Westchester Breakfast Club

Aberdeen
3 Barker Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601 (Map it!)

Attendees: Shelley, Sylvia, a bunch of other people.

Shelley

Another Chinese New Year has arrived. This year the WBC ventured out on a rainy February afternoon to Aberdeen in White Plains. On the surface, Aberdeen has a couple of factors that might make someone question whether it could really serve authentic dim sum. First of all, “Aberdeen” sounds more like the name of an Irish pub than a Chinese restaurant. (And I’ve repeatedly had to correct my spelling because every time I try to type the name of the restaurant I type “Abderdeen” instead. Who knows why.) Second, it’s located on the ground floor of the Marriott Residence Inn.

But don’t let appearances fool you. Aberdeen does in fact serve up a tasty and fairly authentic dim sum, and on this early Saturday afternoon the restaurant was full.

You all, I’m sure, know the dim sum routine. Servers walk by with carts filled with various dishes, you pick and choose what you want. At Aberdeen, there was only one cart being pushed around at a time, providing an overall calmer, albeit slower, dim sum experience than the one we had last year at Central Seafood. As far as decor, there is none at Aberdeen, save for the large gold front door. We were seated in the back dining area of the restaurant, in which there is dull lighting, unadorned grayish white walls, and no windows.

We started off with a couple of dumplings: a beef dumpling, a pork shumai, and a bean curd dumpling. Of these three, I sampled only the pork shumai, which was good. It was steamed, thus giving it a delicate appearance and taste. The pork inside was soft and the dumpling on the outside was not too doughy. It wasn’t especially flavorful, though, but at least it wasn’t greasy.

Next up for me was a chive dumpling, which was a combination of chives and some other green vegetable mixed with pieces of shrimp, encased in a light, transparent dumpling casing. This was more flavorful than the pork shumai and I thought the transparency of the dumpling made the food visually appealing.

At around this point Jeffrey and Sylvia ordered up a helping of chicken feet for the table. I passed on these last year, and I passed on them again this year. And I guess I wasn’t missing much, because Jeff and Sylvia both agreed that these were not the best chicken feet they’ve ever had. (Although, I think I wouldn’t be too eager to try good chicken feet either.) I also passed on the beef tripe.

I spotted a plate of noodles on a passing cart; noodles being right up my alley, we got a dish for the table. The noodles were very thin and delicate (which seems to be the word of the day in this review), mixed with carrots, sprouts, and some mushrooms. I filled up on the noodles.

I had my heart set on some golden brown baked pork buns. Alas, there were no more baked pork buns this afternoon, so I settled for some steamed pork buns. They just weren’t the same as the baked. Yes, the pork filling was the same, but I personally don’t care for the white doughyness of the steamed buns. Eating the steamed pork bun was kind of like eating a non-sweet marshmallow with pork on the inside. It was so doughy that I kept pushing it with my finger, expecting the bun to emit a “woo-hoo” like the Pilsbury Dough Boy. To my disappointment, my pork bun remained silent.

For dessert we got egg custard tarts and pineapple buns. The latter apparently has no pineapples in it and is just called this because some people would say it resembles a pineapple. I didn’t see the resemblance. Names aside, it was tasty. It was custard inside a warm, sweet, soft pastry. It reminded me of those Pilsbury cinnamon buns (no, despite the apparent product placement, Pilsbury is not a sponsor of the WBC), and I mean that as a compliment. This was filling enough that I didn’t have an egg custard tart, nor did I have any of the white jello-type dish with which we concluded the meal.

We had a Groupon for Aberdeen, which shaved $12 off our bill. Factoring in that discount, our total bill came to about $43. Not too shabby, and the four of us got our fill of dim sum. As I said, I personally liked that Aberdeen was less frenetic than Central Seafood. And Abderdeen is good for dim sum newcomers because they provide you with a menu that has the names and photos of the various dishes. Very helpful. I found the quality of the food at Aberdeen to be quite good. The ingredients all seemed very fresh, all the food arrived hot. The servers were quick with water refills, and they seemed to be patient with us as we hemmed and hawed over some of our food decisions. In the White Plains area, Aberdeen seems a perfectly fine spot at which to give dim sum a try.

Sylvia

Gong Hai Fat Choi (Happy New Year!) from the WBC! To celebrate, we once again gave the typical Chinese brunch, Dim Sum, a try. As you may remember, last year for Chinese New Year we ventured over to Central Seafood for our new year’s dim sum celebration.

This year, we decided to give the other Dim Sum place in Westchester a try. Aberdeen is located in the lobby of the Marriott Residence Inn in downtown White Plains. A bit hidden, it boasts authentic Cantonese cooking and an authentic dim sum experience. My family and I have been here multiple times for dim sum, lunch, and dinner, but it has been awhile since our last visit.

Since it was Chinese New Year weekend, I was imagining large crowds and a long wait on this rainy Saturday afternoon. I was pretty surprised (and thankful, since I was really hungry) that the wait was only about 10 minutes. We were promptly seated and water was poured. Tea came after I had to ask for it; generally, tea should arrive promptly after seating, and no need to ask. (And that did seem to be the case at other tables.) Then came the single dim sum cart.

The typical authentic dim sum is pushed around in carts by people shouting what they are pushing around. Here, there was one cart, and multiple people carrying stuff on trays going from table to table offering their goods. The selection at Aberdeen is pared down to the more popular and not so exotic dishes. We were able to fill up our table pretty quickly.

The quality of the food was okay. Of the most exotic dishes offered, the chicken feet weren’t the greatest, and the sauce left a gummy kind of texture on it. The tripe was a little too chewy and also lukewarm, which probably led to the not-so-pleasant texture. The shrimp and vegetable steamed rice dumpling was decent, but the dumpling skin was mushy and thick. Other items that were tried were good. The pineapple bun filled with egg custard was good, even though the egg custard filling was overly sweet. The rice noodle wrapped around a beef filling was good as well. The tofu dessert was a nice way to end the meal since it was light and refreshing, albeit a bit stingy with the fruit cocktail topping. There was one particular item available off menu, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it was called, so alas, being a little shy, I did not venture to ask for it. It was fried dough wrapped in a rice noodle, one of my favorites when it comes to dim sum. Shoulda woulda coulda…

We had decided to go to Aberdeen at the beginning of the week, and lucky for us, Groupon had a coupon deal for $12 for $25 worth of food at the restaurant. It definitely helped soften the blow to the wallets.

The czar says: Aberdeen offers dim sum every day up until 3pm (double check that!), which is nice if you’re looking for an alternative to a snack and coffee at Starbucks. It is also good for dim sum newbies since the restaurant has photos on the menu of the offerings, and the staff offers a pretty decent description in English. But, for the weekend crowd, I do prefer Central Seafood for the variety, quality and price of their dim sum as well as the free parking.

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