NO LONGER IN BUSINESS - Yea Dim Sum

Yea Dim Sum

277 Rupert Ave

R3B 0N5

204-505-0800

Fax:  204-505-0988

http://www.yeadimsum.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/YeaDimSum

April, 2013

For years, Dim Sum Garden sat at 277 Rupert but in the recent shuffle, now Dim Sum Garden resides at 268 King St and Yea Dim Sum sit at the Rupert location.  Their history sounds like a soap opera where someone owned something and then someone else took over, but then took it back—whatever, I’m just glad there’s a new dim sum restaurant in Chinatown. 

Picture your typical Chinese restaurant—you see some dragons and peacocks on the walls, a few golden cats with their paws raised and white garbage bags for tablecloths.  The garbage bag tablecloths survived but the makeover wiped out everything else.  Yea replaced the kitschy Chinese adornments with a modern and elegant purple, pink and white themed dining room.  Throw in some ultra-polite service and Yea already has two plusses over the typical Chinese joint (if you didn’t know, Chinese servers can be among the rudest in the business). 

Dim sum starts with an order sheet.  The carts don’t come out until business picks up so to be safe, they recommend marking our orders.  I like the hybrid service.  There are dim sum staples that I want every time, and the roaming carts offer the chance to top up or try something different. 

Among the staples, Yea makes the shrimp dumplings the traditional way, with mashed shrimp meat that’s a little too pink to be natural (the Chinese aren’t afraid to uncork the food colouring).  They taste nice but I would like to see a sliver of bamboo shoot to add some crunch.  The pork dumplings too could use a bit of jazzing up.  A lot of dim sum restaurants include a bit of shrimp to the pork dumplings to add depth and a little bit of adulteration to the pork would go a long way.  All of the dim sum come bite-sized, the way dim sum is meant to be.  I can hear my relatives chirping about wanting more for their buck, and calling the portions skimpy.  Dim sum is supposed to come in small packages so that you can sample a wide variety.  Somewhere down the road, my relatives lost that intent. 

The rice noodle dishes often come drenched in fat but Yea’s version tastes ditches the oil and still manages to maintain the smooth, velvety texture.  By contrast, the spare ribs swim in a pool of pork fat, glistening under the white light.  The black beans offer contrast but that’s all—they have little to no taste of their own.  There’s not much taste to these ribs and the last thing I need is to overload on fat during dim sum, so I’d stay away from this dish. 

Among the fried dishes, the Chinese pirogues are well made with little fat, good crunch and lots of beef stuffing.  The spring rolls also have beef stuffing, although the rough-cut beef tastes tough and stringy.  The roll is over-fried, partially blackened and desiccated.  They’re starting to remind me of my dogs’ rawhides so it’s time to move on.  In the which-one-doesn’t-belong category, the fried, honey basted chicken wings came out of the fryer in good time, yielding a gleaming and crispy skin.  The wings are small enough to be confused with squab wings, but the taste certainly isn’t small. 

A lot of restaurants serve the shrimp-stuffed green peppers with too much sickly sweet sauce smothering the shrimp.  Yea balances this creation nicely with just enough sweet sauce for an accent, just enough frying to give the shrimp a crunch, and just enough heat to leave the pepper al dente—very well made.  The pan-fried dumplings have the same crispy skin but there’s too much dough to goop ratio—more meat and less dough would make this a superior effort.

The huge, spicy steamed pork bun also makes too much use of dough and not enough stuffing.  Sadly, the stuffing that’s present tastes dense, hard, and hardly spicy.  If you want buns, try the baked, barbecued pork buns instead.  This bun has a nice amount of pink pork in a lightly baked bun that has a surprisingly crisp outside.  This is one of Yea’s best efforts.  The shark fin dumpling too has a crispy outside with a satisfying stuffing.  For those unaware, this dumpling is named shark fin because of its appearance, its semblance to a shark’s fin.  There is no shark fin meat or other shark product in this dish. 

Yea’s Dim Sum has some hits and misses.  Take your time, find out which ones  you like, and settle in for some good food.  Happy hour ($2.50 for all dishes) starts at 2 pm so if you search for a late lunch option, you can take advantage of the good prices too.

*** /5

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