Cost: About $10-$15 per person. Dim sum orders range from $2.10-$3.70; most contain two or three pieces.
The scene: Located steps from Argyle Street, Furama is the odd Chinese restaurant amid a confluence of Vietnamese restaurants and shops. But this family-run spot must be doing something right: It’s been at the same Uptown location for 23 years, a pair of gilded lions quietly guarding the front entrance. Walk past the requisite display window filled with molded plastic food, past the murky lobster tank and into the red-and-black lacquered space beyond. There, you’ll find a buzzing dining room filled with multigenerational Chinese-American families—plus a smattering of North Siders who’ve discovered there’s no need to trek to Chinatown for dim sum when they can get the real deal so close to home.
The cuisine: Furama offers a full menu of Chinese favorites, from lo mein to egg foo young, but on weekend mornings, it’s all about dim sum. Friendly, helpful servers push well-worn carts through the aisles so you can snatch up whatever catches your eye. We nearly jumped out of our seats for the little pockets of sticky mochi rice and ground pork wrapped in banana leaves ($3.70); and the fried shrimp balls, a tangle of thin noodles wound around tiny seafood dumplings and fried to a crispy golden brown ($2.35). All of the usual dim sum suspects glide past on trolleys too. Watch for barbecue pork buns ($2.10), shrimp fun rolls ($2.35) and chicken siu mai ($2.35), and be sure to save room for something sweet. Our favorite finish to a dim sum feast: sesame balls ($2.35), those spongy spheres of bean paste-filled rice-flour dough, fried and rolled in sesame seeds.
Better than a bloody mary? An icy lychee freeze ($2.95) makes a perfect palate cleanser.
The wait: None
Loved it: Our giant red bean-coconut shake ($3.45) was almost a meal in itself, but we could hardly put it down.
Hated it: The tepid wonton soup lacked flavor—but for $2.35, we’re not really complaining.
M. Kathleen Pratt is the Metromix print editor. kpratt@tribune.com
