Dim Sum King — Restaurant in Upper Merion Township

First of all. The comments about customer service… they have cleared NEVER been in this business and have never been to a bussin’ high quality food restaurant. Any restaurant that’s either newly opened (tons of foot traffic) or highly reputable (returning customers) WILL have a bit of wait. It is completely ridiculous to be critical about “customer service” when we have witness the owner and the staff have ran around catering to every single customer to the best of their ability. The owners are widely known in the area, being our favorite chinese grocery store, so many many people are enthusiastic about coming to support their business!! A wait is expected and understood.

Now on to the food… We ordered 3 different noodles 2 appetizers. All were excellent.

Shaomian 12/10 - excellent level of spicy and well controlled balance of “ma”. The chinese green peppercorn were aromatically cooked and well sauced with red chili oil. The sauce was generous and appropriate for the portion and the tradition of the dish in China. We ordered 2 extra to go for later

Crab rue noodles - 8/10 the crab rue and meat was generous for the portion. The noodles required a bit more stirring but that’s because we had children with us and were a bit distracted.

Chongqing noodles - 9/10 traditional noodles from chongqing area. They are widely popular and the chef controlled the soup very well with the correct mix of ingredients that are traditional to the chinese people. Taste of home.

Beef “jerky” - 15/10 oh my lord. We ordered an extra to eat with some beer at night after putting the kids to sleep. The beef was perfectly seasoned!! Required a bit of stirring as the beef needs to be paired with the red oil. The chef definitely brought home to us. Each piece of beef were solid chunks of meat. They don’t cheap out on ingredients and we’ve had other restaurant’s attempt this beef jerky that’s more traditional, but have not been adequately brought the balance of spicy and sweetness to it. It was amazing.

Pork slices with dipping sauce 10/10 on meat, 8/10 on sauce - the portions were completely fair for the price and the quality of the pork is excellent. The meat was tight and fresh and more mushy. The tendon were well cooked but also easy to chew. The sauce was a bit more salty than what our family is used to but this is for a traditional dish were all the flavor comes from the sauce. So the flavors being strong is expected. So that is personal preference to us.

Pork kidney 9/10 - excellently cooked tenderness but not undercooked. The aroma of fresh pork kidney was preserved but without the “pork stink” that’s typically in a spicy pork kidney dish. The portion was awesome. Solid chunks. The only feedback is not spicy enough for our family but that’s a...

It’s been a couple of hours since eating here, July 4th, went around 12:00pm and I still cannot comprehend the kind of business this is. The vibes felt so off, music blasting loud in your ears it felt like someone’s playlist.

Let me just begin with how disappointing the food was. We started out with Oolong tea, which we sent back because it was very watered down, we let it steep for 15min before even sipping it and the quality of the tea they use tasted cheap.

Tea Duck plate, skin had good flavor so I was excited, after about 2 pieces it was so dry it made my mouth feel dry for the rest of my experience.

Shrimp Cheung Fun, apparently a customer favorite and I am still comprehending how. Tasted very fishy, which is not the most terrible thing as I love seafood, but the soggy flat dumpling was just sad. Bland flavor, the cheap ingredient of the shrimp they use was smaller than a dime. We sent this back after one bite.

Pork Soup Dumpling. These are definitely not handmade and were store bought. I bite the top to let steam out and in my mouth was a thick dry piece of dough that looks like a nipple. The dough of their dumplings are way too thick, barely any broth, and look at my picture lol, I picked it up easy like it was a golf ball. The absolute saddest soup dumplings I’ve ever had in my life. Sent this back as well.

Now on each table is a QR code to tell you to scan and order but you cannot order through the code, instead they come to your table, which is fine but misleading and made us look around confused for our waiter who was not present at all. The servers were very nice but looked so confused and disorganized. I watched one of them bring our duck dish to two different tables before bringing it to ours. Absolute disorganization in this restaurant team.

The manager or owner whoever it was, was walking around the restaurant in fitness shorts, tee shirt and sneakers, just wandering around confused on what to do. He came up to us to order but we had already placed our order so he just walks away.

The girl there who was also a waitress (not our original waiter) was very nice and the only positive from this experience is we were able to take most items off our bill.

If you don’t mind cheap ingredients and poor quality food with no love or care, you can come...

Update: went back and tried new things and was ... Not as good 🥺😭 gotta really pick the right things, their lo bac go turnip cake had absolutely no turnip, the signature noodle soup was pretty bland and the meat super tough, the meatball bok choy soup was also really bland and a let down. My parents were pretty sad and we won't be back for a while.. so definitely pick the right things like the pan fried bun and cha siu bao! Would recommend they reduce some of the selection and focusing on standout items :/

Original review: GUYS so I thought this was some fusion place BUT IT ACTUALLY IS THE MOST AUTHENTIC CANTONESE DIM SUM IN THE ENTIRE AREA HOLY SHIT I was so blown away!!!

I've been to Nan xiang and their soup dumplings are great but they can't really do like stir fried food super well, dim sum court in oaks their soup dumplings are also good but they don't pan fry their dumplings enough, Dim sum mania is good too, but not exactly cantonese dim sum more shanghainese. But my mom who is from Hong Kong and me really really enjoyed this place which can do both!! My dad who got leftovers said "it's like I'm back in Hong Kong" 🥹🥹🥹 Definitely so underrated and you gotta go!!!

The Cha siu bao is not food colored and a really rich delicious bao, crispy eggplant was amazing- so soft inside so crispy on outside, har gow had a beautiful lustrous perfectly chewy and plump filling, they've turnip cake which is rare!! And their pan fried shanghainese dumpling??? Incredible. The skin was nicely thick but not doughy, really REALLY crispy like how it should be!!

And the interior is delightfully Chinese architecture style. Also our server was hilarious and was talking in canto to us. Ugh seriously new favorite place don't sleep on it, social almost made me think it was another semi-mid place leaning into the soup dumpling craze but it's not!!!

Also they even ask if you want cold or hot water, which I really appreciate as someone who always drinks hot water and if you know Chinese people don't drink ice water as much!!

If you wanna experience real dim sum,...