After reading some of my fellow Yelper's review, we were skeptical of this place however, my dad loves "sil long bao" (Cantonese for you mandarin peeps who tries to correct me!) - aka "soup dumplings" for the non-Asians... and so we decided to venture to good'ol Bay Ridge (if you grew up in Brooklyn - you know you hung out at Century 21 during senior cut day!) on a Sunday, no less.
We actually picked the hottest day to have piping hot soup dumplings... I took 1 star away for the low non-existent A/C! And some of the below stellar food items. We are One crazy family! Ha Ha
Ok - we love the "sil long bao"! It was delicious, the skin was thin, the soup was flavorful and the stuffing was savory. We ordered 3 basket of crabmeat soup dumplings and 3 regular pork soup dumplings. My recommendation: although it is tempting to eat one as it arrives at your table... Save the roof of your mouth, let it sit for 15 seconds, the skin will firm up a bit making it much easier to pick up, using your excellent chopstick & spoon skills! Beware - if you let it sit too long, yakking away, the soup dumplings will have a mild after-taste because the fat will form a gelatin.
Here's what else we ate and would get again:
-HK style rice noodle w/ peanut, sesame & sweet soy sauce
-braised beef tendons & stew (fight for the tendons! You will thank me later while it melts in your mouth bursting with five spices flavor!)
-pork & chives pan fried dumplings (the stuffing was made fresh! Tasty!)
-fried fish skin! I was surprised how good this was! Like crispy chips!
-braised curry beef tripe, has good texture, chewy and not mushy...
-fried tofu with chili paste - so delicious for tofu! Wasn't spicy enough for me but everyone loved it!
-ginger/scallion pig ears - I actually didn't like this but my entire family loved it! LOL - can't win them all!
AND what I would skip for my next trip here:
-curry squid & pig skin (way too watery, no curry taste... Probably need to be re-cooked with stronger curry flavor and let it braise for a few more hours)
-beef chow fun noodle - it was kind of bland... Needs more "fire" - said my dad... (If you're Chinese, you will know this means the "wok chi" wasn't high enough)...
-Ice HK style milk tea, not very strong and flavorful like other places... Simply taste like regular ice milk tea...
-yao choy... Seriously, just got it bc we needed some green for my aunt... So boring!
-ginger/scallion pig ears - see above
Overall - we had a great meal! We actually had good service and wasn't bad for all that food, a total bill of $160...(includes 20% tip).
My advice - if you choose the weekend rush, go when it first opens at 11:00am! Otherwise, have someone stand guard for your table and send someone to grab a ice Mango slush from CoCo tea across the street! good luck! read more