| Cowtown does Sum Good Dim
Fresh hot food, delivered to your table non-stop with copious amounts of tea – at about $10 a head, dim sum is one unbeatable group meal deal. The basic idea is that carts of Chinese delicacies are wheeled around the dining room, diners point at what they want from the comfort of their tables, and the servers mark it on the tab and move on. Tea is the drink of choice.
A few friends and I went dim-summing recently, looking for good taste and a little something more. Dim sum means "touch the heart," and we wanted to experience what each place had to offer in the intangible category. We also tested a few other criteria, namely the frequency at which carts rolled past, and the time it took to replenish an empty tea pot. Here are the results.
Regency Palace Restaurant
Day 1: It's Friday, creeping toward the lunch hour when we ascend to the Regency Palace Restaurant (2nd level, 328 Centre St. S.E., phone 777-2288, wheelchair accessible by elevator). From the time we cross the bridge spanning a koi moat, request a non-smoking table and are smoothly whirled across the massive dining room by five successive escorts, only 30 seconds have passed. Tea and two carts arrive the instant we do.
There are pork shumai, pork and vegetable dumplings, steamed shrimp dumplings with nearly translucent skins puffed over fabulously fresh whole shrimp, and delicious chicken feet with black bean sauce topped by a slice of green pepper. Everything is steaming hot and tasty.
Next arrive peanut vegetable dumplings filled with tiny dried shrimp, shredded radish, scallions and whole peanuts. The peanuts are full of flavour, soft enough to sink your teeth into but not mushy. Excellent.
Cart frequency per hour: 22
Tea time: 6 minutes to replenish
Best dishes: Peanut vegetable dumpling, shrimp dumplings.
Touch the heart rating: Choreographed efficiency, great staff, lots of natural light = 4.5 hearts out of 5.
Silver Dragon Restaurant
Day 2: The Silver Dragon Restaurant (2nd level, 106 - 3 Ave. S.E., phone 264-5326, not wheelchair accessible) is much smaller than the Regency. It has a warmer feel, thanks to teal walls, blonde wood and large light fixtures like softly glowing upside-down umbrellas. It's noon on Saturday, and it's busy but not frantic. We have a table in two minutes. In two more minutes, we get tea.
A waiter with a platter of steamed gailan stops by and intones "Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce." The gleaming emerald is too enticing to resist. Next, delicate shrimp dumplings prepared with snowpea shoots satisfy our spring cravings. Onion cakes – lovely lopsided pastry rings filled with chopped green onion – have an intense oniony bite.
The peanut pork dumplings are good, but not as good as the Regency. The five-spice flavoured chicken feet, however, are finger-licking good.
Cart frequency per hour: 23
Tea time: 10 minutes to replenish
Best dishes: The tender gailan, shrimp and snowpea dumplings, and mmmmm that onion cake – and the best feet so far.
Touch the heart rating: A cozy atmosphere, impressive selection on each cart, helpful staff = 4.5 hearts out of 5.
Central Grand Restaurant
Day 3: Today it's off to the Central Grand Restaurant (2nd level, 1623 Centre Street N.W., phone 277-2000, wheelchair accessible from parkade). We wait 30 minutes until the stroke of noon, when a waiter shows us through the coolly elegant room to our table. The tea and carts start rolling immediately. The shumai are steaming hot, very flavourful and light – my favourite of the three places. The bbq pork rice rolls are well stuffed, and they also top the competition. A shrimp, scallop and scallion dumpling is all right, but not as good as the simple whole shrimp.
We search for chicken feet throughout the meal until finally one of the waitresses just brings us a bowlful straight from the kitchen. They're well cooked, but not as good as the Silver Dragon's.
Cart frequency per hour: 27
Tea time: 7.5 minutes to replenish
Best dishes: Shumai, bbq pork rice rolls.
Touch the heart rating: Nice staff and surroundings, but not as much selection on each cart and the tea is on the weak side = 4 hearts out of 5.
You can't go wrong with dim sum in Cowtown – it's fun to compare dishes and pick favourites, but we've never had a bad meal. |
