Best Casual Dim Sum in the Bay Area: Ming's Tasty, Dumpling Hours and Tao Yuen

Not every dim sum experience needs a lazy Susan, a banquet hall, and three generations of family to justify itself. Sometimes you want the har gow warm, the receipt small, and the exit easy. The Bay Area's casual dim sum scene delivers all three — in Oakland's Chinatown, through the Caldecott Tunnel in Walnut Creek, and at a counter-serve institution that has been feeding people out of a plastic bag for decades. These are the spots worth knowing.

Ming's Tasty

Ming's Tasty Restaurant is located in Oakland's Chinatown. Because the restaurant is modestly sized and extremely popular, there is often a long wait and the dining room can be loud but, the food is yummy and the prices are affordable.

Pea Sprout Dumplings with Shrimp

Ming's serves all the dim sum classics which are made when you order. The pea sprout dumplings with shrimp are your first order — translucent wrappers, generously filled, steamed to the moment just before they would give way.

Deep Fried Tofu Skin Wrap with Shrimp

The deep fried tofu skin wrap with shrimp crackles at the edges while the interior stays moist.

Stuffed Bitter Melon on Iron Plate (with fish and pork filling)

The stuffed bitter melon on iron plate is the dish for the adventurous — the melon's characteristic bitterness doing exactly what bitterness is supposed to do in Chinese cuisine, which is cut through the richness of the fish and pork filling and make everything around it taste sharper and more alive.

Rice Noodle Roll with Crispy Shrimp

The portions throughout are notably generous — plump dumplings rather than the increasingly reduced specimens appearing elsewhere in the Bay Area. You will leave full.

Dumpling Hours

Dumpling Hours was opened by the same owners as San Francisco's Dumpling Home (which I reviewed this past December). You will find Dumpling Hours just through the Caldecott Tunnel, in downtown Walnut Creek. The menu is extensive, the service is fast and there is indoor and outdoor seating available.

Pork wonton with sesame sauce and chili oil

This was the first time I had eaten dumplings with sesame sauce. The flavor of the sauce was great but I found the amount was too much and the texture a little too viscous, overpowering the delicate, steamed wonton skins stuffed with subtly spiced pork.

Pig ears and cucumber with chili sauce

Chinese cucumber salad with garlic and chilis is one of my favorites and I enjoy pig ears as well. This is the first time I have had them combined and I loved the way the textures and flavors overlapped and played off of one another.

Hot and spicy pork xiao long bao

This was another first for me. I am a xiao long bao connoisseur, and enjoy adding chili oil to the dumplings for a little heat but I have never had the spice incorporated into the stuffing like this. I enjoyed it.

Tao Yuen Pastry

Tao Yuen Pastry is located in Oakland's Chinatown and is the most casual of the spots in this post. This cash-only, counter-serve restaurant has been around for decades and has attracted quite a following.

Dim sum dumplings, as well as other dishes (noodles, sweet and sour chicken, fried fish etc) are presented in large trays behind glass, on the other side of which hungry patrons line up to order large portions at small prices. (A steamed pork bun is just $1.04!). The lines are long and turnover is high, so the food is always fresh.

Salt and Pepper Shrimp, Beef Roll with Chives and Shrimp Har Gow

When I said this place was casual, I wasn't kidding. There is no indoor seating and the take-out dumplings you order are all placed together directly in a plastic bag and handed to you. This is "dim sum and dash" at its most literal. So, grab some of your favorite items, take them home and enjoy at your pleasure -- straight from the bag or plated, the food is delicious.

The Bay Area's dim sum landscape rewards exploration well beyond the formal weekend brunch. Ming's for the classics done generously and without pretense. Dumpling Hours for creative riffs on the format that mostly succeed. And Tao Yuen for the reminder that the best version of a dish doesn't always come on a plate. Sometimes it comes in a bag, warm, from a window, and that is exactly right.

Practical Notes:

Ming's Tasty: Oakland Chinatown. Cash preferred. Expect a wait on weekends. Arrive when they open for the shortest line.

Dumpling Hours: Downtown Walnut Creek. Indoor and outdoor seating. Extensive menu — ask the server what's fresh.

Tao Yuen Pastry: Oakland Chinatown. Cash only. Counter service. Steamed pork bun: $1.04. No indoor seating — take home or eat standing.