Dim sum powerhouse Best BBQ opens a new stall on Buford Highway

Now you don’t have to drive to Duluth to enjoy these dumplings
3174
Assorted dim sum at Best BBQ.

Photograph by Bill Addison

Like any other Buford Highway devotee, I watch the shopping centers evolve as I eat my way up and down our city’s treasured, multicultural restaurant row. Just a few years ago, Asian Square (located just north of Chamblee Tucker Road on Buford Highway) felt like a ghost town—a product of a fairly stagnant growth period for Buford Highway. But now, businesses like Mamak, Sweet Hut, and Asian Supermarket have transformed this sleepy strip mall into a bustling food lover’s haunt.

Best BBQ first came to my attention back in 2014 in a similarly sparse strip mall hidden off of Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth. The restaurant recently opened a stall inside Asian Supermarket’s food court—look for a shiny, new, neon-covered stall at the end of the row. For fans of dim sum and Cantonese barbecue, this is exciting news. Like the Duluth location, the stall has a glass display case full of lacquered hanging meats such as char siu (roast pork), suckling pig, soy-infused chickens, and roast duck. The stall offers a long list of Cantonese specialties, but the dim sum is why you should come.

Roast duck at Best BBQ.

Photograph by Bill Addison

The siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings) at Best BBQ.

Photograph by Bill Addison

What is most striking about the dumplings is the quality (they taste wonderfully fresh) and impressive size. The shrimp in the har gao (steamed shrimp dumplings), for instance, are the size of a golf ball. Even the siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings), xiao long bao (Shanghai soup buns), fried dumplings, and pork buns are enormous. The wrappers can get a little oversteamed and delicate when the restaurant cranks out orders on busy weekends, but the flavor makes up for it.

The pan-fried noodles at Best BBQ.

Photograph by Bill Addison.

If you’re like me and tend to over-order (it’s a serious problem), the noodles are a don’t-miss item. Best BBQ serves them in various incarnations, such as stir-fried with scallions and soy sauce or pan-fried with roast pork. In the latter dish, the crinkly egg noodles are fried until crisp and then placed in a glass dish with a corn starch-thickened sauce, Chinese broccoli, and slices of red roast pork. As the sauce soaks the noodles, some segments soften and become more pliable, but the dish never completely loses its crispiness. It’s incredibly fun to eat.

Unlike many places where you might order dim sum, there’s no cart for you to choose items from at Best BBQ. Instead you order at the counter, sit in the food court, and bus your own plates. But the lack of frills translates into better prices, not to mention the opportunity to enjoy great dim sum without driving all the way to Duluth. 5150 Buford Highway (inside Asian Supermarket), 770-274-3688

Advertisement