Yum Cha Dim Sum Parlor

Yum Cha Dim Sum Parlor, a collaboration between the folks behind Earth & Ocean in Mount Prospect and those behind Phoenix in Chinatown, opened on East Randolph Street last month, just next door to Mariano's. You won't find the gaudy decor typical of some of the more old school dim sum spots in Chinatown. Rather, a modern, upscale Asian-inspired dining room that could put it on par with Shanghai Terrace in terms of the crowd it attracts.

But if Yum Cha is going to attract and keep crowds, it must first achieve the very basics in restaurant service. For example, given that "Dim Sum Parlor" is part of Yum Cha's name and that Yum Cha serves dim sum at all hours, you would think that when you're seated on a Sunday afternoon that you would be given a full dim sum menu. Instead, we were given a menu that featured very limited dim sum options. Only after I mentioned with confusion that I thought they offered more dim sum were we given another menu with all available dim sum options.

That's when the real service gaffes began. First, there was the audible debate among the two waiters in the room concerning who would be waiting on our table. With only three other tables filled, this shouldn't have been an issue. Ten minutes went by and a waiter finally came over to take our order. We ordered tea, soda, water and dim sum. Another long gap and the first few dim sum items arrived, brought to the table by a runner we had not previously met. Of course, we still didn't have chopsticks or silverware, napkins, water or anything else to drink. We waited several more minutes for those.

Service never improved. Want more water? Raise your glass and pray someone sees you - rarely was there a service person in the dining room. What could they possibly have been doing? Normally, I might mention this to the host, or in this case hostesses, but since they could hardly figure out which one was going to seat our party, I decided to remain silent.

But luckily, there were food runners and the dim sum turned out to be very respectable, with a couple exceptions. My favorite item was Chef Henry's seafood dumplings. They were very delicate and delicious, and the seafood filling was beautifully cooked.


Chef Henry's Seafood Dumplings - apologies for crappy cell phone pics



Also very good were the bbq pork buns. These fluffy steamed buns filled with plenty of delicious bbq pork filling could compete with any for the best in Chinatown.


BBQ Pork Buns



Sticky rice in lotus leaf and steamed vegetable roll in soy wrapper were both delicious and on par with what you would expect to find at Phoenix. Most surprising though was the very respectable xiao long bao. Though the skin was gummier than it should have been, the filling was delicious and there was plenty of soup. And though the dipping sauce was not the usual black vinegar mixed with ginger, it was adequate and didn't detract from the delicious XLB.




Xiao Long Bao with vinegar dipping sauce



There were a couple of big misses, however. The pork and crab siu mai must have been over-steamed because they were rock hard.


Pork and Crab Siu Mai



Even worse were the sesame balls with sweet bean paste. I was less bothered by the less ordinary yellow bean paste filling. The real problem is that these balls were so damn greasy. Take a look at the left over wrapper if you want to see what I mean.




Sesame Balls with Sweet Bean Paste and Grease-filled Wrappers



I have my doubts about Yum Cha's viability given the sparse crowds on a Sunday afternoon. No doubt the prime dim sum spots in Chinatown were packed at the same time. Maybe weekday lunch crowds will help? Probably not if service doesn't improve. And for me, the food would have had to be extraordinary to get over the truly abysmal service. But there were some very interesting items on the dim sum menu that I'd like to try, including the ubiquitous egg custard tart, but this one topped with foie gras. But Yum Cha will first have to get its house in order - this ranked among the worst service experiences I've had. Hopefully others will have better experiences and then I can give them another try . . . hopefully.

Yum Cha Dim Sum Parlor
333 E Randolph St
Chicago, IL 60601
312.946.8885

I always give a business a second try before I write a review. I had great service there on my one and only visit last week. I'd return in a heartbeat. Kind of unfair for the business to write a review based on one visit.

kitty wrote:I always give a business a second try before I write a review. I had great service there on my one and only visit last week. I'd return in a heartbeat. Kind of unfair for the business to write a review based on one visit.

I though this was a very constructive review with very specific criticisms as well as praises, nothing unfair about it.

kitty wrote:I always give a business a second try before I write a review. I had great service there on my one and only visit last week. I'd return in a heartbeat. Kind of unfair for the business to write a review based on one visit.

While professional restaurant reviewers historically reviewed restaurants based on more than one anonymous visit, it's not a standard you should expect the average layperson to when reading a food-related message board. Several reports offered by different posters often help form a consensus opinion. (How many of us will ever eat the same meal at Next a second time if the first dinner was lousy?)

Restaurants -- and all sorts of businesses -- need to remember that they only have once chance to make a first impression and many diners will never return if they have a bad experience. I can't think of a single instance where a restaurant owner/manager has come to me to say, "Half our kitchen quit before dinner service and our entire waitstaff is hungover. I can see you had a horrible experience and I'd like you to come back for a do-over that's on the house." I'm paying money to the restaurant, and there's an implicit promise that they will deliver food and service that is commensurate with the price I'm paying and the mood they are creating.

Kitty--I get what you're saying except the majority of those posting on this board do so over and over and over again. And if someone were to come on and post a very negative (or very positive) review without a recognizable profile, I think most folks would take that with a grain of salt. Someone like BR posts often enough that I can even factor in things that I know he may like that I don't and vice versa. So while I would maybe agree with you if this were a more "drive by" kind of site, within the LTH community I think all data points are appreciated, even those early in a restaurant's life or without multiple visits.

By the way, does anyone else feel weird using the word "review" for what we do here? I've always felt it was more of a conversation about places, experiences, etc. I just don't like using that word "review' since that DOES seem kinda yelpy to me Perhaps a subject for another thread...

With relatively low expectations, I went to Yum Cha for lunch yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. Everything we had was well prepared, including several dumplings. Really surprised by the amount of protein in the Yum Cha Special Chow Mein - all in all, a spot I would return to based on this visit.

This doesn't sound appetizing.

https://twitter.com/pang/status/489431909605601280

boudreaulicious wrote:Kitty--I get what you're saying except the majority of those posting on this board do so over and over and over again. And if someone were to come on and post a very negative (or very positive) review without a recognizable profile, I think most folks would take that with a grain of salt. Someone like BR posts often enough that I can even factor in things that I know he may like that I don't and vice versa. So while I would maybe agree with you if this were a more "drive by" kind of site, within the LTH community I think all data points are appreciated, even those early in a restaurant's life or without multiple visits.

By the way, does anyone else feel weird using the word "review" for what we do here? I've always felt it was more of a conversation about places, experiences, etc. I just don't like using that word "review' since that DOES seem kinda yelpy to me Perhaps a subject for another thread...

Exactly. This is not a review site it is a forum for discussion. For better or worse, (almost) anything goes, and in the end the consensus typically shows the true nature of a restaurant. I'm sure there are many times when a board favorite started off with an iffy/bad experience reported. One that comes to mind right away is now GNR Nha Hang. I agree that all data points are valuable.

BR wrote:But if Yum Cha is going to attract and keep crowds, it must first achieve the very basics in restaurant service.

This achievement continues to elude them.

They forced a not-terribly-large group of us to order in advance (after accepting the reservation), citing a small kitchen (really?), and demanding a credit card.

They couldn't deal with a smaller number of participants that actually arrived (willing to eat all of the pre-ordered food, mind you), and we had to find chairs and place settings ourselves.

They took half the drink orders at the table and disappeared

They brought drinks for the first half and left the table without taking orders from six people waving menus. Three out of the six first beers were incorrect. Three out of the second six cocktails were incorrect.

They told us one of the sauces was "poison" sauce rather than hoisin sauce. They said it was because, like, it's spicy, right? when corrected.

They brought out a steamer with the rice-crusted sausage with runny egg on top, and slid the egg right off the platter into a diner's lap and then onto the floor, oddly reminiscent of the 15 Commandments scene in History of the World. They threw napkins on top of it and did not retrieve the egg from the floor until multiple requests 10 minutes later. They did not replace the dish, or remove it from the bill. An egg (by itself, cold), arrived in a separate bowl 10 minutes later.

They did not replace sauces or water. They took plates and utensils without replacing them, leaving us unable to eat the few dishes served warm. They consistently brought cold or undercooked proteins and dumplings to the table.

They did not adjust the bill. They acknowledged the egg-drop and said they'd give coupons for future. They took 20 minutes to sort out credit card charges clearly marked on the bill. They brought a second bill charged in full to the deposit pre-order card against repeated instructions. They removed this bill and said they'd credit it "later in the week." They never cleared final plates. They never returned with coupons. They literally hid in the kitchen when we left.

The food was actually quite savory. Pancit was excellent, a requested-vegetarian Ma Po Tofu redolent of sesame and ginger. Sweet potato fries were hot and expertly spiced. Bacon and egg fried rice was a huge portion with crispy edges. Oxtail and vegetable potstickers were delicious but lukewarm. Har gow was cold inside. Turnip cake disintegrated upon touching. Everything tasted good, interesting, thoughtfully-conceived, and then just manhandled. The litany of service errors went beyond entertaining into no-hope-for-humanity territory.

In an anagram: much is a dummy.

People tend to accept lesser food than lesser service. Had this problem all the time when I worked in S.Fla the rehab state and home of shit service. Used to tell my staff "I could put gold on these plates, but if people are pissed off when the get them, they won't come back".

What I find so frustrating is that there is tremendous potential with the food (as well as the decor and location). And Alan, while I agree with your sentiment, there is a level of service at which you ensure patrons won't return. Yum Cha better be careful to avoid that problem, though they seem oddly ignorant of the issue. While I only visited the one time, I can count on one hand (with fingers to spare) the times I have received service this bad in a restaurant. Perhaps it's time this thread gets shared with their management/ownership.