Daily dim sum delights at King Chef

MANILA, Philippines -No authentic Chinese meal is complete without dim sum. Tasty, hearty, and filling, these savory treats have become favorites even here in the Philippines. But going beyond the usual pork siomai and shark’s-fin siomai, popular Chinese restaurant King Chef has been offering patrons its Dim sum Promo Feast, one of the many things the restaurant has become known for since it opened three years ago.

King Chef’s two very successful branches include the first along Banawe in Quezon City; the second is at Lucky Chinatown Mall in Binondo. King Chef owner Marites Ang is very happy with how everything has worked out for her restaurant business, given that it was born from her own love for Cantonese food.

“I used to have an accessories business,” she says. “It was because of that business that I ended up traveling a lot around China, because you need to keep yourself updated with the latest trends. It was because of these travels that I became very immersed in a lot of good food, something that I always looked forward to each time I went out of the country.”

She shares that she ended up trying practically everything, from street food to fine dining, which gave her extensive knowledge of Cantonese food. “Then I became pregnant with my first child in 2009. I realized that I couldn’t travel so much anymore and, of course, my business was very much affected because I was not as updated with trends. So I needed to think of a business that would not require me to travel as much. And of course, when you start a business you go for something that you love; and what is the thing that I love most aside from accessories? Siyempre, food.”

Just looking at the generous spread of dim sum available at King Chef, one can easily sense how much Marites loves Cantonese food. The wide selection of dim sum includes the classic pork siomai, Japanese siomai, chicken feet, taosi spareribs, bola-bola siopao, asado siopao, shark’s-fin dumplings, spring rolls, hakaw, machang, mantao, fried wonton, and fried prawn dumplings, to specialties like the steamed seafood bundle, bean curd roll, stuffed bean curd, spinach dumpling, bird’s-eye dumpling, quail-egg siomai, ham soy kok, siao long pao, beef balls, chicken wings in lotus leaf, kuchay dumpling, Beijing pork dumpling, and Taiwan pork dumpling.

All these, of course, make up King Chef’s very popular Dim sum Promo Feast, which is available daily from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. at their Banawe branch.

“We have a roving cart for our dim sums,” Marites says. “Starting from our opening at 7 a.m., when the dim sum cart comes rolling around, our customers are already very excited because they know that it’s the start of our promo. Almost 50 percent off din kasi yun, eh, so they really look forward to it.”

But for King Chef first-timers, Marites recommends that customers try the restaurant’s 12 bestselling dim sum variants: Bird’s Eye Dumpling (made primarily of shrimp with bits of asparagus, carrots and crab roe [fish eggs] that make it healthy and delicious), Chili Chicken Feet with Taosi (soft pieces of chicken feet marinated and cooked until “fall-off-the-bone” soft, with barbecue sauce that is flavored with black beans and chili), Crispy Spring Rolls (made of pork, shrimp, mushroom, and vegetables dipped in a special spicy vinegar), Fried Prawn Dumplings (plump and juicy shrimps in a crispy wonton wrapper with the restaurant’s sweet-and-sour sauce), Hakaw (juicy and fresh whole shrimps wrapped in soft dumpling dough that turns crystal when steamed), Ham Soy Kok (flavorful pork and chicken bits with black mushroom, wrapped in a sweet dough that is fried until crispy outside and soft and chewy inside—an original recipe from Hong Kong), Japanese Siomai (the restaurant’s special siomai wrapped in a Japanese sushi wrapper with crabstick in the middle, topped with crab roe), Kuchay Dumpling (pork, shrimp, and minced chives with crystal-clear dough), Pork Siomai (juicy and flavorful pork, shrimp and mushroom mixture, a.k.a. King Chef’s most popular dim sum), Steamed Beancurd Roll (pork, shrimp, mushroom, and mixed vegetables wrapped in healthy and delicious bean curd skin, cooked in garlic oyster sauce until soft and tender), Taosi Spareribs (tender and juicy pork spareribs bursting with the flavors of black bean, chili and sweet pumpkin, which is steamed with the spareribs), and X.O. Siomai (King Chef’s signature siomai topped with whole shrimps with Extraordinary sauce for an extra zesty chili taste).

She says that the Banawe branch opens early to cater to children going to school, churchgoers, and businessmen. “Though our dim sum has always been our bestseller,” says Marites, “the whole menu is always available.”  Popular short orders include herbal soups and congee, as well as their lineup of healthy teas: classics include Fujian Guan Yin tea, jasmine tea, milk aroma oolong tea, Celestial tea, Mandarin polei tea and combination teas, which target specific body ailments: wild rose combination (rejuvenation), Taiwan ginseng tea (revitalizing), Everlasting tea (slimming), Three Flower detoxifier (detoxifying), honey chrysanthemum tea and Osmanthus tea (healing).

“We have different looks for each restaurant,” Marites says. “We have our dim sum kitchen, which is more casual; we also have a fine-dining setting. Although we get a lot of guests for our dim sum kitchen, at our fine-dining restaurant, guests are able to enjoy the restaurant’s best dishes.” Marites shares that their food’s popularity has grown so much in the last three years that guests come all the way from Alabang, or those not able to get seated in one branch transfer to the other in the hopes of securing a table.

What’s next for King Chef? Marites and her team are opening their Binondo branch on June 8 at Lucky Chinatown Mall with an event worthy of the restaurant’s burgeoning popularity.