Dim Sum House Now Open In University City

It was almost a year ago when we first heard about plans for an expansion of Jane G’s into University City. But now it looks like the waiting is over because the brand new Dim Sum House by Jane G’s is up and running at 3939 Chestnut Street, offering up dim sum, snacks, noodles and some old favorites seven days a week, from 11:30 in the morning until 2am.

So what does the menu look like? I’m so glad you asked…

Well, it’s a la carte, for starters (no dim sum carts here), but the options are impressive. The dim sum menu is split in half, with both Shanghai and Cantonese-style plates.

On the Shanghai side, it starts with four different kinds of soup dumplings, scallion pancakes, sticky rice shu mai, lots of dumplings, spicy kidney ceviche, wontons dressed in chile oil (one of my favorite things) and something called “Beef Lover’s Quarrel” which, just so you know, would TOTALLY be the name of the first album from my art-rock band if I had one (which I don’t, but now I’m thinking of forming one just because that’s the best name ever).

For you Cantonese purists, there are turnip cakes and chicken feet, sesame balls, sticky rice, Hainanese chicken rice (which I am excited to try), durian cakes (which I am NOT excited to try), and like a dozen kinds of shrimp-based dumplings, all of which I kind of want to have in front of me right now.

Can you tell that I like the way the menu came together? Because I do.

So beyond the dim sum, there are also vegetable plates (ma po tofu, garlic snow pea leaves, garlic bok choy, etc) and some soups, and then also a full page of fried rice, noodles, house specialties (like Wuxi spare ribs, crisp duck and pork belly with mustard greens) and something called “The Familiars” which offers a choice of protein, and then a whole bunch of preparations that will be familiar to anyone with a mouth–kung pao, dry pot, General Tso’s, that kind of thing. It’s actually a rather elegant way to include all the kung pao chicken and whatnot that people want without having it take valuable menu space or focus from the various dumpling presentations, dan dan noodles and Beef Quarrels.

Beyond this, there’s a bar, cocktails, wines, beers on tap. According to the photos on Yelp, there’s a pool table, too. But really, what matters more than a two-way, Shanghai/Cantonese dim sum menu at a place that’s open until 2am and will (I assume) host the Beef Lover’s Quarrel album release party for my band?

Anyone out there want to play lead guitar? I call dibs on being drummer.

Dim Sum House [Official]