HOLY BATMAN this dim sum restaurant is a stampede waiting to happen on weekends.
We came here on Christmas day for a large family gathering and, fortunately, we had a private party room booked (spend a minimum of $300) upstairs. When we arrived at around 12:30pm, the inside of the restaurant's main floor was absolute chaos - shoulder to shoulder, butt to butt - as people were standing around like a can of sardines waiting for a table. The main dining floor is huge and I read that they have about 60 tables, which has to make it one of the largest dim sum restaurants in the 5 boroughs.
Like I said, thankfully we had a cushy private party room on the 2nd floor, which can be accessed by an elevator or a staircase. In total, I counted I believe about 8 private party rooms upstairs with each room fitting about 15 people at the table. The rooms were spacious enough for all of us and had a TV, nice L shaped couch and coffee table. Carts rolled by every once in a while to each room and waiters frequently tended to us as well.
As for the food here, we ordered the usual dim sum that you would find anywhere else, however, there were a few I don't typically see - like a rice roll wrapped fried shrimp roll - which I had heard of from someone else, but never seen in person. The experience felt a bit more "upscale" being in the private party room, but the food was just OK. Definitely not the best dim sum I ever had, but definitely edible and decent.
Besides the dim sum, we also ordered a soft shell crab fried rice and shredded chicken pan fried noodle and those entrees were WAYYYY BETTER than the dim sum dishes. The fried rice was filled with little crab eggs and had multiple pieces of soft shell crab in it. The pan fried noodle was extra crispy and good, but they did overdo it with the sauce on one side of the noodle, which caused some of the noodles to go to mush - albeit it was extra saucy though.
I would have loved to have known what the prices of the dim sum and kitchen entrees were, but a family member of ours snuck in to pay for the entire meal (as usually is the case with Chinese families), so we didn't get to find out what the individual prices of everything was.
One last comment is that because this restaurant is located in the heart of Bensonhurst on 86th Street and 20th Avenue, pack your patience with you if you're driving over because not only is the traffic always crazy here, but the parking is even worse. Consider yourself fortunate if you're able to park within 2 blocks of the restaurant and, if you somehow miraculously find a parking spot within a block, go buy a lotto ticket because you're luckier than a leprechaun! My advice is to try to find a parking spot a few blocks away because you'll save yourself a lot of time circling. They do offer $5 valet parking in an underground lot next to the restaurant on 20th Avenue, but do it at your own risk. I much prefer to park on the street instead of letting a rando hop into my vehicle and park it in a telephone booth of a parking lot. read more