We recently had a hankering for Dim Sum, and during the course of one week revisited a few places we've posted on before. So I'll keep the verbage to a minimum.
Silver Ark
*** Silver Ark has closed
I recently received an email from "TerryY" telling me that Silver Ark had a new Dim Sum Chef, and that the prices had been lowered for some items. I recently had a weekday off, and we happened to be in the area. Like a previous visit we arrived on the late side(130pm), so I took that into consideration while eating.
Due to our late arrival there was only one cart, and a fairly limited selection. One lady wanted Char Siu Bao, and was told it would be a 15 minute wait.
Here's what we got. The Shrimp and Chive Har Gow:
Unfortunately, these were cold, and the wrappers too thick. Nice flavor, though.
Bean Curd Roll.
This was served piping hot, and overall was probably one of the better items we had. Nice flavor, moist, great textures.
Shrimp and green onion dumpling.
This was also pretty cold, the wrapper was too brittle, though again the flavors were decent.
Shrimp Cheong Fun(this was a "special" $1.99 – thanks for the recommendation Terry).
Noodle a bit too thick and gummy, very large shrimp, sauce too watery, but not too bad.
We tried finding something else we liked, but the selection was on the scarce side, so we finished up with Har Gow:
Not bad, at least these were hot. Nice plump shrimp, wrappers were a bit too thick.
Still, all of this came out to just $13, with tea. Not bad at all! To be fair, the room is on the smaller side, and we arrived a bit late in the day, so I think a revisit on a weekend is in order. The service at Silver Ark, has always been very nice and accommodating, and that's one of the reasons we'll keep coming back.
Silver Ark
8993 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Jasmine
For some reason, that same weekend the Missus had a craving for Dim Sum……and wanted to go back to Jasmine again. On this Saturday morning, we decided it to give it a go mainly because it was early enough (10am) to beat the crowds. As we entered, Jasmine was fairly empty, and we were whisked away to our table without a word, and water and hot tea were silently delivered(this will be interesting later on). Soon enough the carts arrived, and though the selection was not as large as during peak periods, the Cart Ladies were in a good mood, smiling and even somewhat chatty. And we started on our way.
The Tripe.
Possibly the best item of the day. The tripe was crunchy, yet not hard, the flavor was a nice condensed chicken and mild ginger. I usually enjoy a little chili in my tripe, but this was very good.
Shrimp Cheong Fun.
The Cheong Fun was excellent, neither too thick, nor too thin, soft and velvety. The shrimp may have been on the small side, but the sauce was just about perfect, not too sweet, not too salty. Good stuff, best I've had in a long time.
The Pei Dan Jook(Congee with Duck Egg).
Singularly, the most bland, boring, and thin Jook I've had in a long time. Very, very runny, with hardly any preserved duck egg in it.
The Dried Scallop Jook with Xiao Long Bao.
If there was something even blander than the previous dish, this was it. It was not as thin and runny, though there was barely a whisper of scallop flavor. And when will I learn…never order Xiao Long Bao in a Dim Sum restaurant? Barely any soup, the filling tasted like regular pork dumpling filling.
Chicken Feet.
These "jumbo size 13 chicken feet" were well flavored, with just a touch of chili. The skin was soft, and perfect for sucking all the good connective tissue and such. The size of these made me wonder if they are now raising specially bred chickens just for their feet!
About this time it started getting a bit more crowded, and you could start to feel a palpable tension in the air. The Cart Ladies had also started getting a bit more testy, as in, when asked about a certain dumpling, they'd reply…."it seafood, it all seafood, okay!!!"
Well the Bean Curd Roll was "not" seafood.
The broth was fabulous, but the bean curd was on the hard side. It was also falling apart, and a bit messy.
The Shrimp and Chive Dumpling.
Dry wrapper, but very nicely flavored filling.
The Shrimp Dumpling.
The shrimp in these were very large, and the flavor excellent. But just as on our last visit the wrappers were really gummy and stuck to every thing. Hey, isn't this where I came in last time?
All in all, not bad. The damage? $33. Here's an interesting tidbit, I noticed that every table had tea delivered to it whether it was ordered or not. We had tea and ice water delivered without asking, it just arrived. Now we would have ordered tea, but I thought that was interesting, mainly because most Dim Sum restaurants in San Diego would ask if you wanted tea. Even more interesting was an automatic $1 charge per person for tea. So tea is automatically delivered, and you automatically pay. I have no problem paying for tea, mind you, I expect to be charged. In this day and age, not everyone has tea with Dim Sum, so I've always noticed that Dim Sum restaurants in San Diego ask if you want tea, or even better what kind of tea you want with your meal. Or maybe this is just the first time I've noticed?
Service was professional, if a bit curt, but I expect that from Jasmine.
Jasmine Seafood Restaurant
4609 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
My previous post on Jasmine can be found here.