![]() ![]() Stuff yourself with great food, and then head to the museum to walk it off. The wait you go through for a table is off-set (to my way of thinking) with a bonus: Seattle's award-winning Wing Luke Museum is right next door! It's open five days a week, and is a great way to check out the history of the International District, and of Seattle Asians and Pacific Islanders in particular. We'd seen this place's good reviews and were waiting for a chance to try it. For those wandering around looking for good eats, that's a good way to peg a place spontaneously, but we are natives and planners. For a dim sum place, this is nothing short of miraculous! The vast majority of diners were of Asian descent, even during tourist season. Also? For those of you who, like me, dislike tea, everyone got water, and everyone's was refilled repeatedly and promptly. We have noticed that in some dim sum places, there is a preferred traffic pattern, and if you are seated too far away from it, you almost need a bullhorn (orange traffic flags? A set of pompoms? We never did figure that one out) to entice a server to let you have some food! This place is small enough to serve everybody in one circuit without leaving anyone hungry and lonesome. When we left at almost one o'clock, the pace had not even tapered off. They kept it coming, and the customers kept coming. Since they'd be continuing to serve dim sum, the tasty hot food that wasn't even THINKING of slowing down when we got to our table. Therefore, they stop making much fresh food well before 1 PM, knowing that they will have to toss anything that goes unsold. Part of Harbor City's magic is that the dim sum goes on ALL DAY LONG! Most Chinese restaurants offer dim sum from 11 AM-1 PM, and sometimes they do a late night round for the party crowd dying for great snacks at midnight. When the carts were numerous enough that adding more would create traffic issues, more servers came out with laden trays extended. ![]() The carts did not turn around and go back to reload as they do most places the food came out of the kitchen and was piled instantaneously on their carts, hardly causing the servers to break their stride. ![]() The good news? It was worth the wait! When we got to our table, the dim sum-which by noon would usually (in other places) be growing cold and picked over by 11:50, when we were seated, came steaming hot straight out of the kitchen. ![]() Word has gotten out about Harbor City, and we had to wait half an hour on a sunny Saturday in August. Our old dim sum fave, China Gate, tumbled under new management, and the darling of the upwardly mobile young, Jade Garden, was way too crowded. Not even an awning! However, this is awesome dim sum, and we needed a new place. We were fine with it today, but there is virtually no lobby, and like all of the International District, parking is wicked-bad, so in a downpour, this would be no fun at all. But if you need a fancy place to pop the question to your honey-bunny, this isn't it. That said, it's our new go-to place for dim sum. It's a happy, rowdy place (rowdy as in big groups of diners having a fun time, not drunk-rowdy no bar). This place is all well-tended formica and vinyl, and good clean tile floors. Objectively speaking, I know that decor and ambience are important for some people and certain occasions. You may wonder about the withheld fifth star. ![]()
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