Oriental Garden

One of my favorite places for dim sum in Chinatown is Oriental Garden, right next to my other favorite place for dim sum, Jing Fong. The wait at Oriental Garden is usually a lot shorter AND the food is always served a lot hotter than Jing Fong. I always have to share tables (standard in Chinatown) but I don’t mind because the wait is never over 15 minutes:

I always order the same things when I go to dim sum – my standards include:

Turnip cakes:

Taro bird’s nests:

Pork meatballs with Worcestershire sauce:

Tripe (my favorite):

And a special type of rice:

My favorite is definitely a toss up between the tripe and the taro bird’s nests (they are awesome at Oriental Garden!) I missed out on all of the shrimp dumplings the last time I went because I filled up on all of the other yummy things before the shrimp came by! You have to be really careful at Chinese places – they come by with the dim sum and mark your bill as you pick things up (small, medium, or large order), but sometimes they mark the wrong size and try to trick you! It’s difficult to tell the sizes on some of the dishes, but when you go with someone that’s been to dim sum a lot, you can usually tell when you’re being overcharged. The food at Oriental Garden is definitely worth a visit – they also have a ton of seafood in their windows!