Everyone has their favorite restaurant when it comes to dim sum, whether it be Bo Loong or Li Wah. I’ve tried them both – and both are very good – but I have to say my personal favorite is the dim sum at Li Wah. The crust on the egg tart is just a little flakier, and I prefer the atmosphere at Li Wah more. Plus, you never have a problem getting a table at Li Wah because it is so large. Bo Loong, on the other hand, was deemed Cleveland’s best dim sum restaurant by the Plain Dealer. Both restaurants are usually packed with Chinese diners, which is a testament to the quality of both places. You really can’t go wrong at either place.
Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small, bite-sized or individual portions of 
food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. Dim sum is served in most Chinese restaurants on carts. The fully cooked and ready-to-serve dim sum dishes are wheeled around the restaurant for customers to choose their orders while seated at their tables. The most unusual dishes can be ordered from the servers and are made to order in the kitchen. The dishes are tallied on a bill that is left on the table, and are priced according to size.
Dim sum is traditionally served with tea. In fact, the drinking of tea is just as important to dim sum as the food. More traditional dim sum restaurants typically serve dim sum until mid-afternoon.
Dim sum is a great choice when you dine with several people, and it’s a fun thing to do on a Saturday or Sunday morning. The first time I went to Li Wah we had a nice-sized group and sat at a round table with a lazy susan in the middle. We could select the dishes and rotate the lazy susan to get what we wanted.
I usually meet my friend G. for dim sum during the week. G. speaks Chinese, so it is always a treat for me to listen to her order in Chinese. We have similar tastes, so I generally rely on whatever she wants to order. We order a bunch of steamed goodies like pork and shrimp siu mai, pork or shrimp dumplings, turnip cakes, char siu baau (steamed BBQ pork buns), or sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves (so good!) and then order some egg tarts, jin deui (a chewy dough filled with red bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds, and deep fried) or steamed buns for dessert.
The check is then divided by however many people are in attendance. It is always a surprise how stuffed we are and how little we spend in the end. You can sit there for hours and walk away paying less than $20.
The most important thing about enjoying dim sum is to go in there with an open mind and just try as many dishes as you can. Once you have learned what you like and don’t like you can then start being choosier. For example, I cannot and won’t eat chicken feet, even though they are a dim sum delicacy.
Contact info:
Li Wah
2999 Payne Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114
(216) 589-9552
Open Mon-Thu, Sun from 10 am – 12 am and Fri from 10 am – 1 am
Bo Loong
3922 St Clair Ave NE
Cleveland, OH 44114
(216) 391-3113
Open Mon-Thu, Sun 10 am – 2 am and Fri-Sat 10 am – 3 am
