most of the dim sum joints in ctown are beset on weekends with hordes of diners seeking the same familiar things (mostly fried and uninspiring). skip the lines and go instead to winsor cafe. the service is gruff and unfriendly but the dim sum is cheap and freshly steamed to order. i've never understood the appeal (other than touristical) of the admittedly-picturesque carts attended by old women--the carts never have the things i want and by the time they reach me, the dim sum has gone through multiple cycles of being heated and cooled as the baskets are lifted off to display their contents to diners. winsor's way is much better. come for their chinese chive dumplings, their vegetarian dumplings, the rice noodle rolls stuffed with roast pork or shrimp, the fried radish cake, pork congee with century egg and crullers. if you are not with someone who knows his or her way around the dim sum menu, resist the urge to order anything that sounds familiar (scallion pancakes, crab rangoons). these predictables will taste good but you will miss the real show, which is even better. order the unfamiliar, push the envelope. for dessert, order the tofu flower (delicate beancurd in a lightly-sweetened syrup) and the egg tarts (custard baked into lard-enriched pastry shells, only on weekends). if you're lucky, the egg tarts will be fresh and filled with barely-set warm egg custard, and the pastry shell will be so fragile that it collapses as you lift it off the plate and convey it to your mouth. and even if not, they're pretty tasty anyway.
Pros: undiscovered by uneducated dim sum diners
more