Spice Spring opened a few months ago in Cleveland’s original Chinatown, which thrived in the 1930s, 40s and 50s on and around Rockwell Avenue between East 21st and East 24th St. Spice Spring is located at 2136 Rockwell Avenue in the old Emperor’s Palace location and offers Cantonese dim sum, Szechuan dishes, and Asian fusion with dine-in, takeout, and online ordering. Since I still miss Emperor’s Palace I was thrilled to hear something was moving in there. Emperor’s Palace was a favorite of my nieces because the Chinese art deco building was/is so fancy with all the marble and chandeliers. The name is unfortunate, because I can never remember if it is Spice Spring or Spring Spice (I need to keep reminding myself that i comes before r).
In addition to nearly 35 small, medium and large dim sum items (they are pricier than Li Wah at $6.95, $7.95 and and $8.95 per plate respectively), Spice Spring has an extensive regular menu with soups, appetizers, rice, noodle, stir-fry and dry-pot dishes. When I heard they served dim sum I knew I needed to check it out, so I organized a few friends to meet there. It is pricier than Li Wah, but they have a wider selection of unique choices. We chose some familiar items as well as some new items. Like Emperor’s Palace used to, the dim sum is prepared in the kitchen and is delivered fresh to the table. They have lots of different things – including 3 kinds of soup dumplings (we ordered the chicken soup dumplings and crab meat pork soup dumplings – see below in top left), chicken corn siu mai (bottom right below) in addition to the usual pork and shrimp, Black Phoenix custard buns, black truffle shrimp dumplings, and my favorite was the ginger chicken dumplings (top right below). We also had some pork steam buns, pork spareribs with black bean sauce (my photo wasn’t very photogenic and they aren’t usually one of my go-tos), and an order of egg rolls (at one of my fellow diners’ request). Lots of entrees to choose from, but we stuck to dim sum the first time. If you have food allergies they can alter anything but the dim sum.
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We made the mistake of ordering an order of egg custard buns AND the Black Phoenix buns. The Black Phoenix buns are essentially egg custard buns on steroids – and were a treat with the gold leaf. You can see both egg custard buns below in the left photo. The black truffle shrimp dumplings (bottom left photo above) were an upgrade from har gow (shrimp dumplings), which they also serve.
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I’ve also been back several times and ordered off the menu. I really enjoyed the Xin Mei Combination on a Sunday afternoon after a show at Playhouse Square. It is a combination of chicken, scallops and shrimp along with pea pods, carrots and mushrooms in a brown sauce. The vegetables were perfectly cooked – still crisp but soft enough to eat. I also ordered the ginger chicken dumplings, which weren’t as gingery as that first visit, and the Black Phoenix buns to go for dessert at home. The egg custard buns were also a little grainier than I remembered, but they were still tasty.
Funnily enough I met another group there on a Wednesday evening right after my Sunday visit. The waitress recognized me :-). I ordered some scallion pancakes for the table to share and decided I’d try the Seafood Delight. It is crab meat, scallops and shrimp in a white sauce (that was kind of bland). I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Xin Mei Combo, but adding soy sauce helped me enjoy it more.
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The servers have always been very helpful. They bring out food as it is ready in the kitchen. The waitress recognized me and waved as I came in. She recommended the Eggplant Chicken to my friend and was pleased that I recommended the Xin Mei Combination to another friend, who enjoyed it as much as I had. The bit of Eggplant Chicken I tried was absolutely delicious. They also ordered the spicy dry pot cabbage to share (because the other green vegetable they ordered wasn’t available). The dry pot cabbage came out with a unique presentation over an open flame. It was tasty and had a spicy kick that gradually built up at the back of the throat.
I’ll definitely go back again soon. I can’t wait to try the Butterfly Shrimp with Garlic & Glass Noodles and will definitely be getting the Xi Mei Combo (and the Eggplant Chicken) again.
I have also heard from a friend that they had a bad experience, so apparently the kitchen might have bad days. She said they asked to the soup and dumplings first, but the friend that ordered a dinner portion got their meal first, minus the rice and apparently everything else came at once 15 minutes later. I hope they can improve if that is the case, because Cleveland diners can be picky and one bad visit can kill the love.
Contact info:
Spice Spring
2136 Rockwell Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114
216-785-9363
