The unspoken truth of dim sum in New York is that it's all pretty much the same. While there are certainly better spots to have it than others, dim sum options here taste more alike than different. That's a shame, considering how some dim sum houses in China and Hong Kong have elevated the meal to a high art, serving seriously elegant, beautifully made dishes to a discriminating clientele. By comparison, a large New York dim sum restaurant's ability to handle a thousand or more covers in a single Saturday afternoon is certainly admirable, but the results never taste that exquisite.

That's not to say that dim sum here is bad per se, just that we should adjust our expectations. Steamed and fried proteins and carbs, even when rolled around carts for an hour, are pretty tasty, and dim sum in New York is always cheap. It's also inarguably fun; I've never had less than a great time stuffing my face with sub-par but compulsively edible rice rolls and har gow.

So when people ask me where to get dim sum in New York, I'm upfront about its faults, then focus on places that a) move their carts around fast for high dumpling turnover and b) have a pleasant atmosphere with good opportunities for people-watching. I also emphasize the importance of going for dim sum early in the day, when the steamed and fried dishes are at their best; they'll only get worse as the afternoon rolls around.

By a wide margin, Sunset Park is New York's dim sum capital; there you'll find the highest density of decent dim sum spots, a few of which are as grand and palatial as anything in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Chinatown's dim sum restaurants are better visited for convenience and their old school legacy than actual quality, and Flushing by comparison strikes out. While some of its dim sum restaurants have served tasty food in the past, none of them these days are consistently any good.