Dim Sum Dynasty: Ridgewood, NJ

I'll be the first to admit that it took me a while to jump on the Dim Sum Dynasty bandwagon.  Our early experiences there were limited to delivery, and were mediocre. At that point the dim sum menu may not have been well established, or at the very least it wasn't clear to us that dim sum is what you should order at a restaurant called "Dim Sum Dynasty." 

The menu at that time, and even now to some extent, has some excellent gems interspersed with what I would consider standard Americanized Chinese dishes, albeit Americanized dishes done decently enough.  I don't care about those dishes, so it did take a while to fish out the good stuff.  And the bulk of the good stuff is most definitely the dim sum.  Dim Sum Dynasty has some of the best dim sum that I've every had, though I haven't had much (shhhhh...), aside from a few outstanding experiences at  Chinatown Brasserie in NYC.

Some recent dishes included:

Ha Gao (steamed shrimp dumplings) (pictured above)

I'm not sure how they get so much shrimp inside of these delicate wrappers.  But they do, and you should thank them.

Snow pea shoot dumplings.   Most excellent.

Duck crepes.  Rich and delicious, with the familiar taste of:  chicken chow mein.  What can I tell ya.  Outstanding.

Spring Rolls with pork and veggies.  Just OK, as expected.

Shrimp wrapped in bacon.  Pretty good. 

Beef balls.  Very good meatballs, for lack of a better description.  Probably wouldn't get them again.

Also highly recommended are any of the chinese greens (ask what they have special or fresh that day, as some are seasonal), and any lobster special "Hong Kong style."

Dim Sum Dynasty, like our friends at Hunan Villa in Ridgewood, specializes in Hong Kong style cuisine, setting it apart from the incredible and awesome China 46 in Ridgefield, whose forte is Shanghai.   Your choices should be sympathetic to that fact.

Prices of seafood can run pretty high here.  But, I think, you're getting a quality product.  Whole fish are probably upwards of 30 bucks.  Some vegetable dishes (like snow pea pods) are about 13 bucks.  If you're on a budget, you can get away with ordering a bunch of dim sum (available all day every day).  Six orders will sate 2 normal-sized appetites, at about 35 bucks.  For the quality, that's quite a deal.

Dim Sum Dynasty : 75 Franklin Ave : Ridgewood, NJ : 201.652.0615

Comments

[Hank]

After reading the post about Dim Sum Dynasty we decided to go since Dim Sum is one of our favorite ways to eat Chinese food. My wife and I ordered 5 Dim Sum and a scallion pancake from the regular menu. That was a big mistake as it was very oily, and much too chewy. We left most of it. Of the 5 Dim Sum dishes 4 were excellent while the 5th, a vegetable dumpling was outright horrible. Thick, tough dough and completly tasteless. Of 4 generous pieces 3 and 1/2 went back. No one cared to know why. I must say that the turnip cake was probably one of the best renditions we have ever had and will gladly go back just for that and the other 4 dishes. But, it will not replace my trips to Gum Fung in Flushing which I consider far better.

[DHL]

I would recommend China Chef in Secaucus, NJ because the taste is great and the prices are extremely reasonable (cheap). I do prefer the tripe at Dim Sum Dynasty, but the overall satisfaction/price goes to China Chef. Fyi... I'm asian.

[chefdave]

We got take out from there last night (I know...a real wing-ding of a Christmas dinner), and I have to say that we were pretty impressed. We decided to give it a second try, after a first experience that was somewhat lacking, and I'm glad we did. Some notes.....

First of all, agreeing with Tommy's assertion that Dim Sum is best consumed on site rather than as take out, we stuck with mostly traditional Chinese-American grub.

Don't bother with the Hot and Sour Soup....well "chicken" hot and sour, to be precise. And I think that's why it wasn't as good as other's I've had. There was no pleasing pork background to anchor the other flavors. And as we all know, pork tastes good.

The chicken with cashews (a failed attempt to molify my 3 year old) was actually among the best I've had. It was light on sticky-clingy sauce (a good thing) and a bit heavier with the fresh ginger (also a good thing). These combined to give the dish an unexpected brightness of flavor. It was also cooked properly, so the chicken wasn't dry and rubbery as it can sometimes be.

We also got the Duck in Plum Sauce (or maybe it was in "plum glaze"), both duck and plum sauce being favorites of mine. I was not disappointed. The only down side was that, since the duck was braised, the skin retained no crispiness, and often resulted in squishy duck fat. Damn tasty squishy duck fat, but squishy nonetheless.

Scallion Pancakes were flavorful, but a little on the tough side. The steamed veggie dumplings were aslo tasty, but the dumpling dough was a bit thick for my taste.

[tommyeats]

chefdave, Dim Sum Dynasty's Bejing-style pork chop is quite good as well. It's basically salt and pepper pork. It's *much* better onsite, but it's pretty decent at home as well, although not as crispy. It's also good cold. But it doesn't hold a candle to China 46's salt and pepper pork.

DSD's shrimp dumplimgs do travel well, as do their vegetables.

[bfromthewood]

Dim Sum Dynasty - really bad chicken satay, i did not know it was possible to imbue overly rubbery chicken strips with the flavor of cheap cooking oil - wow a unique and entirely unexpected flavor combination - this place deserves a major pass, however the poor service, greasy spring rolls and generally bad other dim sum make the name of this place surprising - it should be dim chef.

[tommyeats]

i don't know that i'd order chicken satay at a restaurant that clearly specializes in dim sum. try the Thai restaurants in town if that's your thing.

Dim Sum Dynasty is a quite decent restaurant, and they excel at dim sum. Ordering right, as with most restaurants, is key to getting the most out of it. After all, most restaurants have to appeal to the lowest common denominator just to stay in business. Sifting through the crap is key, unless you want to eat like everyone else.

Good luck!

[chefdave]

Oddly, we order take out from there again tonight (the in-laws are in town and they can't get good Chinese in their part of the country) Among the otherwise standard dishes that the rest of the family ordered, I tried the crispy calamari with cashews. Not a bad dish, and it held up surprisingly well as a to-go item. The calamari was properly fried, tender, and well seasoned. But it wasn't as intering a dish as I was hoping for. Ultimately it wasn't really very different from any fried calamari that you get in any italian restaurant. But the being said, it was pretty tasty.

[Lutece]

The dim sun here is excellent. They also changed the uncomfortable hard chairs and now have booths. We went yesterday for the first time in awhile and everything was just great. The crab meat money bags are just to die for. The taro root with chunks of shrimp inside was great as were the shrimp and snow pea dumplings. Very authentic, excellent and as good as anywhere in nyc , chinatown and flushing included. Best lunch in Ridgewood on the weekend.

[tommyeats]

We order dim sum and vegetables from here quite a bit.

I have to disagree regarding the new booths. They are insanely uncomfortable. They are set way too far from the table. If you weigh 400 lbs I'm sure it's fine, but at my slim 230, I find that I have to on the edge of the bench.

It's much easier to find comfortable chairs than comfortable booths. I wish they had gone that direction.

[david&yansi]

Great alternative to driving to Chinatown. Trick to having a great experience is patience. First time I went hugry and filled up whatever came out first. Chinese broccoli, clams in garlic and soy, crispy calamari and all of the steamed dumplings are great!
Pork bun average. Deep fried dishes, such as spring rolls, shrimp balls just ok. Plan to spend a relaxing afternoon and you will have a great meal without the parking and traffic of NYC!