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Mark's Duck House, Seven Corners - Hong Kong Style with Peking Duck in Willston Center


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Nine hungry Rockwellian dim sum addicts descended upon Mark's Duck House at noon today. After disappointments at our two previous NoVa outings (China Garden in Rosslyn and Fortune across the street from MDH), we were delighted at the consistently good tidbits pouring out of this kitchen.

Our feast consisted of the following:

scallop dumplings
roast suckling pig
baked roast pork croissant (flaky triangular pastry filled with char sui)
sui mei
har gow
shrimp cheong fan
roast duck
BBQ spareribs
spareribs in black bean sauce
tripe with ginger
shrimp in seaweed
shrimp/taro cakes
baby cuttlefish
clams in black bean sauce
braised chicken feet
sticky rice in lotus leaf
potstickers
salt & pepper head-on shrimp
Chinese broccoli
baked char sui bao
stuffed bean curd skin
tofu with some unspecified roast meat on top
some sort of fried shrimp dumpling with a shrimp tail for decoration
fried roll with shrimp and fake crab
pineapple buns
custard tarts
sesame seed balls

There might have been another dish or two in there as well. There were a few misses here and there, but the quibbles were minor - overall, the quality was consistently good. Service was outstanding compared to other dim sum places.

My minor quibbles... The tea was much weaker than its color would have indicated. Perhaps the leaves were a bit stale? Sesame balls are usually filled with red bean paste, but MDH used something we couldn't quite identify. I think shredded coconut was a component. It wasn't really creamy or flavorful, and the balls themselves were loaded with oil. Not horrible by any means, as it still tasted nice enough, but it was not at the same level of quality as the rest of the offerings. The cheong fan sauce wasn't as rich as one normally finds - it was more like lightly sweetened soy sauce. I was surprised that the roast duck was the weakest meat platter we got at a place called Mark's Duck House. The fat wasn't fully rendered, so the skin was a little too limp and the meat a little too greasy. OTOH, the roast suckling pig had wonderfully crisp skin, and the BBQ spareribs were a major highlight of the meal.

For me, the best dishes were the BBQ spareribs, the clams in black bean sauce (oh dear, did I really end up eating half the platter?), and the baby cuttlefish. Oh, and the triangular char sui pastry - I think Hollywood East On The Boulevard's version is a touch better, but it's a close call. (MDH had better pastry, HEOTB had better char sui)

The restaurant is quite small for a dim sum crowd - I can't imagine it seating more than 150 people. Must be a heck of a wait on Sundays. Unlike, say, China Garden, MDH seems worth the wait.

Cost per adult: $18 including a generous tip

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The restaurant is quite small for a dim sum crowd - I can't imagine it seating more than 150 people. Must be a heck of a wait on Sundays. Unlike, say, China Garden, MDH seems worth the wait.

ou can call ahead and make reservations. I recommend the steamed giant oysters with scallions. If you have a larger party, order the dish from the regular menu (I think there are 6 oysters), the price is cheaper if you want more than 2!
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I was surprised that the roast duck was the weakest meat platter we got at a place called Mark's Duck House. The fat wasn't fully rendered, so the skin was a little too limp and the meat a little too greasy.

Glad to see that MDH can have good hot dim sum. My Sat. dim sum experience of 2 years ago was not good. The food was cold and the choices limited from the carts. But I enjoy a modest lunch there on occasion, I particularly like the white chicken which looks like plain boiled chicken but is very flavorful and comes with a ginger green onion dipping sauce, yummy. But order it as a plate, if you are alone, which comes with rice and some kind of green veggie, one time it was sauteed iceberg lettuce, quite good. Also their fish fillets in black bean sauce is excellent. As for the roast duck, I think it is disappointing if you are looking for Peking style roast duck, which should have crispy skin, I believe the duck at Mark's is Cantonese style which is not as crispy, plus in China having fat left under the skin is considered a good thing.
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The giant oysters were available, but we couldn't figure out how to split them amongst the party. Maybe we'll go back and sample all the pricier weekend specialties like the oysters and the lobster dumplings.

Welcome to DR, Geling! I wonder if you hit the place on a bad day, or if they've improved their offerings since then. I think dim sum places have been increasing the variety of dishes in recent years - the dim sum we had at New Fortune recently definitely seemed more varied than what was available when I first tried it five or six years ago. Good point about Peking vs Cantonese duck. Oddly enough, I ate mostly Cantonese-style duck when living in California, and loved it. Maybe I'm getting less grease-tolerant in my old age. <_< Perhaps you'll join us when we try MDH again? We'll probably schedule another visit later this spring - keep an eye on the Some Dim Sundays thread.

Scott wisely made a reservation for us, and they held a large table for our group.

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I think I was less taken with MDH than Perri was. The fact that they take reservations is one of the strong points. But even though we got there right at noon, and sat right next to the kitchen, too many things that should be served hot were served at room temperature.

If I were in the neighborhood, I would definitely return, and just choose wisely. You can have a very good meal here. I think it doesn't come close to New Fortune and Hollywood East. At NF and HE, you almost can't miss. Most things are very good, and a lot of things are excellent. You can see below that our hit rate was much lower.

My rundown:

scallop dumplings (very good - hadn't seen this before)

roast suckling pig (excellent, but still not as good as New Fortune's version)

baked roast pork croissant (very good)

sui mei (good)

har gow (fair)

shrimp cheong fan (fair, as noted by Perri)

roast duck (poor, as noted by Perri)

BBQ spareribs (excellent - some of the best I've had)

spareribs in black bean sauce (good)

tripe with ginger (good)

shrimp in seaweed (COLD!)

shrimp/taro cakes (COLD!)

baby cuttlefish (I'm not usually a big fan, as I find them fishy, and they were, of course, fishy)

clams in black bean sauce (excellent - one of the highlights)

braised chicken feet (very good)

sticky rice in lotus leaf (very good)

potstickers (good)

salt & pepper head-on shrimp (excellent - perhaps the best I've ever had of these)

Chinese broccoli (fair - sauce was very weak)

baked char sui bao (very good)

stuffed bean curd skin (good)

tofu with some unspecified roast meat on top (good)

some sort of fried shrimp dumpling with a shrimp tail for decoration (COLD!)

fried roll with shrimp and fake crab (COLD!)

pineapple buns (didn't try)

custard tarts (didn't try)

sesame seed balls (didn't try, though the unexpected filling didn't make them a hit with my kids)

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Wow, I missed some of those cold items (I never got around to trying those particular dishes, lucky me). I think New Fortune's version of salty & pepper shrimp is better, or at least it was on visits prior to the first DR-related visit when all the shrimp dishes were mushy. We'll have to see if NF has solved their shrimp thawing problems yet. And I like my cuttlefish fishy. <_<

Right now, I'd rank MDH third behind Hollywood East On The Boulevard and New Fortune. Of the three we've tried in NoVa, MDH is by far the best (although I'd still like to give Fortune another chance).

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I had dinner at MDH with Escoffier and StephenB. We ordered spicy steamed pork & shrimp wonton, salt crusted prawns (no heads but shelled), ma pa tofu and whole crispy fish (the fish was a tilapia). After I took the first bite of wonton, I simply said that "This is better than Peter Chang's!". The prawn was very cripsy and I was able to eat the shell. The ma pa tofu was not very spicy but the best in DC metro area.

The whole fish was a bit smaller than I expected but the flavor was awesome.

The bill was around $55.00. There was no fortune cookies. I asked them about that. "This is the first Chinese restaurant which serves no fortune cookie". The owner told me that "Fortune cookies are only at American-Chinese restaurants." I think this place is another good candidate for $20 Tuesday dinner (not dim sum).

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I had dinner at MDH with Escoffier and StephenB. We ordered spicy steamed pork & shrimp wonton, salt crusted prawns (no heads but shelled), ma pa tofu and whole crispy fish (the fish was a tilapia). After I took the first bite of wonton, I simply said that "This is better than Peter Chang's!". The prawn was very cripsy and I was able to eat the shell. The ma pa tofu was not very spicy but the best in DC metro area.

The whole fish was a bit smaller than I expected but the flavor was awesome.

The bill was around $55.00. There was no fortune cookies. I asked them about that. "This is the first Chinese restaurant which serves no fortune cookie". The owner told me that "Fortune cookies are only at American-Chinese restaurants." I think this place is another good candidate for $20 Tuesday dinner (not dim sum).

Have you had a bad dim sum experience there? I was thinking about going to MDH for dim sum this weekend.

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Have you had a bad dim sum experience there? I was thinking about going to MDH for dim sum this weekend.
I'll answer for Grover because I asked why she didn't want to do Dim Sum at Marks and she said, the food on the menu is too good. (She really liked the food on the menu. I think the Dim Sum would be really good if dinner last night was any indication).
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We went to MDH today for late lunch/early supper around 4pm and it was all very good. It was ALMOST up to NY standards in our slightly humble opinion!

We ordered 2 types of steamed dumplings each one was prepared well and tasted fresh no fishy taste or aftertaste. We shared the Duck and the Crispy Prawn dishes and though we'd usually go for more "chinese" fare they were both made very well and we were happy and QUITE full.

I would definitely go here again and again! It's less than 20 minutes from our home in Reston VA though my Magellan sent me a different way than I would have gone, perhaps I would have taken 7 to the area by Syms and then turned off to get there... we got there and home easily. It is located across from the Home Depot/7 Corners shopping area diagonal across from Fortune Restaurant which was mentioned on a thread. We were not aware of a dimsum menu but they did have a large list of hot and cold appetizers - is there a separate dim sum menu or a cart at other times? Just curious.

Thanks everyone for taking the time out of your day to read this, I hope you can suggest other great restaurants nearby for me by PM or on here! Have a great October 2006 and New Year. - Stacey C.

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We went to MDH today for late lunch/early supper around 4pm and it was all very good. It was ALMOST up to NY standards in our slightly humble opinion!
That's all well and good, but was it up to Monterey Park standards? That's what I'd like to know... :)
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Well going back to dim sum experiences. Both of my times at dim sum have been really good. My Chinese parents said it was the best dim sum they'd had on the East Coast in a long time.

Some of the stuff did come out a bit cold... so I would say try to stick to the steam carts. Everyone was in agreement that for a duck house the duck is rather disappointing.

I would highly recommend the radish cakes though. I don't really quite know how to describe them visually except that they're white and slightly browned on the top. They're very flavorful.

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My wife and I have been long-time dim sum eaters at Fortune across the street, so over the weekend we decided to give MDH a try. Overall we thought that both the food and service we better at Mark's than at Fortune. One thing that specifically stood out was the quality of their shrimp-related foods. I always felt at Fortune that when you ordered shrimp cakes, dumplings, shimai, whatever, that you were getting some kind of shrimp composite, which always skeeved me out. At Mark's you could see the actual shrimp in the shumai and the dumplings, there was no mistaking it for something else, and it was delicious to boot. The vegetable noodles, while not a fancy dish, were particularly good as well. I look forward to heading back there.

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Some of the stuff did come out a bit cold... so I would say try to stick to the steam carts.

We went there for dim sum yesterday. I think the key to Mark's for dim sum is having a 'watcher', someone at your table who is in a position to watch what comes out of the kitchen and onto the carts, then get the new stuff while it's still hot. That's what we do, anyway.

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QUOTE(synaesthesia @ Oct 9 2006, 11:47 PM) Some of the stuff did come out a bit cold... so I would say try to stick to the steam carts.

We went there for dim sum yesterday. I think the key to Mark's for dim sum is having a 'watcher', someone at your table who is in a position to watch what comes out of the kitchen and onto the carts, then get the new stuff while it's still hot. That's what we do, anyway.

And if you see something on the carts that you want but it's cooled off, ask them to reheat it.

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OK, This was part of a discussion at Dino's last night. Who has the best Peking Duck? Somehow we ruled out Mark's Duck House and Peking Gourmet. Please someone weigh in.... I am in search for a duck fix!

No personal experience, but I have been told from a few folks that Mark's was the place to go for that. Why did it get ruled out?

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Mark's has good ROAST duck, but we're specifically looking for Peking Duck, and I was not impressed with theirs.

This came up because we were contemplating a $20 Tuesday for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and in honor of the week of the bird, we thought it only appropriate. And we did bring up the Dino-Yanyu connection.

So, still no votes?

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I was going to rise to the defense of Mark's "Peking Duck" but it suddenly dawned on me that most places that serve authentic Peking require it to be ordered a day ahead to allow for the requisite blown air drying of the skin,and this is not the case at either Mark's or Peking Gourmet (which could actually be air drying their ducks in anticipation of customers ordering it the next day since that is their House specialty). Despite Mark's name Duck is not really the single specialty -- they have a number of others. I guess the way to view the duck at Mark's that is served with the accompanyments associated with authentic Peking is "duck in the style of Peking."

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Went to Mark's Duck House for dim sum yesterday. Got there at precisely the wrong time, 12:30 PM, and waited for 45 minutes for a table. On the other hand, with a crowd there and a crowd waiting for tables the dim sum was only on the cart long enough for a table to snatch it up. Also it looked like there were more small trays of food being brought to restock the carts, rather than one large tray being loaded off then the food cooling as it made 5 or 6 laps around the dining room.

They've got a website now, notable for the pictures on the dim sum menu. Hopefully they can add the pictures to the regular menu as well.

http://www.marksduckhouse.com/

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After years of saying we'd go to Mark's sometime for Peking Duck, we finally got around to it on Friday night. We had that, the steamed pork and shrimp wontons with spicy sauce, and the dry-fried green beans with pork. After we ordered, we saw our server go up to the front kitchen area, get a duck, and carry it back to the back kitchen. I guessed that meant it wouldn't be carved tableside.

Shortly afterwards, our wontons came out. These look and taste like the soup dumplings, with a spicy oil/pepper/ginger sauce. I think they're too big, and aren't as good as the spicy tasty wontons at Hong Kong Palace, or baby wontons in hot oil at Joe's. However, they aren't bad, and are a good fix for those who love spicy food.

Next our dry-fried green beans came out. These were the star of the night, with a crisp-tender texture, a sauce that tasted of mushroom soy, with garlic, ginger, and little chunks of pork. My guess is that they are lightly steamed, then tossed in a hot wok with the spices, as opposed to the deep-fry that some places use on theirs.

Finally, the duck came out of the kitchen on a large platter, with a small basket of pancakes and green onion shreds. Our server rolled up one for me and one for Biscuit Girl using two spoons like chopsticks or tongs, a feat of dexterity I could not match. It was tasty, good duck. The skin was a little overdone in places, and wasn't as delicate as I've had in other restaurants. The duck meat was nice and moist.

I would recommend the duck, and definitely will get the green beans again. But before I get the duck again, I'll need my fix of conch with yellow chives and other seafood dishes.

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I happily consumed nearly a whole plate of dau miu at Mark's Duck house, and nibbled a bit on everyone else's food... lobster on noodles (mmm, noodles) and a hot pot with rice. I didn't get any of the whole fish, but did steal some veggies off the plate.

It's been a year, and most of the staff has stayed the same, and the new owners seem very nice.

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I happily consumed nearly a whole plate of dau miu at Mark's Duck house, and nibbled a bit on everyone else's food... lobster on noodles (mmm, noodles) and a hot pot with rice. I didn't get any of the whole fish, but did steal some veggies off the plate.

It's been a year, and most of the staff has stayed the same, and the new owners seem very nice.

Say hi next time. :P

I got Seven-Corners Screwed for the second time in a month by the Kingdom Pork Chops ($10.95) at Mark's Duck House, described on the menu as "Baked Center Cut Pork Chops w/Exotic Brown Vinegar Sauce." It sounds pretty good, right?

Here's something I wrote about my meal at Fortune, just across Route 50, a few weeks ago:

Avoid the Kingdom Style Pork Chops ($11.95), which is listed under the Chef's Recommendations section, and is nothing more than a bad version of Sweet-and-Sour Pork Chops, buried in a sweet, thick sauce that smelled overwhelmingly of vanillan.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Cheers,

Rocks.

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I was going to rise to the defense of Mark's "Peking Duck" but it suddenly dawned on me that most places that serve authentic Peking require it to be ordered a day ahead to allow for the requisite blown air drying of the skin,and this is not the case at either Mark's or Peking Gourmet (which could actually be air drying their ducks in anticipation of customers ordering it the next day since that is their House specialty). Despite Mark's name Duck is not really the single specialty -- they have a number of others. I guess the way to view the duck at Mark's that is served with the accompanyments associated with authentic Peking is "duck in the style of Peking."

Can you recommend any in the Northern VA area that have this day-ahead approach?? thanks.

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Say hi next time. :P

I got Seven-Corners Screwed for the second time in a month by the Kingdom Pork Chops ($10.95) at Mark's Duck House, described on the menu as "Baked Center Cut Pork Chops w/Exotic Brown Vinegar Sauce." It sounds pretty good, right?

Actually, no ;-)

I don't think I would go here without Nick's cantonese mom; the staff dote on her. She wanted seafood, we expressed concern about it being both a monday and a holiday week. The waiter led her to the tanks and they consulted for a while.

The tofu/veggie/mushroom hot pots are good. The short ribs are excellent. The whole fish is excellent; I like nibbling on the deep-fried bones. (it helps that the fish chef is the husband of one of the servers; I think he gets a lecture when our order goes in.) I don't really go in for lobster, but the noodles with it are very good. I'm happy as long as I get my snowpea shoots. The duck is variable; I think it helps if you order a whole one. The times we've order a half the duck seems more tired somehow.

We can loan you Nick's mom for consulting next time ;-)

_k

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I got Seven-Corners Screwed for the second time in a month by the Kingdom Pork Chops ($10.95) at Mark's Duck House, described on the menu as "Baked Center Cut Pork Chops w/Exotic Brown Vinegar Sauce." It sounds pretty good, right?
I think it's the word baked that gets me here. I can't remember the last Chinese food my parents baked.
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I think it's the word baked that gets me here. I can't remember the last Chinese food my parents baked.

Direct your attention to the third paragraph here (I wrote this, so if it's wrong, there's nobody to blame but me).

Truly, it's not the baking; it's the swamping in thick, sweeter-than-sweet sauces that overthrows both of these Kingdom dishes. Did you ever see the movie "The Blob?" That's what the sauces are like.

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Direct your attention to the third paragraph here (I wrote this, so if it's wrong, there's nobody to blame but me).

Truly, it's not the baking; it's the swamping in thick, sweeter-than-sweet sauces that overthrows both of these Kingdom dishes. Did you ever see the movie "The Blob?" That's what the sauces are like.

Yeah you're right... there is salt baking. It sounds funny in the context though.
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I went to Mark's Duck House because of stellar reviews it received, but I was sorely disappointed by the experience. I was still unsure, maybe I hit it on a bad day, so I gave it a second try and still the verdict was the same. This place is overated. I think it may have been one of those place that's really good in the past, but have since declined, and their business still rests on their past reputation. None of the dim sum I had was memorable, some were making the rounds on the dim sum cart well past their edible state. I would rank China Garden and Fortune above MDH, although the best dim sum I have had was from Holywood East.

The service was terrible, and that's saying something since I am used to bad service from authentic Chinese restaurants (I am going there for the food, not the ambiance or pat on the back) and I never complained until now. I once waited over an hour for a table of two while numerous tables of 3 or 4 were being seated almost immediately upon arrival. Their reasoning is that they are not going to sit two people in one of those square table that can sit 4 people. Several people along with me complained and they finally gave in and seated all of us immediately. Its not that they didn't have tables available, but they were being greedy and gave preference to larger party. Absolutely ridiculous

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I have loved Mark's Duck House for many years now, although I would have to agree that their dim sum is not that great, especially the typical dim sum dumplings. I have had some things off their carts that were wonderful, though, most memorably, I think, a dish described to me by the server as "cow stomach"; she seemed rather surprised when I said okay, I'll have that. It was an utterly delicious stewed tripe, and if you spot that on one of the carts, go for it. A dish of clams with black beans also stirs fond memories.

But perhaps the most wonderful thing about Mark's Duck House is their carry-out window, just inside the entrance, where you can get whole ducks or chickens, spare ribs, roast pork, or--to me most exaltedly--crisp-skinned roast pig. In the case of chickens and ducks, they're sold by the each; the various parts of the pig are sold by the pound, and the roast pig costs $11 a pound, which is surprisingly close to free considering how good it is. I have a 7-month-old dog (she's 7 months today exactly) who needs a lot of exercise, and my local enclosed dog run, in Walter Pierce Park, is out of commission while they upgrade the fencing and perhaps do other things, so this morning I drove with her out to the very nice dog park in Arlington near the East Falls Church Metro station, where Kiko was able to run her, well, tail off for about forty minutes. Then, after a quick stop at Grand Mart at 7 Corners (some excellent produce today, and a small tub of cold Korean noodles, among other things), we ran over to Mark's Duck House, where unfortunately someone ahead of me was getting enough food to serve about a hundred people, presumably at a New Year's party, so I had rather a wait. But eventually I got my roast pig and brought it home. With the Korean noodles and a couple of glasses of cremant de Bourgogne, that made a fine lunch.

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There was a festive mood at around 6pm in celebration of the Lunar New Year holiday tomorrow. They took some standard Chinese dishes and gave them festive names to sound appropriate. Maybe added a dish or two, but there was no stand out in the list I read. The servers seemed overwhelmed and a lot of duck (between the Peking and Roast Ducks, they were running behind) was being ordered. The window meats still seem the way to order here, as some of the other stuff there just seemed typical Cantonese fare.

Ema: I wouldn't rank Fortune FChurch anywhere, as my experience there was awful and cold food-wise for dim sum. Service was horrid there, whereas I could at least flag someone down here.

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I went to Mark's Duck House because of stellar reviews it received, but I was sorely disappointed by the experience. I was still unsure, maybe I hit it on a bad day, so I gave it a second try and still the verdict was the same. This place is overated. I think it may have been one of those place that's really good in the past, but have since declined, and their business still rests on their past reputation. None of the dim sum I had was memorable, some were making the rounds on the dim sum cart well past their edible state. I would rank China Garden and Fortune above MDH, although the best dim sum I have had was from Holywood East.

Try Canton Cafe in Springfield. I've only been once and I enjoyed it. If more people recommend it, we might be able to do a dim sum Sunday in NOVA.

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Yes, Canton Cafe will feed you well for dim sum. But raise it another notch on the weekends and go 2 miles down Franconia Road to Sampan, and you will be uplifted. Mind you, I will be back and forth between them, with the annoying lure of the best Middle Eastern 'dim sum' in northern Virginia (Mediterranean Gourmet Market two doors down just disembowels dim sum with mezze). But if I am well resourced and plenty in the green, I'm oh so there...

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Went to Mark's for dim sum yesterday because they open at 10 a.m.!! A couple of weeks ago I swumg by around 11 and the place was already packed so this time I got there at 10. The restaurant was open but the carts didn't start rolling out until 10:10 or 10:15. By 11, the place was packed with a wait for tables. Apparently most people haven't gotten the memo :rolleyes: The food that I ordered wasn't great but they weren't bad. Chicken feet - good. Spare ribs - good. Turnip cake- good. Spring rolls - overstuffed with weird filling. Chives dumpling - again, weird stuffing (there were big chunks of shitake mushrooms and what appears to be chicken in there in addition to shrimp paste and chives). The bill was $17 with tax. Unfortunately there is no "go to" place for dim sum in NOVA and my conclusion is just go to the one closest to you but do avoid Fortune.

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Anyone know if they make thier dim sum in house? I've heard contradictory reports. Agree that Mark's is not the best dim sum you will ever find, but it is servicable and they have a good variety. Best to be their NLT 11 to avoid the masses and a long wait. If you have a large enough group and you commit to be there precisely on time, you may wrangle a reservation.

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Best to be their NLT 11 to avoid the masses and a long wait.
I haven't been to Mark's for lunch (at a table, that is; carryout is another matter) in several years, but when I worked in the area I often used to go there around 1 pm weekdays, and almost always got a table with no problem. This doesn't apply to weekends, but they do dim sum every day. Not that dim sum is what they're best for.
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Took a friend from high school to Mark's today for dim sum. We arrived at 10:30 and there was already a line even though several larger tables remained empty. My friend commented it can't be very good because there weren't many Chinese in there. The food was in fact pretty good but not much variety.

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Dear Mark,

When I ordered Shredded Pork with Szechuan Turnips ($10.95) for my early carryout lunch today, I guess I wasn't expecting to be rudely surprised by completely Americanized, Scoville-deprived, violently oversalted pork with green peppers and onions, in a generic brown sauce, and not a single turnip to be found.

Following my unbelievably disappointing dinner last night at Sakulthai, it occurs to me that I have not had a single good bite of food since Tuesday.

Thanks a lot.

Cheers,

Rocks.

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Dear Mark,

When I ordered Shredded Pork with Szechuan Turnips ($10.95) for my early carryout lunch today, I guess I wasn't expecting to be rudely surprised by completely Americanized, Scoville-deprived, violently oversalted pork with green peppers and onions, in a generic brown sauce, and not a single turnip to be found.

Following my unbelievably disappointing dinner last night at Sakulthai, it occurs to me that I have not had a single good bite of food since Tuesday.

Thanks a lot.

Cheers,

Rocks.

Dear Don,

We're Cantonese, not Szechuan. Order more wisely next time.

-mark

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Dear Don,

We're Cantonese, not Szechuan. Order more wisely next time.

-mark

While today was obviously a communication breakdown, I actually did try their Ma Po Tofu once, and it just ... lacked something.

(I know, I know, but I've eaten there thirty times (so has every other oenophile in town cool.gif), and wanted something different.)

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Cantonese, szchwanese, if you can't do it right why have it on the menu, I used to be a regular at mark's but something happened about two years ago and things seem to have declined. I am really busted up that lucky 3 dim sum is gone, that place rocked for getting all u can eat dim sum , really a fraction of the price compared to marks. Any options on that? all u can eat dim sum that is ....

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I am really busted up that lucky 3 dim sum is gone, that place rocked for getting all u can eat dim sum , really a fraction of the price compared to marks. Any options on that? all u can eat dim sum that is ....

IIRC, Lucky 3 was owned by the same people who own New Fortune in Gaithersburg, and the two were almost identical.

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Cantonese, szchwanese, if you can't do it right why have it on the menu,

FOr Chinese restaruants, they can make a lot of money selling glop to folk who not only don't know better, but are happy to not know better. The economics of the restaurant business being what theya re, I cannot think of a single great chinese restaurant in the DC area that doesn't ahve a laundry list of dishes that do not fit in their regional style. Hunan taste has the least, but their menu is rife with sichuan style dises and pan china dishes. Sichuan Pavillion and Grace Garden have "Americanized" menus, Joe's and Hollywood East ahve their items mixed in etc etc etc. You need to carry some knowledge with you to enjoy these restaurants fully by staying away from the Americanized or "misplaced" dishes.

Every time I have been at Grace Garden, they have taken in more money selling Special Plate #4 with fried rice and egg role than they did selling me {and my companions for one glorious feast} the real deal.

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