We both had Good Friday off and I walked 5 miles around the Lafayette Reservoir while Grant fished. We still had all afternoon so we headed to SF for some dim sum at HK Lounge Bistro.

We arrived at 2pm and found the small eatery. When I say small, I mean it is cozy enough to hear and see every diner in the restaurant. I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to snag a table without a reservation. Luckily, a family of three just finished their meal and the friendly waiter said to give him a few minutes to clean up their table.

The entire left side of the restaurant, three round banquet tables, was filled with happy guests celebrating a wedding reception. The staff kept bringing plates of food to the Middle Eastern bride and groom and their family, which made me hungry.

HK Lounge Bistro’s menu offered traditional dim sum like ha gow and siu mai, and much, much more. When we saw dishes like ribeye XO dan dan noodles, sliced beef ribeye porridge, Berkshire pork Shanghai soup dumplings, steamed Berkshire BBQ pork buns, truffle salt shrimp toast, birthday peach buns, and koi fish mango pudding, we knew the dim sum coming our way would be a little fancier than usual.

I wanted to order almost everything from the yellow paper checklist but Grant stopped me after we chose dry fried string beans, sliced fish noodle roll, steamed turnip cake with XO sauce, roast duck meat and peanut dumplings, glutinous rice and chicken dumplings, pan fried shrimp and chive dumplings, and black sesame balls. He remarked that was already a lot of food!

I walked 5 miles and he didn’t. I wanted to argue that dim sum portions are small and we should order more food. The only reason I didn’t was because the restaurant was so small that everyone would’ve heard our crazy quarrel and I didn’t want to be responsible for ruining that nice couple’s wedding reception.

A large pot of chrysanthemum tea came out first and the string beans and roast duck dumplings arrived soon after. They both were delightful. The dumplings tasted like eating roast duck; moist and flavorful.

Then the fish noodle roll, turnip cakes, and glutinous rice dumplings were placed before us. Again, everything was delicious. I was really impressed by how the glutinous rice dumplings were so crisp, fresh and not greasy. I don’t know how the chef did it because I grew up eating these and even my mom cannot make them crispy and chewy like this. Did they use a special type of oil instead of canola or avocado oil? I wanted to ask the waiter but refrained because I knew Chinese people like to keep their secrets.

By the time the pan-fried shrimp dumplings came out, I was getting full. Thank God Grant stopped me from ordering more food because I had room to really enjoy the soft, warm black sesame balls for dessert. They were the softest mochi dumplings I’ve ever eaten. They tasted so fresh and pillowy tender that Grant and I didn’t save one for Sean. We rationalized our decision to split the last one by saying it would not taste as good cold and Sean should come eat them with us when we come again. And we definitely are coming back again! HK Lounge Bistro is my new favorite dim sum place in the Bay Area.