The Dim Sum Capital of Delaware County, PA

My wife’s birthday was this past week. Among other things, that meant we went out to dinner at a restaurant of her choice – and her pick came down to a pair of dim sum-centered Chinese restaurants in the heart of downtown Media, PA.

The last time we ate at one of them – close to a year ago – it was Tom’s Dim Sum. Here is the post on that meal. We hadn’t been to Dim Sum Mania, which is two doors east of Tom’s, for at least a couple years and decided to head there to celebrate the occasion. It’s the larger and more interestingly laid out of the two restaurants and also has a few extra items of interest on the menu.

Although they offer a decent selection of entrées, we both stuck with their specialties – dim sum, appetizers and noodles. I only photographed those sections of what was a fairly long menu.

We didn’t exactly break any new ground when it came to ordering. My wife started with a scallion pancake, while I went for pan-fried pork and chive dumplings and pork egg rolls. One of the things that makes Dim Sum Mania appealing to me is that they offer egg rolls in addition to spring rolls, whereas Tom’s only has the latter. 

The scallion pancake and dumplings, both of which we shared, were outstanding. Each had the desired texture on the outside and were cooked perfectly throughout. The soy-based sauce that accompanied the dumplings was also very good. 

Unfortunately, the egg rolls went less smoothly. 

They looked great at first sight. And indeed, the outer coating was as good as I could have hoped for in addition to being very hot. But my first bite after cutting it in half told a different story. The inside was ice cold, giving me enough of a surprise to instantly jolt my back into a fully upright position. 

I returned it and the replacement was less cold inside, yet still a little cool. But by that time, in addition to the dumplings and scallion pancake, we had eaten our next courses and I was full enough to just take the egg rolls home to be reheated for a later snack rather than asking for them to try again.

Those second courses were cumin noodles with chicken for my wife and honey roasted pork for me. I tasted the noodles and they packed some heat in addition to being very tasty. The pork was extremely tender. My only complaint was that it came topped with cilantro. My wife and I are the president and vice-president of the “We Hate Cilantro Society,” so it was removed before I dug in.

Given the experience with the egg rolls, the fact that those are on the menu is no-longer a draw as far as which of the two Media dim sum restaurants to select. Nonetheless, we like both places overall and will likely eat at each again.