Lunch #44: Ocean City, Seattle International District

We started into the inner most loop of the MSG150 route today as we headed up Weller to find the next lunch spot. Even though we only have a handful of blocks left, the restaurant density is pretty high so I figure we still have a couple of months to go before we have to expand the DLZ. We headed out with a good sized group today and met up with Erin in front of Ocean City, arguably the most ornately decorated restaurant in the ID. They make China Gate look like they are not even trying.

Ocean City, Seattle
Address: 609 S Weller St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Dim Sum
Average rating: 3.4 chopsticks
Lunch date: 4/7/2008 @ 12:00:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 0 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 41 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Didn't Ask
Where is the owner/chef from?: San Francisco
Number of tables: 30
Number of occupied tables: 20 (66%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (10%)
Number of "local" tables: 18 (90%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Family Style Dishes

2 x Shu Mai
2 x Tofu Wrapped Shrimp
2 x Fired Tofu w/ Shrimp
Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant
2 x Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf
Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce
Chinese Broccoli in Oyster Sauce
BBQ Pork Hum Bow
BBQ Pork Turn-over
Steamed Dumpling with Scallops
2 x Egg Tart

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You are surrounded by true friends.
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Emmett's Review

This place is huge. Big, fancy, ornate lions guard the entrance. They're not fucking around - they have a parking garage. Walking inside - what is this? Is that a ... an Elevator? Don't know where it goes, but dang, those other dim sum places don't have elevators.

As is often the case, we were the only white people in the building. They have disco balls on the ceiling and a big throne in the corner. So the king can sit there and watch minions eat dim sum and dance the night away. I didn't inquire to the rental rates, but I will.

The dim sum itself? Nothing stood out. The scallops were alright, I guess. I think I remember having some chinese brocolli. The rice was really hot. The Sui Mai weren't bad.

Nothing here really distinguishes it from the competition. The hustle and bustle of Jade Garden is just more fun. But the atmosphere here is relaxed, and the service was good.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will soon travel on a business trip.
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Geary's Review

Ocean City is all about the glitz. Other places have private parking lots, Ocean City has an underground parking garage with an elevator to the main dining room. Other places have murals with pandas, Ocean City has giant golden dragons on the walls and golden lions flanking the entrance. It's a bit more toned down once you get into the dining room, but they do have fancy chandeliers and, like House of Hong, they are set up for Chinese weddings with a large dance floor and stage with a golden throne.

The large dining room was not completely full, but there was a large crowd of mostly Chinese. This was a good sign and offset my innate fears brought on by all of the gold paint. Dim sum appeared to be the lunch of choice and a cart showed up as soon as we were seated. It started a bit rocky as they brought us all forks and were quick to offer egg rolls and pork buns, but we were able to work through that and were even glad that they served us all ice water. Not all profiling is bad. It's a shame that they didn't recognize that I'm accustomed to foot massages during my lunch. We loaded up the table pretty quickly and set about working away at our bounty. This part was made slightly more difficult than it could have been since our large table had no lazy susan and the plates were tiny. They have an elevator but no lazy susan.

Even though we were there in the midst of the lunch rush, many of the items were only lukewarm. Nothing was bad but most was just average. The sticky rice was good but the shu mai were sub par as were the spareribs. I think we were recognized at some point during our lunch. Near the end of our lunch, the managers started each stopping by making sure we were happy and making suggestions like, "make sure you get a picture of the throne". Unfortunately, however, there were no bribes.

In the pantheon of Seattle ID dim sum (so far) I place Ocean City just above House of Hong (even with all of the gold, it doesn't feel as much like Disney's version of a Chinese restaurant; It's more like the Vegas version) and just below Sun Ya.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: Your lover will never wish to leave you.
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Adam's Review

Another day, another dim sum. This is one of those places we've walked-by and noticed... but never bothered to go in.

We ordered all the standard stuff, and it tasted like all the standard dim sum. The shu-mai was tasty, as per usual. The one real kicker about this place was the potatoes in the blackbean spare ribs. I took a big bite of (what I thought was) a spare rib, but it was soft and mushy... and felt like a big piece of pork fat. But, it wasn't, it was just a potato.

This is decent food, but in the sea of dim sum of the ID, swim elsewhere.

Luncher: Wayne

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will soon find a treasure.
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Wayne's Review

Plus 1 for the giant golden throne at the end of the room.
Minus 1 for hot dishes that weren't hot.
Plus 1/2 for the wild bird flying around inside the restaurant.
Minus 1/2 for the lazy-susan that wasn't at our table.

It was an OK dim sum experience. They had some tasty dishes, but nothing particularly exceptional. Worse yet, some of the dishes were not served as warm as they should have been. The worst was the Asian broccoli which was barely warm.

If Ocean City was the only game in town, I’d give it another try. As we have multiple better choices, I doubt I'll return.

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will have an opportunity to reach your goal.
Rating: 4 Chopsticks

Michael's Review

A really nice looking place to have lunch. Very tasty foods at a very affordable price. My only real complaint was the forks that were rushed to our table as we sat down.

The little egg custards at the end of lunch were flaky and fresh. Egg custard good, forks bad.

Luncher: Erin

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will speak to an important person today.
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Erin's Review

Ocean city has a very elaborate building – like something I imagine would be in Hong Kong (from what I’ve been told) – so it’s very distinctive. It has a grand entrance. Inside it has very old school Chinese decorations, lots of red and gold, and we were seated at a table on a dance floor. A dim sum cart arrived almost immediately after we sat, and several more streamed by in short order. The dim sum offerings were pretty standard, although well executed. I tasted eggplant stuffed with shrimp, a square of tofu with a shrimp stuffing, a honey walnut shrimp, sticky rice, some Chinese greens, shu mai (shrimp and pork), and of course an egg tart. Some of our food was not as warm as it should be, since it looked freshly prepared; some was nice and hot. It seemed to depend on which cart it came from. Everything was fresh and tasty, but not really different from any other dim sum offering in the ID. The egg tart was very good, with a fresh eggy custard and a nice flaky crust. This is a place to return to, especially if you wish to introduce a newbie to dim sum. I give this 3 chopsticks instead of 4; it was well done, but nothing was particularly outstanding.