Tony Cheng Restaurant, Washington D.C (review)

Overall Beth Rating: 3.5 out of 5

• minus 1 for iffy service
• minus 1 for plasticene chopsticks
• plus 0.5 for a good menu surprise (steamed fun gor)

**  **
My friend Lisa and I were on a mission to find Dim Sum for lunch while we were in DC on a cold and misty October Tuesday.  Chinatown in DC has a number of decent restaurants to choose from, but only one advertised for Dim Sum: Tony Cheng's.

First:  Tony Cheng's is a two-fer establishment--downstairs is the mongolian barbeque part, but upstairs is the chinese and dim sum part.  No dim sum carts (we were disappointed), but the menu was decent.  Expect to pay about $4 per "sum" dish.

Second: If you're the kind of person who likes to use chopsticks, I suggest you bring your own unless you're adept at using those wide plasticene sticks that are too smooth to use as either pincers OR scoop and are really only good for obnoxiously rude food-stabbing types of motions.  I fail at using those (even at the food-stabbing part) and decided to be "that pretentious girl" who will travel with my own bamboo or wood sticks when I go back.

The dim sum was very good!  The menu was not clear on what some items were, but we were adventurous and tried a couple different things we didn't recognize.  The waitstaff was a little hard to pinpoint, but we were there during quiet hours and apparently vying against afternoon soaps.

What we ordered:

• steamed shrimp dumpling
• steamed fun gor
• vegetable spring roll
• sesame shrimp toast
• fried taro dumpling
• pineapple bun
• fried sesame ball

What we liked most:

• steamed fun gor: had no idea what it was, but turned out to be a very delish concoction of seasoned pork in that snow-white rice dumpling wrapper
• sesame shrimp toast: if you're into shrimp, this is the super-stuffed shrimp toast you wish everyone else served; one piece was enough for both of us
• fried sesame ball: sweet dough with some sort of goo filling and rolled in sesame seeds--the perfect dessert for someone with a not-so-sweet tooth

What we don't recommend and why:

• fried taro dumpling: taro itself is kind of a bland staple food, but it's usually meshed with something else to give it a bit of pizzaz; dumplings arrived looking appetizing in what I think was a crunchy coating of panko flakes, but the interior taro mesh AND whatever saucy blend of stuff on the inside failed to deliver, even with a healthy sprinkle of salt or soy.