Soup Dumplings at Chinatown’s Dim Sum Garden

First off, this isn’t really a dim sum place.

True, the cuisine served here is dim sum, but it’s not what is traditionally thought of as dim sum, with bustling carts stacked high with steaming baskets of every kind – that’s Cantonese dim sum, and to find it you can simply look down the street at Joy Tsin Lau or Ocean Harbor.

What Dim Sum Garden serves is Shanghai-style dim sum, which has slight differences (the lack of carts and presence of a menu being merely the most obvious). Dim Sum Garden also has a more distinctly modern ambiance than most restaurants in Chinatown (including the two aforementioned Dim Sum standards), with its logo appearing to be an anthropomorphic and smiling soup dumpling in a spoon. Obviously, good times were to be had, so we dug into the menu with gusto.

The selection at Dim Sum Garden is admittedly limited, and the interesting (i.e. not your “Chinese takeout menu”) dishes are found only on the first two pages. Prices are low – as with all dim sum – and I appreciated the fact that I did not have to wait until the end of the meal to determine the damage. Rapidly choosing a selection of dim sum favorites, we placed our order quickly, and the attentive staff brought our food to us just as rapidly.

The food was a mixed bag – what was good was very, very good, but not all the items lived up to that standard.

To start with the good, Dim Sum Garden’s bubble tea is delicious and comes served in a tall glass reminiscent of old-timey soda fountains. Adorable and irresistible! I also couldn’t resist ordering a plate of scallion pancakes, a childhood favorite, and was readily rewarded with some of the best that I’ve had in the city. Not too flaky, not too dense, these scallion pancakes were golden and crunchy and oh-so-delicious; I probably could have eaten another plate had I not been trying to save room for other goodies.

The sesame red bean buns were also delightful – while slightly dry (my own common complaint about this dish in general), the red bean paste was sweet and a welcome contrast to the perfectly crisp outer pastry shell. The sesame and red bean flavors blended together well, and I quickly polished off this treat.

The soup dumplings (or xiaolong bao) were hands-down the best I’ve had in Philly. After having had an incredibly disappointing experience with the soup dumplings at Penn neighbor Sangkee, I came to Dim Sum Garden hoping for redemption – and found it! We chose to go for the crab and pork soup dumplings rather than the usual pork variety, and they did not disappoint. Huge, full of flavorful soup, and with a tender but sturdy skin that withstood my clumsy chopstick maneuvers, the soup buns were satisfying and by far the best part of the meal.

Unfortunately, the meal was also countered by less wonderful moments. The shu mai was…unexpected. Admittedly, I had been expecting Cantonese-style shu mai, which are full of juicy pork, but had completely forgotten that Shanghai-style shu mai is filled with savory sticky rice instead. While the flavors weren’t unpleasant, the shu mai could have also been cooked better, with the skins being rather tough.

Slightly disappointed, I eagerly awaited the shrimp dumplings (har gow, my personal favorite dim sum dish), which were served hot and fresh in a metal steamer. They were a bit small (no matter, they often are), but they looked promising. But while they were good, I’ve had much better har gow at other Philly restaurants, as these dumplings lacked the slightly crisp texture of shrimp that I’ve come to adore.

Though it’s not your traditional dim sum venue, there’s a lot to be said for Dim Sum Garden when compared to other dim sum restaurants: the soup dumplings are phenomenal, the service is far superior (i.e. they speak English and are quite polite), and the place just seems a lot cleaner. At $30 ($15 per person) the bill was slightly higher than I’m used to for Dim Sum, but we certainly did leave stuffed and satisfied. Cantonese Dim Sum, with its bustling carts and hectic atmosphere, will always have a special place in my heart, but I’m willing to give Dim Sum Garden a shot every now and then. Overall, I think I’ll return to Dim Sum Garden, but I’m sticking to the soup dumplings.

Food: 3/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Value: 4/5

— Liz Hwang
PC: Liz Hwang