Yi Dim Sum

This is my second time going there and both times I left with a satisfied stomach and a smile on my face. I love how they use fresh and good quality ingredients. The shrimp dumpling and bbq buns are my favorite. I like the new fried bean curd as well! It is crunchy and tasty! The owner Niki is super friendly too. i only been there twice and she already remember my name. Please come back to downtown Seattle and keep doing what you are doing!

Well whadaya know today they are offering a la carte options! Unfortunately the price point is still too much to justify making it part of my regular rotation of lunch trucks.

I don’t understand the other reviews, but that’s okay — every visit is different, like someone else said. I’ve visited Yi Dim Sum twice now in the past two weeks and each time, I’ve been impressed. I’ve had Bento A both times because I’m not a seafood fan — thank you for having one combo option that doesn’t include shrimp! Yuck!
The first Bento A was pork buns and dumplings, this time it was dumplings and rice noodles (though turnip cakes were an option instead of noodles). All OMG GOOD. The accompanying sauces are amazing and though the price was seem a bit steep, it’s Downtown Bellevue. Lunch under $ 15 is acceptable in my book.
Next time, I might do an ala carte thing — and I was happy to see that their menu seemed expanded from my last visit. Pork buns are a must and I really wished I’d seen that they had egg tarts before I’d completed my order… on the list for next time!
Keep coming back to Bellevue, guys! This stuff is great!

I’m honestly pretty sorry to have to do this because I really wanted to like this place. It’s cute and the food is gorgeous and the line was a mile long, so we thought it would be amazing.
We waited a while to get our food, it looked awesome, we walked around and found a place to sit, first big bite of the beef dumplings… second big bite… my friend and I looked at each other. «What is that?» «Does your mouth feel weird?»
After literally one dumpling my entire palate was wrecked. It tasted like someone accidentally dumped a cup of fennel seed in by accident. My tongue was numb and my mouth was buzzing, it was like eating a LICORICE potsticker.
But you know what, that is not even why I am giving them one star. It was confusing to taste this and then look at this clearly artfully, carefully made food. We thought for sure there must have just been a mistake, that someone just didn’t taste this batch. My friend had to go back to work so she gobbled it up, numb mouth and all and I walked back to the truck with a full plate.
To give them some helpful info, I thought. The gal taking orders was outside the truck so I quietly approached her so I didn’t bash them in front of other customers and asked her about the fennel. She told me she had «no idea what the food tasted like» oooookay.
She directed me to the 2 people in the truck. The guy said basically the same thing «uh, I dunno…» then directed me to the woman who is clearly in charge, I carefully asked her if she was aware that maybe this batch went awry. She stared blankly and was like, «Oh it’s the sauce, you don’t like it?»
Don’t like it? I ate one dumpling 20 minutes prior and my palate was still obliterated and overpowered with the flavor of licorice.
They offered me another dish, but unfortunately if you think that is a reasonable amount of fennel to put into a dish, I cannot trust you in the kitchen.
Thanks for the refund guys. I genuinely hope you will take this as it is intended — constructive criticism. I eat out quite a lot and cook as well, and I have a decent palate. Also, I’m totally happy to take my review down if you address it as I was hoping you would, by not telling me «maybe you don’t like that flavor» but by actually tasting the food and making sure it is palatable.

Editing to add: The owner contacted me about this review with a very thorough apology about my experience. It seems they were short-​handed and the cook noticed the problems which is why after my order the Bento A was gone. I appreciate the owner looking into it and I imagine that generally the other reviews are more indicative. So for now I’ll bump to 2 stars.
Sadly, while I wanted high-​end dim sum, I got a one star experience. Though I know some of this is to due mistakes, I feel it still warrants one star, as they never should have happened .You know when you mess up food that badly. It should never have been served, even if they had run out (I was the last person to get the Bento A).
My two types of dumplings were listed as a soup dumpling, and a pork dumpling, but what I received was cold and icy (literally, these must have been frozen) gyoza type dumplings in a cup with a thick sauce drizzled over, and a little broth in the bottom of the cup. I mean a little, not even a sip. We ate right there, so the icy dumplings hadn’t just cooled off, and they were actually colder than room temperature. I had to spit it out. The other dumplings were burned so badly they tasted like charcoal and made a firm loud thunk when you banged them on the metal table.
There is no way the cook didn’t know both of these items were horribly mis-​made, and serving them to me was absolutely rude. I actually had to spit out the ‘soup’ dumpling (not sure what makes this a soup dumpling, definitely no soup in mine. Or maybe I mixed up the two and the burned ones were the soup dumplings, and the soup boiled away while being cooked 10 x too long?
I don’t think I would have been impressed had these been made correctly though. I ate the meat from the burned ones and it really didn’t have a lot of flavor. The sauce on the soup dumplings was not to my taste at all and they were really just like plain, nothing special about them gyoza.
I suppose I should have gone back to the window, but it was a long day and I didn’t have a lot of time to wait in line to be the annoying complainer. I shouldn’t have had to complain — it really was at a level that never ever should have been served.
I actually got the last of Bento A – the people who ordered it after me were called up to the window later, after they paid, and asked if they would take Bento B instead. They were out of the egg tarts. We waited forever for our food then when I asked about mine, the reaction and nearly instant appearance of my food made me think they had forgotten. Another guy had waited longer as he was #11 and I was #14, and we both asked about and got our food at the same time. (About 15 – 20 min after ordering).
While my friend’s food was of correct temperatures and much better, it still seemed pricey for dim sum without matching the upgrade in price with an upgrade in flavors. I might be tempted to risk another bad experience if it weren’t so high-​priced.
I came hungry, I left hungry, next time setting fire to $ 12 might be more appropriate. Ultimately I had a $ 20 lunch today since I went to phở later.

Yi Dim Sum is a new food truck specializing in dim sum. The offerings here are more refined and upscale than what you would find in the International District. The owner has prior experience working in an Michelin-​starred Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong.
I caught this truck at the Night Market & Moon Fesitval event in the I-​District. The menu changes weekly and by season according to its website. At this event, they had two dumpling options and egg tarts. The dumplings were Szechuan beef dumplings and Shanghai pan fried pork buns (aka sheng jian bao). The latter which is sort of like a pan fried version of xiao long bao is what drew me here as up until recently it was practically non-​existent in the Seattle area. Though I believe Dough Zone in Bellevue now also has this.
I tried the Night Market special which was three sheng jian biao for $ 5. That may seem a little pricey, but consider how labor intensive it is to make dumplings and the ingredients used. They are also a little bigger than your normal dumpling.
I have had sheng jian bao before. Most notably at Kao Chi in Taipei and the ones here are quite good. Like xiao long bao, there is a little soup inside so you need to bite into it and suck the juices out. They also have an accompanying house chili sauce (hot or mild) that goes well with it. It resembles XO sauce to me and tastes very distinctly Chinese. Nothing like sriracha.
I am not sure when I will get to try this truck again given their weekly locations are not where I usually hang out. I do hope to see it at a food truck festival soon. If you are interested in trying dim sum offerings with a twist, check out Yi Dim Sum.

Found this new truck at the night market event last weekend. The line was LONG! But it was worth the wait! The Shanghai buns were so juicy but gotta be careful of the broth inside the bun, it was HOT. The beef dumplings were very interesting especially the chili sauce. Even the mild sauce makes my tongue and throat tingly numb. What an experience for my palate! The egg tart was awesome! Not too sweet and the crust was very flaky. And I’ve never had panna cotta before, it’s like pudding but creamier, quite interesting too. Can’t wait to see what other dim sum they’ll offer.

Experienced for the first time at Lincoln Executive Center 8÷19÷14.
Was excited to hear about a Dim Sum food truck since I would fancy myself to be quite the connoisseur but was a little saddened that the only option they had that day was a Bento that consisted of 3x pan fried soup buns, and 3x potstickers for $ 11.
«That’s not really a bento» I thought to myself, more like an appetizer at a restaurant. If it were a dimsum restaurant, it would be like ordering 2x large items at $ 5.50 each. I decided to give it a try anyways, the food came out fairly quickly since there was no line.
Presentation is nice, served on top of banana leaf that would collect any spilled juice or sauce as an intermediary between the compost-​able take out container, and finished with cilantro.
The potstickers were okay, out of 5 I would rate the potstickers a 3. Not bad, not good, not dry, not too bland, pan sear was good. The addition of kale wasn’t very noticeable, the filling wasn’t too substantial but not too meager either.
The pan fried soup dumpling was the real winner. Great sear, nice and crispy bottom. The soup inside was more substantial than I had expected. Even on the last one I ate, as I gingerly bit off a corner to sip the soup inside, it squirted across my face and chin (if that sounds like a bad thing, it isn’t. It’s a good thing: D) I would give these buns 4/​5, dropping a point because there was a substantial clump of dough that was slightly on the grainy side where the bun is pinched off. Some clumpier than the other. If they had a better consistent technique for closing off the buns it might reclaim .5 points. Having experienced highly rated soup buns /​dumplings from Shanghai and Taiwan, I would say this soup is slightly on the bland side, it doesn’t have that rich pork fat enhanced flavor that you might find at your typical street market.
If they add more to their menu, I would be more than happy to seek them out to try it. If I could give a 3.5 I would, but I’m just gonna round up to 4 for the afternoon delight soup facial. :D

First week of business, and even with some snafus, I think they’re doing pretty great! They say their menu will rotate so I’m looking forward to seeing what else they’ll be offering!
The food:
Skillet fried soup dumplings and pot stickers. The soup dumplings had some of the best soup I’ve ever tasted in dumplings and since they were pan-​fried instead of steamed, the skin was more hardy and easier to pick up and eat without worrying about the soup spilling everywhere. The pot stickers were pretty good too.
The service:
I went to the 5^th and Broad Food Truck pod (next to Ride the Ducks) at around 11:30 and there was no sign of the truck, even though they said they would be there at 11. However, I noticed two women who looked to be in discussion and a few minutes later, they moved some tables and their food truck pulled in!
Turns out they had some employees who got sick and had to call for back up, which was why they were late. But because we had been waiting, they told us to come back in ½ hour and they’d give us our meal for free. Totally worth it.