Purple potato balls arrive like royalty at Mr. Dim Sum.
Over the past 10 years, Southcenter has constructed itself into an Asian eating vacation spot, totally on the energy of enormous, usually worldwide, chains: Din Tai Fung, Jollibee, 85° Bakery, and Kizuki Ramen. In 2024, the restaurant row on the north facet added two extra massive gamers, SoCal-founded Gen Korean BBQ and the favored Japanese chain Marugame Udon, in addition to a single, native impartial: Mr. Dim Sum.
Based by the house owners of Chinatown–Worldwide District stalwart Hong Kong Bistro, Mr. Dim Sum has all of the precision and polish of its neighboring chains within the decor and repair, a credit score to operations director Sarah Wong, who got here from Din Tai Fung.
The crunchy exterior of Mr. Dim Sum’s potato balls hides a silky custard.
The meals, although fantastically offered on tiny stands and in custom-branded hexagonal wood steamers, wavers in high quality. However one dish is nice sufficient that it’ll deliver me again any time I’m within the space: purple potato balls with golden custard.
The fragile outer crust has the light crispness and light-weight chew of different dim sum made with glutinous rice flour—pork-filled “footballs” and sesame balls—with an added crunch from pankolike crumbs throughout the skin. Inside, the good purple of the dough opens to disclose a silky easy, sunshine-yellow custard.
Whereas the dish will not be completely distinctive to Mr. Dim Sum (notably, close by Triumph Valley does the same model), the execution right here turns it into one thing totally new, and provides a glimpse at how this native spot stands an opportunity at competing with its massive worldwide neighbors.
