I was in Oakland this past week, and the food is ok. A lot of the food is hit or miss. The shrimp noodle rolls were to die for, but the shrimp and chive dumplings had a lot of chives in it that the onion flavor just completely overpowered the rest of the dumplings. Finally, I love a Chinese roasted style duck, but the duck wasn't as good as some SF Chinatown places. Finally, the service was scattered. They would go from taking part of my order to then taking care of another customer's order before checking in on me. Additionally, we asked for the steamed chicken and pork buns, but they forgot to include them in the order. It's hard to recommend this place or imagining myself coming back. read more

3.5 stars. Affordable dimsum $1/each most items. Good shrimp dumplings, chive dumplings, fried taro puff, sesame ball. Egg tart not good. Card accepted for purchases of $25 or more. read more

Big Dish Restaurant - Fried taro, chicken feet, shrimp dumpling - Barbeque Near Me - Oakland, California

The dim sum and bbq meat dishes are so good and not overpriced. Great togo spot. No frills! The roast pork over rice was about $11 and totally worth it. I also recommend the shrimp rice noodle rolls, pork dumplings, and shrimp dumplings. read more

Still my favorite place to get dim sum in Chinatown. Not busy, cheap prices, fast service, great food. Still haven't tried their bbq yet read more

Big Dish Restaurant - Outside of restaurant - Barbeque Near Me - Oakland, California

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A good go-to place for take-away dimsum. They got pretty much the usual dishes one will find at a restaurant at reasonable price. Parking is a bit difficult just because of where it's located but there is a parking lot half a block away that served me well when I last visited there. I paid $1 for 15 minutes and it's less then half block away. Pay the parking fee and save yourself the hassle of having to circle the one-way streets all around that area looking for a space. Definitely will return next time I am craving dim sum. read more

If you're looking for a cheap dim sum takeout spot, look no further. Usually when you want dim sum, you'll have to go with several people in order for your dim sum trip to be worth while. That way you can order a bunch of dishes to share. However, if you're by your lonely lonesome self but craving some dim sum and have no one to go with or don't have the time to sit down and dine, this place offers single items for sale. That way you're not forced to order 4 items of one kind. Get one of each if you feel like it. Today I got 2 haw gow, 2 siu mai, 2 wu gok, and pai gwut fan. Each $1, except the $4 spareribs rice. The rice is actually flavored with some of that spareribs juice. So for $10, you get a pretty big meal. They take credit cards but charge you a fee unless your order is greater than $25. read more

Big Dish Restaurant - Fried taro dumpling, steamed spareribs rice bowl, pork dumpling, shrimp dumpling - Barbeque Near Me - Oakland, California

Pretty decent roast duck. Sizeable. Meaty and fatty. Good sauce. 4/5. Was $25 Joong was ok maybe. Ingredients didnt have integrity. Flavor was different. Was $3.75 read more

Wow, the whole experience of coming here to Big Dish - from ordering to the food, brings me right back to Hong Kong! I thought being in Los Angeles' 626 area is already Chinese enough, but Oakland's Chinatown definitely sends you back to the old Hong Kong culture. Ordering was quite chaotic to be honest, if you don't speak the language you may have a harder time placing order and navigating with staff member. There is an attempt to separate the line between Chinese BBQ and dim sum, but it seems like the patrons have a hard time distinguishing most of the time. You can also order dim sum by pieces for most items, which makes it easier to order for smaller QTY, or larger for big parties! Food quality was just alright, but I did like their variety. You do have to go earlier so they don't sell out! read more

Amazing variety of dim sum and pastries, especially some bring back memories... the roast pork buns, both baked and steamed were excellent and tasty. Egg tarts not only looked delicious but taste great. We like the black sesame rolls and white sponge cake - very authentic! The sticky rice wrapped with bamboo leaves were also very good - stuffed with meat, salted egg, mushrooms and other yummy ingredients. Give it a try. read more

This is my fist time coming here. Food is decent but don't go too early. I went about 8:30 and you can clearly taste the shrimp dumpling was from leftover yesterday. The skin was soggy and broke apart and a little sour. read more

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Of the cheap takeout dim sum places in Oakland, I like this one the most. I used to live right on the edge of the SF chinatown and would get takeout dim sum weekly (if not more), and so far have not found a takeout style place here to my liking. I define this as a place where you can get dim sum to go but the minimum order is one dumpling (vs 3-4 like at a proper sit down spot). This is important because if I'm just getting breakfast, I dont' want to get 3 of everything because then I can probably only have 2 orders. So anyways, the dim sum here is really solid and really cheap and you can mix and match. It basically checks all the boxes and I like it a lot more than Tao Yuen. read more

Order: -Whole Pig This is a great place to get a whole pig for a potluck or party - yummy and worth the price. They decorate the pig for you and place it in a short-walled box to carry. Use the leftovers after the big meal for soup or porridge. read more

Chinese Rice Porridge; get it here. I buy it early in the morning. It is served hot & fresh. When I walk into a food establishment and catch the aroma of delicious food, look around and see clean tables and floors, I get comfortable. Thank you Big Dish for taking food sanitation seriously. Pork buns,, egg tarts, steamed rice, congee, and plain steamed buns, are just a few of my regular selections at Big Dish. It seems most customers come here for take-out. In fact, it is really quite obvious that these customers are locals! Therefore, you need to ask for any condiments you think you're going to need. There are tables, inside, for dining-in. read more

If you're on a budget, and I mean BUDGET, and want some cheap food that's filling, this is the place. You can't beat the price. Order: -Preserved egg and pork porridge: Huge bowl that could fill two people up, but it wasn't piping hot. Topped with white pepper powder, cilantro, and green onion. Flavors were alright. They do not have Chinese donuts for sale to compliment -Steamed spare rib rice: YUM. The spare ribs were SO TENDER. I don't know what it is, but sure was delicious. -BBQ pork bun: My favorite place to get pork buns because they don't skimp out on the filling. Cleanliness is why I took one star off. It's subpar. Tables don't get cleared/wiped down often. We sat in the table in the back and the floor was SO GREASY I was sliding on it. I'd still come back though for the price. read more

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After going to another dim sum spot on Franklin street several times, and thinking that was the best in Chinatown, I decided to venture one street further over, and randomly stumbled upon this more overlooked spot for dim sum. Their chive and shrimp dumpling was so delicious and much fresher than what I had just bought at the other place. Very happy with this one dumpling, I bought 8 more (for good luck!) ;) read more

The prices for dim sum here on the weekend are BEYOND fair and the service is very quick! It is cash only and there is a parking garage located nearby. Highly recommend stopping by! read more

Big Dish Restaurant - Barbeque Near Me - Oakland, California

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Just when I thought things couldn't get any cheaper than the $2.80/box of Sparerib Rice that I get from a Chinese DimSum place in Oakland, CA. I found Big Dish to be cheaper and offers tasty Dim Sum in Oakland's Chinatown area. They sell $2.00/box of Sparerib Rice. How can you top that! I've passed by this place a few time, but hesitated to enter. They get so busy in the morning. And I didn't wanna hold the line up with my Cryptic Mandarin.But today, I told myself that I should at least try this place out. I'm glad I did. I got their SiaoMai and HaKaw, which were 0.60 cents each. So far I have never seen any place sell cheaper than this and offer good quality Dim Sum. Obviously, you can't expect a lot of special ingredients (I.e. Mushroom, shrimps, etc.) But I was surprised that I got shrimp and tobiko on my SiaoMai. To top it all, the lady, who helped me, was very patient trying to decipher my Mandarin. And tried to speak English to me. On my next visit, I hope to have more time to try out their congee. I saw a family in there have breakfast and order congee. I also saw that they have scrumptious looking Pork Stew, Pork BBQ, etc. displayed on their window. I would need to bring my family with friends with me so I can order more food and try as much items in their menu. I guess you can't go wrong eating at a Chinese resto when a place is flooded by a lot of Chinese people :) read more

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Visit on 8/27/17: Chow mein, chives dumplings, and pot stickers. Generous portions, good prices. I wanted to try some egg rolls or wu gok (sp?), but they didn't have any. Good place to get dim sum in Chinatown. read more

Absolute best baked BBQ Pork Buns that I've had anywhere in the Bay Area. The rest of the dim sum dishes are good too, but I'm not a huge fan of the sliced BBQ as I find it to be a bit dry. Those pork buns though...I stop by here every few weeks to take a box of pork buns home for my kids and they love them. Cash only. read more

I went here on 09/13/23, I ordered the Cheung fun (shrimp noodle) it was just ok, it had very little shrimp, mostly noodle, I've had this at many other places, it usually has green onions, maybe pork flecks, here it was very bland. I also had the potstickers, they were hard and chewy, I've never had steamed potstickers with such a bad consistency, last I wanted chicken buns, but they were out of them by 130-2pm, so I ordered the BBQ pork buns, not a lot of filling, the bun it self tasted weird... kind of stale tasting read more

4 stars at least for the dim sum, a fifth star for the great value. Most standard selections, like har gow, siu mai, chive dumpling, fried pork turnover, fried taro dumpling, "imitation shark fin" dumpling, are $1.10, CHEAP!!! Their baked pork bun is $1.50. CHEAP! Prices as of June 30, 2023. They have a big board which clearly posts all the prices. Credit card charges permitted over $25. All of their stuff is really, really good, no stinkers in the lot. Ask for chop sticks/utensils and soy sauce if you need it. Often times there is a short line, but the wait is worth it. Their roast duck is also good (but gold medal is better). And yes, I agree with other posters that I prefer this place to the one on Franklin which is more expensive and frankly inconsistent. read more

I've never had fresh roasted pig, but I was a lucky girl today. As my group passed by the restaurant, we saw a huge pig being hung in the window, freshly made. How could we pass this up?! We bought a half pound, which supposedly was the minimum amount we could order, and the guy chopped it up for us. It was so good! Forget reheating it back at home, roast pig was meant to be eaten fresh. The warm crispy skin was better than a bag of pork skin chicharrones (and I love chicharrones!). read more

Big Dish Restaurant - Roast pig - Barbeque Near Me - Oakland, California

Big Dish Restaurant in Oakland's Chinatown is located on 9th street right next door to New Oakland Pharmacy and across from Wonder Food Bakery. Big Dish serves up some good Chinese Food, from various different BBQ's, Dim Sum, and Cantonese Food Togo. Big Dish is mainly a Togo type of restaurant however, you can dine in if you choose, they a have a few tables inside the restaurant. They have delicious BBQ hanging in front on the window and reasonable priced. A Whole Roasted Duck is only $13.00 and a box of BBQ Pork Spareribs only $5.99! We know some people who buy like 4-5 Whole Roasted Ducks and then just freezing it because they like it that much!! We also usually get the Roast Pork cooked in Preserved Vegetables with Fatty Meat. It's pretty good and it's the only restaurant in the area that we knows that makes it. It's reasonably priced as well. The Dim Sum here is alright as well. It's good to pick some up and take some for the road ahead or you could go to the ever popular Tao Yuen Pastry nearby. Customer Service is good if you speak Chinese otherwise, it maybe hard to understand the workers. If you pay one price one time you were here and you come back, you can ask for the same price and if you keep arguing for it, you'll get the price! It actually happened today with a customer who didn't speak Chinese. Give Big Dish a try, you might just find something for you! :) read more

Big Dish Restaurant - Big Dish Restaurant Store Front, Oakland, CA. - Barbeque Near Me - Oakland, California

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i got a sticky rice, bbq and baked pork buns, and several dumplings. Be sure to get the dumplings in the round steamer baskets. the ones i get in the heated tray were old and dry. the pork in the buns had some grisly bits. read more

Sometimes deciding what to eat is the most difficult thing for me. Working downtown with all these places to eat, and still indecisive, well... I have to have a go to restaurant. In this case, you can catch me here at least once or twice a month if I'm up for it. First of all, I'd let to let you know that I haven't really paid attention to any other things on the menu. I just get the basics here for $5 bucks. Secondly, I don't suggest you have high expectations, this isn't your new hipster spot that you can take instagram photos of your food to blow it up. This is honestly cheap, greasy Chinese food for what it is. I did get a chance to see briefly what else is being served such as the baked pork buns and stuff, but I haven't actually tried it. A five dollar plate gets you a box of rice with your choice of meat on top. I'm always going for the roasted pork belly because I love the skin. It does come with some cabbages but it's not like it's going to be any healthier for you. But for what it's worth, it's a cheap lunch that will fill you up. You can't even get full of McDonald's nowadays with $5 bucks. My only problem is, the workers mostly speak Chinese and well... I'm Vietnamese, so we sometimes have a language barrier. I'm generally happier when I go with someone who's Cantonese and that can order for me. (: read more

This establishment has reopened a week ago from the COVID-19 hiatus. I went there at lunch on Saturday and there were no lines, probably due to the fact that people are not aware that they have reopened. It was my first time here and I bought a variety of dim sum. Not the best that I have had but very decent for Oakland Chinatown standard. Siu Mai was very good and so was the Har Gow. Also bought both steamed BBQ Pork Bun and steamed Chicken Bun. Please don't bother with the chicken version, way too much bun and very little filling. On the other hand, the BBQ version had the right amount of bun and filling ratio, and yummy tasting, too. Will definitely be back to try other items on their menu. read more

This is definitely a place where you will get the most bang for for your buck. One of their most popular item is the BBQ pork and roast pork with rice and vegetables and the cost of this is only $3.90. Talk about cheap and eating on a budget! The combination plate is very filling and always make a great lunch. Interiorly, the restaurant is not too clean as it's your typical fast food Chinatown restaurant. Service can be a hit or miss, depending on if you go during rush hour or not. Sometimes, you may have to squeeze your way to order your food as there really is not a real line. Most of the workers behind the counter will be speaking Cantonese but keep in mind they do understand Mandarin and English, though you will have to be very clear and precise if you order in English. Finally, the $3.90 order is not listed on their menu so you will just have to tell them verbally which meat you want on your plate. read more

Big Dish Restaurant - The $3.90 BBQ pork and roast pork combination plate - Barbeque Near Me - Oakland, California

This place serves the best food ever! I love their sesame balls, they were so delicious! I will definitely be back, 10/10

Not many dim sum restaurants are open in Chinatown during Covid right now. This place is good, fairly priced, and fast. They have your basic dim sum options. It's a steam table style restaurant built for to-go so don't expect cooked to order dishes. FYI there are two lines to get in. One for BBQ (left) and one for dim sum (right). Also their bbq is pretty good too. Street parking if you can fine it, garage parking in the Renaissance center across the street, or double park like everyone else in front of the restaurant - it's Chinatown Cash only - it's Chinatown read more

Big Dish Big Daddy. I come here solely for their BBQ Pork over Rice Box because it's only FRKKING 3.50 ( that is cheaper than a gallon of gas for my car ) and it's generous portions, fresh and comes with veggies. Okay, nothing can beat that especially when you're a starving college student like myself. So, the rice is a bit dry and the cabbage is a bit mushy and the meat is more pinkish than red. Who the hell am I to complain? It's absoltely worth it, and the service is usually quick. TIP: Don't wait in line. Everybody here is Asian, so you see somebody thats making eye contact with you, ORDER ALREADY! before somebody else cuts in front of you. They have fresh steamed dim sum, as well as bakery goods and bbq meats for to gos. They're super cheap and affordable. The interior is loud but clean. They offer dine-ins after you purchase the items. There's a menu with prices over hauling the workers. It's chinatown. It's cheap. It's good. I'm full. I'm happy :D And it's only street parking, and since we're in Chinatown, cash only. read more

Big Dish Restaurant - BBQ pork over rice and cabbage, for 3.50 - Barbeque Near Me - Oakland, California

I think this place is new or I've been overlooking it! This is a great to go dim sum spot. The food, variety, price is .

My favorite place for to-go dimsum in Oakland Chinatown. 1.75 chang fun .50 har gow xiu mai -1STAR again cause they always seem to miscalculate my order every now and then... read more

The prices are STUPID cheap (a giant bowl of jok for $2, huge various buns for 50-80 cents each), you can get really full for well under $5 here. Yeah, the service isn't awesome, but just be assertive and say MM GOI !! to the next available person because that's how it's done in Chinatown! read more

Big Dish Restaurant - Everything is big and delicious! Highly recommend the jok and char siu bao - Barbeque Near Me - Oakland, California

My family has been coming here for many years now and I grew up in Oakland going to Chinatown on the weekends to buy groceries and stop by to pick up some dim sum/roasted pork and duck to go. The food here is great, the shu Mai and shrimp dumpling isn't dry, flavorful with the reasonable prices for the size of the dumplings! The BBQ pork bun is fantastic as well, don't skip on the dim sum entrees! It is very affordable to buy food from here rather than going to a restaurant. read more

Big Dish represents an inexpensive dining experience with tasty flavor, depending on what you order and your tastes. The Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf is a favorite filled with sticky rice, pork and chicken; Tofu Skin Roll stuffed with pork with a bit of shrimp covered in a tasty salty sauce; Pork Spareribs or Pork Spareribs and Chicken Feet over Rice; each of these for USD 1.50. There's jook or congee (contains MSG, monosodium glutamate); shrimp or pork dumplings, roast duck, roast pig, chow mein, some desserts. Don't bother with their custard tarts, pastry tart isn't flaky. Go across the street to Wonder Food Bakery or Napoleon Super Bakery on Franklin St for their custard tarts for a flaky crust. Patience may be needed if you come at a busy time. Order what you want, tell them it's to dine in or take away, pay for the food. If dining in, look for any available chair as you may need to share a table. Go to the back to help yourself to chopsticks or silverware, tea cup and/or teapot, place some tea leaves in the pot and fill it with some hot water. Frequently when I order the Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf, it tastes like it's starting to degrade and go bad due to it's not kept steaming hot as when it first comes out. I did observed they separating frozen har gow shrimp dumplings that were frozen together, a few dropped on the floor, they just picked them up and placed them with the rest. Another time they had steamed pork buns tray containers, one dropped on the floor, the buns came in contact with the floor, one of the workers just picked them up and put them back in the container to be sold, not wasting something that could be sold. http://www.foodspotting.com/reviews/4039657 http://www.foodspotting.com/reviews/4129311 http://www.foodspotting.com/reviews/4050590 http://www.foodspotting.com/reviews/4649935 http://www.foodspotting.com/reviews/4466123 http://www.foodspotting.com/reviews/4803673 read more

Best Seu mai in Oakland. cash only. Good rice noodle shrimp, baked bbq pork bun. Good prices and good food!

I stopped buying my chop-chop BBQ meats here and opted to a less fatty purveyor nearby. However, their baked goods are now a dangerous crop to your health if you eat them. I think their baker probably quit or was replaced. The BBQ pork buns are flat, not proofed properly ANd most worrisome are the pork filling, they taste old and oiled out. This is unhealthy to eat. I bought them on several occasions and are all the same, they used the old unsold pork charsiu that are stale and make the filling with them HORRIBLE. I shudder to think about this year's coming moon cakes. At this rate, the bakery part will go out of business or get shut down. Another sad loss for Oakland Chinatown that keeps loosing the better food joints and not being replaced by good newer ones at the same rate. Sad, sad day. read more

Horrible roasted duck and BBQ pork. The duck was hugh and lean. Never have a dry and bland duck like this. I asked for half fat and half lean BBQ pork, it was all fat. read more

I am in between on this place. Not sure if it depends on the mood of the workers. The roast pork cutting man. He would pick you to fattest piece of meat and tell you that the best one. If that is the best one, Dave it for yourself. The dim sum people, they are sloppy. The basically don't care how they put the food I got the containers. Throw them in with the juice spilling out and send you away. They don't even stack them containers in properly in the bag. All the small containers at the bottom and the big one on top. They really don't care that you come home with everything spilled out. The customer service sucks. If you can't decide or you ask too many questions. They tell each other hey, ignore the customer and they will leave. Don't they know other customers understand Chinese? Food wise, some of the items are good and some are left over fillings and fat from. Other items stuffed into the dim sum. read more

Came here twice. Ordered bbq pork once and 75% of the meat I got was mostly fatty, oily stuff while the other 25% was the actual meat. Second time I came I ordered the bbq roast duck and the same thing happened with the fat/oil to meat ratio. Mostly fat, very minimal meat. There will not be a third visit. read more