Together the pair is set to prepare a bounty of dim sum specialities, from steamed buns to har gow, siu mai, and beyond. To bring the restaurant to life, Chan has brought on chef Hoi Chan, who has worked at Sea Harbour, Bao, and beyond. вЂ‹ My hope is that every customer can step into Iron Teapot and feel transported back to the height of Canto Pop while enjoying freshly steamed, authentic dim sum over a cocktail, beer, wine or a cup of tea with the sea breeze from the Pacific coastline outdoors in the new era of Covid.вЂќ Eater reached out to Chan directly, but so far has not heard back. IвЂ¦ yearn for a Cantonese outdoor restaurant that plays the best Canto pop of the вЂ80s, вЂ90s, and early 2000s. вЂњCramming into an indoor noisy dim sum restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley has become an experience that someone living under months of lockdown can hardly imagine. вЂњThe pandemic ushered in a sense of nostalgia for the past,вЂќ Chan says by way of an intro post on the restaurantвЂ™s website. Iron Teapot is the work of emerging restaurateur Sally Chan, a San Gabriel Valley local who fell in love with dim sum growing up. The upcoming restaurant, named Iron Teapot, lands at 10306 Venice Boulevard, in the former home of Jaffa in Palms. If the wait is too long, you can always pop over to the Costco next door and knock out some errands.A new dim sum specialist is heading for the greater Culver City area, with a surprise opening set for next week. And if the waits-they can reach upwards to an hour on the weekends if you arrive during prime time-are any indication, itвЂ™s already a success. It makes the drive from Atlanta to Duluth worth it-so worth it, in fact, that I returned three weekends in a row, each time bringing more people with me. Both are especially good when swiped through a little dish of red chili and soy sauce.Д«etween the over-the-top decor, the abundance of dishes, and the thick menu with helpful pictures for the uninitiated, Royal China is a gem. Think golden shrimp spring rolls or a вЂњlollipopвЂќ of breaded shrimp paste formed around a short stick of sugarcane. Peking Duck and fried rice at Royal ChinaДЇillings are flavorful and abundant in dumplings like the har gow, where chopped chunks of shrimp nearly burst out of the rice paper wrapper, which is sometimes over-steamed. Soft, pillowy buns are served alongside hoisin sauce, shaved green onions, and batons of cucumber meant to lighten the richness of your sandwich. The Peking duck is a showstopper a waiter brings the duck on a rolling cart and carves it, leaving nothing but the crisp skin. It doesnвЂ™t seem too difficult to accommodate a group, and larger parties make it easier to order a range of classic Cantonese dishes-dry-fried beef chow fun, salt and pepper calamari, lobster stir-fried with scallion and ginger, and chow mein with vegetables and soy sauce-from the encyclopedia-like menu. If you get there early, the carts come often and hot. Royal China serves all the classic dim sum dishes such as har gow (shrimp dumplings), sticky rice, congee, clams in black bean sauce, and chicken feet. Photograph by Jennifer Zyman Inside the new Royal China in Duluth ThereвЂ™s also an enormous screen and what looks like all the AV equipment you could possibly need for any event from bar mitzvah to wedding banquet. There are three separate rooms, two of which shimmer with chandeliers that resemble pixelated flowers, and a one side room off the bar. ItвЂ™s not only fancier than the previous location, but so much more beautiful than most of what is out there, with high ceilings and gold and sparkling accents everywhere you look. Entering though the new doors, I may have let out some oohs and ahhs. The restaurantвЂ™s interior was kind of a grimy, reddish pink and so worn out, I started to avoid it, despite the still delicious dishes on the menu.Д«ut then Royal China closed its Chamblee Dunwoody Road restaurant this past April and reopened 18 miles north in a former sporting goods store near the Costco off of Venture Drive in Duluth. If you were a regular, you know Royal ChinaвЂ™s decor had seen better days. I always fell back on Royal China in Chamblee.

No place seemed to stay good for very long, and there were a lot of flash-in-the-pans that never gained enough of a foothold to dominate.

When I moved back to Atlanta from San Francisco in the mid-2000s, one thing I never understood was how weird our dim sum scene was.

Dim sum atlanta