Lai Wah Heen - Dim Sum Tips?

[Breeta]

I had dim sum at LWH three years ago (when I was last in Toronto).

At that time I was fortunate enough to be accompanied by a friend who knew a great deal about Cantonese cuisine and ordered for both of us.

I will be returning to LWH later this week (without my knowledgeable friend!) and would greatly appreciate any recommendations TO CH posters might have.

I gather the Peking Duck is very good and I am inclined to build a menu around that but I am open to other suggestions.

Finally I should probably say that there will only be two of us having dim sum (so the possible number of dishes is somewhat limited).

For information, the menu: http://www.metropolitan.com/menus/lwh...

Thanks in advance.

[jlunar]

I've always liked their peashoots and king mushroom dish, but it's been a long while since I've been.

[Charles Yu]

I would just settle for their Dim Sum tasting menu!

[Breeta]

That's very helpful, thanks. I hadn't noticed the prix fixe menus (http://www.metropolitan.com/menus/lwh...). Both the "innovative" and "classic" look promising.

[shekamoo]

do any other high end dim sum places in the north have similar tasting menus? which one would you suggest? I have always wanted to try places that are frequently mentioned by you and other posters but my lack of relevant ordering knowledge has held me back

[phoenikia]

Lai Toh Heen and Cha Liu have prix fixe options- not as far north as Hwy 7, but north of LWH.

Haven't noticed tasting menus or set menus for dim sum at places like Yang's, Empire Court, etc, probably because most clients know what they want to order.

My dim sum ordering strategy:

When I take newbies to dim sum, I usually order nor mai gai (sticky rice in lotus leaf), har gow (crystal shrimp dumpling), some sort of cheung fun (steamed rice flour roll), sesame covered balls (either filled with some custard or sweet red bean paste), turnip cake,char siu bao (steamed bbq pork bun), siu mai (pork and shrimp dumpling), maybe spare ribs or squid. Sort of the greatest hits.

I aim to cover most of the proteins depending on the likes/dislikes of the group (shrimp, bbq pork, beef, squid, chicken, scallop, tofu), a couple vegetable options, 1 sticky rice and a couple sweet dishes, and I try to balance out the steamed, baked and fried dishes. One of my chowfriends (thanks jc!) clued me into the guideline that 2 dishes per person, plus 2 for the table usually works as a reasonable amount of food for a small group.

One nice thing about Ambassador is that their menu has photos of all the dishes, so if you don't know the name of something, you can still order it if you can identify what you want by its photo.

[shekamoo]

thanks for the helpful suggestions. will try some soon

[lsk]

Also, many of these places have paper menus, on which you tick off/number what you want and they often have English translations that can be more descriptive than the Cantonese name, which is often poetic, but can indicate little about the ingredients, especially if they're "new style" dim sum.