Whoa Mama that's tasty!

I read in the Castro Biscuit that the pop-up dim sum that's been appearing in the coffee/crepe place up from the Castro has reopened as Mama Ji's full-time, and I really wanted to give it a try. I love dim sum, but downtown places get a little crazy, and otherwise you have to travel to the Avenues. The Avenues do have some ridiculously good dim sum restaurants, but I'd love it if there were a place nearer my neighborhood, my evening destinations, or easily accessible via Muni. That a new favorably-reviewed. neighborhood style restaurant was opening in the Castro was good news. That it is a dim sum place was truly exciting. We tried it out last Friday night and were NOT disappointed. (Other recent attempts at establishing a restaurant in the Castro have been tragic: Dancing Pig, Spork, etc.—blah food that's over priced.)

First, the criticisms: The dim menu does not have obvious quantities or prices on it, so it's hard to determine how much you're getting or how much you're spending, so we wound up with about twice as much as we could eat, and that came to about $80 for the two of us. That was fine though as we got to try many different things. They are just starting out so not everything on the menu is available either, but your server will let you know what's what.I also hope that they get a better wine distributor, or better choices, as the Sauvignon Blanc was pretty bad. My dining companion noted that it's a popular label at the inexpensive end for other low- to mid-price restaurants too, but I've had much better $3-$9 dollar whites from Trader Joe's. (Update: looking at scans of the dim sum menu online, the prices are noted as a footnote at the bottom—something we looked for and didn't see when we were at the table.)

Now, the praise: Holy shrimp balls this place is delicious! And the people couldn't be nicer. I really felt like I was part of an exciting beginning for our hosts; and their kindness, enthusiasm, and good-neighborly nature really made me want them to succeed. And if I could aid in their success by ordering enough dim sum to knock me unconscious, so be it. It was the least I could do.


Mama Ji herself was attentive on hand to assist in choices and advise on the menu. And the "white guy" grown up who appeared to run the place was welcoming and attentive too, but in a friendly way and not the distant way that most proprietors or staff can be. Adding to the neighborhood vibe of Mama Ji's is that they have not completed their renovation/move in yet, nor have they properly staffed up yet so the wait staff is comprised of the neighbor kids, which is kind of awesome. They had just the right attitude too. And their inexperience was entirely forgivable, if not slightly adorable.

Aside from the generally friendly, welcoming feel to the place—like you've been invited over to the new neighbors' for dinner—I loved Mama Ji's for the all around awesome food. The seafood dumplings and the shrimp dumplings were delicious, the stuffed mushrooms were hot and juicy (although I like my mushrooms more on the dark side), and they substituted the shrimp and spinach dumpling in favor of a shrimp and snow pea dumpling—and the snow peas were so fresh they tasted as if they were picked just hours earlier. Those exploded with flavor in my mouth and sent me into all sorts of ecstatic states. We only tried one of the fried options, and those were fun as they were fried in a giant tangle of noodles around the dumpling, and were flavorful in an entirely different way.


Both the chicken and pork dumplings were savory, flavorful, and with a pleasant consistency (I find that pork/chicken dumplings can easily be of the "ew" consistency.). Throughout the meal the proprietors would stop by and check in and advise us on choices and ingredients and really made our evening. And I assumed that if we had wanted to be left alone and uninterrupted, they would have been happy leaving us to ourselves as well. Some times I'd like that too, but the newness and their excitement of the new made this evening much more of an adventure. In appreciation, Mama Ji rounded out our meal with some fig or plum paste buns which were a nice fluffy cap to the gastronomic delight.

I was reluctant to post such a glowing review of Mama Ji's because I don't want it to get so popular it's difficult to get a table, or so successful that they jack up the prices. But for now, I am looking forward to being back in SF next weekend and another Friday happy hour followed by too much dim sum yum!