I’ve never tried dim sum before in Nashville. The fact that it even existed here was a bit of a surprise for me. I’ve realized that going in to a meal here with expectations can be a bad thing; it’s better to expect the worse and hope for the best, right? Seeing that Ouyang House is mainly a sushi and Asian food buffet dampened any hope, however.
We were whisked to a side of the buffet that was divided from everything else. It was a completely different atmosphere in this section: people weren’t glomming up food, picking out only the shrimp and beef from vats of food. The room was calm, lacking the hustle and bustle of dim sum restaurants in largely Asian areas. There was only one waitress pushing a cart offering a rather limited selection of dishes. And in the corner was a little mini buffet within the buffet full of fried dim sum. Except the food probably wasn’t kept at 140 degrees, and there was definitely no sneeze guard. I don’t know how long the food had been sitting there, but you know what? Even after spending an afternoon doing health inspections at restaurants a few weeks ago, I’m not phased by the lack of precautions for my health. I already destroyed my innards with Prince’s Hot Chicken; eating this would be a vacation for my gastrointestinal tract.
Like I said before, the menu is pretty limited. They also have a menu with Chinese dishes, but we held off on that this time. Today was a day for dim sum and only dim sum. It was also a day for in-your-face pictures, apparently. I need to learn how to take better photos.
Fried taro dumplings filled with bits of meat and bamboo shoots. After a summer of drinking taro slushes, I’ve been experiencing taro withdrawals. This was tasty but greasy. It was still one of the winners at this place, though.
Stuffed tofu skin = good. I heart tofu skin.
Har gow/shrimp dumplings. The skin is way too thick and the filling is like half a shrimp. The dumplings were small, too. FAIL.
Shiu mai/pork dumplings. Meaty, but not much else. The skin didn’t look fresh at all. At this point, I began wondering if they had someone making all these dishes or if they were bought frozen and premade.
Chang fen/shrimp in rice wrapper. This was decent.
Glutinous rice powder covered in sesame seeds and filled with red bean. I don’t know the Chinese name, but the lenghty description is similar in length to the name on the menu. Like many of their other dishes, the skin is too thick and the filling is skimped. It tasted good, though, just above the level of fail.
Dan ta/egg tarts. These were warm from sitting on the griddles for who knows how long. They were a little small, but I’m a fan of warm pies and warm tarts, so I can’t complain.
As for the rest, here’s a quick summary: 1. they don’t use real tea leaves, so don’t bother getting tea 2. there’s no service (I had to walk up to get my dim sum) 3. they don’t know what low-sodium soy sauce is so don’t bother (I don’t use soy sauce on dim sum anyway) 4. it’s not cheap, but what can you do when you have a monopoly?
I’ll probably go back again for their Chinese menu, but since it’s all the way on Nolensville, it’ll be a while.
Ouyang House 4523 Nolensville Pike Nashville, TN (615) 834-9989
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