Silk Road Dim Sum
Just tried it today and was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the experience. Every dish I tried was as good as, and in a few cases better than, the best dim sum I’ve had in the US. As a cantonese person from the Bay Area who has also lived in LA and tried most of the well known dim sum there, I can confidently say that it is worth checking out if you love dim sum.
I had the har gao, siu mai, crispy shrimp cheung fun, xiao long bao, baked char siu bao, and fried taro.
The standouts for me were the cheung fun, har gao, and xiao long bao.
The crispy shrimp cheung fun was the most original and was a great contrast of textures with the crispy shrimp and the very tender rice roll skin. Gotta try it if you come here.
The xiao long bao was on par with the best I’ve had and honestly I’ve been searching for a good one all my life ever since my favorite spot had closed down during my childhood. This one is as good. Better than din tai fung or any other “standard” for good xiao long bao. The broth was deep, the skin was thin but structurally sound enough to actually withstand getting lifted off of the parchment paper, something that is rare with thin skinned dumplings.
For the har gao, very thin skin and good proportions to the shrimp. Some places when they make har gao they make it either too thick or overstuff a thin skinned dumplings with too much shrimp, causing it to spill out inevitably when you bite it and throws the proportions off. This one I think strikes it perfectly. Smaller, but a better bite.
Every other dish met expectations and was pretty damned good.
The tea was also great, they get their loose leaf tea from thailand and their jasmine was subtle and clear.
I know it’s much pricier than typical dim sum, but compared to other mid-high end dining experiences in other cuisines, it is comparable or cheaper. So is it worth it? I say yes, especially if you’ve had a lot of dim sum in your life before. It’s an elevation of the standard cheaper fare that displays care in the individual dishes they produce, something that a normal dim sum hall can’t and shouldn’t replicate. With everything I tried it ran me $70 for 2 or $35 per person without tip. I could have stopped and been full at $50 for 2 but wanted to try more so stuffed myself. I’ve tried most of the dim sum in Houston and this obviously blows them out of the water (as it should for the price point). You may be able to find individual dishes that are comparable or better in other dim sum restaurants, but the quality across the board (atleast from what I’ve tried) is unmatched, and that I think, plus the exceptional dishes I mentioned, is worth it.
I’m glazing so hard because I love dim sum, and have had an unscratchable itch since my last visit to the Bay, this did the trick.