Jasmine Seafood Restaurant in San Diego
The best Dim Sum in San Diego is found at Jasmine Seafood Restaurant. This is as authentic as Dim Sum gets in the U.S. Chinese women mostly speaking Cantonese and very little English maneuvering carts with a wide variety of Dim Sum through the aisles at this restaurant that seats many hundred people. Rice and sausage wrapped in lotus leafs, barbequed pork in steamed buns, scrimp and vegetables wrapped in rice noodles and pan-fried are among a few of the common items you’ll can point to and try. Some of the more exotic items on the menu include chicken feet in a special sauce, cow-stomach lining, and pig-tongue only served at New Year’s though. On Saturdays and Sundays the restaurant is completely filled with customers and more lining up to be seated for Dim Sum; Mostly Chinese with a few Americans scattered in between. The restaurant serves Dim Sum between 11AM-3 PM. The restaurant is also open for lunch and dinner. The atmosphere is loud. The ladies can be rather aggressive in trying to sell you their dim sum, so be prepared to use strong hand-motions if language is not understood to refuse items in which you don’t have any interest.
Don’t miss the Fung Tsow! (chicken feet). It is actually my favorite. If you are there around Chinese New Year, do not order the thing that looks like a small slab of meat on top of a cake and then lick it while asking the waitress what it is. She looked at me and said “Oink Oink,” and then stuck her tongue out. I continued to lick it, and suddenly realized it was a pig’s tongue that I had been licking.