Still, I’ve managed to taste everything thing on the menu, the best of which is easily the deep-fried shrimp toast. Every time I’ve dined here (three), the kitchen has been sold out of at least five items. The kitchen makes only 29 items, which is far fewer than most local dim sum restaurants and exponentially less than their Hong Kong branches. You should know, however, that the menu in Irvine is but a CliffsNotes version of the original menu. Questionable service hygiene aside, the food can be good.
Would you mind if a waiter placed this dish on your table while you were eating? (Photo by Brad A. He then proceeds to grab my dirty dishes and stack them onto that other customer’s dirty plate. He places it on my table, directly under my nose while I’m eating. A waiter arrives with a dirty plate, soiled with soy sauce and chili paste, that he’s just cleared from someone else’s table. The tables are small and the plates and steamer baskets are piling up. The original Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong has similarly earned a single Michelin star, which perhaps should never have happened but Michelin’s inspectors in Hong Kong have always been notably schizophrenic with their one-star designations.Ī quick note about that last point: While dining at Tim Ho Wan in Irvine, like everyone else around me I’ve ordered quite a lot of food. Those two restaurants - Hana re and Taco Maria ( ranked #1 and #4 on my annual list of best places to eat) - each earned a single star, the same achievement as Orsa & Winston in Los Angeles and Michael Mina in San Francisco.
When the Michelin Guide launched its first statewide guide to California last month, only two restaurants in Orange County earned any stars at all. Unlike the four-star system that I use, earning just a single star from Michelin is a massive honor. Three stars = Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey. Two stars = Excellent cooking, worth a detour. One star = high quality cooking, worth a stop. And if the Michelin inspectors in California have any credibility whatsoever, they won’t consider it for even a Bib Gourmand, the guide’s designation for really good restaurants that don’t quite rise to the level of their stars.Ī little background: The Michelin Guide (first published in France in 1889) rewards three levels of stars. The Irvine branch of Tim Ho Wan does not have a Michelin star. Tim Ho Wan opened not long ago at Irvine’s Diamond Jamboree, and people keep calling this Hong Kong-based chain a Michelin-starred restaurant.
0 kommentar(er)
