Our new favorite dim sum spot in the South Bay. Sifu Wong Kitchen in Sunnyvale is the latest Chinese restaurant that you’ll find at the least suspecting place; this restaurant is located inside the Ramada Inn.
We planned to have brunch, so we got there at about 10:30 in the morning. If you don’t frequent dim sum, arrival time at the restaurant is paramount if your goal is to eat at a reasonable time. For context, given a popular dim sum spot, arriving after the opening them is not an option; a line forms about 45 min to half hour before opening. Depending on placement in that line, you could be lucky enough to be in the first round, if not, you’ll be given a number and wait to be called. So when going to a dim sum restaurant after its opening time will need some flexibility, you might be waiting a bit before you eat. Since Sifu Wong is not super popular yet, like Koi Palace, arriving within the hour of opening should be sufficient.
Ordering Mayhem
Essentially, dim sum works in 1 of 2 ways, get food via ordering slip or order from the roaming carts. We know some can be put off at a dim sum restaurant that works via roaming carts – the servers are rushing you, trying to get you to either order more food and get you out the door so they can seat another table. Traditionally, growing up in Hong Kong, going to dim sum is always a 2 to 3 hour “experience”. So to think that lunch hours is usually about 5 hours long. If they can get you in and out in under an hour, that’ll churn 5 seatings instead of just 2.
At Sifu Wong, you’re given a slip of paper with all the dishes they serve. All you need to do is mark the ones you’d like to order and quantity of each dish. We honestly like this the most because you don’t need to interact with servers yelling out dishes, particularly helpful when you might not know what the dishes are.
The Delicious Food
Food comes out relatively quickly after you turn in the ordering slip and really will come in no particular order. The sweet desert-type dishes can come before the savory ones. It comes down to which one they can prepare the quickest or have ready to go. So after you order, the kitchen picks out what you ordered then delivered straight to your table. Check out some of the food we ordered.
Most food items will arrive within minutes of putting in the order. So it’s a pretty common sight to see your table all piled up with steamer baskets and plates.
But were we filled after?
Dim sum is like tapas. They are small plates, and you’d pay by the plate. Bill can really rack up quickly at dim sum restaurants if you’re not paying attention. In the past, we had frequented Koi Palace in Daly City. As they gained in popularity, so did their prices. It’s hard to justify Koi Palace’s price tag with the quality of food they are serving. Sifu Wong Kitchen’s food quality and uniqueness of some items makes them as good, if not better than, Koi Palace or their newer Palette Tea restaurants. For 5 people, we spent about $180 USD (including tax and tip), with all our bellies full and happy.
Overall, we love Sifu Wong Kitchen and have gone back with more people. As with all dim sum restaurants, we’d recommend going with a group. That will greatly increase the variety of dishes you can try out since each plate comes with 4 pieces of that item. So going as a couple, you might only be able to order 5 or 6 items unless you’re willing to end up with a massive amount of leftovers (which might not be so bad).
Sifu Wong Kitchen
1219 Wildwood Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089