Founded by chef Mak Kwai Pui (麥桂培) in 2009, Tim Ho Wan (添好運), a dim sum restaurant chain from Hong Kong, is often praised as the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant. After establishing branches in Singapore and the Philippines, the restaurant opened its first outlet in Taipei during the summer, offering up authentic dim sum dishes priced between NT$78 and NT$138. Business is so good that customers commonly wait in line for up to two hours during peak hours. The restaurant, which is located just a three-minute walk from the Taipei Main Station MRT (台北車站), does not take reservations.
Hoping to beat the dinner rush, my friend and I arrived around 5:30pm on a weekday. But clearly others had the same plan as there were already dozens of people lined up. After a half-hour wait, during which time the staff had us fill out our order, we were seated at a tiny table. Tim Ho Wan follows tradition by keeping its decoration plain and tables close together. This is somewhat annoying because there is such a din in the crowded restaurant, I had to raise my voice when talking and could hear the conversation they were having at the next table.
Tim Ho Wan crowns its four most popular dim sum dishes as the “Big Four Heavenly Kings” (四大天王), and we decided to try them all. Baked buns with BBQ pork (NT$118) is the most popular of this royal family. According to the restaurant, they sold 66,000 buns during the one-month trial period — one bun every 17 seconds. The BBQ pork buns are fluffy and crumbly on the outside, and stuffed with tender pork cubes and a sweet and savory barbecue sauce. Unlike most restaurants, which use red artificial food coloring in their buns, Tim Ho Wan uses red rice.
Photo: Eddy Chang, Taipei Times
The other “kings” are the pan-fried turnip cake (NT$98), steamed egg cake (NT$98) and vermicelli spring rolls with pig’s liver (NT$128). The turnip cakes (dubbed “carrot cake” on the menu) are slightly softer than ordinary turnip cakes, and the egg cake has an appealing brown sugar aroma that is not too sweet. The vermicelli rolls with pig’s liver were a nice change from the pork or shrimp varieties commonly found in Taiwan. The silky smooth rolls arrived drenched in an appealing combination of soy sauce, green onions and ginger.
Online food critics recommend the spring rolls with egg whites (NT$98), spinach dumplings with shrimp (NT$98), pork dumplings with shrimp (NT$128), vermicelli rolls with shrimp (NT$128) and, most impressive, the wasabi salad prawn dumplings (NT$128). These prawn dumplings, which are bursting with shrimp, are deep-fried until golden and crispy, and then decorated with a dollop of green wasabi and fish roe.
Each of us paid almost NT$600 for the meal, which was slightly more expensive than what they are charging at the outlets in Hong Kong. Overall, Tim Ho Wan was a unique dining experience with Michelin-starred delicacies in a small eatery’s atmosphere. The restaurant plans to open 10 outlets in Taiwan within five years. Hopefully, the new outlets can offer a better environment to match the good food.
Photo: Eddy Chang, Taipei Times
Photo: Eddy Chang, Taipei Times
Photo: Eddy Chang, Taipei Times
Photo: Eddy Chang, Taipei Times
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