Review of ' Mei Mei Chinese Restaurant'
I am always on the look out for a “good” dim sum restaurant. My definition of good is: A wide variety of dishes, staff are pleasant, food is fresh and hot, Chinese people seem to like it and the price is not horrendous. In all these cases, “Mei Mei” meets the challenge.
We are in Liverpool fairly often so I have a list of places I want to try and since we were near the cathedral a restaurant in Chinatown caught my eye as being billed one of the best dim sum restaurant in town: Mei Mei, on Berry Street, only a short walk from the cathedral. We had tried to visit a year ago but we were too early in the day (it opens at noon) and ended up at Mong Kok Dim Sum in the nearby “Renshaw Street Food Market”. Mei Mei is a full-blown restaurant as opposed to a stall in a (rather interesting) food court.
We visited at about 1 pm on a busy Saturday but were quickly given a table near the door (which was not as drafty as you might think) and the bar. There are two levels to the restaurant with the upstairs roped off for the lunch service. The ground floor was full with a good assortment of small and large (10+ seat) tables which is perfect for dim sum where the larger the group the better. There was a buzz in the air as the staff quickly dashed amongst the tables serving the customers.
I quickly placed an order for two “Chinese” teas (served in a pot that could, I suppose, have been refilled but we only had the single pot) which took a while to arrive as the staff were so busy but appreciated nonetheless. A nice tea blend that was good from the first cup to all but the last which was quite bitter with the leaves having settled to the bottom. Of course, it was blindingly hot when it first arrived so we had to be a bit careful not to burn ourselves if not from the tea, from the small tea cups we had to drink it with.
Given our menus, we left the formal “book” menu alone (which has some interesting offers including several “banquet” set menus) and went straight for the placemat-sized plasticized double-sided visual “dim sum” menu which, disconcertedly, had no prices though this hardly stopped us (dishes are generally around the £7 mark each). After a few minutes deliberation we placed our orders for some of our steamed and fried favourites with a couple more interesting options thrown in. The dishes arrived in a somewhat random order, slowly at first, until they covered the table, as is the way with these things.
The “Deep Fried Prawn Dumplings with Salad Dressing” were a standout for me - A nice, crunchy deep-fried wrapping with moist, delicious prawn interior perfectly accompanied by the indulgent blob of salad dressing on the side. They arrived piping hot at the table and were gone quite quickly.
We always try to order some simply steamed vegetables, tending to absolutely adore “gai lam” but, as it is not in season, we opted for one of the other choices “Bok Choi” with a simple dressing of garlic which was deliciously fresh and crunchy with a bit of bitterness though perhaps not quite enough garlic for me. The pieces were quite large to eat but we managed.
An old favourite of ours, “Steamed Glutinous Rice with Dried Scallops and Chicken Wrapped in Lotus Leaf” were quite small but had a good amount of filling (not too much). The scallops I have to admit I missed entirely but the chicken and filling was quite tasty if a bit bland (I tend to add some chilli oil to make it more interesting).
The “Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings” are another favourite but here a bit odd as the wrapping was quite gelatinous and it was not terribly crispy though obviously fried on one of the sides (normally you would expect a much thinner, drier, wrap). That did not mean it was not tasty with a deliciously juicy pork filling and accompanied by a hoi sin sauce dipping sauce.
My companion particularly liked the “Steamed Vermicelli Roll with Deep Fried Dough Stick” which, if you can even find it, often arrives at the table completely soggy or cold. In this case, the dish arrived piping hot with the crunch dough stick (plain fried donut, basically) wrapped in a blanket of deliciously tender vermicelli noodles then dosed with a soy sauce only after it was placed on the table. This meant the textures were perfect - Crunchy donut, soft noodles and seasoned by the soy sauce. Yes, it was more about texture that a whole lot of flavour but it was very yummy.
Another firm favourite is “Char Sui Bau” or “Roasted Pork Bun with Oyster Sauce” (here) which was three small fluffy buns with an interior of delicious roasted pork. I can't remember too much about the flavour but I know it was very good as they were gone so quickly. Again, deliciously juicy meat and just the right amount of sauce to add a savoury note to the dish.
This one was firmly NOT on my companion's list of dishes to try: “Honeycomb (Beef) Tripe” which is cooked here in quite a nice enveloping sauce with a bit of kick from hot peppers. The tripe was almost perfect: Tender and falling apart as you ate it without any of the offal-flavour you might expect (there was no hint of that flavour here at all). It could have been more tender but otherwise, perfectly cooked.
The “Steamed Pork and Peanut Dumpings” were a bit of a different thing for us to try but really delivered on flavour and texture with a good amount of the soft, but still slightly crunchy peanuts mixed in with the pork and wrapped in another gelatinous noodle shell with a shallow dish of soy sauce for dipping on the side. Again, the pork was moist and full of flavour with the noodle giving a full flavour to the dish and the seasoning of the soy sauce bringing out the savoury notes. Yes, delicious.
At £66.40 for the two of us (with a 10% service charge added to the bill) it was about the right price for dim sum particularly with the number of dishes we had and the portion sizes (which were not too small). We were not charged for the tea which was probably included in one of the only two items on our bill (“Traditional Dishes” and “Multiple DimSum”).
In summary, very good dim sum with pleasant, efficient staff at not too bad a price in the heart of Liverpool Chinatown. Well worth a visit and I suspect we will be back.
Rating: “I have absolutely no complaints”
Review Date: 2024-11-30
Cuisine: Chinese
Address: 9-13 Berry St, Liverpool L1 9DF ENGLAND
Location: Liverpool (England)
Map:
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Telephone: +44 (0) 151 707 2888
URL: https://www.facebook.com/meimeichineserestaurant/