Capital Cuisine: Dim Sum In Silver Spring Maryland

I love to go out and try a variety of different foods without having to spend a lot of money which means I love dim sum. Sometimes I just get this awful craving for a good pork bun and it just won't go away. There really isn't any way to satisfy that craving without searching out some dim sum so when I had this craving and my friend suggested a group outing to Oriental East in Silver Spring I was all on board. Now there is one thing you really really need to know and stick to when you go to Oriental East on weekends for their dimsum lunch-arrive before 11! I don't care what you need to do to get there by that time but get your ass in the door before 11 or you will be stuck waiting an hour and a half for a mediocore (but unquestionably cheap) dim sum meal. Sigh. Unfortunately that happened to me. My ride was late so we arrived after 11 and they were handing out paper slips with numbers to people who came in and let me tell you it took an hour before any numbers were called-at all.

On the plus side Oriental East has fabulous pork buns and I mean fabulous. The bun itself had just the right texture and the bbq pork filling was sweet yet savory. Please stay away from the sausage buns though-Justin whole heartedly agreed with me that these tasted like cat food. The sweet buns were quite nice andI couldn't even get near the little custard egg pies because they would be gone before the cart reached our table. Service was incredibly slow and there wasn't much variety on them. The shrimp dumplings were barely edible (no one wanted to finish them though). The wide rice noodles with brown sauce were a favorite and crispy fried pillows of dough filled with shrimp weren't half bad. If I were to go back I would do it on a week day-I never thought I would opt for going to a dim sum place when they are less busy. Usually you want to go to a dim sum place when it is crowded for more variety and freshness but this is not the case with Oriental East. Everyone one should still be happy when you get the check though-it is a good deal but then again not worth the wait.