Tim Ho Wan Shinjuku Southern Terrace — Restaurant in Tokyo

Went as a group of 3 around 6PM on a Sunday night. You definitely want to plan ahead as we waited in line for roughly an hour. They do have a take-out section right outside with seating and tables, but the weather was too cold to comfortably eat and definitely not enough time to enjoy the food before it goes cold. I grew up eating dim sum for brunch so I know what good dim sum is. Tim Ho Wan is ok, but after factoring in the cost - definitely not worth it. We ordered 19 dishes (definitely over ordered but thankfully they had takeout boxes) and our total came out to ¥14,000 which is absolutely crazy! Apparently they had 2 additional taxes : service charge and VAT which are both 10%. Don't get me wrong, service was outstanding. We got our food very quickly and they were fast to remove the empty plates on our table. However, I can't justify "just ok" dim sum at this pricing. The steamed rice roll didn't have enough shrimp in it and the turnip cake didn't have enough turnip in it. If I order turnip cake, I want it to be stuffed with turnip. I probably had 1 or 2 tiny turnip pieces per bite which is definitely lacking. Also, in terms of condiments, they didn't have chili oil which is baffling to me. They did have a spicy chili sauce - kinda like a sriracha with chili flakes, but no chili oil. They did have Worcestershire though which was surprising as I don't think I've ever been to a dim sum place with that offered. If you've been exposed to good dim sum and currently live in the Tokyo area and want to have some nostalgic food memories, go here but don't let your nostalgia overtake you when it comes to ordering. If you've never had amazing dim sum before, you're not going to...

Overall, you can taste real Hong Kong Dim Sum. BBQ pork cheong fan, shrimp and chive dumplings and braised veg were OK. We also ordered these dishes which were expected to be better (I’m a spoiled dim sum eater): Har gau (shrimp dumplings) - there were no bamboo shoots inside. The crispness was not there. Siu mai (pork and mushroom dumplings) - the pork and mushrooms were blended too much. There is no mouth feel. Spring rolls - ordinary. Any restaurant can do this. Bean curd sheet rolls - The bean curd sheet was fried in batter. That’s not how it’s done in Hong Kong. There were too many spring onion bits and not enough shrimp chunks. There was no oil absorbent sheet underneath. Steamed sticky rice in lotus leaf - the taste was good but the dried sausage is not Hong Kong/Guangdong style. There was no salted duck egg yolk and dried mushrooms inside. A bit disappointing. Deep dried milk - it’s alright but should have been put on a oil absorbent sheet Onsanthemum goji berry jelly - the jelly texture was too hard. it was placed on a plate in advance then chilled and taken out straight from the fridge. One can tell when touching the plate. This sort of quality can be found in any ordinary dim sum restaurant chain in Hong Kong. Shame that it doesn’t stand out much. No wonder why saving costs made them lose the...

Coming from an ABC with an extensive experienced dim sum background, I would have to say for Japan this is pretty good dim sum. For my Cantos, however, there is not as much variety as your typical dim sum.

Great Recommends: Signature dish Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao) was really good and on par. Siu Mais, Har Gow shrimp dumplings, and Pork Spare Ribs were on par as well. Lotus leaf sticky rice is bomb; it had a lot but right amount of filling inside.

Alright/Okay: The Steamed Rice Rolls both Shrimp and Mushroom was okay. The Wontons were also mid as well. Congee with Century Egg was ok it did not have a lot of century egg flavor to it. Was also disappointed that they didn't have the Beef Steam roll. The panfried turnip cake was on the softer mushier side instead of the usual firm. Despite that these were okay to me, I still ate all of it so it was not too crazy bad.

Got here around 11:30 am. Queue by getting ticket outside. They call you in and then there is a Part 2 upstairs for another wait. Approximately altogether 30 mins wait time.

11 dishes = ~$60 USD/ ¥9600 (not bad, same as what you pay in NYC per dish)

Overall, most of the dishes were on the softer side like the steam noodles and pan fried turnip cake. Definitely recommend coming to have good dim sum as I also have had bad dim sum...