photograph by samuel x. cicci
Baked pork with spicy salt, one of Dim Sum King’s larger entrees.
What’s for dinner? Here at Memphis Magazine, that’s a question we find ourselves asking quite frequently, with thoughts turning to food as the workday ebbs away. Lucky for us, Memphis chefs and entrepreneurs continue to embrace new ideas and adventures, blessing the city with an abundance of new restaurants and tasty dishes to satisfy our growing appetites. For the last couple of years, our dining contributors have used the annual February food issue to take a deeper dive into Memphis’ culinary world. We’ve explored it through traditional means (a top restaurants list), through a selection of our favorite dishes over the course of a year, or even 2021’s “Memphis Eats A-Z” feature.
But it’s back to basics this year. There are almost too many fresh options to choose from, so through our “Dinner at 8” feature, we’re here to let our readers know about the eight new restaurants that made the biggest impression on us in 2023. We’re spoiled for choices, but we’re not complaining!
When many of the Memphis chefs I interviewed over the course of last year recommended I check out a certain new restaurant, I hopped in my car. And that’s how I found myself rolling far down Summer Avenue and into the parking lot of Dim Sum King, its unassuming exterior hiding a feast fit for, well … a king.
Located in the former Asian Palace space at 5266 Summer, the new establishment by restaurateur King Chow focuses on authentic Chinese dishes (think Cantonese barbecue, sizzling hot plates, live seafood) and boasts an expansive interior that can comfortably accommodate around 400 diners; and that’s just as well, for during a few of my visits, the place was packed.
Servers dashed to and fro, ferrying trays stacked with small plates, weaving a fragrant trail of garlic, soy, and sesame throughout. The whole experience, like the menu of 100-plus items, might be a tad overwhelming for some, but once it’s time to dig in, all worries melt away. Large TV screens placed around the perimeter of the dining room flick through a slideshow of dishes and specials — crab, duck, lobster, etc. — providing guests with visual aids if they can’t quite decide what to order. On my first visit, the back half of the restaurant had been rented out for a wedding party, with the guests singing Chinese karaoke and having a blast as we dove into our small plates in the front half of the room.
Some of our group plumped for more traditional offerings like the house fried rice, with scents of oil and green onion radiating from the stir-fried delight mixed with generous helpings of chicken, pork, and shrimp. A large plate of Cantonese fried chicken soon arrived, its crisped skin wrapped around tender and juicy meat with a mild salted marinade.
But the joy at Dim Sum King, and an overall Dim Sum experience, is the small plates. Weekend brunch service offers up the classic food cart, piled high with all manner of colorful dishes, zipping from table to table. Four sizes of plates range from around $4 to $9. Grab a couple, enjoy, and try out something else when it comes by your table again.
I tried out my first-ever cuttlefish, the rubbery squid-like creature enveloped in a mildly spicy yellow turmeric blanket rendering it almost a curry calamari. The shrimp and chive dumplings wrapped up a generous helping of garlic chives and savory ground shrimp in a thin, translucent wheat-starch skin, while the regular pork buns provided a more expected thick, pillowy texture around the sweet meat inside.
Readers of my Dining Out column know I’m partial to duck; Dim Sum King offers the full bird — whole Cantonese roasted duck or Peking duck — but I was able to order a small portion (a rarity) off the Dim Sum menu and continue to sample other things. The barbecue roasted duck was a battle, first through the sweet crispy skin, and then some gristle and bone to get to the soft meat inside, but that’s just how I like it. There are so many things to try, most of which I presume that many Memphians haven’t tried before, so dining here is always the best kind of adventure.
