Triple Crown

We went to Triple Crown in Chinatown for dim sum. Natalie's parents had been here a while ago on a Chinatown food tour and we wanted to check it out.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun (Bao)

On the weekends this restaurant does the official dim sum thing with carts of food wheeled around the restaurant. But during the week you just choose from a menu with pictures. Since we were there on a Friday, Natalie had looked at pictures of the options online so she knew what to get. There were some very exotic options including things like chicken feet so we wanted to steer clear of them - we are somewhat adventurous eaters but not that much.

It appears we chose well with this restaurant in general because we were the only non-Asians in the restaurant for a long time  usually this is a good sign that you are eating authentically.

Inside of steamed custard bun (bao)

The dim sum is served between 9 am and 3 pm so we were there at 10:45 for a brunch of sorts. In fact they wouldn't let us order anything from the lunch menu because it wasn't 11 am yet.  Good thing there were plenty of dim sum options to tempt us.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun - Bao, to us this is the quintessential dim sum dish. We could keep ordering this. They were warm fluffy steamed rice buns surrounded with warm savory Asian BBQ,  They were sweet with a hint of spice.  What's not to love! But these can fill you up fast.

Steamed Custard Buns (Dessert Bao)

Steamed Custard Bun - dessert Bao;  same exterior as the BBQ but inside lies a gooey sweet dollop of vanilla custard

Shrimp Dumpling - with a scalloped dumpling shape; The dumpling shell itself was almost translucent so you could see the filling.

Potstickers

Shrimp Dumplings

Pork and Shrimp Dumpling - Nick enjoyed these dumplings. They were filling with a nice "meaty" filling and cute cup like pouches.

Pork & Shrimp dumplings

Pan Fried Pot sticker with pork - you can get this dish at almost any Asian restaurant but it seems different when it is served out of a steamy container.  These were better than your local restaurant.

Custard Roll - cake with custard in it, this was served warm; fun to eat dessert for brunch.  This was one of Natalie's favorite. This roll was more of a spongy cake encapsulating yummy custard in a pinwheel shape

Egg Rolls

Custard Cake

Taro and Pork Egg roll - nice and crispy outside, it was served extremely hot so it almost burned Nick's tongue

Fried Sesame Balls - with red bean paste in the middle.  These were a little intimidating as to their size but once you bit into them there was a burst of flavor from the sweet red bean paste. To our Western ears that doesn't sound sweet and tasty but it really is.

Sesame Balls

Inside of a Sesame Ball

What menu looks like

Final thoughts on Triple Crown:
Food - we enjoyed all of the dim sum options we ate and would go back to eat any of them.
Service - The service was very quick. The items came out to our table as they were ready.  We got to the restaurant at the very beginning of the lunch rush; it sounds like it can get very busy here on the weekends.
Atmosphere - This restaurant is right in the heart of Chinatown. From the table we sat at we could see across the street to a very impressive building with wonderful architecture. As we said before we were some of the only non-Asian customers so apparently we were in the right place.

Sign outside restaurant