Nom Wah Tea Parlor — Restaurant in New York

Old school deco and the same old school unpleasant dining experience. Way overrated and overpriced. Food quality is on par with most dim sum restaurants nearby. I actually like the food better at the House of Joy across the street. Our unpleasant dining experience….let me explain. The waitresses are generally friendly and polite. The waiters are beyond horrible. They are inattentive, rude and somewhat arrogant! I ordered steamed Chinese broccoli. They are about 6 to 8 inches long and most dim sum places would cut them in half its easier for customers to eat. I had to ask the service here and while my waiter was cutting them with a pair of scissors, I kind of knew an incident was going to happen while our waiter was cutting out broccoli and it did happen. Usually a careful waiter would take the plate to his serving table and cut the veggies there. Our waiter wanted to cut the Chinese broccoli while it’s sitting right in front of me. The veggies could get slippery because of the oyster sauce and moisture from boiling/steaming. Our waiter accidentally made some of the broccoli slipped off the plate while cutting them. They fell on my laps and shoes and eventually landed on the floor underneath our table. He made a quick apology, ran away and never came back while the veggies stayed on the floor for the next few minutes. I was hoping he’d come back and clean up the mess but apparently he thought he’s done with the incident after he said “I’m sorry”. Eventually I got down underneath the table and wrapped the veggies in a napkin and kicked them to the aisle. The incident left oil and sauce stains on my jeans and suede shoes. I spoke to an waitress about the problem I had with the waiter who just left the scene with the mess underneath my table. She was polite and apologetic. I observed she later had a quick chat with her male coworkers about this and it appeared they didn’t care about it. The manager/owner was also in the store and didn’t express any concerns at all. My 6-year-old son saw the entire incident and perhaps his comment was most symbolic. He says the waiter who spilled the food needs to go back to P-K school to learn basic manners because he should have come back and pick up the food on the floor. By the way, their general hygiene is questionable. The floor was...

The original place we wanted to try for dim sum had a crucial line. So we looked for another dim sum place relatively close that had an A rating and decent reviews. I will be honest, I didn't read the reviews in detail before selecting this place. We were starving and on limited time before we had to catch our bus back to Washington DC. Fortunately, we arrived right when they opened and jumped in their short line to get in. We were seated immediately and right in the front window which was perfect.

The restaurant is cute. It's like an Asian diner. Old school style with retro décor.

I was a tad disappointed to see that they didn't have dim sum carts, that it was menu based. Their dim sum selection is a tad limited as well. They are missing beef tripe with ginger and scallion which is one of my absolute favorites! Also, their prices are HIGH for dim sum. YIKES.

We were already been seated so we decided to just go ahead and give them a chance. I will be honest, I was super torn. The prices really bothered me since I was used to eating affordable dim sum all my life and my mother probably would have flared her nose up to this establishment. But... after we got our order, we could see why people justify paying as much as they do for their food.

We ordered:

Vegetarian Dumpling - My least favorite. Bland and lacking any real flavor. Shrimp Dumpling - Mmmm. Shrimp Shumai - Delicious. Turnip Cake - Perfectly crisp. Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce - HUGE pieces of Chinese broccoli. Shrimp Noodle Crepe - Very good, but the shrimps were super small. Shrimp & Snowpea Dumpling - So good. Shanghai Soup Dumpling - Decent. Stuffed Eggplant - Large portion Pan-Fried Shrimp Chive Dumpling - Mmmm but lacking shrimp.

Everything was pretty good. Had good clean flavors. The only downfall is that the shrimp noodle crepe had really small shrimp pieces and the dumpling skins were SUPER thick.

Service is alright. The hostess was super nice. But the servers were indifferent and couldn't really remember to refill our waters.

Also, they only take cash and AMEX. (I'm more used to establishments NOT...

TL;DR version: Delicious! Especially fun to eat dim sum outdoors on historic Doyers Street, but I miss indoor dim sum dining and having hot tea with my meal.

Please, I beg of you, let's all try to do our part in stoping the spread of COVID-19. I really miss eating dim sum INSIDE restaurants! This was my first time at Nom Wah Tea Parlor on historic Doyers Street. Walking through an unusually quiet Chinatown and arriving at the restaurant unearthed my longing for the coordinated chaos of eating Sunday dim sum indoors.

But I do love Nom Wah's outdoor dining setup. They do have a couple tables with wait staff but only available for a group of 3 or 4 people. Our party of 2 was lucky to grab a table and 2 chairs, more away from the other diners, shortly after our arrival. BF held down the table while I ordered.

A staff person handed us a sheet of paper with their menu. You check off what you want to order, then when you're ready, you head into their vestibule setup that only fits one person for ordering and paying. The tea parlor staff is behind a clear shower curtain separating their staff from the public.

You can pay by credit card as well as Venmo.

I thought we'd have to listen for our order number when it was ready, but maybe since we were there during a slow stretch, their staff brought our bag direct to our table.

Because we had just come from eating Taiwanese pork chops over rice from the spot next door, we went light on the dim sum and only ordered the house special pan fried dumplings, sticky rice with Chinese sausage, pork shu mai and Shanghainese soup dumpling. Everything was DELICIOUS!! I Love Dim Sum!!

When I return for more outdoor dining there, I'll pass on the soup dumplings. I feel those are better eaten indoors with the help of a soup spoon to catch the juices and not served in a plastic container (our delicate dumpling wrappers got stuck together, tore open and the tasty soup escaped).

I can't wait to return and am looking forward to trying rice rolls...