DimSum King — Restaurant in Sarasota

BELIEVE ALL THE BAD REVIEWS about service and forced tip!

Brief: -Shamelessly demands and argues for a 15% minimum tip. Threatens to automatically charge you if you don’t -Poor service -Undercooked food -Menu lacks a lot of basics -Stingy with condiments

Details: As a previous server in the restaurant business, I typically tip GENEROUSLY 25% up to 60% if the service has been particularly good or great company.

For this place we struggled to give $5 on an $87 bill. Upon handing the receipt over, the server asked if the tip was within 15%-25%. We replied we will not be giving more tip. When he asked why, we replied that it was poor service and undercooked food. We shouldn’t be repaired to justify what we found to be an appropriate tip.

More specifically for those reading, it was very difficult to get our server’s attention, she actually avoided eye contact every time she walked when she was remotely busy. Our rice orders were forgotten, the scallops in our seafood chow fun were so raw in the center that we spat them out, and when we asked for chili oil we received a small dish that was pure oil with no actual chili flakes in it. Crazy frugal.

He responded to our answer of poor service and undercooked food with, “Well we live purely off of tip.” We asked if they don’t receive wage, because frankly, that’s illegal. He stuttered and said they do.

Then he told us next time he will AUTOMATICALLY charge us 15% next time!

Tip is incentive, NOT mandatory. This is something to be accepted as a server, as I once did having worked in the industry. You are NOT entitled.

When we were packing to leave, the actual server who tended our table actually came to confront us about the tip and service. We just said we want to simply leave and not tip more than we agreed to. We left as their glare shameless followed us.

WE WILL BE KEEPING AN EYE ON OUR TRANSACTION, and if more is charged than what we signed for, we will be reporting to the state, as we have our copy of the signed receipt.

Aside from the personal experience, in terms of food, we are from Seattle, WA and know our Asian cuisines. This place lacked all the most basic dishes for a Chineses/dim sum, there is no crispy chow mein, only chow fun and low mein; no salt and pepper calamari, and NO FISH of any kind on their...

When you're on vacations with your entire family you know for a fact we are only eating Chinese cuisine.

We found Dim Sum King through Yelp so this was it for our breakfast. It stated that it recently opened in Sarasota so we were like cool let's give it a try!

According to my cousin who was getting married this weekend and comes with his wife all the time it's good so we had to give it a try then again there were only two choices for dim sum in Sarasota area.

With that being said, dim sum is available all the time. Good soups which come in very big bowls that serve 4-6! We love their seafood and Tofu Soup. Dim Sum selections are heavy on shrimp fillings but everything we tried was good. We had chicken feet, steamed spare ribs in black bean sauce, steamed bbq pork buns, crispy fried sesame balls, pan fried turnip cake, Shu Mai, Hong Kong style egg tarts, crispy baked boq pork buns (wayyyy too sweet for me), deep fried taro cake, steamed rice beef rolls, Portuguese style creme brûlée tart (to die for! 50o delicious), sticky rice, and the list goes on, mind we were about 30 of us almost filled up the entire restaurant!

Service was extremely slow and some waiters were a bit rude but sometimes slow the kitchen was often slammed with take out especially we went on Friday (food wasn't very fresh) then on Sunday was sooo delicious; go on Sunday's for dim sum!

The food itself was delicious so it was worth the occasional wait! Plus if you have to wait for a little it...

It is a big name to call themself the "King", especially, Yummy House is nearby and they have been dominated the area for a while. I think now we have a new sheriff in town. The staff is super friendly and the food is authentic. Bummer they ran out of salty egg lava bun, was really looking forward to that and was told it ran out since yesterday. Perhaps it is still new, some dim sum dishes which you need to order from the kitchen, so it is a bit confusing. Better to grab a dim sum menu with pictures and ask the server. It is a big plus that the tea is served with tea leaves instead of tea bag. It is not a big restaurant, and it is very trendy and clean. A new business with quality authentic Chinese Dim Sum and cuisine, expect large crowd on the weekend. Better be there early if you don't want to wait. For now, it is 5 stars, hopefully they are able to keep up the high standard they set themself up to.

11/01/20 Update They are still hanging on during the pandemic. Less busy and able to get seating during busy hour. The food quality still good, but will serve to-go style if possible. The service is great.

11/07/20 Update First time here for dinner, surprisingly, there is no pork dishes. Anyway, the price is good and...