I only visited once so I don’t think I’m ready to really review the new Boke Bowl dim sum service, which is only a month or so old at this point. However, I thought I’d share a few photos of what some of the possible offerings you would see. Dim Sum is only available at the Boke Bowl West location, which is at 1200 NW 18th (cross street is Northrup, right along the trolley line), and is only served from 11 AM – 3 PM on Saturday and Sundays.

Although dim sum is available, you can also still choose to order from their regular ramen menu and such as well. For a winter special they are offering a duck ramen (which you see here with the add in of fried chicken and their orange dot sauce, a pickled mustard seed in aioli base) and they have a vegetarian ramen option with Caramelized fennel dashi and add in of brined smoked tofu).
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If you haven’t experienced Boke ramen yet, I think it is very tasty especially if you want to take a vegetarian and if you are ok and even want to try a fusion style that is not traditional ramen in any way and set your expectations accordingly. For instance, I always always get the fried chicken add in, not just for the chicken protein but to add the ODS sauce flavor to the bowl.

Reservations and take out are not available for dim sum- and just like most dim sum service, there are carts (two that I saw) that are wheeled around the dining space and as you select from what they have, there may be more replenished into the cart at any time.

The food plates are simply priced by the size of Small, Medium, and Large, and so a stamp on a dim sum card is how they count and calculate the price of what you have eaten. There is a whole page of cocktails as well.

And that cocktail list includes this amazing Boke Bloody Mary, which includes Baiju, fennel dashi, fish sauce, lime, tomato, and Boke fried chicken

For a simpler cocktail option, you might consider the refreshing Boke Buzz, house bottled and carbonated highballs. There are a few to choose from- this is the Whiskey Coco with bourbon, coconut, lime, and palm sugar

Unlike many dim sum restaurants though, I was really pleased to see there were several dim sum options that are marked as being vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free, which you will not always see! I can never get F to dim sum because there are literally only a handful of options for him usually at a traditional dim sum, but at Boke Bowl Dim Sum half the options are fair game for a vegetarian. Many popular dishes, such as hum bao, lotus wraps, sui mai etc. have both a meat version and a veggie version so your vegetarian can also have a full dim sum experience.

As they wheel the carts around and tell you their options, remember that not all the options may be at one of the carts at once so you probably want to check out the carts more than once to see what is new. You can also ask if there are certain dishes you are looking for and if they are not too in the weeds they may be able to bring it directly to you.

Their take on Chicken and Waffle (gluten free) with yeast rice cake and Boke fried chicken, these disappear quickly from the carts!

Super chubby sui mai dumplings, these are with pork and shrimp, but there is also a vegan vegetable version

Turnip cakes can either be vegan and gluten free, or get it with ham like this version

Shrimp rice noodles, there are also options of pork or gluten free vegetarian for the filling. On my visit the rice noodles were thick and still tough like they hadn’t been fully cooked, but it was their first weekend of service so I would try it again. There is a tray of various sauces you can add to your food- make sure you are not shy about using it.

Lotus Wraps that are streamed and inside have rice and spicy pork, there is also an option with squash that is vegan and gluten free, with mushroom and black bean sauce. They come in square bundles of leaf and string that you unwrap to see this rice and protein mixture inside. The version I had with spicy pork really had a nice kick of heat and I enjoyed it.

Fried potstickers of pork, cabbage, and ginger

What do you think of having a dim sum brunch instead of a western brunch – do you do it? What sort of dim sum items do you like to look for? And would you believe I was so into dim sum that I made a photo checklist once (including Cantonese syllables for saying them and a picture from Google images so I could ask for it in case the server didn’t know the English description of it?) here in this a google doc? Food dork alert…