Being a lover of food, cooking, and cooking shows, I have always wanted to eat at a Michelin star restaurant. I imagine how the experience would be, and as the place has earned its culinary merits, I expect nothing less than superb food.

But my dream comes with a price. Literally. I’ve researched and seen how much it would cost me to eat at a Michelin star restaurant, not to mention the airfare I would need to get to a country with such a place. That is why when I heard of Tim Ho Wan, I got extremely excited.

This excitement was taken to a whole new level when I found out that Tim Ho Wan has opened in Manila. I watched as the lines snaked inside the restaurant but never had the time to join the cue myself, despite my eagerness to try it. So when my sister’s friends invited us to have lunch there I grabbed the opportunity to try out the much-talked about dimsum place.

The dining experience is pretty straightforward. Your placemats serve as the menu and everything is served to you hot and fresh.

This nondescript steamed egg cake proved to be a fluffy surprise. Think puto, but with a brown

This little packet is a surprise within a surprise. Open the lotus leaf to uncoverthe glutinous rice. Dig into the rice and see the tender and sweet pork filling that tastes of anise.

The congee had bits of century and salted eggs. It was alright. Nothing to write home about.

And now, for pièce de résistance – the pork barbecue buns. I’ve never liked siopao or any similar kind of meat bun, but this has converted me. The bun outshines the filling in my opinion, but both are good. It is light, crisp, and slightly sweet. I can just imagine eating bun after bun without the meat inside… yummy.

We also ordered the carrot cake, which tasted of caramelized onions. The hakaw was packed with shrimp, a winner for me.

I will definitely go back, if only for the buns. But I haven’t tried dessert yet and the other dimsum items so I still have stuff to tick off my list. If you want to try Tim Ho Wan and want cueing time to be relatively shorter, come in between lunch and dinner time to avoid the hungry crowd.