Harbor City Restaurant

Decent dim sum restaurant in the ID. Good alternative to the place across the street, but both usually have long waits.

This is my favorite Dim Sum place in the International district. We brought our own GF soy sauce and the chef made my daughter a special stirfry with it.
Yum.

This place was nice enough to take a reservation for 17 people on a Sunday at 11AM. They did us a solid. Unfortunately, when we got there, we changed the number from 17 to 13. Then at the last min we had 14. Thus they tried to put us all at a table for ten. Needless to say it didn’t work. So four of us had to sit a 4 top across the room. This wasn’t their fault at all. Changing numbers on a busy mng is a bad idea. Best to stick with intended plans. Anyways, I commend them for accommodating us with a 4 top so quickly since we prob took someone else’s table!
In any case, the dim sum was pretty good. Staple items were all very good. The Ham Suey Gok (fried dumplings with pork filling) were a little fishy. Everything else we had was filled with fresh plump shrimp so that was good. The pineapple custard buns were not good. Compared to SF Chinatown where I’m from, they didn’t hold a candle. The custard was grainy and the crust on the bun was dry.
The other off bit was that the carts did not come by our table. They chose a route that went to the largest tables of course and onto the second room. We would’ve had to yell to get there attention and I’m not averse to that. But there was a party of about ten in the line of audio.
Lastly, we asked to order chinese brocoli about 3 times. Each time they said it was coming but nothing ever came. I get that servers can be rude, etc. I don’t care about that. They can be as rude as they want but when they just pull your leg and don’t follow through with the FOOD then I feel like I’m being taken advantage of.
In any case, pretty decent food. But doesn’t hold a candle to SF Chinatown restaurants or To Go places!

My family and I come here for dim sum all the time. They expanded the space recently but for some reason there’s still always a line. I guess it’s a sign as to how good the dim sum is here.
It used to be one of those undiscovered hole in the wall places but has recently gained a lot of popularity so expect to have to wait if you come here during lunch hours on a weekend.
Authentic and delicious, there’s a wide variety of dim sum to choose from. Great for those who have never had dim sum and for those who are seasoned dim sum veterans.

Absolutely love this place! I adore the waiters and the food is out standing. My boyfriend and I went here almost every Sunday and we always walked there. It’s definitely reasonable with prices and $ 25 can easily feed and fill three people up. Only downside about this place is it’s packed. Like the line is always out the door and wait time can range from 40 – 50 minute wait. But best dim sum in town !

Best dim sum in the city. Dumplings are made fresh and the sticky gooey outer layer of the dumplings are very nice and thin. Not rubbery and thick as most places in the ID. FAST service. Came in today, electricity was out and this restaurant remained open for business. I love this place. I’ll never go anywhere else. The shrimp chive dumpling is my favorite. Hum bao is good too!!!

Dim sum was very good. They do however push the not so good «chef specials» on you. We got some roast pork to go and it was the fattiest roast pork ever, where’s the meat?
Also Sunday morning we waited over 30 min. It is very popular and busy.

I can only judge by the dishes I had: duck soup and steamed stuffed tofu. The broth was simple, maybe a touch of chicken and a very small amount of ginger. The duck meat itself had a slightly salty flavor and the skin has a slight anise flavor but no salt on the skin. All around great for low salt diets. The dish included some nice crunchy bok choy and a few pieces of shiitake, though probably not fresh. A-​OK
The stuffed tofu was interesting. I have made my own version differently. The tofu sits in a little soy sauce but that flavor was not in evidence. The shrimp stuffing was interesting, ground and chopped shrimp mixed with rice flour and cooked into a too solid for me very stiff dumpling-​like pod on top of the tofu, with some spring onions as a garnish. I don’t think I would recommend this dish. It needs more flavor elements and less stiffness of the stuffing.
I love Cantonese-​style food and have spent some time there, eating in homes and restaurants. So I understand their inspiration. And I have had tasty dishes there flavored by ingredients. But, based on the dishes I had, I’m nonplused with their execution at Harbor City.
But if you are on a bland diet, they would be perfect.

If you want a feast, this is the place to go. The food was delicious. Reasonably priced, all but he rice. I’ve never paid $ 5 for a family style rice. Portion sizes were just right. We ordered 7 dishes and we were able to eat a little of everything and not take anything home. The service was really slow. It looked like they only had 4 people working. Food was fast but we didn’t get our water until almost the end of the meal.
Below are the things we got:
Soft shell crab: freaking delicious. The shell was actually soft. The batter was light. The green beans that came with it were huge. They blanched fried them. It looked old but was pretty fresh.
Salt and pepper prawns: not too salty. Perfectly Crispy.
½ Peking duck: I like that they deboned the duck for us. They serve it with bao buns. I wish they were warmed up more.
BBQ pork: these came out first. They were moist and succulent.
Pea vine sautéed with garlic: so good. I wished they gave us more of it.
Fried tofu: it was also good. It was missing the soy vinegar sauce that it usually comes with. I like that they cut it into cubes.
General tso chicken: a little generic for me. My Caucasian brother in law liked it. It had that unnatural orange sweet and sour hue to it.
Second visit: dim sum. So good. Rice noodles were mushy. Still got waters at the end of the meal.

I was happy to see that not only was this restaurant open on Thanksgiving day but they also sell dim sum late in the day! Perfect for me as I had just arrived to Seattle and did not want to spend money at one of those fancy Thanksgiving buffets in the downtown restaurants.
I ordered two dim sum plates and they were as great as when ordered on a busy day where you have the dim sum carts going by. My only criticism of the place is that the staff is not attentinve enough and I had to catch their attention to finally put my order and also to get the check. Otherwise great place for delicious and affordable dim sum.

The two heavyweight dim sum places in Seattle Chinatown face off near 7^th and King. Both restaurants are known to have long lines. For our annual Christmas Eve family dim sum lunch, mom suggested Harbor City. She commented that Jade Garden’s quality is slipping somewhat. I wouldn’t know but I trust her judgement.
I last reviewed Harbor City 3 years ago, and for today’s brunch I’m glad to add their fifth Unilocal star. Many of the things I liked about Harbor City are still there: gigantic (Texas-​sized) dim sum portions, excellent garlic green beans, real quick service, and overall great quality. Their Chicken Sticky Rice improved from my last visit — now rice is soft and sticky.
We also tried some new dishes that were really good:
* The Jean Mai Fun with chicken was an interesting way to eat chow-​mein. It was oily but oh so good. Fused, crispy rice noodles where you pile on the preserved veggies, bean sprouts, and chicken.
* Purple Yam Buns was an amazing dessert that was very light and airy. Its almost like a donut lightly fried on the bottom and filled with purple goodness. The bun was so pillowy!

Solid choice for dim sum in International District. In my experience, this place has better food and more efficient service than Jade Garden. The wait is long for weekend dim sum/​lunch, so be prepared for that (have waited up to 40 minutes before).
I’ve heard dim sum up in Vancouver is better than anything you can get in Seattle, so that’s my next stop.

Solid dim sum joint in the International /​Chinatown District. Very popular for weekend brunch, so be prepared to wait.
(We waited about 10 minutes on a Sunday at noon vs a 15 minute wait that they quoted at the door).
Compared to other dim sum shops in the area, this one is clean, efficient, and offers variety of tasty dishes. Not a huge selection of the more esoteric dim sum dishes, but what they do offer is tasty, especially the sweet pork buns!
Food — 4.5 stars — sweet pork 叉烧 is delicious, especially the sweet pork buns and pastries filled. Shrimp dumplings were good as was the steam pork. Spicy sauce on the table added a kick to all the dishes.
Atmosphere — 4 stars — in the heart of Chinatown and an authentic experience. Not the tidiest place but that’s not why you come. You come for the noisy, lively atmosphere and for the cultural experience.
Service — 4 stars — pretty efficient in terms of turning tables and keeping the place clean, which is my main standard for judging service here.
Value — 4 stars — be careful as pricing is not very transparent. We picked out a couple dishes that ended up bringing our bill to $ 43 (2 people), which is similar to what you would spend at Ding Tai Fung. That said, if you are more prudent than us, you could eat a ton of delicious food here for cheap.

This is my favorite dim sum spot in Seattle because 1. they do dim sum orders all day 2. it’s cheap.
I know that Jade garden is cheap too but Jade is a bit TOO dirty for me. I know Harbor City isn’t the cleanest establishment either but it’s like the furthest I’ll go lol. Din tai fung is way too expensive. This place is my family’s favorite. I love their pork and shrimp dumplings, shu mai, honey walnut shrimp, green beans, bok choy, and their wonton soup is great too because it’s not just super salty. I will go here with 1 friend and we will spend about $ 28 – 30 total and we are both FULL.
Everything though here is good… I love this place.

3.5 stars.
Despite my love of dim sum, I’d never made it inside Harbor City to try theirs, thanks to the long lines stretching out on the sidewalk on weekends. We finally managed to get in one rainy Saturday afternoon around 1:30 pm – it seemed to be a combination of the late hour and the bad weather that kept lines down. So now I know when to go!
We still waited about 20 – 25 minutes for a table to open up, but they have a small lobby area that you can jostle your way into and get out of the rain to wait, as long as you’re willing to loom awkwardly over diners who are trying to eat. There are two dining rooms and it seems like small groups might end up sharing tables with strangers, but our group of five got a table to ourselves.
Once we were shown to our table, a DIM SUM TORNADO touched down. We had two or three carts ambush us, putting down plate after plate of things while we were still trying to get our coats off! It’s very aggressive and unpleasant, and I’m sure they’re counting on people being intimidated and too shy to reject plates once they land on the table. We asked what things were and fended off some of the plates, but we still ended up with things that we wouldn’t have ordered. That was my least favorite part of the experience. We eventually had to be pretty firm in shooing them away to get them to stop putting unwanted food down!
So what we ended up with was a very shrimp– and dumpling-​heavy selection — har gow, shu mai, shrimp and chive dumplings, baked and steamed pork buns, egg rolls, sticky rice, and some fried tofu. Later on, I saw chicken feet go by on a cart, but they seemed low on meat items. There was a separate dessert cart that went by, but with just a few items like sesame balls and egg tarts. They mostly left us alone after the initial onslaught, so if there was a way to order BBQ pork or roast duck for the table, we didn’t know about it.
Because everything got slammed down on the table all at once, it started getting cold immediately, and we didn’t get the fun of watching carts go by and grabbing an item here or there. I think you might have a better experience in a smaller group, where there isn’t so much aggressive pressure to push TONS of food on you right at the start, and you can actually get settled in and look at what’s on offer before you decide.
Despite the pushy service, the food was good, and if you really like shrimp, you’ll love all the shrimp dim sum options here! I would go back, but next time I’ll be more firm about rejecting items we don’t want, and I’d order some BBQ pork or duck to balance out all the seafood and dumplings.

Its great that they ask you what kind of tea you want. Most Dim Sum places, I have been to don’t even care. They just have one unified tea. But again, the tea was tasteless. I got the chrysanthemum pu’er and yes it was tasteless. Not high end tea that’s for sure. SO ordered the usual siu mai, shrimp scallop dumpling, pineapple pork bun and a bunch of things. Well, food is ok. Place can be quite busy and especially after noon.
They do have people walking around with dum sum but you can also order a la carte. The food is fresh but just not tasty. But again this is Seattle and not Vancouver BC.
Most people seem to enjoy food here.

Really enjoyed this place. I came in after wandering Chinatown looking for the busiest restaurant… this one was it. Then I saw great Unilocal reviews and decided to give it a shot… and it didn’t let me down. It was great.
Had the beef chowfun, pan fried dumplings, and the roast pork noodle soup. All of the food was great. The soup needed a healthy dose of soy sauce… but was still great.
The bill came to 18 dollars and I couldn’t even finish half of the food I ordered. Portions are very big.
I would recommend this place If you’re looking for great Chinese food in the downtown area.

YES this place is so good. This review is mostly dedicated to the pan-​fried chive dumplings they offer. I’ve never had anything like them before — crispy on the outside and PACKED with flavor on the inside.
They also have your classic dim sum including har gow (shrimp dim sum), har cheong fun (shrimp rice noodle rolls), sesame balls and other things. Really, really good. If I were hungry enough I probably could have ordered a couple more of those pan-​fried chive dumplings though, hehe.

Solid dim sum place. Street parking is difficult around the area, and the wait can get pretty long. I’ve been here twice though, and both times, the actual wait was much shorter than I was quoted. So make sure you stay in the area and check in early.
The food they have is a solid 4 stars, though their options are more limited than some of the other dim sum places I’ve been to. They do a good job of the standard items I order– shu mai, shrimp dumpling, shrimp rice roll, deep fried pork balls, BBQ pork buns, and spare ribs. The fried taro puffs had a curry-​type filling which was different than I’m used to, but still good.
Service is pretty aggressive (as I usually expect from dim sum places), with the servers placing items on your table before you even order them– this was shocking to a few of my friends who were trying dim sum for the first time lol but just make sure you say no if they’re giving you something you don’t want!

As good as it gets for dim sum. It was packed on a random Thursday afternoon – it’s that good. Thank you fellow Unilocalers for showing me this place. I will now pay it forward.
Street parking around this area is tricky. Lots of spots but only for loading/​unloading. We parked in a private facility about two blocks across the street. For $ 3 you can park up to two hours.
We waited for about 10 minutes for a table. They had many carts circling the restaurant. Many items that we had not even seen before and we are experienced dim summers from nyc to Boston to philly to dc to San Fran to LA to Toronto and then some. For instance, the scallop and shrimp dumplings were a new item for us. The classic items were all made – perfectly seasoned, fresh ingredients, not greasy or overly salty. We thoroughly enjoyed every single dish that we ordered. Even my mom enjoyed the food and she never enjoys eating out.
Total bill was $ 49 for 4 very satisfied and very full patrons. Normal people who don’t eat like pigs like us would probably look at bills around $ 30 for 4 people.
If we are ever back in Seattle, we will definitely have to swing by this place again.