Take a drive to Bellevue for dim sum and more

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, April 5, 2007

BELLEVUE There was only one restaurant I knew of that served dim sum in Snohomish County. It closed more than a year ago and turned into a Mexican restaurant. So, where were the dim sum lovers satisfying those taste buds?

A Herald reader recommends Noble Court in Bellevue. “I realize it’s not in Snohomish County, but it is a jewel,” the reader said in an e-mail.

Dim sum, for those who haven’t tried this way of serving Chinese food, is little portions, much like noshes, of a variety of dishes served from a cart that circles the dining room. At Noble Court, dim sum is served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. The dim sum menu includes standing favorites such as steamed barbecued pork buns (three for $2.40), steamed shrimp dumplings (four for $3) and egg rolls ($3.75 each). The menu also has more traditional Chinese fare such as steamed chicken feet with oyster and black bean sauce ($2.40) and shark’s fin soup ($3.75). According to friends, the wait during dim sum hours can be very long because Noble Court is one of the most popular Chinese restaurants on the east side.

My friend and I planned, three different times, to sample the dim sum, but outside events got in the way. So we decided to skip the long lines and go for dinner.

The Noble Court menu, which features Hong Kong-style dishes, has about 100 entrees and a lot of seafood. In fact, the first thing to greet you just inside the door are giant fish tanks filled with crab and lobster, which are listed on the menu as “current price.” When I see that, I assume it’s too pricey for my budget and consider something else. My friend pointed out that the double-boiled Buddhist delicacies soup that serves 10 must be ordered in advance and costs $300. Other seafood choices include the sauteed whole flounder ($22) and the jumbo prawns fruit salad ($35). The night we visited, the sea bass special was $18.95.

This restaurant also serves items not usually seen on menus, like roast squab ($13.50) and lemon duck with pineapple ($13 for one-half bird).

My friend and I decided to skip the pricey seafood or exotic dishes and ordered the house specialty lemon chicken with sesame seeds ($9.50) – plus Mongolian beef ($9) and the house special chow mein ($8.50), along with a side of rice.

For me, the Mongolian beef was all chili heat and no flavor beneath, but for my friend there wasn’t any heat or flavor, making it the most disappointing dish of our dinner.

I especially liked the chow mein because it had lots of prawns, sea scallops and calamari slices along with steamed baby bok choy and carrot slices plus two types of mushrooms atop the bed of pan-fried noodles. The noodles weren’t cooked spaghetti style or the crunchy chow mein noodles from the 1950s. Instead, the chef cooked angel hair pasta, then fried it.

We gave top honors to the lemon chicken. Our slices of deep-fried chicken breasts were served on shredded cabbage and covered in flavorful tangy-sweet lemon sauce. We decided the lemon chicken was the best because it tasted as good as it looked.

That’s also what makes dim sum fun – looking at all the different choices at they parade past.

Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.

Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.