Mike Reyes (@MikoChu) is always coordinating dim sum on the weekends with other foodies like us, Marilyn of forkful.net (@mismamari), and Adam of adamfortuna.com (@adamfortuna). He is a big fan of dim sum at Lam’s Garden. The people at Lam’s Garden are very nice and hospitable unlike some places I have been to on Colonial Drive and also the restaurant is very spacious and accommodating for large groups and parties.
Lam’s Garden is a Chinese restaurant located on Colonial Drive and Bumby. For those of you not familiar with Dim Sum, it involves small individual portions of food, usually food is pushed around on carts by servers and served in a small steamer baskets or on small plates. Dim Sum is great for large groups or families to share a wide variety of food. It is really popular in our household to get meet up with the family on the weekends and have it for brunch.
On the weekends, Lam’s Garden utilizes the push cart system which makes it really easy to fill up your table with all kinds of different dishes. There were some items that were made to order like their Salt and Pepper Fried Calamari and others would be available in the cart: Chicken Dumplings, Beef Tripe, Bean Curd Rolls, Chive Dumpling, Steam Shrimp in Rice Paste, Fried Noodle with Shrimp, Fried Tofu with Shrimp, Taro Dumplings, Shrimp Dumplings, and etc. These were items we chose to start with!
Salt & Pepper Calamari
This was one of our favorites. It was not too salty and it was very tender. Since I was dining with other people, I had to resist eating the whole plate. Thank goodness there were like 10 other items on the table to distract me.
I noticed that they have a big fish tank containing things like fish (obviously), lobsters, crabs, and surprisingly, RAZOR CLAMS! I had no idea they had razor clams. It is so uncommon to find razor clams on any menu in Florida. I was so excited but by the time I spotted them, I was so full!
Why the excitement over Razor Clams?
I just recently watched an episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bourdain was in Ireland. He had an epic seafood platter which featured Razor Clams. I remember thinking, “What the heck is that?! Where can I find it!?… I want to try!” The way that Bourdain had it was very simple, it was broil with a little butter.
Lam’s Garden Razor Clams in Black Bean Sauce
“Oh my goodness”—I was so sad that I couldn’t consume another bite! I really wanted to try razor clams! –Next time!
But I do have to say that they really do have a great selection over the weekend and plus they also offer dim sum during the weekday! Note: Weekday dim sum is made to order so no show and tell push carts. But again, if you are a newbie or an advance dim sum consumer you would appreciate the variety and freshness of this establishment. I should also mention that they have a very extensive lunch and dinner menu outside of their dim sum menu.
Lam’s Garden is one of our preferred places for Dim Sum in the Downtown Orlando/Milk District/Mills 50 District. I even did another test visit with my parents, the super picky and critical consumers, to see if they would approve. They order a plate of Crab with Chili Crab Sauce. My mom thoroughly enjoyed it so much that she even doggy bagged the sauce to reuse for a shrimp recipe for dinner. So it would be safe to say that my super picky and critical Vietnamese parents likes and approves Lam’s Garden to be a good place to go for Dim Sum.
Lam’s is my favorite for dim sum as well! I feel like they are less salty than a lot of places.
I totally agree. They flavoring is great and also great variety. Although I do wish they had jellyfish salad.
Fabulous post! Next time I wouldn’t mind trying some razor clams. I’m pretty sure I can eat anything with that yummy black bean sauce too, especially shiitake mushrooms.
Last time I was there with my parents, they ran out of razor clams! I was so sad.
Plus, someone ordered “Pinchy” the 20lb lobster was gone. RIP Pinchy
Because of your blog article, we went to Lam’s today for dim sum. Very glad we did. The food was pretty good. To me it was better then Chan’s and about as good as Ming’s Bistro, but my favorite is still China Yuan in Tampa as it’s much closer.
I’ve always wanted to visit Lam’s, but a co-workers negative review years ago kept me from making the 1 hour trek on the weekends. Thanks for the posting! We just happened to see the Korean Taco Box truck on Ferncreek and had to stop afterwards!
Whoa! You came up from Tampa for some dim sum at Lam’s! That is dedication! I haven’t had Chinn Yuan. I will have to check it out when I am out there visiting family. Thanks for the tip!
Actually, I’m in Lakeland, so right in between Orlando and Tampa. I used to work in O-town for 10 years before finding something closer to home. I do miss it sometimes, especially the many different places to eat!
em Danh nè ch? Ng?c, món này ? Vi?t Nam r?t ngon, ch? bi?n ???c r?t nhi?u món.hehe o VietNam g?i là ?c móng tay!
Danh
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