How To Cut The Line At A Michelin-Star Restaurant
Tim Ho Wan, the international Chinese dim sum chain with the world’s least expensive Michelin-starred menu, has arrived in the East Village, and every weekend since it opened in December, desperate eaters slog their way through two-to-three-hour lines because some French dude is apparently most qualified to review Cantonese food.
But I have to admit the place is pretty good.
As a Jewish potbelly pig owner, on the rare occasions I do eat pork, I nibble the way Squidward did when he tried his first Krabby Patty. But after breaking through the sugary crust of one the restaurant’s signature pork buns, the succulent and saucy juices of a long-lost relative of one of my boyhood pets oozing between my teeth, I forgot who I was. I came back the next day and ordered three more (sorry, Henry and Arnold).
The menu is basically the same as any grand dim sum hall in Chinatown (shrimp dumplings, minced beef rice noodles, sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf). But in contrast to places like Jing Fong or The Golden Unicorn, where hundreds of customers compete for the attention of servers wheeling carts filled with mass quantities of pre-made globs of MSG, Tim Ho Wan’s “farm-to-table” ingredients enhance made-to-order dishes discernibly.
“The product that you order in the daytime is exactly the same as the product you get at night,” explained manager Tony Chan.
The daily priority of Chan’s job is quality assurance. While most restaurant managers station themselves in the dining room, Chan spends most of his time behind the standing-room bar that overlooks the open-air kitchen. He vigilantly inspects each steaming bamboo tray before it’s brought to a customer and samples food at least once every hour to “make sure it’s up to par.”
“The food is insanely great,” said Helen Greenberg, 55, a former NYU graduate who began eating at the restaurant just last month, but has already made several visits. “At other places it just sits in the cart.”
According to its yelp review page, the average price per person at Tim Ho Wan is only $11–30. During my first visit, our group of four was sufficiently after about $50 of food, roughly $15 each with a healthy tip. The next day, a Saturday, I racked up a $30 bill eating alone at the bar, a bargain considering my leftovers lasted me through the rest of the weekend.
“I think in terms of the quality that you’re getting, it’s more than fair,” said Garcia, 27, who’s eaten at Tim Ho Wan multiple times since it opened. “If you come with four friends, you can try everything on the menu for $20 each.”
The wait time seems fucking brutal until you realize how to cut the line. One newly hired employee, who requested she remain anonymous, said about half of prospective diners are unwilling to wait during weekend peak hours. Some people who give their name and number to the hostess, leave the restaurant and return once their table is ready. Virtually no one stays and waits at the restaurant, but a savvy few have discovered the value of this technique.
“You only really have to wait for the bar [for about] 15 minutes,” said Alessa Raiford, 18, an NYU student from Hong Kong, where the original Tim Ho Wan opened in 2009, who knew the restaurant’s legend long before it arrived in New York.
Raiford first ate at the East Village location during its soft opening in December, and after a few visits realized she sat down more quickly when she stayed inside the restaurant near the hostess. On a recent Saturday, when the line was an estimated two-and-a-half hours, she and a friend were seated at a table in less than 20 minutes.
Tim Ho Wan’s decor, with its wood-paneled walls and hanging light fixtures, favors a sleek modern aesthetic over maximizing dining capacity. However, as the same anonymous employee explained, the restaurant tries to fill every table in the 60-seat space at all times. People predictably succumb to their appetites and often fail to return when their names are called. Customers who are already waiting at the restaurant have priority to fill the unexpectedly vacant four-tops.
Even fewer customers also seem to realize that the standing-room bar is available much more quickly than a table.
“If you come with a party of four it’s going to take longer,” said Elon Dershowitz, 55, who estimated he eats at Tim Ho Wan one-to-three times per week. “I would always come with a party of one or two or stand.”
But despite the acclaim, some feel their experience wasn’t worth the wait.
Marco de Souza, a 19-year-old sophomore studying English, first heard about the restaurant through social media. “People that I know from NYU that I follow on Instagram, more than one person had posted about the food here,” he said, admitting that “the restaurant’s popular items aren’t as good as I thought they’d be.”
“Everything seemed a bit squishy,” said Dan Hickey, 19, also a sophomore studying Music Business, who had only eaten dim sum once before. “I don’t know if that’s just the nature of the food or just the restaurant itself.”
Even Garcia concedes that the restaurant’s popularity may be due to trendiness rather than taste.
“It’s kind of like the Shake Shack of dim sum,” said Garcia. “When Shake Shack opened everybody was like, ‘it’s the best burger in New York.’ I don’t know if it’s the best dim sum, but it’s pretty good.”
