To be fairly honest, I rarely venture to the other side of Bowery by Chatham Square, but as I was walking back to my place after eating with the family, I saw a rather interesting restaurant. First, the discrepency in that area was obvious: clean with an Asian minimalist look. Second, 24-HOUR DIMSUM??? (Well, for as long as they were open, actually.) After my doubletake, I thought to myself, this must be my potential heaven. This is what God would say to me: Behold my child, eat all the dimsum you possibly can and not get fat. (Although that does sound more like gluttony, doesn’t it…) Third, it seemed to cater mostly to foreigners.

So, one night I went with two of my friends at around 930-10pm, excited and rambling about the food I was going to order to stuff my face (I heard “fatass” thrown around a couple of times). We entered the place, and it was designed very simply; white walls adorned with mirrors and splashes of festive red throughout the place. Albeit small, it was rather homely. It was different from the other exuberant dimsum places where you have to yell for the person sitting next to you to hear what you’re saying. We sit, and there is a small piece of paper with a pencil next to it. Exciting, is it not? Revolutionizing the way dimsum is ordered! Instead of old women pushing the carts, yelling out what they’re coming around with, now all you need to know is how to read what you want to eat, and then: check it off, waiter takes it, food comes. Bing, bang, boom. Ah, the potential of education in China. Ah, China — efficiency at whatever cost, including food. The only problem I had, I shared with my father when we first saw this concept in beautiful, hot, shop-glorious Shenzhen: while my father couldn’t read the menu because he had contacts on and the characters were too small, I just can’t read at all, and I have no idea what the Chinese dishes are called in English.

I called over the waiter. May I also mention that when I first walked in, he spoke in English to me. Sure, fine, I mean, I get that all the time, it’s understandable. However, while his English was not perfect neither was it abysmal. I started telling him what I wanted, first ordering my favorite dish of all time: “Steamed Rice Roll with Beef” (as it so says on the menu, but I suppose it would be spelled like so: ow yuk churng. Forgive me in advance for the butchering of romanizing Cantonese!). He looked at me and said: No. He pointed to the menu where it said after 4pm, it would not be cooked anymore. Well, I thought, now I know what it is in English.

Blasphemy, I scream! No, I’m just kidding. I just hope the shock and disappointment in my eyes conveyed how I was feeling to him, but I doubt it since I just started ordering other things. Shrimp dumplings, spare ribs with black bean sauce, phoenix feet, chicken & sticky rice in lotus leaf, siew mai (I have no idea what it is in English, but it has pork and shrimp .. wrapped in something yellow ..). We didn’t order too much, but I must say that the service was very efficient. And the food was delicious, truly. It wasn’t one of those Americanized-Chinese places where the food is shitty and so is the service.

And then the bill came. Whoa, buddy. I, personally, thought it was rather expensive considering we ordered very little (though we did order double of almost everything ..). I don’t enjoy paying much money (who does, though), but I was a bit uncomfortable with the price. That was probably the only setback.And then the waiter came back to our table and gave us three small egg custards saying it was on the house. I don’t know if that happens after every meal, but I’ll make myself feel special and hope that it’s not customary.

Dim Sum Go Go
5 E Broadway
New York 10038
(Btwn Catherine St & Chatham Sq)

Food: A
Service: A-
Interior: A
Price: B (I’m still a little iffy)

Conclusion: Nice decor with a relaxed ambiance. A tourist spot. But you receive better service than the other places. If you want to risk it (concerning the prices), then go for it.

Over & out,T

Chatham Restaurant
9 Chatham Square
New York, NY

If you looking for cheap food, fast service, and don’t mind hanging with the old foggie studying OTB, Chatham Restaurant or Hop Shing is the place to go. The decor is out dated, there’s a brownish tint from the 60’s which I guess when business were booming. Now it’s mostly hangout for loyal morning seniors or occasional Gwai Lo that stops in for a bite. They make the typical dim sums such as, shrimp dumplings (ha gau), steamed dumplings, rice noodle rolls with soy sauce (cheong fun), chicken feet (fung zau), pork ball looking things (sui maai) and etc. Nothing surprising like the taste of the food. The chicken feet I ordered tasted dry, like it’s been left out for while. The sui maai was my favorite thing I ordered.

The check came out under $10, it feed two people AWESOME. Actually I wasn’t that hungry and it was late in the afternoon when there weren’t much dim sum cart being pushed out.

*People still spit the chicken bones onto the floor and their other trash too. Classic.