Their dim sum items are very pricey and I'll try to explain why.
To give a bit of context, if you look at Han Palace, they charge $5.50 for a ha gao (4 pieces), siu mai (4 pieces), and cha siu bao (3 pieces). Vinh Kee charges $6.25, for ha gao & siu mai, $5.25 for the cha siu. Hong Kong Pearl Seafood restaurant charges the same as Han Palace. Taste @ Hong Kong charges $5.50 for ha gao & siu mai, $6.00 for cha siu.
Big wonton charges $9.50 for those same items, which is a 72% increase in price compared to Han Palace. Another difference I would point out is Big wonton gives you 2 baos whereas those other restaurants gives you 3. So you not only pay more, but you also receive less.
I Ordered the ha gao, siu mai (pork and shrimp), soup dumplings and cha siu bao.
Siu mai:
- the photos on their TV menus look nothing like the actual dish. (No crab roe on top).
- taste was very mediocre. Sort of reminded me of similarly tasting siu mais that you can purchase from the freezer section of asian grocery stores, except slightly more meat and less artificial tasting.
- smaller size compared to other dine-in dimsums around the area.
- the sauce that they added (tastes like hoisin sauce) on top took away from the focus of that dish, which is suppose to be the shrimp and pork filling. Not sure why they did this.
Hao gao:
- the skin is thicker and had a more doughy and sticky feel to it compares to other competitors in the area. You can tell by the color and transparency of the skin which is more cloudy compared to a thinner skinned ha gao.
- the filling is ok. Neither great nor terrible. Doesn't mean it's bad, just means that it didn't stand out to me. I do wish it had more filling though.
Soup dumplings
- this is ok tasting too. Neither great nor terrible.
Cha siu bao
- I like it. Filling is tasty. Why only include 2 though? Most places gives you 3.
So why the low star? The price versus what you get. From the very limited items I've tried, the 72% increase in price just doesn't seem justified. If you want to play devil's advocate, you could argue that you would have to pay tip in additional to the total whereas here at Big Wonton, it's all carryout. Well to counter that argument, you can also order carry out from those other restaurants as well. You don't need to worry about the hours either because those other restaurants offer all-day dimsum.
The other prepared meals and dishes they offer could be good, but I wouldn't know since I haven't tried them and I won't be returning for awhile based on my negative first impression.
I am not telling you to stay away. In fact I urge you to try them for yourself and make your own judgement. Everyone has different tastes. There's a chance you will actually enjoy the food they serve and don't mind the high price they are charging.
Service
Take out
Meal type
Lunch
Food: 1
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 3
