Found Not Lost

There is only one place that we’ve found so far that serves pretty good dim sum in Durham. We’re pretty lucky it is just down the street from us. From what I’ve heard, there aren’t very many other dim sum restaurants in the area. There is another one we’ve heard of but it hadn’t had good reviews. What self respecting dim sum joint not serve chicken feet? We heard this other place doesn’t serve anything but the generic dumplings. I can believe it their dinner menu, though it has gotten good reviews, was the generic stuff in brown sauce or white sauce. Now if you ever see a menu that describes a dish doused in brown sauce, you know you’re in trouble. But, enough of what I don’t like.

On Christmas day, after opening presents, we decided to go to our usual dim sum place down the street, Hong Kong restaurant. It’s my favorite and if you ask the girls where they want to go, this will be their first place they would pick. Dim Sum at Hong Kong Restaurant is usually served between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekends. On weekdays, you can order certain items from their dim sum menu and they will oblige you, but you don’t get the variety that is available only on weekends. Plus, you miss out on the ladies pushing the carts around laden with goodies. All you have to do is point to the one that catches your eye and you are given a serving.

There are favorite dishes that we order regularly like the squid in pepper salt, siomai or pork dumplings, shrimp noodles, shrimp dumplings, fried tofu stuffed with shrimp. Occasionally, depending on how hungry we are, we also get stuffed peppers, eggplants with black bean sauce, beef stew, braised tripe or chicken feet. Ok, so most times it’s just me eating the tripe and chicken feet. The good thing about ordering those items during dim sum is you don’t get a huge serving of it. You just get a mini serving good for one.

We’ve found that the trick to getting the best dishes is to let your waiter know what your favorites are ahead of time. That way, they will make sure to come by your table first when the plates come out of the kitchen. Let them know if you’re open to try ‘exotic’ dishes like chicken feet, tripe, clams, squid, etc. They will bring them to you straight away. If you would like to stay on the safe side, their dumplings are excellent and so are their fried dishes. For veggies, forego the usual broccoli and instead ask for ‘chinese broccoli’ or sometime they will have water cress quickly sauteed. They have several items not on the menu. Ask! You’ll be in for a treat.

Don’t forget, they also serve dessert. They have one of the best egg tarts around, and the girls love their almond dofu and sesame seed balls.

Too bad we didn’t get around to desserts when we went on Christmas day. Who knew so many people went out for dim sum on Christmas! There was a long wait for a table, it was almost funny how people were trying to wave the carts over so they can get the dish they want. But like I said, let your server know your favorites and they will try to bring it to you without you resorting to waving your hands and jumping up and down your seat to get their attention. On this day, luckily they extended their serving time to end at 3 p.m. because we didn’t get seated until almost 2 and by three, most of the desserts were gone. Our favorite hostess felt bad and offered to make more just for us, but we declined. We can see how tired everyone was. I’m sure they were just waiting for everyone to clear out so they can rest up before the dinner crowd.

If you’re ever in Durham and want for some dim sum, visit Hong Kong Restaurant. Don’t compare it to ones you’ve been to in Asia or in bigger cities, you’d be disappointed. But if you just have to have some sio mai and other dim sum standards done well, this is the place to go.

Hong Kong Restaurant
3003 Guess Rd
Durham, NC 27705
(919) 479-8339

Oh, sorry for the lack of food photos. We were so hungry that we all started digging in right away and totally forgot to take photos for this review. Towards the end of the meal, we thought about it but there were only empty plates left on the table. So we took a photo of the little elephant who came to dim sum with us instead.