Dim Sum Palace

After watching Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, we wanted to grab some late dinner.  That wouldn't be a problem in the Theater District as there are plenty of places open late.  We ended up heading to Dim Sum Palace, only a couple of blocks from our hotel.  As its name suggests, they serve Dim Sum and in fact, it is all day!  Unlike some other all-day Dim Sum spots we've been to, this one maintains the same price all day.  It was quite busy and we were lucky to snag a table.  The service is rather efficient, with our water glasses never being empty.

To get a sense of the menu, we went for the Palace Dim Sum Platter consisting of 8 different dumplings.  These included Shrimp, Shrimp & Chive, Roast Duck, Pea Shoot, Veggie, Chicken, Pork & Chive and Shrimp with mayo.  The best of the bunch was the duck dumpling as the translucent wrapper was full of glutinous rice texture that was chewy in a good way.  Loved the duck too, tender and meaty.

 

Since the dumpling combo didn't include the Shrimp & Pork Siu Mai, we just had to get an order of it.  Although I would've preferred that the tobiko be placed on the siu mai after steaming, the dumplings ate well.  There was a buttery bounce texture to the pork and a snap to the shrimp.  A bit of brininess from the shrimp and tobiko added another layer of flavor to the pork filling.

 

Just by looking at the picture above, you will notice the ribbons of thin sheets of rice noodle.  Hence, the Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll was on point.  The rice noodle was silky and delicate while still having a rebounding elasticity.  Inside, the large shrimp were the proper texture being meaty but having a rebound texture.  They were sweet and had a natural brininess. 

 

Looking abnormally plump, the Steamed Chicken Feet were a bit hit and miss.  I thought the outside layer of skin was not fried enough, and hence was too soft and almost flabby.  However, the totality of the chicken foot was texturally-pleasing.  The fat and cartilage underneath were tender while not melting away.  As mentioned, these were plump, which meant there was more to eat off the bone.  Flavor was quite good being sweet and savoury with just the slightest of spice.

 

Portion size-wise, the Steamed Honeycomb Tripe was pretty meager.  There should have been half more on the plate.  In terms of texture, these were on the chewier side and could've used a bit more time on the braise (prior to steaming).  Nice flavor for the dish as the tripe had been cleaned properly and hence, it wasn't gamy.  Good balance of sweet and savoury.

Despite looking rather pale, the Steamed Steamed Pork Spareribs with black olive sauce were on point.  Almost all of the pieces were meaty with very little fat and cartilage.  Texturally, there was the desired bounce to the meat while still being meaty and not over-tenderized.  The "sauce" was quite fatty (as in completely made of oil), but the spareribs did have enough seasoning in terms of saltiness.

 

Since we wanted some leftovers, we got the always filling BBQ Pork Buns.  As evidenced in the picture above, there was a good filling to bun ratio where we had more than enough meat.  The slices of BBQ pork were fairly lean with only a few fatty bits.  Filling was saucy, but that made for a more moist texture combined with the fluffy bun.  Naturally, it tasted sweet, but it was still balanced off by saltiness too.

 

I really should have taken a picture with the Roast Duck Spring Rolls cut, but I wanted to eat them hot and not mess around too much.  I enjoyed these as the filling was not the usual pork nor shrimp.  Rather, the shredded duck add plenty of body and texture while it tasty unmistakably "ducky".  These were wound somewhat tight, hence they stayed intact even after our first bites.  The outer wheat wrapper was crunchy and not too greasy.

 

Ending off our late night Dim Sum adventure, we went for the Coconut Pudding.  It was served in a plastic container rather than in squares.  So we ended up eating this with a spoon and it was pretty silky and smooth.  I thought it was lightly sweet and plenty aromatic.  With all things considered, we felt Dim Sum Palace offered up decent eats at reasonable prices.  Loved that they serve it all day, including late night.  Perfect for a bite after a show nearby.

The Good:

- Decent eats

- Okay pricing

- Open late

The Bad:

- Obviously better Dim Sum could be had in Flushing, but we have to consider the location

24 Suns

Hoping to try something a bit more elevated while we were in Oceanside, we found out about 24 Suns.  This place is Michelin-recommended and features a mainly Chinese menu with some French influences.  There is also a tasting menu available that shows off the Chefs Nic Webber and Jacob Jordan's fine-dining training and time at Michelin 3-Star Addison in San Diego.

Our Asian gastronomical journey started with a small bite in the form of Shrimp Toast.  This was quite good where the shrimp mousse was light and airy with an appealing rebound texture.  Nice balance between sweet and salty while still having a natural shrimp brininess.  Unlike many versions of shrimp toast, this was not greasy, yet still was uniformly crispy on the bottom.  Nice start to the meal.

From the small bite, we moved onto a collection of snacks that included Hibiscus Jellyfish.  It was light and buttery with a bit of crunch.  Flavors were bright and lightly-seasoned.  Below and to the left, we found Chilled White Fungus with young bamboo.  This was a subtle dish that focused on textures.  The white fungus had a light crunch while the young bamboo mirrored that.  The brightness of the celery juice paired well.  Finally, the Oyster Yuba Salad featured the delicately chewy texture of tofu skin.  There was brininess, sweetness and a touch of spice from the Fresnos.

With an array of lively colors, the Yi Sangh or Prosperity Salad (also known as Lo Hei) featured trout belly and kanpachi alongside fruits and veggies.  There was some ikura, chia seeds and 3-year umeboshi.  When combined altogether, we had a wide range of flavors and textures.  Things were bright, sweet and a bit tangy as well as brininess with a bit of spicy bitterness too. 

Sitting in a fermented habanada butter sauce, we found two scallop and pork Siu Mai.  Since they used scallop rather than shrimp, the bounce texture was more subtle and softer.  I thought the dumpling was rather airy rather than dense, which made it extremely easy to eat.  With a dab of finger lime on top, it added the necessary tartness and citrus to the dish.  The star of the show was the sauce as it was sweet and aromatic without being too spicy.

Hitting all of the Chinese classics, we were served a version of the classic Turnip Cake.  This was a fairly large piece that was not a one-biter.  There was some shrimp in there to give it some body and meaty snap.  The texture of the turnip cake itself was somewhat soft with just a small bite.  This was battered and deep fried, which added a textural contrast.  On top, we found some briny XO sauce as well as some green garlic, celery tops, parsley and dill.  With all things combined, we got herbaceousness, bitterness, spice and brightness.  This went a long way in lightening things up from the deep fried turnip cake.

One dish we had that wasn't exactly Asian (but still had some influences) was the Lotus-wrapped Trout.  This was sous-vide where its appearance looked raw, but it was cooked.  Hence, the texture was super buttery and tender. It sat in a coconut fennel fumet which was full of natural fish sweetness and aromatics from the coconut.  Some Sichuan chili added just a slight kick at the end.

One of the most interesting dishes was the Claypot Chili Eggplant.  You can't see it in the picture, but believe me, the claypot was smoking hot.  Hence, the smokiness was definitely there.  Those eggplant-stuffed squash blossoms were full of spicy, saltiness, umaminess and tang.  On the side, we found Youtiao which were crunchy and topped with tuna sugar.  We didn't think it needed the sugar for this application though.

We were each served a mini-sized Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup.  This was pretty good with chewy noodles sitting in a flavorful broth that had umami and aromatics.  It wasn't salty which was good.  The best part of the dish was the large piece of super tender smoked short rib topped with chiu chow sauce.  Hence, we got a combination of smokiness, spice and garlickiness.

The most interestingly-plated dish was the Cigarette & Coffee.  Cleverly constructed, the "cigarette" was actually stuffed with coffee-braised duck.  These were crunchy whereas the duck was tender with smokiness and depth.  On the side, we found a duck jus latte that was intensely rich, tangy, sweet and spicy. There was some viscosity to go with the silkiness.  Loved the creativity with this one.

Our palate cleanser or pre-dessert was the the Mandarin Ice served in their cute little half rinds.  Totally refreshing and only lightly-sweet, the flavor was unmistakable Mandarin orange.  Really helped levelled things off from the full-flavoured and mostly spicy items we had so far.  Oh and these were sitting literally on ice that was set on the plate.

Our last item was the Budino featuring butterscotch pudding with chocolate ganache and cream.  Really enjoyed the silky and thick ganache which paired well with the sweet and buttery pudding.  The addition of black sesame really changed things up with nuttiness.  Loved that this was not very sweet, which was the nod to Asian desserts.  Overall, we thought 24 Suns was a fun and interesting meal.  Sure, you need to be good with the creative license they have over specific Chinese dishes in order to enjoy your meal.  I went in with an open mind and thought this was pretty solid.

The Good:

- A nice cache of courses

- Solid execution

- Excellent service

The Bad:

- If you are a stickler for what a dish should be, then you might not be the target audience

King Noodle

Coming off a decent meal at Northern Dumpling House in Kirkland, we had not totally satisfied out Asian food cravings after a week aboard the NCL Bliss.  So we considered going to V Star Buffet which used to be Lucky Buffet (we visited when it was that).  However, since we just came from a cruise, it was probably not the best idea to pig out on more mediocre food.  So the next course of action was to hit up a moderately-priced spot that featured made-to-order hand made Chinese noodles.  That place was the highly rated King Noodle on Yelp.

We started off with the Seafood Hand-Shaven Noodles which was a huge portion.  Although picking seafood was not the optimal way of maximizing the texture of the noodle, it was still a good dish.  Chewy and exhibiting great mouth feel, the fresh noodle was on point.  As mentioned, the seafood didn't add a whole lot of body nor carmelization (due to the moisture) to the dish.  Along the same lines, we had the Shrimp with Snow Peas.  Now this dish had enough caramelization from the ample wok heat.  Hence, there was more impact.  As you can see, the veggies were vibrant and they were still crunchy.  The shrimp was just as good as the noodle dish being large and meaty with a sweet snap.

Onto something soupy, we had the Build-Your-Own Noodles.  We selected hand-pulled noodles with BBQ duck and beef, These thin noodles were slippery and al dente.  We found the soup to have enough seasoning but lacked depth.  There was enough BBQ duck and beef (even though you can't see it) for the portion size.  Our last noodle dish was the Singapore Fried Noodles and it was quite flavorful.  Plenty of caramelized curry essence combined with a good amount of seasoning.  The noodles were a bit wet, but not clumpy though.  There was more than enough ingredients that we hardly had any bite without some.  Once again, this was a large portion and we barely finished it.

One more dish, we had the General Tso's Chicken and it was a miss in my opinion.  This was drowning in far too much sauce which was also way too sweet.  Yes, it is supposed to be sweet and spicy, but the heat was completely lost due to the sugar content.  The chunks of chicken were fairly most though and it did sport a light crunch despite the amount of sauce.  As you can see, the noodles are the draw here and they were quite good.  Prices are very reasonable bordering on cheap.  Combine that large portion sizes and nice people, this place does the job for most people.  

The Good:
- Good hand-made noodles
- Inexpensive
- Large portions

The Bad:
- General Tso's Chicken was meh
- Inconsistent wok heat

Feast Buffet (Dinner)

Before we get into this post, I would like to state that I much prefer proper sit-down meals rather than sloshing through mounds of mediocre food found at a buffet.  Okay, with that out-of-the-way (and hopefully silencing some haters), I do admit that the occasional all-you-can-eat meal can be fun and offer up a selection of food that even the most bountiful of meals cannot match.  One of the better AYCE spots in the Seattle area is Feast Buffet in Renton.  I've been here before several times for lunch but never for dinner.  This time around, it was as good as any other time to experience the difference between the two (other than the price $26.99 vs. $31.99 adult weekend lunch vs. dinner).

The biggest difference was very obvious when we were seated.  All we had to do was look over to the Seafood section of the buffet where there was a long lineup.  This was for the Half-Lobsters which were served individually to diners by a staff member.  Yes, I wouldn't trust anyone with a tray of lobsters either!   You know what?  These were actually quite good.  Yeah yeah, I know they were of the frozen variety.  They still had a bouncy meaty texture to them and were not overcooked.   In addition to the lobster, we also found Snow Crab Legs, Fried Shrimp, Mussels and Fried Fish as well as Black Bean Clams.  The best of the bunch was the plump clams and surprisingly, the snow crab.  It was fairly meaty and had a springy texture (even though we know they were also frozen).  To get you money's worth, it really was all about the lobster though.

One of the largest and most popular food stations is the Sushi and Sashimi.  I believe Feast boasts the largest selection in the Seattle area (maybe Mizuki comes close).  The main difference between lunch and dinner is pretty obvious with one quick scan of the station - much bigger selection of sashimi.  We found salmon, tuna, hokkigai, hotate, unagi, red tuna and tai.  Although no one can ever compare buffet sashimi to the expertly prepared variety at legit Japanese restaurants, these ate fresh and were fine texturally.  The variety of Nigiri was also more extensive compared to lunch with hotate, hokkigai, salmon, tuna, unagi, tai, seared salmon, tako and inari.  Again, considering the venue, I thought the rice was acceptable.  Yes, it was a bit dry and lacking in seasoning, but it wasn't terrible either.  As evidenced in the picture, the fish on top was vibrant in colour with a fresh sheen.  Not the best, yet certainly not bad either.  To round things out, there was a selection of "California-roll" based Maki Sushi as well as tempura and condiments.

With the cooked food, there was plenty to choose from, but I decided to hit up the Chinese and Dim Sum stations first.  If we were to compare the dim sum here with what we would normally find in a regular restaurant, some items were respectable.  Their chicken feet must be from gigantic chickens because they were extremely plump.  As such, there was plenty of soft cartilage and fat underneath the fried skin.  Tripe was tender while the spareribs were meaty.  I wasn't impressed with the Shrimp Dumplings and Siu Mai though.  Both were dry and lifeless.  I decided to try some of the Chinese food in the Broccoli Beef, Honey Shrimp and Sweet & Sour Pork.  Pretty typical North American-style Chinese food.  At least they didn't overcook the broccoli.

Other than the seafood, the one station that does it for me would've been the Mongolian Grill.  Yes, it ain't the sexiest food nor is it particularly the most "worth it", but I enjoyed the freshness.  With an array of choices for vegetables, noodles and meat, one can have a customized plate food.  Only problem is that it will fill you up really quickly.   They did a good job here where the noodles were still al dente and the veggies crunchy.  Shrimp was bouncy while the steak was surprisingly tender and well-charred.  This is best shared amongst a few people.  One needs to save room for more variety!  Only issue is that you have to wait there for it to be done.  I saw some people leave, but then your dish could be hijacked or waiting there getting cold.

One of the most disappointing stations was the Carvery.  For the pricing, one would expect more than mashed potatoes, sausage, ribs and roast beef.  I mean, not that anything was necessarily bad, it just wasn't that important to eat.  That is the complete opposite of most buffets where we would find chicken and/or turkey, ham, prime rib and the sort.  Making up for this was the massive Dessert Bar where it occupied the whole center of the buffet.  Not that anything was amazing, but the variety was good.  In addition to cakes and little bites, we found fruit, a chocolate fountain, hard ice cream, made-to-order crepes and a Taiwanese shaved ice station.  Now if I had to choose between the lunch or dinner service, I would pick lunch hands-down (especially on the weekdays, if you can make it).  The extra cost for dinner is just not worth it for a few more items.  With all that being said, Feast doesn't do everything well, but for a buffet, it does it well enough in relation to everyone else.

The Good:
- Lots of choice
- Decent Japanese food station
- Relatively reasonable price for weekday lunch

The Bad:
- Carvery is embarassing
- Dinner is hardly worth it

Elite

On my last visit to LA, it was all about the kiddies and a multi-day visit to Disneyland and then subsequent day at Universal.  That left us with very little time to eat anything good and also limited us in terms of location.  Ultimately, we languished in family-friendly eats that wouldn't set any culinary world on fire.  Heck, we didn't even make it out to Monterey Park to try some of the best Dim Sum LA has to offer.  This time around, we did do Disney and Universal, but left plenty of time to wander.  Thus, we made our way to Elite to see how LA Dim Sum stacks up to that of Vancouver.

We ordered a bunch of the standards including the usual Ha Gau (Shrimp Dumplings) and Siu Mai (Pork and Shrimp Dumplings).  Sporting a medium-thick dumpling wrapper, the ha gau were quite good.  I found the wrapper to be a bit on the chewier side, but it had good elasticity and mouth-feel.  The filling was on point with meaty shrimp that had a sweet snap.  There was plenty of natural shrimp aroma left which was rather appealing in my opinion.  As for the siu mai, there was a nice rebound texture from the meaty pork and accompanying snap from the shrimp.  I would've liked to see a bit less pork fat as it was hard to chew.  The dumpling was mildly seasoned where I could definitely still taste the pork.

Instead of ordering just one rice noodle roll dish, we had both the Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll in addition to the Rice Noodles with Pork Spareribs.  Texturally, the shrimp rice noodle roll was on the thicker side and hence denser.  With that being said, it still featured elasticity which made it a satisfying chew.  In the middle, there were large pieces of shrimp that were similar to the ha gau where the natural flavour was dominant.  We found the rice noodle rolls with the spareribs to be more tender and softer.  They soaked up some of the garlicky pork rib juices as well as the sweetened soy.  The spareribs were meaty and tender with some bounce texture.  I found that there was just a bit too much fat for our liking.

Probably the most surprising items was the Phoenix Talons (Steamed Chicken Feet) as they were some of the biggest claws we've ever seen.  Not only that, but they were prepared flawlessly.  Deep fried with a slightly chewy exterior, it gave way to buttery cartilage and fat.  Despite being soft, the chicken feet stayed intact and were super plump.  Flavor-wise, there was a good balance of sweet, saltiness and garlickiness with some spice.  For our offal selection, we had the Steamed Beef Bible Tripe with green onion and ginger.  This was pretty textbook with mild flavours while the tripe was properly cleaned (not gamy).  Texturally, the tripe had a good chew while being tender.  We only wished they didn't cut some of it into little bits.

Looking pretty pink in the middle, the Beef Meatballs may have looked raw, but that wasn't the case at all.  Whenever the beef is processed along with baking soda, it tends to have a particular color even when cooked through.  Texturally, these were a bit denser and meatier than I would've liked, but there was still the classic rebound with each bite.  I thought they were bang-on with the cilantro where there was only a bit for effect.  Plenty of water chestnuts for an extra crunch.  Unlike some of the other versions we've had, the XO Daikon Cake was rather greasy and saucy.  It was still the right texture being buttery soft while not falling apart.  There was good spice from the XO, but as mentioned, too much oil.

Sporting a fairly thick layer of glutinous rice, the Deep Fried Glutinous Dumplings were pretty good.  Outside was crispy and not overly greasy while there was enough filling in each bite.  I'm never a fan of adding cilantro to the ground pork filling and this one did just that.  Too pungent in my opinion and overwhelming.  Also, they could've lightened up with the pork fat as well.  As usual, we also ordered the Steamed BBQ Pork Buns, which were also textbook.  Beyond the fluffy bun itself, the filling featured fairly lean BBQ pork.  It wasn't as saucy as some other versions I've had, yet it was hardly dry either.  We felt the glaze was nicely balanced between sweet and savory.

For dessert, we got the Pineapple Buns filled with a mashed pineapple custard.  The best part of the bun was its texture as it was soft, fluffy and light.  It was almost like biting into a cloud (if we could eat clouds that is).  Inside, the pineapple filling was more sweet than pineapple tasting.  There were some intermittent chunks though.  Overall, we thought the dim sum at Elite was generally good.  It was more traditional than modern and that could be said about the decor as well.

The Good:

- Solid eats

- Decent service

- Well-portioned

The Bad:

- Pretty standard, nothing modern

- Decor could use a refresh

BK's Bistro

To be honest, I really didn't have a whole lot planned in terms of food for my 2 days in Fremont.  It was mainly just to visit with relatives and hang out.  But I did have one request - to have Dim Sum at BK's Bistro.  Why?  Well, first of all, I didn't want to go to Mayflower for the 10th time and second, I needed to load up on Chinese food before the next part of the road trip.  However, I did have some lined up for LA...  Whatever the case, I wanted Chinese comfort food before all of the roadside diners I would encounter later.

We couldn't get anymore comforting than some congee, so we started with the Sliced Chicken Congee.  Now as you can see, congee isn't the sexiest thing to take pictures of.  If you put white-on-white, it just looks washed out.  Pictures aside, the congee was solid though albeit not as thick as I would've liked.  Despite this, there was still good viscosity and proper seasoning.  The chicken plentiful and tender.  A solid start to the meal.  Next, the Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll was pretty good as well.  Sporting a medium-thick rice noodle, the roll didn't eat as dense as it appeared.  The noodle was soft with some elasticity.  Inside, the large whole shrimp were meaty with a sweet snap.  There was plenty of sesame oil in the marinade for the shrimp.

The same thing could be said about the Ha Gau (Shrimp Dumplings) as the filling consisted of whole shrimp.  I had 2 of them and neither had smaller chunks of shrimp, they were all whole.  In fact, there was very little shrimp mousse binding the filling together (which made it rather loose).  Again, the sesame oil really came through.  It could be a bit strong for some people, but I enjoyed it.  One thing that could've been better was the dumpling wrapper as most of them were ripped.  That was due to the fact they were soft and too wet.  As for the Siu Mai (Shrimp & Pork Dumplings), they were well-executed.  Also a bit loose, the filling consisted of bouncy chunks of pork and whole shrimp.  There was a minor porkiness to it combined with the sweetness of the marinade.

Normally, I go on and on about Xiao Long Bao not being very good at Cantonese restaurants.  That is usually true because they do not specialize in this dish, but the ones here were decent.  Although the dumpling skin was on the thicker side, it was still delicate enough to not be overly doughy.  Inside, there was actually a good amount of soup, albeit too sweet and one note.  The pork filling was crumbly and loose, but tender.  Either it is a Bay Area thing or they do it differently at BK's, the XO Daikon Cake was a greasy mess.  Normally, I find the daikon cake cubed and deep fried, then tossed in XO sauce.  Here, it was panfried haphazardly and then doused with XO sauce (too much of the oil).  This was tasty with tender daikon cake and briny XO, but far too oily.

One of the stranger dishes was the Mango Shrimp Spring Roll.  Not only was there mango in the roll itself, the wrapper was much thinner and not as crispy as the typical spring roll wrapper.  Texturally, that wasn't all that appealing.  Inside, the theme of whole shrimp continued with an excellent filling.  It had much less sesame oil, which was a good thing (due to the addition of mango), yet at the same time had a bouncy texture.  We thought the mango was too sweet and totally dominated the flavour profile.  For the kiddies, they wanted the Steamed Spareribs with Rice Noodle.  Good choice as the spareribs were tender and well-seasoned.  They retained a meatiness and there was plenty of garlic.  However, it looked like they merely plopped on top an order of spareribs (in the shape of the original plate).

The kids also wanted the Lo Mei Gai (Sticky Rice wrapped in lotus leaves) and of course we ordered it.  It came as 2 medium-sized portions cut in half by scissors.  Inside, the sticky rice was a little on the drier side, but that didn't make or break the dish.  In fact, the equal amount of ground pork filling helped add the necessary moisture and flavoring for the dish.  To get some veggies into our diets, we ordered the Stir-Fried Water Spinach with fermented tofu.  This was expertly prepared where the wok hei was strong enough to cook the vegetable through without softening up the hollow stalks.  This also helped produce aroma from the fermented tofu, garlic and peppers.  The result was a texturally pleasing dish with the right amount of seasoning.

Onto 2 similarly shaped items, we were served the Wu Gock (Deep Fried Taro Dumplings) and Ham Siu Gock (Deep Fried Glutinous Rice Dumplings).   Sporting a relatively thin layer of mashed taro, the wu gock were not oily and plenty crispy.  Inside, the filling consisted of ground pork, shiitake and cilantro.  I thought it was probably a bit too saucy as it was spilling out.  The pork was tender and not overly fatty, but I wasn't sure cilantro was needed here as it was overwhelming.  The same filling was found in the ham siu gock and yes the same issues existed.  I did like the glutinous rice flour shell as it was semi-thick and sticky with a crunchy exterior.  It also wasn't too greasy.

Two more solid dishes arrived next in the Phoenix Talons (Steamed Chicken Feet) and Bean Curd Skin Rolls.  Cut lengthwise, the chicken feet were done just right.  I found that the deep fry was aggressive enough to create a certain chewiness on the exterior that gave way to tender skin and cartilage underneath.  There was more than enough seasoning to create an impact being sweet and garlicky.  I also thought the deep fry on the bean curd skin to be perfect as the colour and texture were on point.  The chewiness of the skin was a nice balance to the tender and bouncy pieces of pork.  Unlike some versions, there was just enough starch-thickened watered-down oyster sauce.

Ending things off, we had the BBQ Pork Buns and some more Baked BBQ Pork Buns to go.  Soft and fluffy with just the slightest chewiness on the exterior, the BBQ pork buns sported plenty of filling.  The sliced BBQ pork was mostly lean while sauced in a sweet and sticky glaze.  As for the baked buns, it sported a sweet sugary topping that was delicately crispy.  The bun itself could've been lighter and airy though.  Inside, the filling was the same as the steamed buns.  Overall, the dim sum at BK's Bistro was solid and in my opinion, better than the Mayflower.  Of course this is subjective, but at the very least, it was a good injection of Cantonese comfort food before all of the burgers and sandwiches we were to consume in the next 2 weeks.

The Good:
- Solid dim sum
- Okay service
- Good selection

The Bad:
- Limited seating, busy during peak times
- Some items were definitely better than others