For Beep Beep’s 40th birthday, we went to New York. This is my second time in the Big Apple. This visit around, I was scammed, spat on and subjected to pornographic language. For this post, let’s listen to JAY-Z and Alicia Keys – Empire State of the Mind. As this was Beep Beep’s trip, I told her to pick all the restaurants and the itinerary. The restaurant she was most excited to try was Tim Ho Wan – the cheapest Michelin star restaurant in New York.
Bonnie Tandy Leblang - BITE OF THE BEST
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I’d been hearing a lot about Tim Ho Wan, the dim sum restaurant on 4th Avenue in the East Village that’s been called “the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant.” Tim Ho Wan is the first US location of the Hong Kong-based restaurant chain. One with legendary waits. I decided to venture there at opening time (10 am) midweek and wait, while reading my next book group book, that is if the lines were reasonable. I was so lucky as there were no lines; I was seated immediately.
I visited a dim-sum restaurant in New York called Tom Ho Wan, and I can honestly say it was the greatest dimsum i've ever had in my entire life. I'm normally not a huge fan of dim sum, but my aunt took me here because she was really craving it. When we first walked in, they said we had a 3-hour waiting period. However, we stuck around and not even 10 minutes later, they grabbed a table for us. Our waiter was a really nice handsome gentleman, and throughout the entire night he joked around with us and always had a great attitude with him. The food they served us was DELICIOUS! It was by far the BEST dimsum I have ever eaten in my entire life, hands down. The whole vibe in that restaurant was really nice, and this one french toast dessert they had was absolutely tasty. It still hurts me that I cant find it anywhere else because I really miss the taste of it!
I’ve been excited to try this Dim Sum spot, labelled as the ‘cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world‘, since it opened in December 2016. Horror stories of insanely long lines kept me away till now. I stopped by around 2pm on a Tuesday & was told that the wait would be 30 minutes. You can leave your number & they’ll send you a text when your table is nearly ready.
Last month New York received America’s first branch of Tim Ho Wan, a Hong Kong based Dim Sum specialist known to foodies as the “cheapest Michelin starred restaurant in the world.” As you can imagine with anywhere that includes the words “Michelin Starred” and “Cheap” the waits immediately became ridiculous. How bad is it? THW opens at 10 for lunch and 5 for dinner. Our designated line waiter (thanks NYCFoodFomo!) arrived in line at 9:15am, had his name taken at 10:15 only to have the three of us sit at one of the last lunch seatings at 1:15 PM. So currently think of dining at Tim Ho Wan as a half day commitment.
Wanted to try this place for a long time since their HK establishment has a Michelin rating. My expectations were lowered when someone told me it was t all that great. I would have to disagree. Their signature pork bun is really really good. The congee with pork and thousand year old egg was also perfectly seasoned. The crispy stuff they put on the top quickly goes soft if you don’t eat it quickly. The two dumpling we ordered were good. Although I’ve had better shrimp dumplings. The shrimp isn’t wow. The shrimp they use is a little underwhelming. They use the same shrimp in their rice rolls. Also meh. Their fried seseme balls were out of this world. Fantastic. Menu is a little limited. Would definitely visit again to try the rest of the menu and to have some of the stuff we enjoyed again.
Yummy.
Best har gow (clear skin shrimp dumpling ) in New York . The dumplings are fillings with whole shrimps, not chopped shrimp meats. 15% discount offered to any one with student ID.
A good dim sum place for a quick and affordable lunch. The place is not big, and the service is quick. They have a small menu to choose your dim sum from. They are known for their roast pork buns, but keep in mind, this is not exactly the same as the ones you found in Chinatown. The food is clean and decent, and I came a few times. The quality is consistent as well!
Hands down one of the better dim sum place in NY. Highly recommend stopping by Tim Ho Wan if you’re in the area. It’s a one star Michelin rated restaurant! A very affordable Michelin restaurant for sure. We waited about 20 minutes for a table after putting our name down. Their baked BBQ pork buns, sticky rice and braised chicken feet were the highlight. I can’t wait to come back to NY to visit Tim Ho Wan again!
You’ll be able to enjoy this better when you don’t think of this as a traditional dim sum place.
They have a super small menu. The standouts include the BBQ pork buns, the sticky rice in lotus leaf, the turnip cake and, to our group’s surprise, the steamed egg cake. We also liked their bean curd rolls and green tea sesame balls, but not so much the more traditional dim sum dishes, such as har gow, siu mai, and the various rice rolls — we knew people don’t think highly of those at this place, but still had to find out for ourselves.
Food was delicious! Favorites are the shrimp dim sums, braised pork, sesame balls. The dry sake was smooth.
The baked bbq pork buns are insane, definitely get at least one order. You really can’t go wrong with whatever you order, and the service is very quick.
The crispy bbq pork buns are still the best. The rest like shui mai (pork dumpling), sticky rice in lotus leaf and rice rolls are good. Har gow (shrimp dumpling) is ok because the skin breaks easily and the shrimp dropped even before reaching my plate. The chilli oil wonton you can skip. Its tasteless and wheres the chilli oil that give the spiciness?
We already know how good Tim ho wan is and this place never disappoint. Not a whole lot of varieties compared to ither dim sum places but they do it right. Everything on the menu we had tried before and they are always good and consistent. Price is very reasonable. Please consider opening a store in Minnesota :)
Perfect place for Dim sum and experience of Chinese food culture! Great for anyone who wants to try something different and fun!
Some tips:
1. They don’t have online reservations, so come and have your name sign up in their system first. Usually takes about 30 min. Everyone needs to present to be seated.
2. Waiting area is extremely small. So, go the the Strand bookstore while waiting!
3. Ask for a paper menu, explore and check the food first. This will save you some time later!
4. The chef special is on the blackboard on the left side of the entrance.
5. Their food is prepared fresh daily, cook to order
6. They have vegetarian options. I believe most food is not gluten-free, because of the usage of soy sauce.
7. We, a group of four ordered 80% of the menu, and the price is $110 without tip. We’re pretty full, the price is reasonable.
Would recommend to my friends who visit New York. 😍
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