need to ask for a wait ticket at the desk. they don't manage their seating ticket process very well. they take no weekend reservations for Dim Sum and 2. This is the main problem with this place that 1. We decided to go but had to go a little late and wound up having to get a wait ticket. ![]() We've been to Koi Palace at least 3 or 4 times and have always enjoyed the food.
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