Dim Sum Sam — Restaurant in New York

I brought my picky teen to try dim sum for the first time, because I believe in exposing children to culture, flavor, and emotional growth through dumplings.

She’s never had dim sum. She once called soy sauce “that salty potion.” Her idea of adventurous eating is pepperoni with extra pepperoni. So, obviously, I was prepared for drama.

We walk in. No carts. No steamer baskets zooming around. Just a big ol’ kiosk, like a vending machine that makes you question your entire lunch plan.

She side-eyed the touchscreen like it had insulted her music taste. So I ordered. Because I’m the adult and the only one at the table with dumpling experience and courage.

Orders: For her: spicy cucumber salad + char siu pork For me: seafood congee (aka spoonable perfection) + egg tart (aka sunshine in a crust)

When the food was delivered to her highness by yours truly, she looked at the cucumber like it had betrayed her in a past life. Then took a bite. And paused.

Sooo refreshing. (She said this like she had just been spiritually cleansed in a mountain spring.)

Then came the pork.

“Okay no, this is dangerous. This meat is sweet?? Like… a little candy pig?? I want more. I want ten.”

Meanwhile, I’m living my best life with a bowl of seafood congee so warm and comforting I almost called it “Mom.” Every bite like a soft, savory lullaby from the sea.

Then — the egg tart.

I took one bite, leaned back, and whispered:

“Okay I get it now. This is elite. This is happiness. This is… everything.” She said “no this is as far as I’m going to take it”

Final Rating: Ambiance: Slightly sterile kiosk vibes. Felt like I was ordering dumplings at an SE Asian hospital gift shop. Teen: Spiritually shaken by a cucumber. Permanently changed. Possibly writing poetry now. Me: Victorious. Nourished. Still protective of my egg tart.

Minus one star for no carts. Plus four stars for watching my child fall in love with pork, cucumber, and life.

Will return. With reinforcements. And an...

Do not get fooled by the fake 5 star reviews. The 4.8-star rating at the time of our visit is incredibly misleading. When you scan a QR code at the counter and leave a review, they give you a free drink—so take those glowing reviews with a grain of salt.

We came here based on those ratings, but it turned out to be one of the worst dining experiences we’ve had. We ordered the Combo over rice with roasted duck and soy chicken, beef stew noodles, chicken dumplings, and shrimp dumplings. The portions were disappointing—mostly rice with very little meat and even the small portion of meat is full of bones, laterally more than half of the meat portion was bone. The chicken dumplings were honestly horrible, and while the shrimp dumplings were okay, they couldn’t redeem the meal.

Roasted duck was inedible, smelled and looked like it’s been sitting there for three days. The beef stew noodles were completely inedible as well. They had a raw, unpleasant smell, and we tried to convince ourselves it was fine, but we just couldn’t eat them.

We approached the front counter respectfully—not asking for a refund, just to exchange the beef dish for dumplings to justify the $60 we had just spent after a long walk around New York. The staff was rude, dismissive, and made no effort to help. No manager was there to talk to and explain, they didn’t not even look at the food.

We left most of the food and ended up going to another restaurant.

This isn’t about being picky, i eat out in different places from food trucks to fine dining places and i know I am not picky at all—it’s about basic food quality and customer care. Save your money and your time....

Please beware that I am not Chinese and I only reviewed this based on my personal opinion. The restaurant is clean and have plenty of seatings, given that it’s food court style restaurant where you order your foods, wait for them to call you by the number, grab the foods and go find your own table in the back. We were expecting phenomenon dim suk feast today but our expectation fell short. First of all, there are not many varieties of dim sum in the menu which is quite surprising since the restaurant’s name contains “dim sum” in it. The 5 dim sum we got was ok: ha gao, suimai, xiao long bao, black beans spared ribs are ok—not bad not extraordinary (very very average); the shredded duck pastries are nice—that’s the only thing I especially like. The pork wonton soup was good. The duck was too oily to my taste. This is very personal and I experienced many Chinese restaurant with fatty duck; although I feel that it’s a bit too much and couldn’t finish it. We also had soy milk and it is very standard. I observed that there are many Chinese customers and they seemed to enjoy their foods so I guess this is authentic and probably tastes good for Chinese standards. Give it a try if you are accustomed to Chinese flavor and you might enjoy...