Heng Shan Hui 衡山汇: New Dim Sum Discovery

Home of the world-famous Peking Duck, Beijing’s international dining scene has soared to new heights over the past 3 years. And while the finest Italian, Japanese, and French cuisine is readily available around the city, Cantonese Dim Sum still pales in comparison to the real deal.

Until recently, Jin Ding Xuan’s (金鼎轩) Tuanjiehu branch has done a good job of satisfying my dim sum cravings with decent dim sum at a super low price (and close proximity to my home).

…that was until my fellow foodie, Saul Diaz, introduced me to my new favorite dim sum restaurant: Heng Shan Hui 衡山汇on Xiaoyun Lu. With quality dim sum, generous portions, a nice, lively atmosphere and reasonable prices, I am delighted to share this great new find with all of my dear LumDimSum friends.

LumDimSum Snapshots of DimSum Dishes:

Stir-fry Lotus Root with Preserved Beancurd Sauce  (RMB 25)/Roast Pork Belly (RMB 42)

Pan-fried Turnip Cake (RMB 14), BBQ Pork Rice Flour Roll (RMB 16)

Steamed Shrimp & Chives Rice Roll (RMB 26)/Shrimp Dumplings (RMB 26)

BBQ Pork Buns 叉烧包 (RMB 12)

Review of Heng Shan Hui 衡山汇: Located on Xiaoyun Road, block north of KFC. 朝阳区霄云路21号嘉里大通附楼1楼(东三环北路), Tel: +86 10 64661211

Best Part:

• Delicious Cantonese Dim Sum Dishes with quality ingredients: highlights include stir-fry lotus root, shrimp dumplings 虾饺 and BBQ Pork Buns 叉烧包。
• Generous portions and reasonable prices

• An extensive menu of Cantonese staple dishes and really delicious soups available
• Very clean, spotless atmosphere thats consistently fully booked with a lively atmosphere, and not overwhelmingly crowded.
• It’s recommended to book ahead, but the wait was only about 10 minutes without a reservation.

Comments:

• While this is currently my new favorite dim sum restaurant in Beijing, it’s still not up to par with the amazing dim sum available in San Francisco and (obviously) Hong Kong.
• Not the easiest place to find as the restaurant is not visible from the main street, as it is tucked inside a wide parking lot.
• Service was quick, but waitstaff was not the friendliest and no English was spoken.  (but menu has English translations for dishes)

Rating: (on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being best)

• Food: 8
• Atmosphere: 8
• Service: 6
• Overall Experience: 7

Macau Taste: One of the Village’s many HK dining spots

With Herbal Cafe, Orient Kitchen, Chao Dian, Mango Box, and Macau Taste…I think The Village is slowly becoming over-dominated by Hong Kong restaurants!

I lunched at Macau Taste for the first time this week. It’s pretty much the only restaurant in the Village that I have not yet tried. It’s located on the ground floor, so a bit out of the way of the other dining spots, which are mostly on the third floor. 

The place was packed during lunch hour and the menu serves up standard Hong Kong treats from a basic selection of dimsum, congee, noodle soup, oven baked rice dishes topped with cheese, along with a few Portuguese inserts (Portuguese egg tarts, Portuguese curry wings and fried shrimp, Portuguese asparagus soup, etc.).

Review of Macau Taste: Sanlitun Village 朝阳区三里屯路19号三里屯Village L-15A   Tel: 6415-1399

Best Part:

• A good lunch spot for quick, casual Cantonese food
• Portions are generous
• DimSum was quite good (better than Chao Dian and equal to Herbal Cafe)
• Prices are reasonable (Avg. RMB 50 per person)
• Service was quick and food served in a timely fashion

Comments:

• When asked to not use MSG, the staff said that everything already has MSG
• Decor was unappealing, but the food was good value and I’ll most likely return
• Definitely more catered to Chinese customers (no spoken English) and no Western customers
• Menu consists of a lot of very “local” dishes – “Macau’s top beef cattle intestinal”  and bad Chinglish - “Shannon Lisboa fried dumplings Fengcheng” and “Wynn rotten fish”.  At least their menu has pictures, which helps a lot.

Rating: (on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being best)

• Food: 6
• Atmosphere: 3
• Service: 4
• Overall Experience: 5
  

Beijing’s Soup Nazi – Herbal Café

“No soup for you” seems to be the running theme at Herbal Cafe.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve gone to try their herbal, medicinal brewing soups and they are consistently “sold out,” every single time. But it’s not just the soups, at my most recent visit, they were out of half their menu.  And I’m not exaggerating.

I’m starting to think they don’t even make the soups anymore or that it’s all one big conspiracy against LumDimSum.

Ok, seriously, here’s my Review of Herbal Cafe:  Located across from Hatsune and Union Bar & Grill on the 3rd floor of Sanlitun Village. Address: S6-33, 3/F, The Village at Sanlitun, 19 Sanlitun Lu, 朝阳区三里屯路19号三里屯Village3层s6-33  Tel: 6416-0618

Best Part:

• Their menu offers a wide range of herbal teas and soups (so good, they are sold out permanently)
• Range of Cantonese staple dishes and dim sum
• Comfortable booth seating and casual atmosphere makes for a nice, quick meal
• Despite their lack of availability, the restaurant remains consistently full of customers
• Cantonese cuisine is meant to be healthier & MSG free, but seems pretty standard to me

Comments:

• Beijing’s Soup Nazis. The few times I have gone, I am told each and every time that they are literally sold out of every soup. I wouldn’t care so much if I didn’t want their soup as bad as I do.  I guess you always want what you can’t have.
• One time they also said they were sold out of egg tarts, but when I went to pay the bill, they had 3 more egg tarts sitting under a heat lamp next to the cashier.  True fact. And yes, I called them out on it.
• DimSum isn’t the best, but it’s better than Chao Dian (located just behind Herbal Cafe). See review of Chao Dian here.
• For good, healthy soups to cure your winter blues, I recommend Oden & All-Star’s Southwest Tortilla Soup (just added to their new winter menu).

Chains with Confusing Consistency

If you choose to franchise your business, whether you own a grocery chain, laundry chain or a restaurant chain, its safe to say that a certain level of consistency should be expected – consistency in the product sold, service, quality, quantity and selection.

Example of Consistent Chain:

When the second Hatsune opened in Sanlitun Village in April 2009 as a new location with a new design and makeover with the menu, Alan Wong was meticulous in ensuring that the service and product would equal that of the original Guanghua Lu branch that opened in 2001.  Customers like the option of a second location, but they still want to satisfy their sushi samurai cravings – they still expect the usual Moto-Roll-Ah among other favorite rolls.

Example of a Confused Chain:

I remember the first time I moved apartments and went to the neighboring Fornet Dry Cleaning Store to find that my Fornet card with pre-paid credit did not apply to this new Fornet or the gazillion other Fornets in Beijing.  What is that about?

New Example:

After hearing about my terribly disappointing experience at Chao Dian this past week, my good friend Dan Goodman FINALLY took me to the 24-hour dimsum spot near my apartment in the Tuanjiehu hood.  People always tell me about this mysteriously good dimsum spot near me, and I never knew what they were talking about…until today.

Surprise to me, this ‘mysterious dim sum restaurant’ turned out to be none other than the very well-known restaurant chain – Jin Ding Xuan金鼎轩. I have been to the branch next to Tango at least half a dozen times, whether for dinner or late-night grub and always took it as it is – a relatively cheap and massively ginormous Chinese restaurant with quick service, awful entertainment and half-decent food. I never even thought of it necessarily as a dimsum restaurant since their menu also features a lot of Sichuan dishes and standard “Chinese restaurant” dishes.

So naturally, I quite expected my brunch experience today to be similar to my previous experiences and was pleasantly surprised to find a winner!  Again, massive restaurant with 4 levels, it was packed (and luckily no wait upon arrival), quick service, big menu with lots of pictures, and a very satisfying dimsum brunch!

As it was a great experience, I’ll be a returning customer for certain, but knowing the way “chain venues” go in China, I think I’ll still be avoiding the branch by Yonghegong.

Review of Jin Ding Xuan 金鼎轩: 15 Tuanjiehu Nanlu, Chaoyang Park 团结湖南路15号 Tel: 8596-8881

Best Part:

• A good selection of dimsum staples – overall good taste and good prices (ordered about 8 dishes and total bill was RMB 86 (bill at Chao Dian for same amount of food was RMB 174)
• The place was packed, lively atmosphere
• Open 24 hours
• It’s in MY hood!

Comments:

• Normally in the “Best Part” section, I would highlight the fact that there are 4 branches of Jin Ding Xuan (Yonghegong, Tuanjiehu, Olympic Area, and Fengtai), but I would say my experience eating dimsum today was much better than my previously dimsum meals at the Yonghegong branch (which I thought was not fresh and very mediocre).

Highlights were BBQ Pork Buns, Shaomai, and LuoBuoGao, with other dishes being satisfactory.  Everything was good overall but nothing exemplary or mind-blowing in terms of taste and quantity. But for the price, it’s great value.

I’m just waiting for the day when someone opens a Hatsune equivalent to DimSum in Beijing (casual, fun vibe, smart design, high quality raw materials, great service, all for a fair price).

Where oh Where is there Good DimSum?

In case you didn’t notice, I’m all about DimSum.  I love it and not just because it rhymes with my last name.

And yet, I have not been fully satisfied with any DimSum restaurant in Beijing.  Either too pricey, too small in portions, insufficient quality, or all of the above.

So I was pretty stoked to hear that the new addition to Sanlitun Village, Chao Dian, serves up Hong Kong style dim sum, located just behind Hatsune and Herbal Cafe, across from Union Bar & Grill.

Menu at Chao Dian

It’s newly opened, so be warned: they do not take cards and they do not issue fa piaos at this stage.

Presented with a super long, two-sided fold out paper menu with mouth-watering photos and English/Chinese descriptions, I was ready to check all the little boxes.

Everything on the menu looked great – especially the Cha Show Bao (Steamed BBQ Pork Buns), Shao Mai, and shrimp dumplings, so I was happy to see that you could order a combo House Dim Sum Platter inclusive of 4 various pairs of dumplings in one set (RMB 48) -shao mai, ha gao (shrimp dumplings), xiao long bao (Shanghai soup dumplings), and vegetable dumpling. Each item was over-cooked, hard (all dumplings were tough on the outside and the xiao long bao had NO soup, which defeats the entire purple of a xiao long bao).

Eager to try a nice variety, we also ordered a ton of other dishes.

Here’s a breakdown:

• Steamed Veggies – standard
• Pan-Fried Rice Roll with XO Sauce – better than expected
• Steamed Cow Stomach – bright orange in color (NOT normal) and just awful
• Fried White Turnip Cake – pretty good
• Steamed Rice Roll with Shrimp – bland and dry
• Steamed BBQ Pork Buns – standard
• Da Tas (Egg Custard Tarts) for dessert – Best part, served in heart shape and big portioned

Total Bill for Two People: RMB 174

Overall Verdict: Mama-huhu.

Some items were satisfactory/decent, but overall disappointing.  All of the dumplings (which are the essential staples of dim sum) were dry, bland, and tough to chew.  The products did not seem very fresh or high in quality.  But in their defense, I went in with high expectations.

I think the two top dim sum restaurants in Beijing are still Lei Garden & Zen5es (RMB 88 all-you-can-eat-dim-sum lunch special during the week). See here for previous dim sum review.

Review of Chao Dian: 3rd floor of Sanlitun Village (behind Hatsune & Herbal Cafe, across from Union Bar & Grill), No. 19 Sanlitun Road, S6-32, Tower S6  Tel: 010-6413 2998 (M-F 10am-3am, Weekends 9am-3am)

Best Part:

• They offer a pretty extensive menu of dim sum staples (RMB 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18 each), congee (RMB 19-22), noodles/rice dishes (RMB 18-38 each), Hong Kong style dishes (RMB 28-48 each), and desserts (RMB 10-12 each)
• I like their menu’s little check boxes to mark your order
• They serve organic soybean milk
• Conveniently located in Sanlitun Village & easy to find.
• Good BBQ Pork Steamed Buns & Dan Tas (Baked Egg Custard Tarts)

Comments:

• All dumplings were bland, dry, over-cooked and just not up to par with what HK dim sum should be. Their Xiao Long Bao had NO soup inside, none, nada, zip.
• Staff did not speak English and quite slow
• Not cheap.  I’d rather hit up Zen5es’ all-you-can-eat dimsum lunch special for RMB 88 per person.
• Be warned: they do not yet take credit cards and they do not issue fa piaos at this stage
• I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt as they are newly opened, but I won’t be going back until someone tells me they’ve experienced better there.

*Note: I have just been notified that there is an awesome 24-hour DimSum spot in Tuanjiehu.  I’m hitting it up this Sunday and will keep you LumDimSum readers posted.  Fingers crossed it’ll be half-way decent dimsum!

DimSum YumYum

It’s crazy how different Chinese food in China is compared to the Chinese food abroad.  As a Chinese American growing up in California, I only thought of the difference between the greasy Chinese food you get take-out for super cheap compared to the scrumptious, healthy food my mom and grandmom cooked at home for dinner.

I was so ignorant before I moved to China. I had no idea there were so many different provinces, each with their own unique and specialized cuisine.  In essence, I always thought Chinese food was Cantonese food.

I had no idea I’d come to China and find the food here so foreign to my palate and how sorely mistaken my preconceptions of Chinese food were.  My favorite Chinese food from America is pretty much non-existant here in China and the local food here is rare to find in the US.  I may know of some restaurants that serve some Sichuan food, but Hunan?  Yunan? Xinjiang? Ah, the list continues.  I think the closest thing to Gong Bao Ji Ding (宫爆鸡丁) is probably General’s Chicken – and that’s totally different!

My parents find it hilarious that the first thing I want when I get back to the US is dimsum.  Growing up, my family and I always had dimsum brunch at least once a week, so I would definitely consider dimsum a staple food I know by heart and love to eat.

I know there are a ton of places to get dimsum in China, but it’s all either super expensive in a hotel (which I find overrated) or just not up to par with my standards growing up (I hate Jin Ding Xuan).  I have yet to find one place that’s got the right balance of value, quality and service.

This is as close as it gets:

1. Lei Garden 利苑 - Recommended by a friend for their good quality DimSum Brunch

Best Part:

• Very good quality DimSum, definitely up to my standards
  

  3 orders of Dan Tas at Lei Garden

• Favorites: Cha Shao Bao, Luobuo Gao, & Dan Tas for Dessert (see photo here)
• Pretty packed and nice buzzing atmosphere (always a good sign when a place is full)
• Nice, clean environment, good hygiene

Comments:

• I highly recommend booking ahead for a reservation, they said the wait was over an hour for those without a reservation.  Lucky we came prepared.
• I know DimSum is meant to be small, but these portions were extra mini
• About RMB 150 per person (on the pricier side)
• The AC was on full blast – way too cold, but it was nice that they offered a shawl to wear, which nearly everyone in the restaurant was wearing
• The menu was not only written only in Chinese, it was most an odd mix of both traditional and simplified characters
• They won’t give you smaller bills in change to divide among the group (as with most Chinese restaurants – such a pet peeve).

3/F, Jinbao Tower, 89 Jinbao Jie, Wangfujing – beside The Regent Hotel
金宝街89号金宝大厦3层 丽金酒店东侧

8522-1212

2. Zen5es – located in the Westin Chaoyang, I was interested after reading about their Simply Dim Sum Specials and their award-winning chef Joyce Zhu. 

Best Part:

• I’m normally against hotel F&B outlets, but Zen5es in the Westin has a great dimsum deal going on: Simply Dim Sum Lunch – RMB 88 for all-you-can-eat dim sum available for lunch during the week, and Simply Dim Sum Brunch – RMB 168 for two people every weekend for brunch.
• Clean, easy to use bilingual menu with an extensive selection of dimsum available
• Great quality dimsum
• Nice space &  friendly staff

Comments:

• The space was pretty quiet when I went for lunch during the week for a business lunch
• While their dim sum was great, I recommend a pass on the noodle dishes, which were massive and quite bland.
• This photo is obviously an exaggeration of what you receive, in reality, the presentation of all dim sum dishes is quite normal with either the round steam baskets or white porcelain mini dishes.

4F, The Westin Beijing Chaoyang, No. 1 Xinyuan Nan Road,  Sanlitun
Yan Sha Qiao of 3rd Ring Road
金茂北京威斯汀大饭店4层，朝阳区新源南路1号

5922-8880

**I’m always happy to try new places, so I welcome any suggestions and recommendations here!