When we first moved to the SF Bay area about 9 years ago, Ming’s was a place that we felt was prestiges, good quality, relatively good taste (comparing to LA), and expensive. We used to go there periodically, and felt good taking visitors from LA and felt good holding parties there. It has maintained pretty good quality until a couple of years ago, we had a couple of bad experiences both on Sundays and on weekdays and we stopped going for quite a while. Weekend Girl casually suggested that we try it again, we gladly went, and yes, we were glad that we went!
The business was good, that’s a good sign, especially, there was a good mix of Chinese people in a Chinese restaurant. There were two large parties, one in the either wing of the restaurant, the main seating area was very busy but we were seated in several minutes at 12:15 on a Saturday, thanks for the large dining capacity.
As soon as we sat down, before we had time to pray and say our grace, already 2 carts full of steamy yummy dim sums stopped by. We picked a bunch of dishes that filled the entire table, then we prayed for the grace. The food was delicious. Here are some of the highlights…
- variety is excellent. they have added a number of traditional dim sum dishes, and complemented the selections with some other Asian small dishes from Japan and Vietnam. The selection is excellent.
- Peking duck. This is one of the unique offerings from Ming’s, and is always excellent. Too bad there were only 3 pieces per dish (and counted as the most expensive item, of course) and we ordered two.
- Stuffed Bell pepper. This is one of our favorites, at Ming’s they use both green and red bell peppers, it’s both colorful and delicious.
- Shrimp ball with corns. This is relatively unique. We usually like it with white sticky rice (’pearls’), but corns is sweet and delightful, we got 2 servings.
- Other favorites includes: shrimp dumpling, BBQ Pork buns, Siu Mai, and Taro cake.
- service and decoration. The service is relatively good for a Chinese restaurant, the decoration and cleanliness and quality of the food is expected.
Not so highlights…
- Desert is slightly weak. Missing a couple our favorite deserts like White Sugar Cake and Ma-La Cake. The Baked Stuffed Custard Cake looked excellent, but the outer bread was a little old.
Overall, a very tasty and delightful meal. Cost has not changed, a little on the high side for Chinese dim sum, $100 even for a family of 4 (with 2 teen boys).
Location:
Ming’s Chinese Cuisine and Bar
1700 Embarcadero Rd
Palo Alto, CA 94303
(650) 856-7700
References:
www.mings.com
Yahoo Local
City Guide
