Bo Loong is under new management, and they have really spiffed up the place. One change is it now closes at 9 or 10 PM every night instead of 2 or 3 AM. It is still located across from Siam Cafe and has the same entrance doors, but the water-stained ceiling tile and grungy carpet is gone. The tables still have white tablecloths, but the chairs have sumptuous red covers. They also offer some fun and different dim sum choices.
Everyone has their favorite restaurant when it comes to dim sum (I know a guy through Meetup who is at Bo Loong every Saturday for dim sum), whether it be Bo Loong or Li Wah. I’ve tried them both – and both are very good – but in my opinion Bo Loong doesn’t quite measure up to Li Wah. I think the service has a lot to do with it. The carts don’t flow through the restaurant as often as in Li Wah, and the offerings aren’t as diverse. One morning we had to sit and wait 30 minutes for the first cart to be ready.
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, also has plenty of seating and 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. Most people think of various steamed or pan-fried dumplings and stuffed steamed or baked buns when it comes to dim sum. My favorites include the turnip cake, sui mai (or sao mai depending on the restaurant), sticky rice, and shrimp dumplings. It’s a chance to be adventurous and try new things. I always try to order Chinese broccoli or some other vegetables to balance out all the carbs. Pro tip: order the green veg FIRST so you have it at the same time as the rest of the food!
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. The recent cost of dim sum at Bo Loong for 8 people was $62.55, which came out to about $10 a person after tax and a generous tip.
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.
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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.
My friends and I usually order a bunch of steamed goodies like shumai (a mixture of pork, shrimp and mushroom – last photo above), sin joe gin (tofu skin rolls – middle photo in top row above), various pork or shrimp dumplings, turnip cakes, char siu baau (steamed BBQ pork buns), or sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves (see last two photos in last row below – so good!). We also got a fun deep-fried dumpling that blew us all away along with the house special Phoenix dumplings (shrimp, mushroom and pork paste – first photo below). The second photo are meatballs covered in shaved carrot – also delicious. The third photo are shrimp rice noodles. The first photo in the next row are ham sui gok (fried glutinous rice dumplings).
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Once we start getting full, we then order some sweets like egg tarts, jin deui (a chewy dough filled with red bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds, and deep fried) or steamed buns for dessert (see below). The third photo is complementary tofu fa – a kind of smoky-tasting soybean pudding.
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We then divide the check by however many people are in attendance (any vegetarians or picky/allergic diners get their own check – it’s just easier and more fair). It is always a surprise how stuffed we are and how little we spend in the end. As long as you avoid the roasted meats and vegetables (the higher priced items), 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 will not order tripe, jelly fish or chicken feet, even though they are a dim sum delicacy. But I have at least tried them.
Dim sum tip: Bo Loong and Li Wah serve dim sum off carts, while Emperor’s Palace brings them fresh from the kitchen.
Contact info:
Bo Loong
3922 St Clair Ave NE
Cleveland, OH 44114
(216) 391-3113
Open Mon-Thu 10 am – 9 pm and Fri-Sun 10 am – 10 pm
fresh sliced bananas. The flavors meld together really well, and it is simply a flavor explosion. It doesn’t get much better than this. I had a similar French toast at Deagan’s the other day, and although it was good it simply didn’t compare to Inn on Coventry’s. I ordered a side of bacon for good measure, because everything’s better with bacon.
Inn on Coventry is also known for their Eggs Benedict and Eggs Mando – and they also offer a Veggie Mando topped with avocado instead of Canadian bacon for the vegetarians). The lemon ricotta pancakes are also divine (or any of the pancakes really… although I haven’t had the nerve to order 
the Reese Cup pancakes). If you do order the pancakes stick with one at first. The pancakes are huge and, as you can see, span the whole plate.
and 4 oz of Velveeta (try it – you’ll love it). All of their items are made fresh and are just like Mom used to make. I intend to try as many items on their menu as I can, but it is hard when such delicious favorites are available.
The 
ere recently, and we enjoyed a lovely meal together. There were lots of different sized tables, ranging from dinner for one to a large family gathering that took up two whole tables, which seat 6-7 each.
salad and fresh baked rolls, breaded chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, seasonal vegetables (we enjoyed corn), and dessert (which can be anything Jo Ann chooses, but this night we had the date & nut pudding). The dinner includes coffee and iced tea. No alcoholic beverages were served, but honestly we didn’t miss them.
The food is served family style, which means the food is served in bowls at the table which you then pass around the table. The meal was absolutely delicious. The baked chicken was moist, the roast beef was tender, the rolls were soft and fresh, and the mashed potatoes were smooth, creamy and delicious. But the big hit at our table was the stuffing. Fresh stuffing studded with chunks of celery, so you could tell it was homemade. We couldn’t get enough of it!
After dinner we were served coffee (both decaf and regular) and the aforementioned date & nut pudding. As you can see, the pudding was the consistency of a British pudding rather than the creamy pudding we usually associate with the word ‘pudding.’ The vanilla sauce was almost too sweet and I found myself working around it and just eating the pudding and the whipped cream. But it was delicious, just like everything we were served that night. Simple, yet delicious.
When I told my father I ate at the Tremont Tap House he exclaimed, “That used to be Pukach’s. Your Uncle Barney lived in the house behind it.” You see, my father grew up in the Tremont area and tells me all kinds of interesting stories about when he was a kid. GIs home from World War II used to rent rooms in homes and would hang out at the corner bars because they missed the company. They would also congregate at the Lincoln Park Bath House, because their rooms did not have modern bathing facilities. 
They would sit outside and used to give him a dime to run next door for a pack of smokes and a bucket of beer when he was 8 or so. This kind of stuff fascinates me, so I am really tempted to take him to the Tremont Tap House with me the next time I go, which will hopefully be soon.
The food was divine. I had a tough time deciding what to order. I ended up ordering the Salmon BLT on marble rye. It was delicious. The fries that accompanied it were thick and perfectly seasoned (you can see them peeking out from behind the sandwich).
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meals. From the macaroni and cheese with dried figs, rosemary and brie (for our vegetarian, but it was so good I will probably order it next time!) to the seared sea scallops with white truffle oil and mushroom risotto or smoked ham and turkey sandwich with brie and cranberry relish served on raisin walnut bread (Thanksgiving in a 
sandwich) and small plates like blackened scallops with red onion jam, blue cheese and walnuts to beer cheese soup and side salads, there was something for everyone. The fried egg burger with Swiss cheese and carmelized onions was a particular hit. The group had a discussion about how to best order the burger to bring out the flavors, with the quote “It is very important to me that it be medium rare.”
The service was a little slow, but they had another large party upstairs, which I think overwhelmed them. The mac and cheese, which was ordered after we had all ordered by one of our late-comers, was comped without her asking because she had such a long wait for it. One of the dining out members, who wasn’t able to join us and tried it separately, now claims it is one of his favorite restaurants in Cleveland to bring guests or just relax and watch a game.
If you are looking for a place to spend an enjoyable evening, give the Stone Mad Pub a try. The restaurant is just off Detroit Avenue on W. 65th Street. They have put a lot of work into the place and have two photo albums depicting all the work that went into transforming the typical Cleveland row house into the impressive stonework and cobblestone masterpiece it is today. The owners tore the house down to the raw frame, and everything is new but purposely has an aged look.
The first thing you notice when you park the car is all the stonework. This is not a place to wear stiletto heels, and I am glad I warned my dining out group about it. The driveway / parking lot to the right of the building is nothing but stone. The stonework patio (as seen in the photo) seems like a great place to while away an evening. Unfortunately when we were there a summer storm was looming, so we ended up seated inside.
The inside of the restaurant is also quite impressive. It features shiny dark wood, stained glass, and a cozy fireplace. The back of the house is bright and airy, with light wood, lots of windows and a bocce ball court.
wasn’t as impressed with the hash browns, which I had to order separately. They were bland and not very well seasoned. I ate them with a lot of ketchup.
match the decor, this could definitely be a place to frequent regularly. If you want a good burger, this is the place to get one.
Cleveland Rocks, Cleveland Eats 