Li Wah

I WILL NOT EAT HERE AGAIN… Ordered: spring rolls — full of chestnuts and no other veggies, shrimp wonton — broth was so bland and without flavor, and sesame shrimp — horrible like the shrimp was taken from frozen shrimp cocktail and cooked it that sauce very gross!!! The only decent food I received was the white rice.

A family favorite, my kids can’t get enough of shu Mai. We’ve been coming here for over 25 years. Very authentic food and could be intimidating to less adventurous crowds. Best part is dim sum on Sunday’s. A great way to try new dishes with the smaller portions.

Decided to try Li Wah based on reviews from a food delivery service and am very impressed! My boyfriend and I ordered Green Beans, Orange Chicken, steamed dumplings and a few pork buns. Everything was very fresh and delicious. I was blown away by how the chicken was all succulent white meat, freshly tossed with orange slices and chilies. I can’t remember the last time I had chicken that juicy. I also noticed the dishes were rather light and healthy– so I didn’t immediately need a nap after eating (No MSG). How refreshing! Their homemade buns are a must; light and fluffy dough with savory pork and veggie filling. Needless to say, I’ll be coming back soon.

Dim sum game be strong! Not bad Cleveland. I’m impressed. I tried the shumai, spare ribs, BBQ pork buns, egg tarts, and the salted shrimp. While the shrimp was a meh, the other dishes were surprisingly quite good! (I’m comparing this to good o’l weekend dim sum in MingHin Chicago) I stopped by on a Saturday morning and the restaurant was PACKEDD, we were lucky to find a corner table! I was expecting a decent wait but the carts were quickly stocked and kitchen seemed to be at its A-​game *thumbs up* Last but not least… They had Xiao Long Bao aka Soup Dumplings!!! *drool* And they were deliciouss *cry* Overall, great experience! Still not up to the level you get at bigger cities but this is a great start for the land.

Atmosphere– décor is just like any Chinese restaurant. It’s really smelly here and its not a pleasant scent.
Service– A
Food– I always go here for dim sum and occasionally for dinner. It’s probably the most delicious Chinese restaurant in Ohio that has decent dim sum. My advice– get everything on the carts.

Average in terms of dim sum. They push carts here so you get the real experience in terms of ordering your dishes. Some of the items we wanted were not on the carts so we had to request them specifically. Reasonably busy for a Saturday morning and decently priced. Overall decent dim sum.

My family and I are from Columbus and we frequent here often when we visit family. I absolutely love dim sum and this was a pretty good place to get it. I’m not familiar with the area but from the outside the place looks sketchy. The inside is pretty nice. The food was good though the service could have been better.

To be fair… It was decent. It’s the only Dim Sum place I tried in Cleveland. I’m from LA so you can’t compare this to LA.
I got Togo. The service was really nice. She was helpful.
They did run out of the BBQ pork Buns 叉燒包 which was disappointing.
BBQ Pork– quarter order. She tried to get me to order a half order but I told her no. The meat was good. Kind of dry.
Roasted Duck– once again tried to get me to do a half order. I told her no. The meat was good. Lots of fat. Juicy. Tasted good.
Rice wrapped in lotus leaf– this was the best thing here. They put BBQ pork in it which made it really good!
Pineapple Bun– these are the regular buns. 婆羅包not流沙包。it didn’t taste hot nor did it taste fresh
XLB– 小籠包were ok. She tried to talk me out of this twice. She said it would take over 10 minutes and told me «Americans like potstickers better». It was weird.
MaLa Cake– 馬來糕 was delicious! One of the best ones I’ve had ever.
This place fine.

VEGETABLE SPRING ROLL (3) $ 3.25
CHICKEN W/​PEPPER & GARLIC SAUCE PAN FRIED NOODLES $ 10.95
SWEET & SOUR CHICKEN $ 10.95
BEEF W/​DOUBLE MUSHROOMS — DINNER $ 13.95
SHRIMP W/​CASHEW NUTS — DINNER $ 13.95
~*~
Everything was perfect, very tasty, great color, freshness… the eggrolls were in rare form for any place… I am not usually happy with eggrolls, but these were a 10.
Very happy. This was a hit, and I will be back… Worthy of my Hello Kitty Limited Edition Soy Sauce.

This place is like the best dim sum place in Cleveland, but yet it’s not that great. Worse service ever and food is not always fresh since we had to point out to them that one of our dish was spoiled.

I really enjoyed it! Good dimsum.
The restaurant is pretty big and was pretty busy during Sunday lunch when I came.
We had a good amount of food and the total came out to be around $ 15/​person

Located in the Asian Plaza in Cleveland with huge dining space. Li Wah looks more of a authentic traditional Chinese restaurant styled in 90s. With a good menu selection and seasonal seafood choices, this place would serve most Chinese residents well. Li Wah also features authentic Cantonese Dim Sum, which really is worth a try for some. However, apparently this place still needs a bit more of sincerity and expertise in culinary skills if they want to fill up the extensive space regularly. Dim Sum items are must-​have, and their Roasted Duck is good as well.

Dim sum is great. Come for the dim sum, the Chinese food itself is good but nothing crazy. Place has duck to order

I came here on a Sunday for Dim sum lunch after reading all the great reviews and ignoring the bad reviews. As expected the restaurant is busy we shared table with another couple because they didn’t have any open tables for two but because of that some food carts that goes around all the tables just skips us because our table is near the wall and not too many guests were in that corner, this didn’t bother me. I thought the food was kind of meh… nothing special, it reminded me of the frozen stuff you can just buy from Asian grocery stores nothing tastes fresh.
On top of that, the service was lousy, they were quick to bring the bill and take my credit card but when I asked for a box to take home the leftovers nobody seemed to remember. we had asked 3 different workers and every one of them walked past our table again and again with things for new customers but no take home box; pretty rude to just ignore customers after the bill is paid. After 15 minutes of waiting we just left the leftovers it’s really not something I want to eat later anyway. I feel sorry for the Clevelanders thinking this place is special.

I have now been there both for their Dim Sum service and their normal dinner service. Their Dim Sum sim is absolutely the best in the Cleveland area, bar none. I have gone with several groups, including those who are sticklers for authentic Chinese dim sum, and they agree with me that Li Wah is THE place to get good Dim Sum in Cleveland.
Their normal dinner service is not too different from other restaurants outside that they offer a abridged dim sum menu that you can order combinations from. It was very good. I ordered the tried and true General Tso’s combination and was very happy with my choice. I definitely recommend this restaurant to all fans of dim sum and Chinese food in general.

There’s always a long line around lunch time, so I don’t come here too often. However it is Father’s Day after all, so we made it a point to got up early. Arrived around 10:45am, right before the rush — people after us had to queue up for a table.
Items I like today:
— Ma lai go 馬來糕 — Cantonese sponge cake: texture similar to angel food cake, it is a steamed cake made of sugar, egg, and flour. They don’t always serve this item.
— Sticky rice bowl — 港式糯米 it came in a bowl. looks like fried rice.
— Fried eggplant with embedded shrimp
— Egg tarts
— Turnip cake
— fried sticky rice ball with pork inside
Things I’m doubtful today:
— Soup dumplings 小籠包: I was so excited to discover that they will make this for you upon request, thanks to Unilocaler Keven C.‘s tips. When I bit into the dumplings, something doesn’t taste right. Maybe it’s related to the ground meat they use today. See my next entry.
— beef meat balls: we ordered this often. There’s usually no problem. But today I taste chemical in the the meat, similar to the meat in soup dumplings. I want to say chlorine… can’t really tell.
— char siu — the red bbq pork is a bit dry and stiff today. It didn’t give me the impression that they made this today or this morning.
When we were leaving, I saw they just started to serve pig feet 豬腳 — so maybe it’s worth it to come later for more varieties?
When I went to use restroom, the floor was wet. Turned out one toilet was clogged or something, so I decided not to stink up my maxi dress by avoiding using it here altogether.
This is a fun place to take friends who’s never tried dim sum before. If they had experienced it in Boston, San Francisco or Asian countries, skip Li wah and take them somewhere else more CLE-​centric.

Li Wah is an authentic Chinese restaurant along with Bo Loong and Siam Café located at the heart of Asia town in Cleveland. As you sit here, do realize that there are two menus — the American-​Chinese menu a.k.a. the solo menu for «westerners» accustomed to having one meal all for themselves OR the authentic Chinese menu, a.k.a. the group menu which features several large dishes meant to be shared.
In the group menu, I’d go for steamed whole grouper, yang chow fried rice, salt-​baked fish fillet or pork. If in a larger group, one could also order a set course menu of several courses. Again, all served in the middle of the table, meant to be shared.
If you’re here for dimsum, order things like the pork shumai, shrimp dumpling, pork spareribs, steamed pork buns, or chicken feet if you’re up for it.
If you’re clueless or actually appear clueless, they’ll give you the American menu so that you can enjoy your General Tso chicken, whoever he is.

I leave here many a Sunday afternoon high on MSG, chili oil and hot tea. As far as dim sum goes, there aren’t really many other options in CLE but despite the lack of competition, this place continues to live up to its reputation.
If you’re the type of person that absolutely must know what’s in everything you eat, this place is NOT for you. Every day from 12pm-​2pm the dim sum carts are loaded with delicious and texturally interesting items that will delight any adventurous palette. You could, of course, order off the regular menu, but I would probably only do this if I came with a large group, since many of the dishes are made to be shared family style.
On the whole I love coming here– I love the atmosphere, I love the food, I love the slight language barrier and having no idea what
I’m putting in my mouth, and if these are things you appreciate too, you’ll love Li Wah!

I feel bad doing this… I’ve gone to Li Wah so many times for dim sum without ever having any difficulty. But I feel that I just have to update my review based on my last visit there.
I was there with the bf and some of his family that were visiting in town. We went for a late night dinner (they’re open until midnight!). The staff were fabulously friendly and my visiting family were pleased with the service and the food. So was I… until about an hour later.
I got home and developed very unpleasant GI symptoms of food poisoning. I was in quite a bit of pain and discomfort until the middle of the next day. Time course and symptoms all fit with food poisoning. I always get the bugs much worse than the bf. He had some mild discomfort as well. The bf’s father also had unpleasant GI symptoms that night. I would have passed it off as who-​knows-​what… maybe I caught some bug from all the kids I work with… except that multiple members of our party had the same symptoms, all at the same time, just after eating there.
Very sad. I had a hard time re-​covering faith in restaurants after bouts of food poisoning. We’ll see… I’ll probably give it another try after a period of initial avoidance. It’s only happened this once out of many times eating there… so I’ll just knock 1 star off and leave the rating at a 3*, although really… one should never get food poisoning from decent restaurants. Hygiene & proper food handling, peoples!!!
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Explanation of my rating system —
5*: Epitome of something, the best I’ve had, would LOVE to go back
4*: Great food and happy to go back regularly, but not the best of the category
3*: Food is fine. I may spontaneously decide to go there based on convenience. But no need to go back either.
2*: If you insist, I guess I’ll come along. I’ll find something to eat. But I wouldn’t have picked it.
1*: No plans to come back. I’ll try to talk companions out of going.

Unfortunately (fortunately?), I’ve had dim sum in Flushing, NY and have been comparing places in America to that experience. At Li Wah, the flavors were just alright. I felt like I needed to salt many of the dishes. The service is just alright also, though you can’t expect much from Asian places in general. Décor was drab (but clean!!).
Overall, it was a lackluster experience. Maybe because it was a Friday afternoon. It sounds like weekend dim sum is the place to be from other reviews.