Two decades ago, dim sum began to see a shift towards what, in today’s parlance, would probably be described as “artisanal,” more delicate and refined than before.
That happened over three decades ago. Yank Sing moved to its big, modern space on Battery St. in 1981. The original Hong Kong Flower Lounge opened in 1984. Harbor Village, which might have been the best dim sum place ever in the SF Bay Area, opened in 1985.
Well, Yank Sing, Hong Kong Flower Lounge and Harbor Village certainly did advance Bay Area dim sum in the 1980s from where it had originally been. We saw the same thing in Los Angeles with our branch of Harbor Village (1988), ABC Seafood (1984) in Chinatown and NBC Seafood in Monterey Park (1986). However what I was referring to with Koi Palace was the further advance which led to the non-cart dim sum revolution that began in the US with Sea Harbor (2002) in Monterey Park to the point in recent years where all the outstanding dim sum is non-cart.
Well we should clarify this for some of the younger people. Carts came to LA in 1975 or 1976, probably a little before that to SF. Before then it was menu order, or waiters carrying trays around the room. And I remember going to Hang Ah Tea Room in SF Chinatown in the 1980s where they had waiters with trays. Given the restaurant’s size, I doubt if they ever went to carts.
I had no idea carts were a new thing in the 70s. I had dim sum for the first time circa 1974, at the old Yank Sing on Broadway, and by then they had carts.
Hang Ah definitely never had room for carts. I’m not sure how much of their stuff they make in-house.
@chandavkl: do you remember what this restaurant was back then? Many moons ago (although possibly not b/f 2002), my mom took me to have dim sum at this place, and it was non-cart. I remember being completely confused b/c I had never been to a non-cart dim sum place before. Just wondering if that was b/f 2002.
That was originally the home of Jumbo Seafood in the mid-80s, which I believe served cart dim sum, as well as its successor NYC Jumbo. In 2006 it became The Kitchen, which probably served menu dim sum, or perhaps Gourmet Island in 2009. Later the original home for Sam Tseng BBQ, then New Bay Seafood, until turning Sichuanese in 2015 as Happy Table.
It was indeed The Kitchen! Thanks (I knew you would know). Wonder why/how my mom knew about The Kitchen but not about Sea Harbour since my vague memory was that she was excited about The Kitchen specifically b/c it was serving dim sum in a new (although apparently actually old) way.
Only went to Jumbo for dinner, so I can’t recall if it served dim sum. For dim sum, my parents back then always went to whatever the predecessor was for NBC.
