royal china (chamblee, ga)

Dim sum. Touch the heart. Unfortunately for enthusiasts like me, Atlanta isn't exactly a town known for its dim sum. If you aren't familiar with these sumptuous delicacies, they're pretty much small, light dishes traveling around pushcarts that's served around brunch time. The Chinese equivalent (somewhat) to tapas if that helps. These small portioned dishes range from dumplings filled with seafood and meats, steamed pork buns, spareribs to the sinfully delicious Chinese doughnuts. In my quest to find the best dim sum in Atlanta, Chloe at ChowDownAtlanta steered me towards Royal China on a beautiful Sunday.

(prime seating, 3 tables away from where the dim sum route starts)

If there's one thing that you need to know, it's that you do NOT want to be that table stuck in the corner when food's rolling out of the kitchen. Why? You get the scraps. The unwanted leftovers. The rejects. The fat kids, nerds and losers from dodgeball that got picked last. So if your host/hostess directs you towards the corner, kindly refuse and ask for a different table, preferably one where the dim sum carts start off.

Royal China doesn't do a great job of impressing anyone with their shady exterior but the inside is pretty clean even when kids are running amok all over the place. If you're looking for a quiet brunch with the Sunday paper, this is not the restaurant for you. They do however, offer some tasty food so if you can get over the busy commotion and the wails/cries of needy creatures, this is the place for you.

 (siu mai - top left, har gow - top right, cheon fun - bottom)

I started off with the har gow (shrimp dumpling), cheong fun (rice noodle rolls) and siu mais. The har gow was good - thin skin, slightly chewy with a well cooked shrimp - ...but I got the short end of the stick as it was cold. That's what you get for getting the last basket which brings me to my next need to know: refuse and wait for the next batch if the dim sum cart is running low. You want the fresh, hot stuff not the reject cold ones like I ate. The cheong fun noodles were good too but I was pretty disappointed with the shrimp inside. I know they don't devein the shrimp anyways but all of mine were full of crap (you DID know that it's not an actual "vein"...right?) and really gritty. Maybe this plate was a bad batch. The siu mai was okay but I've had better. In terms of flavor, it was there but the meat was pretty tough.

The next batch were the spicy pork spareribs, lo mai gai (sticky rice), and the char siu baaus (pork bun). I didn't really care for the spicy pork spareribs. Greasy and bland. On the bright side, they were pretty tender. I suggest getting the black bean sprearibs if they offer it at Royal China. The lo mai gai...oh yes. This is my favorite dim sum dish my friends. Sticky, delicious rice filled with meats (pork and sausage in this case) and Chinese mushrooms all wrapped around an aromatic lotus leaf. I'm somewhat biased towards this dish because I crave it so much but I thought Royal China did a great job. Aromatic, perfectly seasoned, generous on the meats and yes, the rice was sticky. Kudos Royal China. The char siu baaus were good but not really worth raving about or getting too much into. There were no faults in the dish but it didn't really jump out at me as "This is freaking awesome".

 (char siu baau - cross section)

Growing up in Windsor, (across the border from Detroit) a heavily Chinese populated town, I'm used to a high quality of dim sum but for Atlanta standards - Royal China is pretty good. Most of the dishes are pretty tasty and they offer an authentic and wide selection of dim sum. Break away from your usual brunch and give dim sum a try this weekend with family and/or friends. ...or by yourself if you're a dim sum addict like me.