Dim Sum King — Restaurant in Memphis

After going to Asian Palace for 30+ years, it was sad to see it closed but was glad that Dim Sum King continued to serve dim sums. They opened on 10/1/22 Saturday, we went there around 11:30 am, the place was packed, no hostess was found, very chaotic. Had to wait 30 minutes for a table, the booth was so small, even with 2 people sitting on each side, feeling like a pack of sardines, the fifth person had to sit outside the booth. At first glance, the place did look much better than before, but examined more closely, all renovation works were simply cosmetic, like the white ceiling tiles were being painted black. Could not understand why the new owner did not try to do a proper renovation job and opened so soon. The floor of the Men's floor were completely wet. The server did arrive right away, but before we could provide our complete drink order, she was gone. There were quite a few people pushing dim sum carts, but unfortunately there was only one main cart with popular dim sums such as shrimp dumpling, siu my (pork meat balls), etc. and it was being pushed by a previous Asian Palace waitress who moved in snail speed. The dim sum chefs also could not meet the demands of the customers and as a result, many customers rushed to that "cart" with their tickets and started grabbing dim sums from the cart themselves. Neither the cart pusher or the New manager did anything to stop them, which was a clear healthy violation and brought liability to the restaurant if customers burned themselves. Now the prices, all dim sums had gone up at least $1 or more each, small dim sums such as Congee with pork/1000 year old eggs and baked pineapple buns now costs $ 4.35 each, the price of a medium dim sum in the old Asian Palace. Medium dim sums such as turnip pudding, Steamed spare ribs, bean curd rolls, steamed BBQ pork buns, egg tarts, Chicken feet and Beef Meat Balls now costs $ 5.35 each, the price of a Large dim sum previously. To add insult to injury, the steamed BBQ pork buns used to be small dim sum, now became medium, i.e., its price went up almost $2. Large dim sums included many popular dim sums such as shrimp dumpling, pork dumplings (siu my) and ALL rice noodle rolls now all cost $6.35 each. Then XL dim sums at $7.35 each and Special dim sums at $8.35 each. We picked up a Shrimp Tempura from the the cart but had no idea how much it costs, probably $8.35 or more. In short, if you eat dim sums, with the new prices, it would cost at least $30-$35 a person without ordering any extra dishes. Be warned. Their dim sum chef was supposedly one who had previously worked at Asian Palace, Noddle Bistro (in Bartlett) and another defunct Chinese dim sum restaurant in Cordova. Unfortunately, he had become a truck driver at Toronto, Canada before coming to Dim Sum King and probably not yet used to its equipment. The dim sums we had tasted were mostly mediocre, C+ to B-, compared with the previously B to B+ of the Asian Palace dim sums (they hired new dim sum chefs, took them a while to get better). The Shrimp dumplings made by the new chef, were over-steamed, too dry and too small, not justified the price of $ 6.35. He used to make the BEST pork dumplings (siu my) but unfortunately we could not get one even after sitting there for a hour. The prices of their dim sums had now exceeded that of dim sums in larger US cities such as Los Angeles, CA, Toronto, Canada and New York City. Also, they had let go all previous Stirred fried chefs at Asian Palace, leaving only two of their chefs to take care of stirred fried orders, took us more than 30 minutes to get our Beef Stirred Fried rice noodle. Talking to many of our Chinese friends, they did not believe they would continue to eat dim sums there as frequent as before. Sadly, while we were were excited with the arrival of Dim Sum King, we believe when a recession arrives (soon), and the honey period ends, Dim Sum King may suffer the same fate of Eat Well Sushi Buffet, owned by the same owner of Dim Sum King. Therefore improvements and price adjustments are...

If I could give this place a zero I would! I was so excited to go here and it did not meet any of my expectations. For starters, I had a coupon and had been wanting to try it for some time. Upon arrival, we had three different waiters ( I say that loosely because one was a 12 year old child who was beyond rude) after we were seated. I asked several questions and when we finally got ready to order, the coupon was not good for the special, which is the only entree that comes with a combination of items. The boy told me our buy one get one coupon of up to $8 value was only good for an entree. I shrugged it off and we ordered the sesame chicken sweet and sour, the asparagus chicken and then the dumplings as an app. After ten minutes or so we got the sweet and sour chicken which was breaded with sesame in it. It was okay. Was not expecting it to be dark chicken, but as I have learned from living in California, I should have asked. So I got over it. Another 15 minutes went by and then we receive our dumplings. Needless to say we were quite full after consuming these two and not receiving our other entree, so when it came 20 more minutes later we had a bite and we're done. Unfortunately it did not seem this was unusual because all the tables were receiving their orders an item at a time and about 15-20 between. The food was just mediocre at best. However what pissed me off the most is the fact that when the girl took my coupon and brought our ticket back, they had taken off the app instead of the entree which was a big deal in the beginning! So I ask her politely to correct it and I was told to deal with the front counter. This woman almost got my leftover food thrown in her face she was so rude! She tried arguing with me that it was only for a certain value ($8). I agreed and said the entree was $7.50 and they were taking off the app. She tried to say something else in a louder tone , but I guess decided against it since people were working in. She literally took off $8.00 but all of a sudden I was paying $3.00 tax on $23.75 when originally it was a dollar and a quarter. I just politely gave her my card and paid because obviously she was not going to relent. I will never go back there. I have worked in several restaurants and just can't believe how horrible not only they were, but how wrong the food reviews were. All I can say to the people who enjoy it is,...

The only reason Im giving 3 stars is because it's a new business and I'm trying not to make it difficult for anyone to run it.

I came in at 6:15, the front table was quick, so as the time that drinks and menus came out. We ordered at around 6:30, waited for 20 minutes before they brought to our table, not the food, but the reciept (for what we ordered but hadn't, then, seen). We really thought that there was a chance that we should have paid them in advance before getting the food because right after that was another 50 minutes wait before we actually got our food, which makes the total wait time to be around 1 hour and 10 minutes. And no, they did not let us know about such lengthy wait time. The least they could have done was to notify us and other customers about the wait time before putting us in any table because not only us but a lot of customers who came after had the same situation. Moreover, not one server/ manager/ owner came to notify or appologize for any wait time; not until we called for one.

I really think if they are planning to keep this business going, a lot should be changed. However, on the other side, food was good enough though the price falls in the more expensive side compared to other chinese places.

I hope this review gets read and taken into consideration for future...