A few days ago my favorite restaurant blogger, Seth Chadwick, wrote about a dim sum place with a twist - no carts. Instead you check off items on a printed menu, much like those in many sushi places, with an accompanying page of photos of the various dishes. I thought this was a great idea since I’ve always been intimidated by the servers who push the cart up to your table and try to force unwanted dishes on you.
China Chan is at the Metro Center, a place we seldom go. The freestanding building is unprepossessing, to say the least, as is the interior. A few sad lanterns hang from the ceiling. That’s about it for ambience. But the servers are very nice, and those who speak English are happy to make suggestions and give explanations of the various dishes. There are 28 dim sum dishes at $1.80 each including spareribs with black bean sauce, baked BBQ pork buns, and tripe with ginger and scallions. At $2.85 you can get steamed lotus flavor rice, pan fried rice noodles with dried shrimp, and 7 others. Next are those at $3.55; steamed shrimp filled rice noodles, beef tripe, chinese broccoli and shrimp roll steamed rice noodle. Finally, the chef’s specials, eight of them, are priced from $5.99 to $8.50. From this last group we chose roast pork and roast duck. We also selected daikon cakes (I know these as turnip cakes) at $1.80. Lastly, from the regular menu we ordered eggplant in garlic sauce. Our waitress, licking her lips, suggested we add beef to the dish and that we pour lots of chili oil on top.
The roast pork and daikon arrived first. Chunks of moist, slowly roasted pork were generously sprinkled with the cracklings of skin. Decadent. And the portion was huge. The daikon cakes, three large rectangles enough to serve 6 as part of a meal, were the silkiest I’ve had, with just enough pan fry crust to satisfy. A small bowl of hoisin was served alongside. Then the duck and eggplant were served. The eggplant sauce was quite mild (our server was right about the chili oil) but beautifully flavored and the beef slices were a great addition. Again, the serving was huge. I don’t recall how much this cost, but the dishes from the menu are remarkably low priced. The only thing not stellar was the roast duck. The skin wasn’t crackly, and there was lots of fat.
Both menus contained dishes you don’t often find, and there were lots of Asian diners, so China Chans felt like the real deal. I suggest you go there with lots of people so you can sample a great variety of dim sum. Give us a call - we’re ready to go!!
China Chan Restaurant
10227 N. Metro-Parkway Phoenix
602-331-1315
Closed Wednesday
dim sum served Monday-Friday 11-3, Saturday & Sunday 9:30-3
no website
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