About eight months ago we visited Emerald, our then favorite Dim Sum house, and were very disappointed. At that time I dubbed the post Emerald Part I, so there had to be a part 2, correct? But it took us nearly eight months to recover from our lousy Dim Sum experience.
Now prior to our last visit Emerald had been re-opened for a month after a vent fire; and we figured that any service and food issues would have been resolved. We were badly mistaken. But since we’ve had a history of good fairly good meals(by San Diego standards) at Emerald, we were drawn back on a recent weekday lunch hour. We got to Emerald at about 1115, and the place was empty except for one table.
But, those Dim Sum carts were ready to go. And as soon as we were seated they zoomed over to our table. We started with one of my old favorites here; the tripe. On my last visit, it lacked the rich flavor and the "zip" that the chilies added. But here was my old favorite back to form(you can compare with our previous visit).
The flavor was still not as rich as I remember, but this was so much better.
The Steamed Bean Curd Roll was quite good. The broth was full of flavor, and there was lots of tasty pork in the roll. Not enough bamboo shoots and cloud ears for my taste. But the broth was so very good.
Har Gow. We usually don’t order these, but the Har Gow were very good. The wrappers had just the right amount of "pull". The shrimp had a nice flavor as well.
The Shrimp Dumplings suffered from brittle wrapper syndrome, but the filling had a good balanced shrimp and green onion flavor. We enjoyed these.
Woo Gok, the Deep Fried Taro Balls. And this time the filling was more balanced, and without a strong bitter flavor from using too much taro.
Still, they leave a bit too be desired. Too cold, and too mushy, but at least not oily.
The Shark Fin Dumpling was not so great. The filling was very hard and tough, and I swear I bit into a toenail!!!!
Overall, overcooked, dry, and lacking in flavor.
The Shrimp and Scallop Dumpling.
No complaints, other then the top of the wrapper being too thick. Just average in flavor.
The Shrimp and Chive Fried Dumplings. Well, when I took a look at these mis-shapen and broken dumplings, the first thought that entered my mind was, "what kind of Chef would allow something like this to leave His kitchen?"
The wrappers were lousy, the filling very good; lots of pungent chive, and just the right amount of shrimp. Does it make up for the horrendously bad wrappers….
It looks like Emerald is back on our "list", and it’s a heck of alot closer then Pearl; though still not quite as good. But still, much improved over our last visit.
Emerald Seafood Restaurant
3709 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111