Dim Sum GoGo
5 East Broadway btwn Catherine St/Chatham Sq (which is what Bowery becomes)
New York, NY 10038
(212) 732-0797
http://gochineserestaurant.com/DimSumGoGo/


Dim sum brunch is a NYC experience, best enjoyed with a group, and Dim Sum Go Go is the place to go if you want consistently delightful, light and tasty dim sum. If you haven't been, you should know that, besides the slightly disorganized wait, Dim Sum Go Go isn't the typical dim sum experience -- there are no carts roaming between tables, it's not a huge banquet hall filled with huge tables and diners are not hovering at the kitchen doors waiting for the next best thing to come out.

Weekends at lunchtime are usually crowded, and the wait was about 30 minutes this past Sunday at noon. Go Go has gotten a lot of good press as the "Best Dim Sum" in Manhattan, if not all of NYC, and with this press comes the crowds (while waiting, I sometimes wish that there wasn’t so many good reviews on Go Go, but it’s purely selfish so that my wait wouldn’t be as long).

Almost everything we ordered came out quickly and was amazing. Their XO sauce (a condiment offered at no charge) is bursting with flavor and is the perfect enhancement to the dim sum offered (I like a little chili paste as well). My three friends and I ordered Go Go hamburgers in steamed buns and an assortment of dim sum (fried shrimp balls, turnip cakes, pork dumplings, rice rolls with shrimp, rice rolls with parsley & scallions, spare ribs with black bean sauce, beef tripe with black pepper sauce, chicken & sticky rice in lotus leaf, chicken bun, shrimp dumplings, shumai, chives & shrimp dumplings, duck dumplings, chinese parsley dumplings, soybean dumplings and malaysian rolls).

This was the first time I’ve ordered something not on the dim sum menu… I'm sure the other dishes at Go Go are delicious, but I haven't tried them. I usually can’t make it past the dim sum. The Go Go burgers were served in steamed buns similar to what you’d get with Peking duck and served with taro fries. They tasted good (especially with a little chili paste and XO), with an herbal flavor; however, the texture was slightly gelatinous and rubbery, a bit strange for a burger. What really stood out (as usual) were dim sum, especially the chives & shrimp dumplings, duck dumplings and chinese parsley dumplings. The latter of the three was especially bright and would be the perfect final dumpling to savor as a palate cleanser before moving on to the delicious dessert Malaysian rolls. What was particularly UNextraordinary were the soybean dumplings and chicken buns; I’d definitely leave those off and get a second order of the chives & shrimp dumplings for next time.

I'm always looking for the real thing, and when it comes to authentic fare, I go to the source. I frequently go to dim sum with at least one (if not both) of two friends who are from Hong Kong, who live in Chinatown AND who speak Cantonese (Have you ever noticed that if you're with a native, you get better service (and sometimes freebies)?) Anyhow, the dim sum tastes spectacular, and if the locals think Dim Sum Go Go is the best of the best, that’s good enough for me.