![]() Tim Ho WanĪbout the noise: Loud, like a crowded fast-food restaurant.Ĭounty health inspection: Reinspection due. It’s a one-star restaurant - just not the Michelin type. So, everyone, please stop calling the Irvine branch of Tim Ho Wan a Michelin-starred restaurant. Rather, Tim Ho Wan is to Lung King Heen what a Wolfgang Puck Express at the airport is to Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Beverly Hills. ![]() I’ve been lucky enough to dine at Lung King Heen, and if I were rating it using my star system, I would give it four stars. Lung King Heen was the first restaurant in Hong Kong, and the first Chinese restaurant anywhere in the world, to earn Michelin’s highest honor. I also can’t fault the chain for proudly and prominently promoting (via an electronic billboard in the foyer of the restaurant) the connection of its founding chef to the venerable Lung King Heen, a Michelin three-starred restaurant where he once worked (although not as head chef). Of course I can’t blame Tim Ho Wan for milking its Michelin star for all it’s worth. But if you already count yourself a fan of J Zhou, Elite, Sam Woo or any other local dim sum restaurant, you likely won’t be swayed to switch allegiances. But later compared with the same dish at J Zhou, Tim Ho Wan’s version starts to seem overly dry and stiff.Īll in all, it’s possible to have a perfectly acceptable meal at Tim Ho Wan. ![]() Tim Ho Wan serves a classic rendition of sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves, which tastes fine while I’m eating it. But compare them head-to-head with the siu mai at Din Tai Fung, and Din Tai Fung comes out triumphant. The steamed pork dumplings with shrimp, or siu mai, are also good. In a head-to-head matchup against the decidedly less sophisticated corn dumplings at Elite in Monterey Park, Elite easily wins. Tim Ho Wan’s most elegant dish is the steamed vegetable dumplings, which are cute little packages wrapped with translucent, gossamer-thin skins. Where to find the best restaurant menu items in the area.The next best thing on the menu is probably any variation of steamed rice rolls (barbecue pork, minced beef or shrimp and chives), yet they really aren’t any different than the rice noodle rolls at Sam Woo a few miles away. Formed into bite-sized pieces, they are perfectly delicious and enjoyable even though they are astoundingly greasy. Still, I’ve managed to taste everything thing on the menu, the best of which is easily the deep-fried shrimp toast. Every time I’ve dined here (three), the kitchen has been sold out of at least five items. The kitchen makes only 29 items, which is far fewer than most local dim sum restaurants and exponentially less than their Hong Kong branches. You should know, however, that the menu in Irvine is but a CliffsNotes version of the original menu. Questionable service hygiene aside, the food can be good. Would you mind if a waiter placed this dish on your table while you were eating? (Photo by Brad A. He then proceeds to grab my dirty dishes and stack them onto that other customer’s dirty plate. He places it on my table, directly under my nose while I’m eating. A waiter arrives with a dirty plate, soiled with soy sauce and chili paste, that he’s just cleared from someone else’s table. The tables are small and the plates and steamer baskets are piling up. ![]() The original Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong has similarly earned a single Michelin star, which perhaps should never have happened but Michelin’s inspectors in Hong Kong have always been notably schizophrenic with their one-star designations.Ī quick note about that last point: While dining at Tim Ho Wan in Irvine, like everyone else around me I’ve ordered quite a lot of food. Those two restaurants - Hana re and Taco Maria ( ranked #1 and #4 on my annual list of best places to eat) - each earned a single star, the same achievement as Orsa & Winston in Los Angeles and Michael Mina in San Francisco. When the Michelin Guide launched its first statewide guide to California last month, only two restaurants in Orange County earned any stars at all. Unlike the four-star system that I use, earning just a single star from Michelin is a massive honor. Three stars = Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey. Two stars = Excellent cooking, worth a detour. One star = high quality cooking, worth a stop. And if the Michelin inspectors in California have any credibility whatsoever, they won’t consider it for even a Bib Gourmand, the guide’s designation for really good restaurants that don’t quite rise to the level of their stars.Ī little background: The Michelin Guide (first published in France in 1889) rewards three levels of stars. The Irvine branch of Tim Ho Wan does not have a Michelin star. Tim Ho Wan opened not long ago at Irvine’s Diamond Jamboree, and people keep calling this Hong Kong-based chain a Michelin-starred restaurant.
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