We both love Chinese food. To a certain extent, we consider it on par with our love for the local cuisine. Of course, mainstay on top of our food priority list is American -- steak, burgers, pizza. But Chinese food has always been a staple on our dates, and probably in almost every Filipino household. It has been around for so long that it has been sort of established as part of our local food culture.
I have been reading about Dimsum Break since late last year when it opened its first and only (so far) Manila branch. People, particularly Manila based Cebuanos, were raving about it. I was surprised at how a small Chinese brand with no national notoriety evoke such strong emotions from (the stomachs of) people. We just had to go and find out!
We arrived in SM North Edsa early for dinner, but we still went on to walk towards Dimsum Break in Annex for a very early dinner. Dimsum Break's interiors is nothing to be amazed at, well except for the dimsum steamer baskets used as ceiling lamps. Other than that it is just a very simple place with white tables and chairs spread throughout the dining area.
This is not a fancy Chinese restaurant, so you have to line up and order from the counter. Despite this system, they don't have a the usual signage where you can look at the menu and their respective prices. But no worries, everything you need to see is right in front of you just like a good old school cafeteria. And they have leaflets too, where the menu is. So if you see something from the leaflet but it's not in the display in front of you, you can just go ask the staff for that item and they'll make one for you.
Ordering in Dimsum Break is so easy. You line up and just select your food from the display cases in front of you. It also helps that they grouped the food together. You'll first see the Steamed Dimsum section, where all selections are 65php. Then the Fried Dimsum section, again all are at 65php. Then there's the rice pots, all at 68php. And finally the desserts where most items are at 55php. The other items you see in their leaflet/menu, you just have to tell the cashier when you pay then they'll deliver it to your table. We ordered the following:
From the Steamed Dimsum, we got the Shaomai and the Hakao.
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| Shaomai. 65php. |
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| Hakao. 65php. |
We played safe and ordered some sure fire dimsum. They spell their Siomai as Shaomai, but despite the slight name change, they serve really good siomai. It's packed and flavorful, and not too small nor big.
The same goes for their Hakao, it's really packed! With each and every bite you get a taste of the shrimp inside and not just the wrapper. We played safe since it was our first time to eat here, but next time we will try some of their more creative dimsum like the quail egg topped Shaomai and the bacon wrapped Shaomai.
From the Fried Dimsum, we ordered the Sweet and Sour Pork, Stuffed Shrimps, and the Spring Rolls.
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| Sweet and Sour Pork. 65php. |
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| Stuffed Shrimps. 65php. |
The Stuffed Shrimp was okay.. when dipped in the sweet and sour sauce. I really couldn't taste the shrimp in it, and its inside was really mushy.
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| Spring Rolls. 65php. |
The Spring Rolls on the other hand were perfectly crispy and really went well with the sweet and sour sauce. I think Dimsum Break uses just one sweet and sour sauce for all their dishes that require it. I might be wrong though, and I am certainly not complaining.
We also both got a bowl of Steamed Fried Rice each.
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| Steamed Fried Rice. 68php. |
After just one spoonful of the Steamed Fried Rice, I finally understood what the fuss is about. It's just normal steamed white rice, but it is topped with very, very tender pork and some small pieces of shrimp that is then finished off with a thick sweet (but not too sweet) sauce. You can just order this and ignore everything else. That's how good it is! I can't even think of another Chinese dish served locally in any other restaurant that can compare to this! And Kim might disagree, but I think this is really perfect with all the dimsum (steamed or fried) they serve.
For dessert, we ordered the Coconut Cream and the Buko Pandan.
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| Coconut Cream. 55php. |
The Coconut Cream is supposed to be their signature dessert dish, but I wasn't totally blown away by it. It was okay, and I liked the texture of it and that it wasn't overly sweet but it was really nothing different from a maja blanca without the corn.
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| Buko Pandan. 55php. |
Same with the Coconut Cream, the Buko Pandan was just okay. Except for the fact that this was surprisingly topped with corn flakes, there really was nothing special about it.
I can't explain how much I really enjoyed our meal in Dimsum Break. I loved it so much that I'm saying that it is better than any other high priced Chinese restaurants we go to. The serving sizes are just right for the prices, you can enjoy and share more variety without paying more. The service is fast, the price is very affordable, and the food is really great! You can bring your whole family here and not break the bank. We will surely be back here again very, very soon!
Dimsum Break
3/F SM North Edsa Annex
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