Hei La Moon
On Sunday, PK, Marg, and I decided to head to Chinatown for some dim sum. We normally go to China Pearl, but this time, I wanted to try Hei La Moon since I had read so much about it on chowhound and Boston Chomps. We got there just before noon, and there was already a long line. After waiting for almost 30 minutes, I was getting impatient since I really hate waiting to eat, especially in the morning. Once we were seated and the carts were stopping at our table, I soon forgot about the wait. Hei La Moon is a step above every dim sum place around due to quality, flavor, price, and variety.
The fried squid dish was delicious.
The fried and spicy shrimp (with their heads) were very good, but far from the best I have had; however, we will get them again due to PK’s shrimp head addiction.
The shrimp dumplings were fantastic. They were my second favorite of the meal. My favorite was a similar dumpling on the same cart that was packed full of scallions.
The long rice noodles with beef were very good.
The turnip cakes were good, but not a favorite.
And, this was voted the least favorite of the meal.
Verdict: No matter where you go for dim sum, you will have to wait, so you might as well wait outside Hei La Moon.
Glad you liked it
… I’m still craving dim sum in nyc. We went almost 2 years ago and stepped into a random dim sum joint (no wait?!). The food was amazing, much better than Boston. I’m still dreaming about it today ….
What exactly is that thing voted ‘least favorite’?
I don’t know the name, but it tasted much like the filling of a basic dumpling; however, it was much more meatbally (for lack of a better description).
the “rice cakes” in that picture are really turnip cakes…
Anon – Thanks, I made the edit…At the restaurant, they told us it was “rice cakes with turnips.”
I love the mushrooms with the shrimp balls on top (the one you said was the least favorite) they’re DELCIOUS! the turnip cakes are bleh.
We tried Hei La Moon, and found it totall inferior compared to China Pearl. China Pearl is still the Gold Standard when it comes to Dim Sum in Boston. Quite frankly, we still find China Pearl to be the best Dim Sum restaurant in America!
Ron: Some friends recently went to Hei La Moon around 1PM a few Sundays ago and they reported that were very disappointed with the quality and the lack of variety. I have not been there for a while so I cannot confirm this based on my standards.
However, I did go to China Pearl the other week, and the the variety and the quality was fantastic.
Least favorite is called (phonetically) Har Gao (or Har Gow). It’s pork. Have you tried Empire Garden?
Thanks anon…I haven’t been to Empire Garden? Do you recommend it? Anything that I should try there?
At Empire Garden, I would advise having the shrimp dumplings, beef meatballs, coengfun, turnip cakes, and lo mai gai.
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