Dim Sum Disappointment 8/1/10

Yesterday, a few of us went into SF to see a performance of "The Magic Flute," and we planned to also stop in chinatown for dim sum. A friend touted "City View Restaurant" as the best dim sum around, and having not found a satisfactory place myself, I was willing to try something new. But I was wary. Intentionally sounding racist, my friend is white, and I questioned his authority on the quality of a dim sum place. I tried to keep an open mind, however and went into the restaurant ready to eat some of the best dim sum ever.

The wait at the door wasn't too long, though not having a hostess immediately on-hand was strange. My shrimp-sense began to tingle when I saw how clean the place was, followed by deep suspicion from the high non-Chinese to Chinese ratio. We were seated about 15 minutes later, and as to be expected, the carts immediately began to swarm.

We first got baked bbq pork buns, which was alright. Although they tasted fine, I was surprised by how small the buns were, and even more by how little actual pork was inside it, filled mostly with the sauce instead. Other carts came quickly, and I was surprised at how much non-traditional dim sum food there was, such as peking duck and orange chicken. Although there's nothing wrong with these dishes, I was fairly certain that this wasn't my traditional dim sum. I also found the selection somewhat lacking. All of the big ticket items, like shrimp dumplings, sticky rice, and rice noodle rolls made appearances, but I was hoping to find the stranger stuff as well, like tripe, greasy chicken feet, and other appendages.

When it came time for the bill, I was distinctly unsatisfied. We received more understuffed dumplings and sesame balls and small portions of rice, and there wasn't enough variety to continue to order other fun things. Although I'm aware that the kitchen tends to put out items on cycles, I couldn't quite forgive them for not having any fried turnip cake. The real kicker, however, was the check, which came out to roughly twice as much as I thought was fair for the portions and maybe a quarter more than I would've been fine with paying. That, of course, led to me to undertip even beyond my typically low percentage for Chinese restaurants and the poor service.

I considered completely panning the place in this review, but it's more fair to say that it simply didn't cater to me. Had I been looking for a clean place that serves Chinese-American dishes (which I freely admit can be very tasty) and was willing to pay for it, City View Restaurant would've been a great stop. I, however, was hoping for a cheap, filling, more varied dim sum, so consider my expectations unmet.