In my report on our meal at Grand Szechuan at the end of March I noted that in our three months away we had barely eaten any Chinese food. I listed two meals: one a Korean-Chinese lunch in Seoul and the other an Indian-Chinese takeout dinner in Delhi. Somehow I forgot about the third, which was the best of the three and the only non-hyphenated Chinese one of the three: dim sum at one of the Seoul outposts of the Tim Ho Wan empire. Tim Ho Wan, as you probably know, started out in 2009 as a no-frills, reasonably priced dim sum shop in Hong Kong, famously picking up a Michelin star. Multiple branches opened in Hong Kong (I’ve previously reported on a quick meal at the Central branch) and then all over the world (including the US). We’ve not eaten at Tim Ho Wan’s US locations but when we saw there were three in Seoul, we couldn’t resist. We ended up eating at the Samseong location in Gangnam. This is the flagship Seoul location and, most importantly, the largest of the three. A long wait seemed the least likely here and that hope proved true. After a brief wait we were seated and very quickly after that we we were eating. Here’s how it went.

After a morning visit to the missus’ old elementary school in a far-flung corner of Seoul we took the subway over to Gangnam and walked over to Tim Ho Wan. It’s situated in an area filled with offices and most of the diners appeared to be on their lunch breaks. I assume the Myeongdong branch is filled with tourists. We waited for a bit on couches in the foyer and then were led to a table in the very full dining room. At the Hong Kong Central branch (in the train station) ordering had been done on sheets while waiting in line. Here you order off a console on your table and things start showing up very quickly after that.

What did we get? No surprise that we got their signature dish: the Baked BBQ Pork Buns. They were as excellent as I remembered from Hong Kong in 2018. Also on the table from our initial order were Rice Rolls with BBQ Pork, Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf, Pork Dumplings in Hot & Spicy Sauce, Steamed Seasonal Vegetable, a couple of orders each of Hargow and Shiumai, Shrimp & Spinach Dumplings, Fried Squid, Turnip Cake and Hong Kong Wonton Noodle Soup. The boys loved the shiumai so much that we ordered some more. So, an order full of classics and I am happy to say everything was excellent.

If we lived in California, with many superior dim sum options—not to mention a Tim Ho Wan in Irvine, not too far from our base of operations in Seal Beach—I don’t know that eating dim sum in Seoul would have been a priority. Though I would say the baseline quality here was better than at Southern California’s best. But coming from Minnesota, we were thrilled to eat this meal.

For a look at what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it cost and to see what’s coming next on the food front.

Service was brisk and impersonal and very efficient. Price? My credit card statement tells me we paid $91 in total. Which is crazy good value in the abstract but when I think about how much we pay for far, far, far inferior dim sum in Minnesota it makes me want to laugh and cry. Ah well.

Okay, up next on the food front: a report on a new(ish) Mexican market and restaurant in Apple Valley, MN. That will go up tomorrow. On Tuesday, I’ll have my last dining out report from the brief Delhi sojourn that followed our time in Seoul: another lunch at Indian Accent. More Seoul reports will follow later next week.