Restaurant Review: Tin Tin Dim Sum
Location: Unit 192A 6455 Macleod Trail SW (Chinook Mall)
How could I possibly fall behind on reviews again you ask? Especially when I only have one review I have to write. The truth is, a lot has been going on in my life, and with everything going on, my focus continually shifted to many things and writing a review was not a top priority. I do still love writing these so I don’t think these life changes will shift my priorities, they just might look a little different in the future.
Recently, I’ve been finding myself more and more disappointed by restaurants and food around me. With the rising cost of food at the supermarket and restaurants, my expectations have somewhat also risen. If I’m going to be paying for a meal out at these prices, it better be worth it.
After having walked past this restaurant in Chinook Mall numerous times, we finally stopped in here for lunch. Since it was a little bit later in the afternoon, we decided on fewer things just to tide us over until dinner basically.
We ordered the Shrimp Steamed Rice Roll, Dried Meat with Chinese Donut Rice Roll, Shanghai Xiao Long Bao, Steamed Bean Curd Roll, Chili Wontons with Peanut Sauce, Black Pepper Short Ribs, Chicken Karaage, and Yang Chow Fried Rice.
The first dish to arrive were the Short Ribs. They tasted pretty standard and what I would expect from a Chinese restaurant (it’s usually served on regular menus of Chinese restaurants on hot cast iron plates and comes out sizzling hot). However, given the price, I think it was extremely pricy. I’m not sure what it is but I have found in recent years these style of Short Ribs (which are basically the same as the ones you can find at Korean BBQ) have been getting more and more expensive, which is weird because whenever I go out with others, this is their least favourite KBBQ item because it’s so chewy and it’s really hard to maneuver around the bone.
The Short Ribs were followed by the Chili Wontons which I can only describe as extremely disappointing. Firstly, there was no peanut sauce. The fillings were largely flavourless and the wontons hadn’t really been tossed in oil resulting in them getting very stuck together. On top of that, there were no peanuts or peanut sauce to be found.
The Yang Chow Fried Rice followed shortly after and this was actually really good. I feel that this was one of the few dishes where the price and quality matched up. It’s pretty standardly priced at $14 for a fairly large plate of rice. There was enough that we were able to pack some away.
Recently, I’ve been on a Xiao Long Bao kick and have been wanting to try it everywhere we go. These ones were pretty standard. The measure of a good one is the broth inside, flavourful filling, and the wrapping to hold it. I almost feel like the frozen ones that I got from Top Gun are better – the only issue with these ones are that (probably due to freezing) all the wrappers are kinda broken so the broth is always leaking out.
The Chicken Karaage arrived at the same time as the Xiao Long Bao. These were super crunchy on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside. I feel like it’s not a lot to ask but it’s funny how something so simple can make such a difference. I forget what the dipping sauce was but it was a nice complement to the chicken.
This was followed by the Steamed Bean Curd Roll. I remember this being one of my mom’s favourite dim sum items and it has become one of my favourites. It was filled with a decent amount of meat, well flavoured. In essence, it was exactly what I would have expected for a Steamed Bean Curd Roll.
Then came the Chinese Donut Rice Roll. This one was topped with pork floss and had the soy sauce on the side, which we immediately poured on. The donut was crunchy and the rice crepe wrapping was silky smooth. This was one of the better Chinese Donut Rice Rolls I’ve had. Since this was so long ago, I can’t remember if this was with a peanut or sesame sauce. I enjoy both, but have a partiality to peanut butter.
We finished the meal off with Steamed Shrimp Rice Rolls, another classic at dim sum. These were pretty good. The soy sauce had a hint of sweetness, the shrimp had a slight crunch, and the rice crepe was just as silky smooth as the one wrapping the Chinese Donut Rice Roll.
All in all, it was a pretty standard dim sum experience. There were definitely disappointments, but overall, it was a pretty good meal. My only gripe about this place are its prices. Dim sum prices, in recent years have been rising but I can’t say that they have risen to the prices that Tin Tin charges. It was convenient that the restaurant was in the mall and offered items that other places in the food court or restaurants did not offer, but given some of the choices and prices and value I could have gotten at some other dim sum restaurants or some of the other restaurants in the mall, I don’t feel like this was super worth it. I would come back, but probably not any time soon. Based on this experience, I’d give it a 7.75/10.
moirasterling 
Recent Comments