Best Dim Sum & Cantonese Food in DFW.

[LucyK]

I'm from San Francisco, so I'm really picky about my dim sum & cantonese food. I know I can't get what I had there, here, but I'd love to here which restaurants come closest.

I've been to Canton resturant in Richardson, and thought it was pretty good for dinner. I've also been to Kirin court for dim sum on the weekday, and thought it was ok.

[twinwillow]

A regular group of friends and myself have had lunch at First Chinese BBQ every Thursday for the last 20 plus years.
We have seen no difference in their food in all that time. They have consistently served the best tasting Cantonese Chinese food we know of in Dallas.
We're all Jewish ex-New Yorkers. So if we like it, you can bet your life its good!

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First Chinese BBQ
111 S. Greenville Ave., Richardson, TX 75081

[twinwillow]

Btw, FCBBQ just started serving, BBQ pork ribs. We had them last Thursday for the first time and they were terrific! They'll probably become a staple at our table.

[RoLip]

As much as some folk hang on to past experiences, do yourself a favor and avoid First Chinese BBQ. I'm sure it was quite good at one time, however the times they are a-changin'. I can honestly say, I and three friends had one of the worst meals ever at the Greenville Ave. location. I'm still apologizing to my friends for haven taken them there based only on reviews read in this forum.
So as not to be without a positive, try Joy Luck BBQ in Plano. A wonderful, small, seemingly quite authentic restaurant, that everyone I know seems to like.
I recentley had their duck (1/2 duck for 8.95, I think), and It was as good as I've ever had in Texas. Their WonTons are salmost over stuffed with shrimp, and the dumplings are..!!
I don't know them nor do I have a stake in their biz, I just think they are that good.

[mahalan]

RoLip, I have to disagree with you on First Chinese. It's my goto for Chinese so I'm there about once every one to two weeks and I haven't seen a slip in the quality over the past two years.

[twinwillow]

mahalan ~ if you're in FCBBQ on a Thursday about 1:00 come by our table and introduce yourself. You can't miss us. There's about 5-6 of us always sitting at a large round table. We're the noisiest bunch in the place.
HOWEVER, not this coming Thursday. We've decided to give Golden Joy a try based on some of the above posts. But yes, any other Thursday.

[air]

Make sure you get that roasted pork, love the crispy skin on it!

[twinwillow]

Thanks for the tip. we're all anxious to try a new place. As good as the food is at FCBBQ, and as long as we've been going there, we've only altered our Thursday lunch meeting maybe, a half dozen times.

[mahalan]

Twinwillow: Thanks for the invitation. I'd love to meet someone who's advice has been exceptionally valuable in getting acquainted with restaurants in the area. Thursdays at 1:00 are difficult for me, though, since I'm working then. Will try to get there next time I have a dentist/doctor/car appointment, though.

[twinwillow]

Thank you. You're always welcome! Btw, We went to Golden Joy last Thursday. It was cleaner but the food was not as good as FCBB and, it was more expensive. And, we were annoyed with the loud music that was playing in the restaurant. However, we did prefer their tea to the tea served at FCBB.
But, we'll be happy to get back to our "regular" FCBB this Thursday.
As Dorothy said, "There's no place like home".

[amadanj]

Hong Kong Royal in Carrollton is the best in the area but not as good as I have had in other cities like Vancouver or Toronto.

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Hong Kong Royal Restaurant
3030 N Josey Ln Ste 130, Carrollton, TX 75007

[taldeac]

I love to see Dim Sum threads on Chowhound. Makes me feel like Dallas is widening its culinary spread.

I agree with amadanj. Hong Kong Royal is the best in the area. DallasDude mentioned their shrimp and chive dumplings which are good, but I like their sprimp and spinach even better, probably one of my favorite dishes in Dallas.

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Hong Kong Royal Restaurant
3030 N Josey Ln Ste 130, Carrollton, TX 75007

[Caroline1]

I will have lived here (Plano) for five years in August, and the best dim sum I've found in the area (NOT the best dim sum I've ever had in my whole entire life, but in the area) is at JS Chen's in Plano. Here's their website:
http://jschensbbq.com/

Here's a place that has not been mentioned. I have not yet tried it (it's scheduled "next") that looks pretty good but the proof will be in the eating.
http://www.jengchirestaurant.com/

I'm not from San Francisco, but I did spend summers there as a child (with paternal grandparents) and an annual treat was a trip to Grant Avenue (aka "Chinatown") for a visit to my grandmother's herbalist, then dim sum. That started way back in the late 1930s when I was a small child. You can't get food like that anymore! But then you can't get genuine ivory back scratchers for a dime any more either. Ah well. Good luck on your quest!

[air]

JS Chen's is pretty good for Plano - but that's about it, they're easily the worst when put against the other places around Dallas. Horrendously inconsistent and (usually) tends to lean towards a bad experience. Well maybe not as bad as the one buffet place a few doors from Jeng Chi.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/675187 (the entire discussion is mostly centered on dim sum at Chen's)

[DallasDude]

In all candor, i had the worst meal of my life at JS Chen. As with all things, it could have been an off day. But regardless, pretty low on the Chow scale. Competing with Chen for that honor recently was a meal I had at Trinity Hall.

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Trinity Hall
5321 E Mockingbird Ln Ste 250, Dallas, TX 75206

[luniz]

which JS Chen, and was it on a weekend?

[Caroline1]

Rats! DD and air, this is bad news. <sigh> I will add that I have ONLY had dim sum at JS Chen, and at that I restricted myself to dumplings. Gotta give up on the lazies and start cooking dim sum at home!

[DallasDude]

The dim sum I had was during the week and for lunch. I had the xlb (filled with what seemed like loose meat pet food), har gau (cold and sticky), sticky rice (little to no filling), siu mai (rubber) and the cheung fun (bbq pork - soupy and sweet as hell). All were horribly fail, the wait was excruciating with just a few people in the restaurant, and by-and-by totally inedible.

This was maybe a month ago at the Plano location. Those that know me can attest that I rarely pan places, and if negative I simply keep quiet allowing others to toss the stones. However, this rates as one of my top five worst meals and superb dissapointments.

If someone has the opposite story, I would be pleased to meet up and try this together. All the items I ordered are basics when it comes to dim sum and should be a no brainer for any restaurant attempting dim sum.

[luniz]

I had a surprisingly good dinner a few months ago, consisting of mostly items off the dim sum menu, including non xlb dumplings. However just a week or two prior I'd been for Saturday morning dim sum and found almost everything to be disappointing. Clearly the place can be very good, or downright bad, and it's hard to know which you're going to get. Hardly worth the effort when Umeko and Little Sichuan in the same strip offer consistently good food all the time, and for $5.50 at lunch (maybe only on weekends?) Asia World has a food stall in the corner that gives a pretty generous amount of decent, relatively simple food.

[mjtx]

There are 2 JS Chen's in Plano. We have always had good luck at the one that is at Legacy and Central.

[kuidaore]

LuckyK, Maxim's chef (Richardson) is Cantonese (though the owner is Taiwanese) and we think they have the best Cantonese in DFW. (Their menu is huge and you have to know what to order because some dishes aren't very good.) I was introduced to their dishes by our Cantonese friend. Their crispy chicken and crab fried rice (see my avatar) are addictive. Their fried pork chop w/ salt & pepper used to be excellent, but it's not as good lately (still better than First Emperor's--Taiwanese).
There's better Cantonese/Chinese food than FCB in DFW--I know you won't like it if you're talking about SF-level (or Vancouver or HK) Cantonese. My Cantonese and other Chinese friends refuse to go there.
Kirin Ct's dim sum used to be pretty good for Dallas, but something happened (chef changed?) and it's pretty bad now. We won't go back.
BTW, Royal Sichuan in Richardson is excellent.

[foiegras]

I'm glad to hear about the change, because when I tried Kirin Court, I couldn't believe it had ever been recommended here!!

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Kirin Court Restaurant
221 W Polk St, Richardson, TX 75081

[amokscience]

Kirin Court went downhill? Aww. I thought it was significantly better than Maxim's dim sum a few years back.

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Kirin Court Restaurant
221 W Polk St, Richardson, TX 75081

[DallasDude]

I was at Kirin recently and found it to be superb. the weekday version is significantly weaker than weekend, as there is limited demand during the week days.

[mahalan]

DD: I'd agree that Kirin is the best dim sum spot in Dallas but it still pales in comparison to what's available in SF. If you're visiting from SF, I'd recommend avoiding what you can find better at home and going to what we excel at instead.

[twinwillow]

I just wanted to add, the very best dim sum I've ever had in Texas was in Austin at T & S Seafood.
Comparable to anything in San Francisco.

[DallasDude]

I have been to San Francisco, and concur. But we are not in San Francisco. I actually prefer the dim sum in Hong Kong or Vancouver, but meh....

That said I do enjoy the dim sum at Hong Kong Royal. Particularly the pan fried shrimp and chive dumpings. Wow. I previously posted a pic of them.

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Hong Kong Royal Restaurant
3030 N Josey Ln Ste 130, Carrollton, TX 75007

[twinwillow]

Re: First Chinese BBQ. I've always felt the Richardson location (Greeneville & Polk) had the best food of the chain. With Carrollton being the worst. Btw, although not on the "American" menu, FCB also serves an excellent Peking duck. Very reasonably priced, I might add.
The Austin location in the Chinatown Center is actually quite good. And unlike the Dallas area locations, they accept credit cards.
Based on comments here, I'm wanting to try Golden Joy and see for myself how their food is.
Another good Chinese that I like is "369" Chinese in Plano.

[twinwillow]

No dim sum but, First Chinese BBQ serves the very best Cantonese in the Dallas area. Nothing else compares!
Customer base is 95% Chinese and Asian. But, bring cash because they don't accept credit cards. And being from San Francisco, you'll feel quite at home. Very similar to the little mom & pop Chinese places off Grant Avenue.
www.firstchinesebbq.com

[LucyK]

Thanks Twinwillow. I went to one that I thought had the same name on Beltline in Carrollton, and that place was bad. But your website didn't indicate a store there, so I've got my hopes up to try FCB in Richardson!

[air]

That's interesting that their site doesn't list the ones in Plano or Carrollton. I honestly haven't seen any difference across the FCB locations and I've been to all of them multiple times, with exception of Arlington and Austin.

You may also want to try Golden Joy BBQ in Richardson for that style of food. Both BBQ and roasted pork are far better than First Chinese. I remember the Soy Sauce Chicken hit some high marks too. However, feedback for their dim sum has been negative.
http://www.goldenjoybbq.com/

Hong Kong Royal is my pick nowadays for dim sum.

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Hong Kong Royal Restaurant
3030 N Josey Ln Ste 130, Carrollton, TX 75007

[LucyK]

Thanks Air. So you think there is a FCB in Carrollton? In which case, that's probably the place I went too that I didnt' care for :(

[air]

I believe the original location is the one in Richardson, but the food's basically the same.

[foiegras]

Yes, there definitely is a FCB there. The ambience is much better in Richardson, but I would agree that the food seems to be consistent from location to location. For my own taste, though (and I'm an American girl who doesn't necessarily like to see unadvertised tripe show up on my plate ;), quality does vary from dish to dish. Do you feel like you tried a good cross-section?

[LucyK]

yeah, I tried a good selection, cause I brought my parents and brother who were visiting from SF, and there was disappointment all around. We did bear in mind that we couldn't really compare food to SF, but it really didn't meet our standards. Canton Restaurant on the other hand was a place that my family liked.

[Scagnetti]

I like Golden Joy's menu. What dishes would you recommend?

[kuidaore]

Their Roast Pig/Pork and Soy Sauce Chicken are pretty close to the Vancouver level (but they run out of those dishes fast!) Their BBQ pork isn't very good (too sweet). Their dim sum is baaad.