As my guest and I pulled into the parking lot of ABC Seafood & Dim Sum (2420 E. Arkansas Ln. Ste. 216, Arlington, 817-861-8818), the sad realization that Fort Worth is completely bereft of dim sum hit me like a dried squid. My hometown’s restaurant scene has grown leaps and bounds since I moved to Dallas a few years ago, but there’s a dim sum-sized hole in its culinary landscape.
My “Dallitude” can be a problem when I dine out in Tarrant County. I grew up in Cowtown, and I’ve spent a good part of my adult life returning home, but I don’t live here full-time. I enjoy the time-lapse view as neighborhoods change, trends come and go, and everything keeps getting bigger and, frankly, more like everywhere else. It’s always fun to play the “Guess what Fort Worth has now?” game, particularly when it comes to cuisines. Long gone are the days of my youth, when eating out in Fort Worth meant choosing between Luby’s and Mexican Inn. Still, if I want dim sum, it means a trip to the suburbs.
Dim sum is a feast of dumplings and small dishes served from rolling steamer carts. To the uninitiated, it can be an overwhelming, even terrifying event, a barrage of unfamiliar sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. It comes fast and it comes hard, and it can be a challenge to tell what you’re selecting at first –– nearly everything on offer presents as a beige ball of dough. Once the ice is broken, however, it is a dining experience like no other.
My guest and I made our way over to ABC’s cheerful, vibrant dining room on a recent Sunday afternoon. The place was about half-full with a friendly buzz. Dim sum is often a large-scale, family affair, and the majority of the floor is usually given over to round tables for eight or more diners, but ABC features plenty of smaller tables along the walls.
The atmosphere isn’t fancy, but it is clean, bright, and fresh. Tanks full of lobsters and crabs are utilitarian rather than decorative, but none of the occupants seemed particularly depressed. Our hostess was friendly and efficient, and in moments I had steaming pot or cup of chrysanthemum tea with rock sugar.
Then, the carts.
There are typically two to four portions per serving. At ABC, they range in price from $2.95 to $6.95 each, with most of our selections landing in the $4 to $5 range. The cart operators smiled their way through any language barrier, past any doubt. It’s hard to tell them no. Whatever looked interesting – and it all looks interesting – was the next course.
My all-time favorite is the cha siu bao ($3.50), or barbecued pork dumplings, prepared baked or steamed. ABC’s were some of the best I’ve had, not greasy, not gristly, and not too sweet. My companion preferred the har gow ($3.95), a steamed shrimp dumpling, light and tender. The seafood at ABC is uniformly excellent, fresh and never fishy. We both enjoyed the lo mai gai ($4.95), a lotus leaf wrapper stuffed with spiced sticky rice, Chinese pork sausage with Sichuan pepper, and shitake mushrooms. Another treat was the steamed Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce, prepared fresh to order.
Despite my prodding, my guest wasn’t down to try the phoenix claws, or steamed chicken feet ($3.95). And although they looked delicious, I wasn’t sure I could handle an entire, generously-portioned order by myself. It’s on my list for a return visit, along with the Lobster Fried Rice, a chthonic platter of carapaces, claws, and steam. It costs $59.95 and serves a family of six. We vowed to return with reinforcements.
There were a lot of things that looked delicious that we just didn’t get to on this visit: pan-fried pot stickers, egg custard, and a little round dumpling with what looked like a poached quail egg on top. Both of us, stuffed to the gills, were enthusiastic about a return trip. “Next time,” we repeated sadly as the carts rolled past.
ABC’s busy dining room was occupied by large, multi-generational families, with well-behaved, engaged children. I thought back to my first experience with dim sum when I was about eight years old, and remembered my sense of excitement and adventure. My friend and I considered bringing our siblings and their children with us next time.
It is certainly worth a trip to the outer boroughs until the day comes when Fort Worth has a dim sum restaurant to call its own. (To be perfectly fair, Dallas doesn’t have dim sum in the city proper either.) A bit of delayed gratification and anticipation adds to the adventure, and if it means I’ll arrive hungry, so much the better.
Hours:
Tue – Thu 11am – 10 pm
Friday 11am – 11pm
Saturday 10am – 11pm
Sunday 10am – 10pm
Monday Closed
(open on major holidays)
