The best Chinese restaurant (Five Points, Lee: live in, costs, stores)

[travelingfood]

recently found a place for some real dim sum in town.
Silver Star
5034 Blanding Blvd (North of 103st)

They're a decades old Chinese restaurant but couple weeks ago they started serving freshly hand made dim sum. The chef is real big city dim sum restaurant quality, not someone that just learned a trick here or there.
It's served ALL day from Sat to Tuesday (odd I know)
give it a try and compare it with HK Bistro's dim sum.

[PinoyDoc]

We have plans to eat there this weekend. Two places competing against each other only means better choices for all of us. Love to hear feedback from the other foodies after they check this place out!!

Originally Posted by travelingfood

recently found a place for some real dim sum in town.
Silver Star
5034 Blanding Blvd (North of 103st)

They're a decades old Chinese restaurant but couple weeks ago they started serving freshly hand made dim sum. The chef is real big city dim sum restaurant quality, not someone that just learned a trick here or there.
It's served ALL day from Sat to Tuesday (odd I know)
give it a try and compare it with HK Bistro's dim sum.

[shigwamei]

PinoyDoc, my husband and I definitely have to thank you for bring up Hong Kong Bistro as we had just moved from NY in July and started craving it in August. We've been there almost every Sunday since!

We are looking forward to trying out Silver Star... hopefully this weekend!

[PinoyDoc]

Originally Posted by shigwamei

PinoyDoc, my husband and I definitely have to thank you for bring up Hong Kong Bistro as we had just moved from NY in July and started craving it in August. We've been there almost every Sunday since!

We are looking forward to trying out Silver Star... hopefully this weekend!

Shigmawei: you're welcome. I hope they get increasing patronage and stay in town!

We tried out Silver Star this past weekend. It is in the strip mall at the corner of Blanding and 103rd on the Westside; facing South, the strip mall is at your right as you approach the intersection. If you use Google to locate them you may get their old location further down South.

We had lunch on Sunday, and got there just before Noon. It filled up with a good crowd by 1300h. We got some mushroom shumai, the shrimp rolls (those ones with shrimp in the runny steamed coverings--YUM!), beef tripe (beef "stripe" on their dim sum menu), and char-siu-pao or pork steamed buns. They were fresh and very good!

They have a standard Americanized menu with General's chicken, etc, but I did not get the chance to inquire if they can do special orders. My feedback so far--- great place to get dim sum, but I wish they had more of the authentic/traditional fare listed on their menu.

Hong Kong Bistro has an extensive Cantonese menu and have been able to accomodate special orders, and they also have traditional Cantonese items that are not on the menu (those wooden tags with pictographs by the door list their specials...ask what they are as I did and you will be surprised at what you miss by not asking!).

I look forward to the other foodies' input.

[shigwamei]

We also tried out Silver Star this past Saturday. My husband says it reminded him of having dim sum in Memphis, where you checked off what you wanted on a piece of paper. We both believed the items we did have were good (fried taro, shrimp wrapped in rice noodles, rice covered in lotus leaf, spared ribs, shui mai, char siu pao) but they only had the bare basics and will most likely not visit it again.

Hong Kong Bistro will definitely be our Dim Sum restaurant of choice. We like our turnip/rice cake and seafood pan fried noodles!

On another note, we were trying to go to Sushi World next to Tinsletown and found it was closed. However on the window, there was a sign stating there a new restaurant will open in its place, I think it said it would be called Bamboo Cove? and it would have Authentic Hong Kong Style Dim Sum.
Yeah!

[travelingfood]

PinoyDoc: owner said they do plan on adding more authentic home cooking to the menu. Their new dim sum business is blooming like wild, so I assume they don't want to compromise quality by making the kitchen too busy. They're core business of standard chinese food has been going on for +20 years so it's a change for them

shigwamei: How big's HK Bistro's dim sum menu? and do you know if they have a dim sum chef? I know their food's great but still waiting to try the dim sum. I might have gotten a old/false information about HK Bistro using frozen dim sums. Will be going there for dim sum soon though. Talk to the owner of silver star about special menus, they might look into it if they know what it is.

definetly will keep an eye on Bamboo Cove!! Here's to hoping we'll have as much dim sum selection as Atlanta/Orlando. pigs might fly if we can get anything great as west coast china towns.

[Magnolia Bloom]

Originally Posted by PinoyDoc

.

Hong Kong Bistro has an extensive Cantonese menu and have been able to accomodate special orders, and they also have traditional Cantonese items that are not on the menu (those wooden tags with pictographs by the door list their specials...ask what they are as I did and you will be surprised at what you miss by not asking!).

I look forward to the other foodies' input.

My son and I went to Hong Kong Bistro again on Saturday, but it was around 4pm and they stop serving dim sum at 1. They said they would make some for us, but we ordered off the menu.

I wondered what those wooden tags were! Should have asked.

I forget the names of what we had- golden egg rice, I think, and a beef/mushroom/bok choy dish on crispy noodles. Wow, did we have leftovers. She asked how I knew to order that rice, as usually only Chinese know it. Heh, heh, I was embarassed to say that I just wanted to try something different, so picked it out.

Will have to try one of their specials from the wooden tags when we return. I told our waitress about this site and how we discussed their restaurant. It was slow because of the game and we got into a discussion about China. My aunt and uncle were there until Sunday, when they went on to Mayanmar. Next time I go I will get her name- she gave us so much info- embarassed to say that my son knew more about China than I did.

[shigwamei]

shigwamei: How big's HK Bistro's dim sum menu? and do you know if they have a dim sum chef? I know their food's great but still waiting to try the dim sum. I might have gotten a old/false information about HK Bistro using frozen dim sums. Will be going there for dim sum soon though. Talk to the owner of silver star about special menus, they might look into it if they know what it is.

travelingfood: I'm not quite sure how big HK Bistro's dim sum menu is as we only looked at it once but I think I read that the chef was from NYC and specialized in dim sum. Last time we were in there, someone had bought a whole fried pig... something you would usually see in Cantonese restaurants.

For dim sum, the waitresses come around with a few items on a tray and you just pick what you want. The only thing I don't like about it is that if some other table ahead of you picked the item you want, you have to wait for the next time another waitress comes around. However last time that happened to us, we just told our waitress what we wanted and she brought it out for us once it was cooked.

As for frozen dim sum, my husband actually thought Silver Star dim sum was frozen. I thought the shrimp wrapped in rice noodles was pretty fresh (I have many, many years of eating experience on this dish ) however I thought the char siu pao was most likely from a frozen package...

[travelingfood]

Originally Posted by shigwamei

travelingfood: I'm not quite sure how big HK Bistro's dim sum menu is as we only looked at it once but I think I read that the chef was from NYC and specialized in dim sum. Last time we were in there, someone had bought a whole fried pig... something you would usually see in Cantonese restaurants.

For dim sum, the waitresses come around with a few items on a tray and you just pick what you want. The only thing I don't like about it is that if some other table ahead of you picked the item you want, you have to wait for the next time another waitress comes around. However last time that happened to us, we just told our waitress what we wanted and she brought it out for us once it was cooked.

As for frozen dim sum, my husband actually thought Silver Star dim sum was frozen. I thought the shrimp wrapped in rice noodles was pretty fresh (I have many, many years of eating experience on this dish ) however I thought the char siu pao was most likely from a frozen package...

Thanks for the feed back and looking forward to trying HK Bistro. Funny how their chef is from NYC too , maybe they're just together as part of a big family of dim sum gang . Yeh I agree char siu bao was so so, no argument with that. Not that many place makes it well. But I can tell they used the same type of filling for other pork items too (like in fried sticky dumpling, that's good stuff), not the real red char siu I prefer. Wish they have a dim sum menu though, can't always remember all the dish names. maybe will just tell them to bring out everything.

[Magnolia Bloom]

I wish that Hong Kong Bistro would push the dim sum around on a multi-tiered cart!