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Mings (Chinese cuisine)  $$$$

 8.75
JaT Rating

1700 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, 94303  (Directions)


650-856-7700


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Large chinese & dim sum restaurant on Embarcadero, Palo Alto


Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 10/20/2004
Rating: 8.5
My photo gallery 		Everything about Mings is huge...the parking lot, the restaurant, the dim sum selection, and the bill. Terry and I were laughing when we rolled into this parking lot.... land rovers, bmws, porsche, benz, and so on. Nice cars and it could only mean one thing...The Man likes to frequent this spot to close his business deals or think of ways to increase profits, mergers and acquisitions and our personal favorite...layoffs :p

We went in for the lunch dim sum and their were plenty of carts rolling around. We had carts passing us with new foods every couple of minutes. We quickly grabbed about 9 plates within 10 minutes and ate just as fast. It was a complete overdose...they could have wheeled me out on the cart. I was stuffed. I wont even go into detail what we ordered, just look at the pictures.

The food was very good but my only complaint was the price. It was very expensive ($40 + $8 tip) and would normally cost $20-25 at other chinese restaurants. There are reasons to defend

1. This is one of the cleanest chinese restaurants Ive been to. For you bargain dimsum hunters, you cant touch this, those cheap ass places you go to are ass-filthy.

2. Service is excellent. We had plenty of plates at our table and the dim sum attendents did not bother us. Ive been to plenty of places when attendents will use high pressure sales tactics to buy their food. Mings will leave you in peace to eat.

3. I want to say the variety is 2nd to none. I think their menu said 150+ to choose from. I bet this place is out of control on the weekends.

4. Did I mention service is awesome? The waitors will fill your glass after every sip...they are dammm good!!! When I asked for the bill, it was brought immediately. When I asked for a side of rice, it was brought out immediately.

And the scarey thing is...we only sampled the dim sum for lunch!!! They have a regular menu too. I told you everything about this place is huge. For you Audi and Honda car owners, when you drop off your car for service, go fill your belly with dim sum at Mings in Palo Alto.
 


Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 739
Reviewed: 10/20/2004
Rating: 9
My photo gallery 		Its not often I get Dim Sum and usually when I do, I find the quality to be hit and miss with many of the selections on the trays. This time was different. Mings provides an excellent lunchtime Dim Sum. Its a bit on the pricey side, but not overly so. The dishes brought around were presented very well, and tasted even better. Lots of shrimp and crap selections to keep me happy and my eyes were definitely getting larger than my stomach could allow. I had to try everything though. I won't attempt to name the particular dishes I tried, but its safe to say that if it had crap or shrimp in it, I tried it and I loved it. There was no need to order anything not on the Dim Sum mneu as it filled me up quite easily.

I enjoyed their goldfish pond near the entrance (despite the fact that it appeared to be too shallow). A nice touch along with the entire surrounding scenery. I will return to try their Dim Sum lunch again.
 
6.5
Agent Rating


Reviewer: Stevetacular
Total Reviews: 25
Reviewed: 11/5/2006
Rating: 6.5
My photo gallery		 I don't know if this place was too upper crust for me or what, but I did not enjoy my visit here for dim sum at ALL. I mean, the service was about average (maybe a little above) and for a while there were many carts coming around. Then all the carts seemed to take a pause all at once, and it took at least 5 minutes for any to be in view.

Now it's not the service that I didn't like, it was the cleanliness (seriously even for an Asian restaurant the utensils were still dirtier than usual), and I KNOW this statement contradicts Jason's statement about how clean this place is, but there was gunk on the utensils. The food was average and at times below average (could get better dim sum at Dynasty in Grand Century or New East Lake), but I won't deny that they do have a big variety of items. They just don't have enough of the big sellers like taro, shrimp rolls, etc.

Here's how I rated the food:

Har gow - 7, it was okay, but nothing mind blowing.

Chicken's feet - 7, it's impossible to go wrong with chicken's feet.

Chinese brocolli - 7, what can I say? Just average.

Rice porridge - 5.5, this was weak. I usually look forward to rice porridge during dim sum, but this was the blandest rice porridge ever.

Shrimp rolls - 5.5, again this is another item I look forward to during dim sum. The sauce that was poured over them didn't seem to add much flavor, and eating the noodles was like eating solidified water or something.

Other average dishes included seaweed, eggplant in a claypot, taro cake, pork buns, and shrimp balls. None of these dishes stood out and were pricey (in comparison to the portions).

Maybe it's because I caught them on a weekend, and maybe they ARE better on weekdays. However, for the price and the food quality I wouldn't make an effort to go this far. Maybe if I was a high roller living around here I would come back, but I would much rather go to places closer to my immediate area.
 
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