Fook Yuen

My favorite dim sum restaurant in San Francisco is Ton Kiang, but overall in the Bay Area, it’s Fook Yuen, hands down. Located in Millbrae, Fook Yuen specializes in seafood dim sum and is always packed on weekends around brunch time. Most of their dim sum offerings are classic, standard fare, but with better taste and craftsmanship than most other restaurants. It’s the perfect place to share small plates with a group – everyone gets to try a bite or two of everything.

Like most visits, we started this one with the har gau (translucent shrimp dumplings). Har gau have a clean, fresh taste unlike many other dim sum that are heavily sauced. Next, we tried the cheong fun (rice noodle roll), which are filled with either beef or shrimp.

One of the less commonly-served dim sums are fu pei guen (tofu skin roll), filled with shrimp and chives. Part of the fun in dim sum is mixing textures, and I usually like to have a fried dim sum or two in between most of the steamed ones.

Next, we tried Fook Yuen’s potstickers, which on this visit, were the best potstickers I’ve ever had. (Unfortunately, during my last visit, I ordered the potstickers again and ended up with among the worst potstickers I’ve ever had. The dough was significantly undercooked.)

I try to avoid limited myself to only seafood dim sum, so we also tried the fried tofu squares with black bean sauce, which were delicious and crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

We ended our meal at Fook Yuen with jin deui (deep-fried glutinous sesame seed rolls filled with red bean paste). These are sweet and warm, and my sister’s favorite dim sum.

The best thing about dim sum is the element of surprise. You never know which dim sum will be carted around next. At Fook Yuen, you usually can’t go wrong with whichever dim sum you choose.