The long wait is almost over! This Sunday, July 25th, at precisely 10:30 am, dim sum comes to Wallingford.
We caught up with Po Lee, the man behind the storied House of Hong (which he sold after 20 years) and the owner of the new Bamboo Village at corner of Stone Way and N 49th St today as he and his workmen were putting the finishing touches on the restaurant in anticipation of their launch.
Po confirmed that they’ll be serving dim sum 7 days a week, from 10:30 to 3 pm “Hong Kong dim sum” style (they push a cart around the restaurant and let you choose what you like) and then by order from 3 pm – 9 pm.
This all reminds us of what we consider our most brilliant business idea to date. It’s like dim sum, in that waiters push a cart around the restaurant with small dishes of food, except instead of Hong Kong delicacies, it’s American-style breakfast foods: one little silver-dollar pancake, a quarter of a waffle, a small fried egg, a single piece of bacon, a quarter-size biscuit.
Why is it so brilliant? How often do you look at a breakfast menu and think “I want one of each”, but you know you can’t possibly eat that much. So instead, you have a lot of one thing, instead of a little of everything?
And the name? Gimme Some!, as in “gimme some of that, and some of that, and some of that!” A true, American-style breakfast experience.
Brilliant, right? Now selling investment opportunities.
Looking forward to this!!
Quick clarification though – the article says Sunday the 27th? Do you mean Sunday the 25th or Tuesday the 27th?
Thanks for the update!
Corrected above: Sunday the 25th
YES YES YES!! We’ll be there with bells on. and an empty stomach. YES!
What a great investment op, Wallyhood.
As for the dim sum, can’t wait!
w()()t
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Isn’t it funny how you never realize your neighborhood needs a dim sum place until it arrives?! Same with gelato! (Thanks, Fainting Goat) How about the following that are on my list of services/foods we need in the neighborhood: a British-style pub that allow kids AND dogs, an Italian-style deli (for my husband), a store that sells lots of fun housewares (dishes, towels, utensils), and a cheese store.
@George’s Mom: Pho!
Yeah – walking distance from work. I know what I’ll be eating on most days for lunch.
Oh boy, cant wait. And a greenfield building from the ground up no less.
Gimme Some?!!…I cant believe you busted that out in this article. And without an NDA.
Hungry for Some,
Doug
Well I hope the kitchen is maintained in more sanitary fashion than that of the building site when it was under construction. The property has been littered with construction debris for month’s on end…how about …Gimme a break?! I would hope that this is not some type of foreshadowing into how the business will be operated once it opens.
Yo Po- As the property/business owner, I am asking you to clean up your act! It would be great to see this restaurant to open, and operate in a professional manner. Then I would happily be able to partake in the dim sum delight!
At this point, it isn’t off a to a good start…..
Thanks,
@ Tootse – that’s interesting because every day when I drove by, I marveled at how clean the construction site was, compared to others I’ve seen.
Sorry, George’s Mom — dogs should not be in restaurants — give me a break! And dogs shouldn’t be in Home Depot, either. Just a little consideration of others would be nice, thank you very much!
@ Lauren – guess we all have different standards in life, don’t we? I stand by by comments, and I will preface my additional supporting comments by stating that this is not a personal or directed at you in any way, but more of a platform for me to rant away!! Soap box please!!…. In maintaning a clean, and profesional job site, simple procedures can be performed to significantly reduce clutter and safety risks on a job site. In example:
1. Construct a four sided retainment bin (typically sheets of 4×8 plywood) for containment of construction debris. This reduces tripping hazards, provides a clean site presentation (trash is hidden from plainview), and allows for loose and light debris to be securely contained on windy days. This did not occur, and subsequently allowed for bags and light packing materials to blow around the neighborhood at different times through out the projects duration.
2. Clean up jobsite grounds daily; this happened once a week at best.
3. Keep employees from bringing their own trash onto the site – there were used car tires sitting onsite for months! Nice touch guys!
4. Make sure to cover unused construction materials (to mitigate possbile mold contamination) and apply weight to new construction materials which could be susceptible to heavy winds; it is easy for stacks of rigid insulation to go airborne as a result in light wind conditions. I personally witnessed multiple sheets of rigid insulation floating poetically through the air on a windy spring day.
The list could go on and on, but I will choose to leave it at that. These guys wouldn’t even qualify for bush league quality or professionalism, but then again you get what you pay for!
The Northern exposure isn’t even painted and there are opening this Sunday? Is this just a minor detail that was missed? If this is the A-team in your eyes, then I don’t want to even want to know what the B-team is. Sometimes I am dismayed by the subpar standards that we have come to accept these days. Rant over and out.
In what way is lack of a final paint job, or materials left by the developer/crew, remotely related to how the the kitchen is maintained? As long as the sawdust isn’t in my food, this has nothing to do with the chefs. I’m also interested in how anyone knows how much the owners were charged for what I consider a pretty speedy renovation of a building that previously didn’t contain a professional kitchen. I wonder if anyone, and I mean anyone, who was bothered by what they considered a mess asked for it to be cleaned up?
I continue to be dismayed by the false equivalences people use in their effort to justify their soapbox rhetoric. The false anonymity of the internet has a lot to do with the lowered standards of what’s considered a legitimate complaint. This is not a personal attack directed at anyone, but more of a general commentary on my confusion over people’s priorities and passive-aggressive whining.
Wow…touchy!
“In what way is lack of a final paint job, or materials left by the developer/crew, remotely related to how the the kitchen is maintained?”
Owner oversees the general contractor (the owner is the developer); owner also oversees kitchen staff; if owner allows general contractor to function in an unprofessional manner, then owner may allow kitchen staff to function in similar manner. Ultimately, time will tell what will occur within the kitchen, and I as stated before, I am hoping for a great establishment, but at this point I wouldn’t put my money it. Not passive aggressive whining, just making observations on what I have seen to date. Nine months to renovate a one story structural is not impressive.
I’d have to agree with Tootse regarding the cleanliness. I’d also like to add that when you open a restaurant in the middle of a neighborhood, it makes sense that you should complete the construction in such a way that your neighbors WANT to support you. I don’t mind the junk all over the site so much, but I do mind Wednesday’s construction activities going well after midnight (well beyond Seattle’s noise ordinance timeframe) and the glare from their unshielded lights at night. I don’t think I want to support restaurant owners that haveno respect for their neighbors.
ok, so we went there…. 11:00am exactly. They had no idea what we were talking about. Dim Sum… you bet…. American Breakfast Food…. ummm, no. When we asked, they looked at us like we were nuts. Very disapointed!!! We even brought friends who were visiting from out of town. So…. I am sure the Dim Sum is good, but whoever reported that they are serving an american breakfast menu got it ALL wrong. FAIL for por reporting
Oh man, Eric Maurer. You’re joking, right? FAIL on you for poor reading skills.
The American style breakfast dim sum was Wallyhood’s “brilliant” idea for a breakfast joint. A hypothetical breakfast joint that does not yet exist, or at least does not yet exist on the corner of Stone and 50th.
And I have to say, while I like the idea of noshing on a bunch of different breakfast options, scrabbled eggs that have been sitting too long on a cart sounds a little gross. How about Tapas style? You could call it “dame some.”
Well, all that said, personally I’d like to welcome them to the ‘hood. We love dim sum and are hoping to get up to Bamboo Village this week to try them out. Did W’hooders eat there over the weekend?
I ate there on Sunday and, while they still have some kinks to work out (not enough carts, a couple of luke warm dishes) the quality of the food was quite excellent. The har gau was great. we were only able to share one order of cheung fun between 6 of us and it was also great and I look forward to going back for more. The sui mai were better than I’ve had at most other places. The only thing I didn’t like as well as other places was the turnip cake. We ate until we were stuffed and the price was $16 pp including tip. Not too much of an out-of-the-ID markup.
Agree with Lauren. A few kinks, but altogether good, and we ate regrettable amounts of food (but walked home, so it’s okay, right?) for about $16 pp. Really liked their dong and gai lan. There were a couple of dishes I would like to have tried, but they never made it to our table.
@Lauren, I don’t know what cheung fun and har gau are, but would like to try them. Can you translate?
We saw some things that never made it to our table too. More for next time.
Cheung fun are the long noodles that are wrapped around shrimp or beef, served with sauce over them. Har gau are the dumplings with the whole shrimp inside. They are two of my favorite dim sum items. I forgot to add that the chicken feet were also really good and meaty.
Anyone know their phone #? Can’t find it anywhere. Thanks!
206-123-4567
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/1/1537398/restaurant/Wallingford/Bamboo-Village-Seattle
Holy cow, that can’t be their real number, right? If so, best number ever.
Hahahaha! It’s obviously a place holder and I didn’t even realize it when I was typing it out!
Actually, their real number is even better & lucky – 206-632-8888.
I went back in the middle of last week to get some sizzling rice soup, which was delectable. I know everyone’s excited about the dim sum cart service (me included), but gotta say — loving the regular menu as well. The chow fun was great.