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Hei La Moon

April 22, 2010 by Jennifer Che 12 Comments

Shrimp and Leek Dumplings
I grew up in northwestern Ohio, where there really wasn’t much Chinese food available. At most, we had our share of not-so-authentic Chinese buffets and Chinese take-out joints. In fact, my resourceful mom learned how to make all sorts of Chinese/Taiwanese specialties from scratch at home because she had no access to these dishes locally.

One of my favorite food memories growing up was our road trips to Windsor, Canada. Only an hour’s drive away, Windsor was a totally different world.  Windsor was filled with Chinese food. Chinese dim sum, Chinese supermarkets, Chinese bakeries. Dim sum was always a treat, and such a fun experience for a kid!  Imagine it: waitresses pushing around carts full of delectable steamed buns, shrimp dumplings, and fried taro balls.  The excitement of being able to pick what you wanted to eat from the cart.  And every single dish being so delicious, so much better than anything we could get in northwestern Ohio. Oh, I loved it. We always finished with a stop to a Chinese grocery store, and of course, the Chinese bakery.

Going to Hei La Moon this weekend totally brought back those memories. You definitely get the authentic experience at Hei La Moon, complete with the big round tables, harried waitresses pushing carts around, and a sea full of Chinese people.
Hei La Moon
Case in point: if the place is completely packed with Chinese people, odds are that the food is pretty good.
Dim sum cart ladies
I love being able to pick out my food from carts being wheeled around.  It’s such a fun experience!
Dim sum cart
Here is a dish full of fried stuff! One of my favorites is the deep fried sesame mochi ball (lower left corner).  Chewy, sweet, and totally satisfying!
HeilaMoon1-1
We got a bunch of things, and all of them were quite tasty. A lot of dim sum dishes have either shrimp or pork. If you don’t eat one or both of these meats, you might have a hard time finding food to eat. One of my favorite dim sum items is Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll shown in the upper left photo (chang-fen). I have always loved the texture of rice noodles and the flavor of the brown sauce, which is like a slightly sweetened soy sauce mixed with oil.  Pork and Mushroom Dumplings (shumai)  is also a classic (lower left), as are BBQ Pork Buns (char siu bao) shown on the lower right.
HeilaMoon2-2
Shrimp Dumplings (har gao) are another must-get if you have dim sum. I personally liked the Shrimp and Leek Dumpling (lower right) a lot too.  Spareribs (lower left) are another classic.
HeilaMoon3-3
For the brave, you can try Chicken Feet (left) or Tripe (cow stomach – right). Although I can eat chicken feet, I don’t particularly enjoy it. The flavors are great, but I just don’t love the texture of stewed chicken skin, which is essentially what you are eating. I do love tripe, and I thought it was very good here.
Stir Fried Vermicelli
We got some Pan Fried Vermicelli to balance out all the meat we had.  I thought this was only average.
Egg tarts
Of course, you have to end with a dim sum classic, Chinese Egg Tarts!  I love these, and have even tried making my own, although I must admit that the restaurant ones were much better (probably because they use lard for the crust!)!

Overall Thoughts
Having had Chinese food in both LA and all throughout Asia, Bryan and I both still agree that Boston is not yet up to par as these other places when it comes to Chinese food. Nevertheless, I think the food at Hei La Moon is very good, and it’s probably one of the best, if not the best, dim sum place in Boston. The experience is totally authentic. They have the huge round tables (which means you might share a table with strangers), great cart action, really good food, and the festive atmosphere of a true dim sum restaurant. I was surprised that I did not see some dishes that I typically see (e.g., fried taro balls, turnip cake) but I think it’s because we arrived a bit later (1:30PM) and dim sum was winding down by then. It’s best to go early, like around 11AM, to really see the action!

If you’ve never had dim sum before, I would highly recommend trying it. It’s a really unique and fun experience, and I think Hei La Moon is a great choice!

Prices & Parking
At the beginning of the meal you receive a sheet of paper that waitresses stamps every time they give you food off of the cart. Prices were quite reasonable. I think we paid $12 a person total (including tax and tip) for the meal shown in this post (6 people for all that food). There is parking in a garage right above the building. You pay in full first ($11) and then you pay Hei La Moon $6 to get it validated. You then bring the ticket back to the garage attendant for a full refund. The parking garage is a little confusing. There are a lot of tandem spots. You can park in them as long as you give your car key to the attendant.

There is also a pretty good Chinese supermarket, C-Mart, attached to the same building. It’s great to go there after lunch because you have validated parking already!

Hei La Moon
Chinatown
88 Beach St
Boston, MA 02111
Hei la Moon on Urbanspoon
————————————
Teflon Pan Giveaway
By the way, it’s still not too late to enter the Teflon Pan Giveaway. This is a 10-inch Tramontina nonstick pan with Teflon Platinum technology, which can withstand use with metal utensils! Drawing will occur at Thursday, April 22, 2010 at midnight. Good luck!

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Filed Under: Boston, Restaurant, Review Tagged With: Chinese

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Comments

  1. joyosity says

    April 22, 2010 at 9:14 am

    For whatever reason, they almost never have the fried turnip cakes anymore. =(

    Hei La Moon is definitely my go-to dim sum place in Boston because it is large enough to seat large parties and the parking is a little easier than the rest of Chinatown….

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  2. carolynjung says

    April 22, 2010 at 8:35 pm

    You have me craving dumplings now, what with those great photos. That’s surprising Boston’s dim sum isn’t quite up to par yet. Let’s hope it continues to improve in the near future.

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  3. Katrina says

    April 22, 2010 at 9:10 pm

    Hei La Moon is definitely my fave dim sum in Boston! I love it!!!

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  4. Lisa says

    April 23, 2010 at 11:53 am

    aww, i thought you were going to teach us how to make that shrimp leek dumpling.

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  5. Janice says

    April 23, 2010 at 7:00 pm

    It’s funny that I grew up in Windsor and never thought of the city as having lots of Chinese restaurants and bakeries! I believe one of the only Chinese bakeries closed years ago. One only needs to go to a larger city such as Toronto to really get a taste of China.

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  6. Eva Chan says

    April 1, 2011 at 9:46 am

    Going through your older posts, I came across this one. Interestingly enough, this is where my brother had his wedding banquet a few weeks ago. My folks ordered dim sum for the at home family lunch before the evening banquet. Then the following day, we had a more intimate (2 tables) dim sum brunch/lunch with some family. Having grown up in Boston, it’s hard to imagine that there used to be a Chinese movie theatre there in the 70’s!!

    P.S., I’ll send you a link to my Flickr set which includes pics of most of the dishes we had at the banquet. 🙂

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  7. Erick Moy says

    August 27, 2013 at 5:14 pm

    I suggest you review Hei La Moon for dinner! Totally different dishes to try than dim sum.

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  8. Jennifer Che says

    August 27, 2013 at 11:35 pm

    Thanks! I’ve never been there for dinner. I guess I’m always having dumplings or Taiwanese food when I’m in Chinatown, hee hee. I’ll try to remember to keep it in mind next time. Any suggestions for favorite dishes?

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  9. Erick Moy says

    August 28, 2013 at 12:41 am

    It’s actually been awhile since we’ve been there! I remember it being good, but thought it would be nice to see a review on it to compare to a place like Joyful Garden.

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Trackbacks

  1. Winsor Dim Sum Cafe - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
    May 4, 2016 at 8:42 am

    […] I hear two places mentioned. One is Hei La Moon, a huge, bustling two-story restaurant in Chinatown that serves dim sum the tradition way, where […]

    Log in to Reply
  2. Jen's Top Restaurants in Boston says:
    November 14, 2017 at 9:47 pm

    […] House, and  Dumpling Cafe. For Cantonese fare, we also enjoy Peach Farm, Winsor Cafe, and Hei La Moon. In Cambridge, Dumpling House, whose menu is quite similar to Gourmet Dumpling House, is also very […]

    Log in to Reply
  3. Jen's Top Restaurants to visit in Boston - 2017 update - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
    December 21, 2017 at 2:13 am

    […] House, and  Dumpling Cafe. For Cantonese fare, we also enjoy Peach Farm, Winsor Dim Sum Cafe, and Hei La Moon. In Cambridge, Dumpling House, whose menu is quite similar to Gourmet Dumpling House, is also very […]

    Log in to Reply

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Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
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