Pensacola's new Chinese restaurant debuts 39 item dim sum menu

Pensacola’s newest Chinse restaurant, New Hong Kong House, located at 5912 N. Davis Highway Suite C, is hoping to bring the real-deal Chinese cooking to the Cordova area. The New Hong Kong House will replace Bang Bang Sushi under new ownership, which opened in January.

The restaurant will feature Pensacola’s first dim sum menu, which is a traditional Chinese meal made up of smaller plates typically eaten during lunch hours.

As the cart rolls around the restaurant, diners can decide which items they want to pull off to taste.

“We just want to be authentic to the Asian community, we want to make sure that we're offering them something that makes them feel comfortable and like a comfort food. Then we also want to bring in the Americans and let them try things that they may not typically try or may not be offered in most places here in Pensacola,” Assistant Manager Heather Brown said.

The specialty 39-item dim sum menu which will be served at New Hong Kong House all day is full of hidden treasures. Some of the signature options starting at $4.99 and ranging to $10.99, being the barbecue pork buns, shrimp dumplings and cucumber salad, with some of the more filling options being the chicken feet, braised beef or steamed scallops with rice noodles.

“I expect the dim sum to be the number one thing that people are probably going to talk about and request just because it's not done here (in Pensacola,)” Brown said. “For us Americans, we would look at it as a kind of like an a la carte thing. But for them, it's just a very common way for them to do restaurants over there they have a lot of restaurants are just that.”

Diners can either start off with dim sum or assemble an entire meal.

“Some people will come in and they'll start with the dim sum. They'll get a few items off of it, like appetizers and stuff, and then they'll order off the menu for like their entrée. Now, I also have had people come in and do just the dim sum,” Brown said.

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However, the traditional aspect doesn’t stop there, but there also a variety of entrees to choose from that are everyday items in China but more difficult to find in Pensacola, such as fish belly or jellyfish salad. Many of the plates are meant to be shared around the table.

“We've got a couple of soups that are humongous. When I bring it out, I bring it out with serving utensils and bowls because it could feed a table of six to probably ten people,” Brown said.

The dine-in dishes are artfully decorated, like the steamed scallops with rice noodles or a full ginger green onion lobster.

But for those looking for a lunch to-go, the $12.50 bento boxes, served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., are filled with familiar favorites like orange chicken, mushroom chicken and beef and broccoli to choose from and include rice, spring roll, kimchi and egg drop soup.

Brown said the menu is intended to have something for everyone.

“So we're trying to cater to everyone. We want the Chinese community that we have here, which is actually a very big community... But we want to make sure we're catering to them. We want to do them justice. We want to make sure that the food we're offering is something that they would truly make at home or get if they were at home in China or Japan or wherever. But at the same time, we also want to offer that experience to the Americans...but also the things that are familiar."

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. from Friday through Saturday.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: New Hong Kong House brings Chinese dim sum menu to Pensacola