Dim Sum, Solo

My lunch yesterday at Loyal Dining, a restaurant at 66 Wellington St. down the street near my work.  The name of the restaurant comes from the word "loi lo" in Cantonese, which refers to all the Western things that became popular in Hong Kong in the 60s and 70s.  The restaurant itself is fancy while nostalgic - marble tops, heavy wood, dark booths, art deco tile floor.  They serve the usual mishmash of Western and Eastern cuisine - dim sum, as I had, but also afternoon tea with finger sandwiches, but also Beef Wellington (but it's served Asian-style on a iron sizzling hot plate), but also garlicky escargot, but also pork char siu.  You get the idea.

My lunch consisted of crab dumplings with sprinkled with orange roe, tasty and robust shumai, and flavorful, delicious vegetable dumplings.  The vegetable dumplings were startling in their nearly radioactive color (my first thought was play-doh) because the wrapper is made out of spinach.  My lunch came with a pot of fragrant jasmine tea.  It was all really tasty!  The restaurant is famous for serving dim sum all night, and not closing until 4 am on weekends.