New Spring Garden Restaurant

On Christmas Day, I came here for Dim Sum with family and it was a complete madhouse! We arrived at about 12pm, although our party had been waiting since 11:30am-ish. There were many parties waiting for a table from the outside, inside and everywhere around the restaurant. Even though the restaurant is very big, the entire place was packed to capacity. I remember seeing on the wall that the restaurant’s capacity was 518 persons, but it seemed evident that they were way over that number.
The restaurant employs the typical Dim Sum system of seating where it’s first-​come, first-​serve. They call out numbers on a microphone and if you’re lucky enough to get called run to your table ASAP! The reason being, in our case, there was another party also standing at our table and ready to take it. After 5 minutes of back and forth bickering, we basically got the table and they got the one next to ours. It was an unfortunate situation, but due to overcrowding situations like this will arise often.
Anyhow, we finally sat and went to work on ordering our dim sum. From what we ordered and what I saw on all of the carts that passed by, this restaurant has a large selection of dim sum. I saw all of the typical and atypical dishes that I see at the most popular restaurants in Chinatown — there was Siu Mai, Chicken Feet, Shrimp Dumplings, Pan Fried Turnip Cake, Spring Rolls, Shrimp Noodle Rolls, Beef Noodle Rolls, Sponge Cake, Coconut Jello, Egg Tarts, Buns and, of course, they also had their off cart menu of noodles (Pan Fried, Lo Mein, Chow Fun). The quality of all of the dim sum dishes were good, except for the Siu Mai. Typically, Siu Mai has some pork in it, but this restaurant makes it all shrimp. For some it be what they want, but for others, like me, it’s not what I’m used to.
The service here was a bit spotty from time to time. Rudeness is expected at many Chinese restaurants, but at times, it seemed a bit more excessive here, such as when they gave us our tea, they sort of just dropped it on the table. Also, when we ordered nestea, they dumped the cans on our table and threw the straws. Of course, this type of service won’t ruin the restaurant in any way since most of these restaurants are like this, but it’s something to definitely note if it’s repeated.

I might be a tad biased rating this place because this happens to be the ONLY dim sum hall my family comes to. but there must be a good enough reason for us to keep coming back right?
Food: With the variety of dim sum dishes that they offer (both typical dishes and new ones), I have no reason to venture anywhere else. My favorites are their spare ribs, beef tripe and shrimp churng. Always a hit with me because they’ve never let me down before. If you get lucky and sit all the way in the back by where the fresh dim sums roll out then that’s a plus for you! Piping hot plates of goodness rolling your way constantly. The prices are pretty decent.
Service: Good service. They’re alert and will refill your tea, take away the emptied dishes and exchange your dirtied ones for clean ones often. Here’s where my biased rating lies: Almost every single waiter will recognize my grandparents. If my grandparents arrive before I do, they will point me in their direction before I’m even fully through the door. And let’s be honest. just like any other Chinese establishment. it’s all about the people you know and the connections so with this said, yes. we mostly don’t have to wait on that dreaded line and no we don’t usually pay for the tea charge but it doesn’t matter because we usually come before the rush anyways. It sucks for you as an outsider if you don’t know anyone. but bottom line is: you’ll get seated eventually. So if you want to skip the crowds, I suggest you come before 10:30 AM on weekends. Weekdays are manageable and you won’t have to wait.
Cleanliness: Meh. it’s a typical Chinese restaurant. what more do you expect? Expect an occasional smudge on your glassware or dish. Just let them know and they’ll change it for you.

Very fresh dim sum even though we didn’t get there until 1:30 on Sunday, which is pretty late if you want the freshest dim sum. The variety was not tremendous but the quality was solid, and we saw some items we don’t normally see, like vegetable and scallop dumplings topped with dots of an orange veggie (either squash or sweet potato, I imagine) and sweet pork and dried shrimp inside glutinous rice balls. The shrimp was better quality than at other similar joints.

My family used to come here a lot until we stumbled upon King’s Rice, but we recently came back here.
Their service has improved quite a bit. They do more than the other waiters at other restaurants, including King’s Rice. They changed our plates, gave us cups for the soda, took them away nicely when we said we didn’t want it anymore, and overall, just actually.friendly.
The food is not as good as it used to be. It’s gotten a lot saltier. The mayo shrimp with broccoli had so much mayo it was overwhelming to my taste buds. The fried frog was really brown — the type of brown you get from reusing the oil for too long, not from over-​frying.

Nice place for dimsum with the family except you most likely have to wait a long line. This place is usually crowded on the weekends. The food is decent. They still do the food carts so you can see everything you ordered. The food come out quick and fresh.

I usually come here with family and relatives for dim sum. This place can get kind of packed during the weekends; but goes quick since there’s a lot of tables and spacious. The staff is friendly and the place is clean. The food here is decent and there is always food on the carts that comes around. They have a lot of different vary of dim sum.
I also come here sometimes for family gathering or dinner. The dinner here taste pretty good. Once you order, the food arrives in like 15 – 20 minutes. Not much of a wait, if you are hungry.
They do take reservations for dinner, but not for dim sum. Dim sum is first come first serve basis.
I would recommend coming here to try if you are in the neighborhood.

This restaurant was so unappetizing. Came here for a wedding and of course I assume everything is mostly seafood — but seriously didn’t think all the seafood would come out first and then the nonseafood ones come along with the dessert. That’s fine because I’m used to that in Chinese banquets, but omgosh this was totally inappropriate where they serve the fish (that people eat) next to a glass of live gold fish on the platter as well. This was completely shocking and I was sick to my stomach on how they use these live fishes just as simple visual decorations and then flush them away. Why was this even a thought ??? Disgusting and real animal cruelty … Not only was the food non flavorful the staff there were beyond rude. The thing I hate the most at banquet is that they fill your plates from the main dishes like we can’t serve ourselves. The guy was serving me seafood and then spilled the soy sauce based sauce over my dress and barely looked at me while he whispered an «apology». I was dressed for a wedding banquet and you ruin my dress — all you have to say is a whispered sorry? Ridiculous. I was lucky that my napkin covered most of the spill — but it still stained my dress. Walked away appalled and starving.

The food was decent, there were always food coming around. The best was the chicken fingers, the pan fried veggie buns and Ha churn (rice cake with shrimp and the sauce) other stuff we got I wasn’t a huge fan. Got full pretty fast though!
We went on Labor Day so extremely crowded normal in NYC.
In a good neighborhood because after we went grocery shopping at Fei Long, walking distance!

My family and I go here when we don’t want to trek to or wait for East Harbor. Typical Chinese places for dim sum that is super packed on the weekends. Ways to bypass the wait? Go early or make friends with the staff!
Location wise, it’s pretty decent for bus, subway or cars. They do offer a small valet parking space, which is nice for those who live far away because you can park your car, get dim sum, and then stop by the Chinese supermarket for cheap but fresh groceries.
Food wise, I would say it’s average, with all the offerings you could want in dim sum. Depending on where you are seated, you might have to be more proactive to get dishes you want, as often the dim sum ladies would be ambushed by people whenever the pipping hot fresh dishes come out. I personally feel that that’s part of the traditional dim sum experience I grew up with.
Service is ok. You’ll be taken care of, but not necessarily thoroughly. Price is pretty good compared to neighboring restaurants. The only downside is that this place is huge, so noise level and crowdedness can be an issue if that’s not your cup of tea.
Afterwards, do check out Three Guys around the corner for the cheapest and freshest fruit in Brooklyn!

My second favorite dim sum restaurant in Brooklyn. This place is not as crowded as East Harbor. The waiting time is usually 5 – 10 minutes, even on the weekends. I came here this past weekend asking for table for 10 and we got seated within 5 minutes. While waiting for seats, I heard a lot of people say they come here when it’s overly packed at East Harbor.
There are A LOT of different varieties of dim sum here. There are some exotic ones that you normally don’t see at any other dim sum restaurants. If you like creative new dim sum, then you should definitely try this place out.
I usually come here with my mom’s friend and we always order this one dish that I love: the seafood platter. It has all kinds of seafood and comes with noodles. You can choose any type of noodles you want. There is not once I left this place without having this dish. It can be a bit pricey depending on the seafood market prices. Recently, it has been around $ 45 for the entire dish. It is such a big dish, it is totally worth it.
If you can’t find parking around the area, there’s a parking lot across the street from the restaurant. Tips are always recommended when you pick up your car in the end. On the weekend, there is free parking on the back street where the park is since meters are not in effect. However, they do fill up fast.

Wedding dinner. Obviously the food will depend on the package you get. But whatever the case may be, the food should always be consistent, whether good or bad.
Having been to so many chinese restaurants, you know what is on point and what is just okay. They were GOOD, but there is room for improvement. I can’t describe each dish, but as a general idea, you will be satisfied. I could’ve been happier in the end. The half-​lobster dish had cheese (uncommon for the asians!) and it was actually enjoyable. Soup was excellent. Very generous plates and the service a little too effective (they would take away everything they thought was on your way, including the party favors!) There was a small lack of common sense by our waiter. However, they did serve the food on your plate rapidly and effectively with little waste.
I have been here for dim sum and it’s okay. Sorry NY, but since i moved to LA, food here just doesn’t hold a candle to LA’s.
Parking is always a bitch but doable if you’re from here. Saturday after around 7pm its free parking most blocks.

The dimsum is fine. Service is abysmal though. We asked the waiter for a fork but he forgot about it completely. It took us 3 times to finally get the fork. Even though we sat in the center area of the restaurant, there were very few carts coming around and when they did come around, the ladies just pushed by without announcing what they have in their cart or stopping. How are people supposed to get any food? We sat there waiting for carts with our plates empty and nothing on the table for at least 15 minutes, which is a pretty long time for a dimsum place. The plates and cups are also not clean. This is something they should be take awareness to if they expect customers to switch plates halfway into their meal to a new empty one free of bones. Thus, there is no reason that I needed to be forced to take a new one that had multiple dirty spots even when I told the waiter no multiple times. Go someplace else. There are many, many more dimsum restaurants in the area with better service and cleanliness.

My family came here to meet up with their China classmates from 30+ years ago. It was super busy on a Sunday morning — I believe this is very common for every NYC restaurants on the weekends since there are so many people. There’s a lot of variety of dim sum served here. We found it interesting that NYC still uses carts to go around asking customers what dim sum they want. In Chicago, we simply order from a piece of paper. I miss the carts going around so it was comforting to see it here. Most of the dishes were good. They make the best egg yolk custard bun here. When you bite into it, the yolk oozes out and it tastes so good!
Overall — decent place.

Long wait.
Took forever to get a seat. Waited for almost an hour and still no seats.
They keep on giving to seats to the people they know and that isn’t fair.
Never coming here again.

By far the best dim I’ve had in New York! My Aunt and Uncle live in Brooklyn and took the family to two dim sum spots to compare, one in Flushing and this location. As a non-​NY resident, Flushing is typically known to have some of the best dim sum spots. We tried out dim sum in Flushing, me and my cousin thought everything tasted great but my relatives could tell a few dishes were not as fresh, they were either were lacking or had an excess of an ingredient. Coming from NOVA where dim sum restaurants are not as abundant, I did not see anything wrong with the dim sum in Flushing.
Not sure as to why this place is ranked only 3 stars, luckily my Aunt and Uncle avoided the crowd because it was Mother’s Day weekend so we came here on Tuesday. My goodness, I finally understood what quality dim sum tasted like after coming here. Every dish was fresh, on point, and left me craving for more. There were a few hit/​misses for the dim sum orders in Flushing, but New Spring Garden served quality dim sum and there were constantly carts coming around.
Just avoid the crowd if you can during the holidays and come early on the weekend. Valet parking is available across the street from the restaurant. Found my go to spot for dim sum in NY finally!

New Spring Garden Restaurant is a humongous dim sum tea house. I haven’t been to one of these in NYC in such a long time and I didn’t know something this big existed in Brooklyn. I thought the golden age of huge dim sum tea houses were certainly a thing of the past especially when Silver Palace doesn’t even exist anymore as a structure in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Inside, most of the tables are large and can sit up to 8 or 10. There are some smaller tables in the mix that can seat 5 or 6 and if you are less than that and come like I did, you have to share a table.
There are peach slipcovers on the chairs, with old traditional Chinese knotted enclosures. The place just seemed so huge, that half of the restaurant was still engulfed in darkness, as nobody sat on that side yet, until about an hour later. There are plenty of old fashioned dim sum carts that are pushed around the aisles and they have lots of varieties of dim sum, which seem to really pick up around 9:30 a.m.
The dim sum are your standard sized pieces, without it being delicate or refined, just the regular tea house treats that are either savory or sweet. The usuals such as shuimai, steamed shrimp dumplings, beef or shrimp rice rolls, meat or fish balls, fried taro fritters, fried sesame balls, pork buns, pork in pastry, coconut pudding, black sesame rolls, congee, tripe, along with many others.
The rice rolls had a nice chewiness to it and the shrimp were fresh enough. A little sticky on the har gow, a tip is to let them cool a bit. If that doesn’t work, then most of the time the skin is too sticky and only a chopstick guru can get it just right. Spring rolls were a bit greasy. The fried sesame bitter melon glutinous ball had a coating of sesame seeds on the outside, which is a nice twist. Dan tarts needed help. The filling didn’t taste like much. I found the food needed to be a little hotter when it reached the table. If dim sum is not your thing, you can order noodle or rice dishes as well.
We had eight plates, with two ordered at the table to go and the total was only $ 24.95. I consider that to be a real bargain. This is a great place to chill out and have a cup of Chinese tea and enjoy dim sum with the locals. You can find families of all different sizes, men reading newspapers and even beading, and old grannies also enjoying their weekend dim sum tea.

Came here to have dinner with my family tonight and I was very disappointed. My brother suggested this place because he had dim sum here and it was decent. Their dinner dishes weren’t any good at all, lacked in flavor and completely over priced. A dish of maybe 10 strands of jelly fish was priced over $ 16. The good thing about this place was the presentation of the dishes were very pretty and appetizing. The service here was great, super attentive and super fast. Tea filled right away, plate taken away instantly when emptied. Maybe will come here and try dim sum one day, but I will stick to seafood restaurants in flushing queens for dinner.

Good place for dim sum, come early otherwise you’ll have a hard time getting a table. Typical Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn. There are many in this area and they’re not all that different. You can expect the same style food, service, and décor throughout the area.

This is one of my family’s favorite dim sum spots. We like the fair seating system here. Weekend mornings are peak hours for dim sum but they are very organized to be calling your party by the ticket number when your table is ready.
I can say for sure that the teas and dim sum here are still high quality after many years of coming here. The dim sum chefs are indeed trying their best to be more creative and create more dim sum varieties and combinations of classic dishes. Our favorite dim sum dishes are the shrimp dumplings (har gow), shumai, rice rolls, and chicken feet. My family’s rating of dim sum is solely based on these classic dishes. Needless to say, they are great picks here and it will not disappoint you in terms of their authenticity. I would recommend chrysanthemum tea with just a spoonful of sugar to go with your dim sum!
I would say that the prices are fairly reasonable considering their quality. I would be happy to bring anyone here!

«It tastes good, but the texture feels like you’re sucking on a finger.»
That is never something you want to hear before you eat something. But if that something is chicken feet, it would be pretty accurate.
As I was in a three-​way tie for the most Asian person in our party, I felt as though I had to show the white (and black) devils at our table what was up. So I ate those chicken feet. And yes, it was like I was sucking on a finger. But a tasty, tasty finger. Since I went back for seconds, I probably ate at least a whole hand’s worth.
So thanks for that, Spring Garden.
And thanks as well, for a tasty dim sum day. As with most other dim sum experiences, it was rife with pork and shrimp wrapped in carby deliciousness. Small Chinese women came around with carts full of food, occasionally pausing to cut things up with the scissors they carried along with them. I burned my mouth early and often as I stuffed unidentified objects into my mouth, whole.
The service was excellent. They allowed us to push two tables together, and tolerated the gigantic mess the inexperienced chopstickmen and women at the table made. They provided glasses of water, extra sauces and even forks, although it might’ve pained them to do so.
To be sure, not everything was perfect. After a while, I’m pretty sure they stopped bringing carts around to get us to leave. As far as the food is concerned, I’ve had better and I’ve had worse of many things, but in hindsight I would only avoid one dish: the soup dumplings.
Since I can say that, and since we left stuffed and happy for about $ 10 per head with a generous, generous tip… I can’t really complain.