DAM SUM

While I truly love Brussels, you’ll usually find me complaining about the fact that it lacks smart cocktail bars, proper Mexican food (well, that was until El Taco Mobil arrived!) and last but not least, authentic Chinese restaurants. I have been actually studying Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language, so anything related to this culture really fascinates me, including food of course. During my London years I would go back to my favourite dim sum spots every so often but once I moved to Brussels, all my efforts to discover new favourites were unsuccessful – no wonder I never shared anything on the blog so far. But luckily, it seems that my prayers were answered and Dam Sum came around to fill in the gap and make my tummy happy!

Dam Sum has a few aces in its sleeve, like the very central location. Housed right next to the Trinity church in Chatelain, where a Greek-Polish restaurant used to stand, it instantly became a new favourite amongst the locals. The decor is modern and colorful with many Asian-inspired elements, like hanging lanterns and wall paintings. My partner in crime and I arrived as soon as it opened, so we had no issues finding a table but as the time went by, people started queuing and the place got rather noisy. Piece of advice: arrive early or reserve in advance, especially if you are a big group. Oh, and if you’re keen on watching the delicate dumplings made right in front of you by the skillful cooks, ask to be seated close to them.

Food-wise the menu is not too long, just a few choices of dim sum and Chinese signature dishes. Since we wanted to try a bit of both, we shared the house specials: Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) and the Char Siu Bao (BBQ pork buns) which arrived in towering steam baskets. Our waitress instructed us how to eat our soup dumplings in the right way: poke gently to release the soup, pour soy sauce and enjoy. Both were really good, we couldn’t get enough of them. In China, dim sum is typically served with tea but we cheated and had cocktails which were really good too. Our main dishes (noodles with seafood and sweet and sour pork) left us a bit less impressed though. They were ok but nothing special really, so next time I think I will stick to dim sum and the mango flan for pudding.

If you have already been to Dam Sum or know any other great Chinese restaurants in Brussels, feel free to share. I’d love to discover a few more great places for my Chinese cravings!  

INFO

Address: Parvis de la Trinité 11, 1060 Ixelles, Belgium

Telephone: +32 2 5380810

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