Dim Sim Cafe

Walking down on William Street on a Saturday arvo, you'll see groups of people waiting outside this litttle dim sum eatery for 30mins waiting to be called for available table. This is not an unfamiliar scene here in Northbridge on a Saturday or Sunday, needless to say I love eating dim sum and I have my favourite dim sum place not far off from Dim Sim Cafe.

I went to Dim Sim Cafe when its first opened its' door and I remember it being average, sure the crowd wasn't as crazy as these days. But being a true Asian I am (kiasu), I can't help but wanted to give it another go just because they seems to be doing pretty well these days as the queue is getting longer each day.

Due to its tiny size, the table were all crammed up together, noisy and crowded, one should expect that kinda buzz from a Chinese restaurant especially eating dim sum. While we rubbed shoulder with the patrons next to us, hot chinese tea and steamed trolley were already there.

We picked the usual stuff from the steamed trolley, they were steamed pork dumpling (siu mai), steamed coriander & prawn dumpling, steamed prawn dumpling (har gao), steamed prawn & chive dumpling, steamed juicy pork dumpling (Shanghai xiao long bao), and steamed prawn rice flour roll (cheung fun).

I love prawn dumpling for all my life, so I'll get quite picky when it comes to these little dumpling. However, I'm sad to say, Dim Sim Cafe's steamed dumplings didn't live it to my expectation, the rice flour skin of the dumplings were thick and chewy, yet they were able to break apart when we tried to pick it up using a pair of chopstick. The prawn wasn't as bursty as it should be and the chilli oil that were provided didn't kick up our senses. The soy sauce going with the prawn rice flour roll were wrong, it tasted exactly like Kikkoman, and that's Japanese.

While the steamed dumplings were quite disappointing, we prayed that the deep fried dishes and pastries didn't let us down. Clockwise from top left: deep fried prawn dumpling with mayo, deep fried squid tentacles, egg tart and chicken pie. The deep fried prawn dumpling was just ok and the squid tentacles that everyone rave about was not as good as they were. Perhaps it was a busy day, but it just seems that the chef fried the tentacles separately with the garlic and chilli, and to our horror we saw heaps of MSG sprinkled on the squid. (I should've known Chinese restaurant uses MSG A LOT, but please don't make it so obvious!)

Finally, onto the good stuff, the egg tart and chicken pie were both really good, the pastry were flaky and flawless, exactly how it should be.

Friendly and attentive service is another thing that I should mention, the staff were all pumped and busy yet they still have time to top up our tea, something you don't normally get from a Chinese restaurant.

Me and my dim sum gang were all very full at the end, but we all agreed that it doesn't provide the heavenly satisfying feeling that we used to have after each dim sum session. It's weird because we then craves for more better dim sum after visiting Dim Sim Cafe.

Food Quality: 3 dumplings outta 5
Ambience: 2.5 dumplings outta 5
Service: 3.5 dumplings outta 5
Will I be back? I'll purposely go for the chicken pie and egg tart

Opening hours:
Monday – Friday: 9.30am – 3pm (CLOSED on Wednesdays )
Saturday, Sunday & Public holidays: 9am – 3pm

Dim Sim Cafe
297, William Street,
Northbridge
(08) 9328 9388