- [Serena] Tim Ho Wan is a really popular
dim sum restaurant in New York City.
The reason it got so popular is because
the original location in Hong Kong has a Michelin star.
Big deal when it got it; it was the cheapest restaurant
to ever get a Michelin star in the world.
Chefs Mak Kwai Pui and Leung Fai Keung
opened their first New York location last year.
People went insane.
They were waiting hours in line
just to get their name on a wait list.
So with all that hype, I decided to come here
with my friend Vince, who is a huge dim sum fan,
to see whether or not it's worth it.
(slow jazzy music)
Woo!
- [Vince] Tim Ho Wan, Tim Ho Wan!
- [Serena] Gonna get some--
- [Vince] Dim sum, dim sum!
Gonna get some dim sum!
- We should get everything, basically.
- [Vince] Yeah, for sure.
- [Serena] Yes.
What are your classic dishes?
- [Vince] The lotus leaf rice thing.
- [Serena] Oh yeah, where you peel it out and--
- [Vince] Yeah, lo mai gai.
- [Serena] Yeah, sticky rice.
- [Vince] Yeah, sticky rice.
- [Serena] Yeah.
- [Vince] I mean it's basically like a tamale.
- [Serena] Chinese tamale.
- Chinese tamale, yeah.
- So I'm gonna go with a dish that I usually order,
which is the chicken feet.
I know not everyone loves this dish,
but I always force people to get it for me.
It's definitely not the prettiest food to eat.
- It's pretty good.
- [Serena] You like it?
- Yeah.
- It's not my favorite version of chicken feet.
- [Vince] Really?
- Yeah.
- I don't have too much experience eating chicken feet,
but this one is served with abalone,
which is one the Chinese treasures of the sea.
Like you pay a lot of money for abalone.
- Yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense.
Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough
for this chicken feet.
- So look at this.
Look how translucent.
You can see the shrimp from underneath the shrimp roll.
That's always a great sign.
But I've never actually noticed the flavor
of the rice noodle itself before,
but it really comes through here,
it's really light, and I think it's really good.
- Yeah, this feels like another level rice roll.
- I mean, I think the freshness makes a big difference
when you order off the menu.
Like on a cart, you really have no idea
how long it's been there.
Here, it comes out with the steam coming out of it,
like you know it's fresh.
I mean look at this.
This is just what my parents told me,
but I've heard the way you really measure
the quality of the dim sum is through the har gow,
is through the xia jiao, the shrimp dumpling.
And in particular, you count the number of pleats.
- Ohhh.
- Yeah, so I'm counting one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, maybe twelve?
That's kind of insane, yeah. - That's pretty good.
So it's the siu mai in a pork shrimp,
so this is a shrimp pork combo, right?
- Yeah, yeah.
That's pretty good.
This is a deep-fried dumpling with pork and shrimp.
I rarely have something like this
at a dim sum restaurant in America.
- I've had this kind of texture on the outside,
but more for desserts, and it's usually filled
with like a red bean paste or something.
But it's good, it's really fun.
Yeah, I don't know why I haven't had this before.
- [Vince] It's 'cause it doesn't look like anything
from the outside.
- It's the inside that counts!
So this is supposedly like the hallmark,
signature dim sum item there.
- [Vince] The pork bun?
- [Serena] The pork bun.
I believe this is baked?
- [Vince] This is definitely baked.
- Yeah.
With like a sweet barbecue on the inside,
and crispy on top.
- Mmm! - Ooh!
- Wow!
I lived in Chinatown for nine years.
I used to eat this stuff every day for breakfast.
I never thought it could win a Michelin star, you know?
- Yeah.
But I can see why it's got it.
- [Serena] All right, what next?
What do you wanna do?
- Oh man, if this was Chinatown,
I would definitely go to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.
- Let's go get ice cream!
- Sounds good.
- What did you like the most?
- Honestly, it wasn't what I expected to.
Normally, at most dim sum places,
I love the shrimp rolls, chicken, sticky rice.
- [Serena] Another classic, yeah.
- Always classics. - Always classics.
- [Vince] And don't get me wrong, those were good.
But it was awesome!
- And ultimately, at the end of the day,
maybe you can have a Michelin star meal
for not too much money.
- [Vince] Oh yeah, this isn't even that much more expensive
than most of the Chinatown places.
- [Serena] Yeah, exactly.
And that's, I don't know, there's something cool about that.
- Ice cream!
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- Sorry, I was thinking, how can I do, what shall I do?
This shape can hold the juice for you.
- [Serena] Oh, pizza pocket.
- [Chef] Yeah, it's a pizza pocket.