Get Sum Dim Sum

UPDATE: Get Sum Dim Sum is Closed.

Siu Mai (pork and shrimp dumplings)

I have lived in 4 places (all in Texas): San Antonio where I spent my pre-school years, the po-dunk little rural community outside of San Antonio and New Braunfels where I spent my formative childhood and teenage years, Denton where I spent my college and early adult years (and which also shaped me greatly), and now Austin. That may not make me the most worldy person on the planet, but it has allowed me to have long spans of years where I have been lucky enough to develop some pretty wonderful friendships with a lot of people. I count many from each of those locations (okay, maybe not the early San Antonio years) as very close friends to this day. The last move to Austin was something I wanted really badly—it's such a great town, closer to my family, and back in the Hill Country that feels like home to me—but it was really hard to leave a pretty big network of people in the Denton-Dallas-Fort Worth area. I miss all of them. Yet had I not made the move, the host of good friends I have made in Austin would not be in my life, and I don't like to imagine a life without those people. Every now and then I get together with one of my favorite Austin-era girlfriends for a weekday lunch. This time we chose Get Sum Dim Sum.

Spinach Dumplings and Churng Fun Cha Siu (BBQ pork rolled in handmade rice noodles)

I am guessing, because this is a trait we share, that we were both attracted to the goofball freaking awesome name. Both of us had been there before... actually together, but we'd forgotten about that time until we got there and memories of a conversation about the term "cougar," the vagaries of what it implies, and whether or not we thought it was insulting suddenly popped up into our consciousness.

Chef Chan's Chow Mein

The restaurant is in a newish strip center on N. Lamar, just south of 45th, near the Triangle. When you walk in, it's got a bit of a Pei Wei kind of feel... it's mostly lacking in character but is clean and comfortable, there's a counter where you order your food, that sort of deal. But unlike Pei Wei and it's kind, Get Sum Dim Sum has more in common with Tarka, the casual and cheaper version of The Clay Pit. It uses that walk-in fast foodish format, but it's not a chain, and it's run by people with some impressive restaurant experience under their belts... the manager and chef hails from the restaurant Yank Sing in San Francisco.

And the food really is great. Everything I have tried has been fresh, and prepared just right, and with wonderful flavor... plus it comes with the built-in super dooper cute dim sum presentation. You can walk out full and having spent under $10, and it's oddly not crowded... I haven't figured that part out yet. But that makes it more pleasant to visit because it's easy to get in and out of (great on a work day) and it's quiet enough to actually sit and have a conversation.

One of the specials: Salt and Pepper Chicken

And really, the great food is the icing on the cake, but just sitting and blabbering with a good friend is the important part. Which is exactly what we did... having the kind of meaningful emotional discussions where we consider our reactions to the fact that there is a remake of Footloose... or where we profess our love for the Beastie Boys... or where we hatch ideas for our very own B-movie that probably, if we can figure out how to pull it off, will contain both a dance-off AND an eye laser beam battle. This stuff's important, y'all.