Yogurtsoda Gratuitous food and travel.

I have a favorite dim sum restaurant in San Francisco (Ton Kiang). I have a favorite dim sum restaurant in the Peninsula (Fook Yuen). But if you ask me where I go for dim sum in the East Bay, I turn up empty-handed. So a few months ago, I tried out Legendary Palace in Oakland, in an effort to discover a new dim sum favorite.

Legendary Palace is located in Oakland’s Chinatown and the restaurant gets busy, which is always a good sign for fresh dim sum. The first dish I selected after being seated was the har gow, or shrimp dumplings. These were good, translucent and chewy on the outside, juicy on the inside.

Next I tried the spicy jellyfish.

This was by far my least favorite of the dim sum that I ate. While jellyfish is not for the squeamish, I actually enjoy this seafood in a myriad of ways. In this case, however, the jellyfish had coagulated into a not-so-tasty gelatinous mass. Yummy.

Opting to go the safe route, I went back to crustaceans, sampling the chive and shrimp dumplings next.

The wrapping was thicker than standard, and the filling was average. Perhaps it was time to try something other than seafood.

The last dim sum I tried at Legendary Palace were the beef rice rolls.

I wish I could say these were incredible, but alas, the wrappers were mushy and the beef was bland.

On the plus side, the prices at Legendary Palace are very reasonable and the restaurant stays busy, meaning there must be some solid dishes on the menu. If I find myself at Legendary Palace again, I’ll make sure to do my research ahead of time and learn exactly what those dishes are. Until then, the search for the Easy Bay’s best dim sum continues.