Title: Daimo in Richmond, CA, update lunch
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

Daimo Chinese (dim sum) in Richmond, CA – update, lunch
Review date: October 2012
(previous review appended below)

After having a good dim sum at Saigon last week, we thought it was time to return to Daimo for a comparison. 

Dim sum is an "order-off-the-menu" here on weekdays. It's a little confusing because some of the dim sum, such as the Shanghainese xiao long bao are on a different page, with the roasted meats on yet another page.

Everything came hot and fresh, and was very good except for the xiao and the roast duck. Daimo's xiao long bao are just not up to the gold standard of Shanghai Dumpling King/SF. They don't taste right (more like ground chicken than ground pork), they're not juicy enough, and the dough is too thick and gummy. 

We were very impressed by the roast duck at Saigon. It was certainly far superior to the duck Daimo gave us. We don't remember it being so godawful salty before. Even Carlos found it unpleasant, salty to the point of bitterness.

It's a tie between Daimo and Saigon. The dim sum is just a bit different from one another, and your choice of which one is best will depend on what items you like best.

But stay away from Daimo's roast duck. That was just way, way over the top. Plus, Saigon uses a superior quality duck, with better breast meat.

Two people, lunch: $51

Daimo in Richmond, CA – update lunch (dim sum)
Review date: February 2012

We stopped in to have a dim sum lunch at Daimo in the 99 Ranch Mall. We were surprised to see a sizable crowd inside. All the other times we have come during a weekday lunch it has been mostly empty.

The dim sum tasted a little different. I loved the lo bak ko, the fried turnip cake. It had the more delicate consistency (less rice flour in proportion to the grated turnip) I like, and used chopped roast pork instead of the more common BBQ pork, char siu. Carlos, however, didn't care for it, preferring the traditional, more solid version.

We both liked the steamed rice noodle rolls with prawns (har cheong fun), but this time the shrimp had a delicate toasted garlic flavor although there were no obvious pieces of garlic in it. The shrimp also weren't oversalted, as they sometimes are at other restaurants. "Salt whipping" is a technique used in Chinese cooking to 'freshen up' the shrimp, but at some places it tastes as if they do it but then forget to rinse off the excess salt! Daimo's shrimp were juicy, sweet, and perfect.

The har gow, shrimp dumplings, were fine. We ordered a starter plate of the roast pork – again, this is the crispy-skinned plain roast pork (the Chinese version of lechon), not the red-glazed lengths of pork shoulder used for char siu. Once more, I liked it more than Carlos did. I find this type of deli roast pork almost invariably overcooked and dry. Daimo's version had a thinner crispy skin layer, less fat, and the meat was still juicy – a more Americanized roast pork, if you will. 

Daimo's version of deep-fried stuffed wontons is called shiu kau, and uses a mixture of pork, shrimp, and shredded cloud-ear fungus. We didn't care for the filling very much, and agreed we prefer the traditional pork and water chestnut filling. Also, the frying oil tasted on the old side.

It should be noted that the servings at Daimo are somewhat larger than most places, so we ended up taking a couple of containers of leftovers home. BTW, just like Skates/Berkeley, we were given a couple of boxes to pack up our leftovers, but since Daimo is half the cost of Skates this was a lot more appropriate.

Overall we find this so far the best of a mediocre bunch of Alameda County dim sum places, and will try coming back for dinner to see how the regular food is.

Two people: Six dishes with tip (and cheerful service) was $58.

Daimo in Richmond, CA, update lunch
Review date: August 2011
(previous review, below)

Carlos and I went for dim sum again to this restaurant, which gets very mixed reviews on Yelp. This is mostly because of their service, which is all too often a weak point with Asian restaurants (except for Japanese and Thai, usually). 

But weekdays, at least, the service is adequate and the dim sum certainly comes out hot and fresh, something that's almost impossible to find on a weekend when most of the crowds come in. We started with our favorite, pan-fried turnip cake, lo bak ko, and once again found it very good – tender, chock-full of diced barbecued pork and dried shrimp. Carlos likes it fried a little crustier, but that's a personal preference and almost no restaurant satisfies him on this point. 

The ha cheung fun, steamed rice roll with shrimp, is nicely prepared. But the scallop roll, an identical preparation, was sabotaged by insufficient chopped scallops and too much green onion, which became all one could taste. The har gow, steamed shrimp dumplings, and siu mai, shrimp and pork dumplings, were excellent.

The one dish Carlos didn't care for was the crispy chicken wings. He didn't care for the flavor of these, so we brought them home for Inez to eat for lunch.

This isn't the best dim sum place – Tri-Valley Seafood in Pleasanton rates higher with us (which is now called Lee’s Garden, BTW) – but it's decent, especially if you can make it in during the week when the food is really fresh and the place is almost empty.

Lunch for the two of us was a reasonable $42 with tip.

Daimo
Pacific East Shopping Mall (99 Ranch), 3288 Pierce Street. Richmond, CA
http://daimousa.com/appetizers.html
Review date: February 2011

Daimo has been around for years in what is popularly known as the 99 Ranch Mall, an Asian mall with one main building housing most of the businesses, and one small separate building that holds Daimo. 99 Ranch, a California chain, runs large Asian supermarkets with full service bakery, fish, deli and frozen/canned foods for all kinds of Asian cooking. In this particular mall, the supermarket is surrounded by restaurants, cafes, and small specialty stores. As a result, the mall is a popular place with both Asians and Caucasians, and even with a large parking lot, it's a madhouse on the weekends.

We have eaten at a couple of the restaurants here, and it's a mixed bag. We detested Asian Pearl dim sum, and 168 was a greasy spoon except for a magnificent Szechuan green beans dish. But we like a couple of Shanghainese dishes at Sichuan Fusion and regularly visit there for our 'fix.'

Quite a few years ago we had tried Daimo but not been terribly impressed with it. However, the sheer longevity of its survival in this mall is impressive – several restaurants have come and gone – and on a recent trip we noticed they now serve dim sum. So we decided to try them again. 

On weekdays, at least, you order from a menu. There's a limited number of dim sum, but they have all the popular ones. As Carlos and I were by ourselves, we contented ourselves with just the basics we like – the steamed shrimp dumplings (har gow), steamed shrimp-pork dumplings (siu mai), steamed rice noodle with shrimp, and fried turnip cake (lo bak ko). All were quite good; the lo bak ko, especially, was a generous size and freshly fried with a good crust. 

We also ordered the Shanghai steamed pork dumplings (sil lum bao), which were not as successful. These are our favorite dumplings, but other restaurants, including Sichuan Fusion and Shanghai Dumpling House/San Francisco, do a better job. Even Himalayan Flavors/Berkeley's chicken mo-mo's rank higher than Daimo's traditional pork version.

Still, the food was tasty and servings generous, and so far we'd rank this well above some of the other dim sum places we've tried in Oakland and the El Cerrito/Richmond area.

We also got an order of Chinese broccoli (gai lan) to go, as we needed a veggie for dinnertime at home. We liked this place, so we'll be back. Seven plates of dim dum (the rice noodle was a double order) with tip were a moderate $40.