Yum Cha Cafe
6933 Linda Vista Rd
San Diego, CA 92111
www.yumchacafe.com
It’s been a while since I did a post on Yum Cha Cafe, so i took some pictures on our last visit. You can read about my previous posts here and here. I enjoy going to Yum Cha because I can get dim sum even in the evening. Yum Cha is the only fast food cheap dim sum option that I’ve come across that actually has pretty good tasting dim sum items. Lately, Boyfriend and I have been visiting Yum Cha in the early evening. They still have food at the time and it’s not crowded.
On our last visit, we picked up quite a few items to share with my siblings and took our order to go. This is what we got:
Brown sugar rice cake. Normally the version I have of this at dim sum
restaurants is white. The brown sugar tasted just as good.
Pineapple buns. These breads were just okay tasting. I liked the sugar crust, but the bread itself wasn’t as soft.
Chinese egg tarts
Fried shrimp balls. These had been sitting out a while, so they
weren’t that crunchy, but they were still filled with lots of shrimp.
Shrimp with rice noodles
Shrimp har gow
Rice balls with shrimp
Crystal shrimp dumplings. (I couldn’t remember what this was called, but reader Jess left a comment reminding me what it is.) The outside skin is kind of clear colored and it is sticky and chewy.
Bean curd rolls
Beef honeycomb tripe
Shrimp shui mai
You’ve never been to Yum Cha? You should totally give it a try! Yes, there is plenty of parking. The dim sum is pretty fresh. Everything is fresh if you go in the morning. They serve dim sum until night time though (I think 8 or 9?). The baked and fried items they seem to stop making around 2. But the steamed items they continue to make throughout the afternoon and early evening.
How fresh tasting was the food? Sometimes i have THE worst cravings for Dim Sum but it sucks to order to-go from all the usual DS places (Jasmine in particular i guess).
Is there parking at this location?
The shrimp items look kinda dry 🙁
I don’t like the shrimp rice noodle dish as much either BUT i HEART/LOVE that sweet soy sauce they put on it!!
Nice post Kirbie!
Yes, Crystal dumpling! Thanks Jess. I totally had a brain freeze when writing up the post last night. I’m going to change it now. I ordered the food to go. I also don’t know how to make the sauce used for the Shrimp with Rice Noodles. It’s usually not as big of an issue for me because I don’t really like that dish as much as the rest of my family. I wonder if maybe someone has posted a recipe somewhere.
I guess the sticky & chewy skin one is Crystal Dumpling? I’ve seen some dim sum items similar in Hong Kong with those transparent skin dumplings being called that way. Did you order the food to go? One thing about getting the Shrimp with Rice Noodle to go is that I am still not quite sure how to make the sweet soy sauce to pour on top.