Just a month after we announced that automat-style Brooklyn Dumpling Shop was opening at 514 Washington Street, another restaurant is reportedly opening at 512 Washington Street, right next door. South Lions Dim Sum Coffee + Tea is coming to the former Off the Wall Chinese spot — its second location in New Jersey. Here’s what we know so far about this Dim Sum spot coming to Hoboken:
South Lions Dim Sum Coffee + Tea got its start in East Hanover. Jersey Digs shared about the opening and that the East Hanover-based business first opened along Route 10 in 2018. It has a sister restaurant called iCooking Hot Pot & BBQ as well.
The Concept of Dim Sum
The concept of dim sum stems from Southern China’s Guangzhou region — Cantonese people traditionally enjoyed a large range of small dishes in restaurants for breakfast and lunch. Dim sum is a traditional Chinese meal made up of small plates of dumplings and other snack dishes and is usually accompanied by tea. The dishes are shared among family and friends.
Dim sum restaurants typically have a wide variety of dishes, usually totaling several dozen, and tea is just as important — if not more important — than the food. Many Cantonese restaurants serve dim sum as early as five in the morning, while more traditional restaurants typically serve dim sum until mid-afternoon.
Dim sum restaurants have a unique serving method where servers offer dishes to customers from steam-heated carts. It is now commonplace for restaurants to serve dim sum at dinner time and sell various dim sum items a la carte for takeout, which South Lions does at its original location — open from 11AM-11PM.
Owner Andy Chen, according to Jersey Digs, is looking to bring the traditional concept to Hoboken.
The Menu
The menu is yet to be released for the Hoboken location, but if it’s anything like the East Hanover location, there will be dishes like spring rolls, steamed pork buns, baked egg custard buns, beef short ribs with black bean sauce, bamboo shoots and pork roll, pan-fried or steamed dumplings, pork buns, sticky rice, scallion pancakes, and more.
^The men on South Lion’s website
More New Spots on Washington
Though South Lion and Brooklyn Dumpling shop will be next-door neighbors, the two spots are very different. South Lion serves a much wider array of dishes and appears to stay true to the traditional dim sum concept — whereas Brooklyn Dumpling shop will specialize in dumplings only, in an automat concept format.
All of the dumplings on the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop menu come in three per order and were inspired by classic diner dishes, including pastrami, Rebuan, Philly cheesesteak, lamb “gyro”, turkey club, cheeseburger, chicken satay, peanut butter and jelly, chicken parm, pizza, and more. But, as a direct effect of COVID-19 and restaurants aiming to offer customers a contact-less free exchange, the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop reinvented its concept — and will have metal detectors scanning customers’ temperatures and glass compartments with food that open by scanning your smartphone. Brooklyn Dumpling Shop’s menu will offer 32 flavors of dumplings in total, but definitely not traditional in any sense of the word.
Read More: City Diner: A Staple in Jersey City
We’ll keep you posted on further updates for these openings as we know them for both openings.
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