Sam Woo
18922 Gale Ave.
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
626-913-9933
Went to Sam Woo for dim sum today, Mon. July 3rd. The first thing I noticed was that Sam Woo has a C rating from the health department. As for dim sum, at any popular dim sum restaurant, if you go on a weekend, it will be very crowded. Expect to wait about 45 minutes or more. But on a Monday there weren't that many people there.
As I sat down the ladies with the steam tray carts came to the table after waiting about tenminutes. Not sure if the food wasn't ready or what. But I haven't had to wait that long for the carts to come by. There are four sections of food at Sam Woo. Section A is priced at $1.98 Section B is priced at $2.20 Section C is around $3 and Section D is $5.20. I have been to Sam Woo before and the carts would come by every 2-3 minutes and they would have items from each section. But today I did not see the deep fried shrimp balls at all.
The first picture is the steamed BBQ pork buns and the second picture shows what the BBQ pork looks like. The buns are fron section A and cost $1.98. The buns were warm but I didn't like the pork inside. They were chopped up and shredded. Most places have diced or sliced pork, not shredded. So the BBQ pork buns were about average.
The next picture is of steamed Chinese sausage buns, from Section A. The buns were nice and hot and had a sweet flavor to them. The sausage was ok but I didn't like the texture because steaming sausage isn't the way to go.
The last picture is the pork dumplings, also from Section A. The pork dumplings were loaded with pork and have a nice texture and flavor. I see some people put mustard or hot sauce on the dumplings but I think the dumplings themselves are great.
The only outstanding item was the pork dumplings. The BBQ pork buns and Chinese sausage buns were average. I didn't like the long wait for carts to come by. I didn't like the same food carts kept coming by. There wasn't the shrimp balls or anything else from Section D. Maybe it's because I went on a Monday but if they aren't going to have something on their menu, they should let people know.
Service was OK. The ladies with the cards are nice and I my cup of water was always refilled.
Not sure if I would rush back to Sam Woo, especially if their entire dim sum menu isn't going to be served.
