Monday 22 July 2013

Hong Kong Eats: Dim Sum Bar Review and Pictures

I'm baaaack with lots of food pictures and foodie recommendations. I'm breaking up my posts so I won't spam you with pictures and texts; each Hong Kong Eats post will be a review on a particular place I've been to. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I have had writing them (and eating all the food).

My first encounter with dim sum in HK happened at Dim Sum Bar. I went to the one located at Gateway Arcade of Harbour City, which is near the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station.  If you want to get there, you'll have to enter from the outside, so it can get a tad confusing if you're not familiar with the place.

Dim Sum Bar HK

No. 1 on my list (and collage) to try is the Char Siew Bao 叉烧包 (BBQ pork-filled bun). They do it with a modern twist like Tim Ho Wan; instead of having the bun skin all soft, white and tasteless, this bun is crispy on the outside and a little sweet. I really love how the crispy texture of the outside complements the BBQ pork filling, which is salty and flavourful. Can't ever get sick of this dish!

Picture no. 2 shows (clockwise, from bottom left): Siew Mai 烧卖 (dumpling with shrimp), next up is is the dish I can't remember the name of but has fried skin and some meat inside, Feng Zhao 鳯爪 (chicken feet), Beef balls (not sure of chinese name), and Har Gao 虾饺. The Siew Mai was nothing to shout about; there was a shrimp in it and it was garnished with a wolfberry but that was about it. The fried skin dish was not bad, as were the beef balls, but they weren't particular memorable either. I didn't eat the Feng Zhao because I'm not a big fan of chicken feet, and the Har Gao was pretty good.

The dish in picture no. 3 is Beef Cheung Fun 牛肉腸粉 (steamed rice noodle rolls with beef). It's different from the Chee Cheung Fun that we usually get in Singapore that has shrimps in it. It was an interesting dish, but I think the taste of chives turned me off a little. We also had Lo Mai Gai 糯米鸡 (rice wrapped with lotus leaf with chicken meat) - not pictured here - which was quite nice.

As a whole, the dim sum here isn't too bad, and there's a good variety. The prices were slightly higher than Tim Ho Wan (in HK, that is) but I can't give you the exact prices because my uncle treated us to the meal so I don't know the breakdown. I would go back again to try the other unconventional dim sum dishes like the abalone tart, taro bun, almond bun etc. that Dim Sum Bar has to offer, and the ambience is pretty swanky too, so that's a plus. To "sum" up my experience: Dim Sum Bar offers traditional dim sum with a modern twist!


Let's Break It Down

Food: 3.5/5
Pricing: 3/5
Service: 4.5
Ambience: 4/5
Location: 3/5

Rachel loves sharing about the beautiful things in life from different perspectives. She writes on beauty and lifestyle in Cherchez Beauté , and does more abstract stuff on Antelune . When she's not writing, she's playing with her dog Holly, doodling and reading fiction. You can follow her on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .