Tim Ho Wan has soft opened Wednesday, May 8 in Irvine

[irvinebullhousing]

Just learned something, i thoughts all dumpling are the same. Steam cooking, now I have to try both place, the same day to see which is a winner and any differences.

TI is full of knowledge 

 

[Irvinecommuter]

I guess we will have to disagree.

Paper Lantern opened because they knew Capital was closing (same ownership right?).

Had they known THW was going to take Capital's spot, I think they might have planned differently.

To people who aren't familiar with North or South China like me... they may consider them the same and just choose THW because of the hype. If you don't think THW will hurt Paper Lantern's business... we diverge.

Dim Sum is meant to be eaten with a group slowly and with tea.  It's like brunch.  PL serves a causal sit down/take out aimed for relatively fast eating. 
People who want to eat dim sum will not go to Paper Lantern and people who want to eat XLB and Northern Style dumplings will not go to THW...there is no overlap. 

To the extent that people are unaware of the differences between the two restaurants, any confusion would be dispelled after the first visit.  It would be realizing that a hot dog taste nothing like a hamburger.

People may go to the new restaurant over PL but that's not direct competition...just additional competition

 

[Irvinecommuter]

Just learned something, i thoughts all dumpling are the same. Steam cooking, now I have to try both place, the same day to see which is a winner and any differences.

TI is full of knowledge 

Northern style dumplings are flour based...the skin is thicker and white.  It is more "bready" in texture and fillings are usually meats with vegetables.  They are more analogous to pierogies.  Northern style dumplings can be boiled, pan fried, or steamed.

Cantonese dim sums are usually not dumplings (i.e. stuffing inside an enclosed shell)...they do have some dumpling but they are wrapped in rice flour wrappers that are translucent, chewy, and a little sweeter.  They are also more known to be filled with seafood, i.e. shrimp.  Dim Sum is almost always steamed.

The use of rice versus wheat is a fundamental difference between Northern and Southern Chinese foods.

 

[bones]

I guess we will have to disagree.

Paper Lantern opened because they knew Capital was closing (same ownership right?).

Had they known THW was going to take Capital's spot, I think they might have planned differently.

To people who aren't familiar with North or South China like me... they may consider them the same and just choose THW because of the hype. If you don't think THW will hurt Paper Lantern's business... we diverge.

Or it could drive PL?s business. People too hungry to wait for THW will go there instead. All dumpling type foods are the same right?

But what?s more interesting to me is what GP does with its retail?  What will the mix of eateries be?  DJ is great and all, but it?s far from this side of town.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

I guess we will have to disagree.

Paper Lantern opened because they knew Capital was closing (same ownership right?).

Had they known THW was going to take Capital's spot, I think they might have planned differently.

To people who aren't familiar with North or South China like me... they may consider them the same and just choose THW because of the hype. If you don't think THW will hurt Paper Lantern's business... we diverge.

Or it could drive PL?s business. People too hungry to wait for THW will go there instead. All dumpling type foods are the same right?

But what?s more interesting to me is what GP does with its retail?  What will the mix of eateries be?  DJ is great and all, but it?s far from this side of town.

GP apparently doesn't believe in retail...just shipping containers and food carts.

 

[bones]

I guess we will have to disagree.

Paper Lantern opened because they knew Capital was closing (same ownership right?).

Had they known THW was going to take Capital's spot, I think they might have planned differently.

To people who aren't familiar with North or South China like me... they may consider them the same and just choose THW because of the hype. If you don't think THW will hurt Paper Lantern's business... we diverge.

Or it could drive PL?s business. People too hungry to wait for THW will go there instead. All dumpling type foods are the same right?

But what?s more interesting to me is what GP does with its retail?  What will the mix of eateries be?  DJ is great and all, but it?s far from this side of town.

GP apparently doesn't believe in retail...just shipping containers and food carts.

That?s cool. Some of the best food in Asia is from street carts/vendors.

 

[irvinebullhousing]

I guess we will have to disagree.

Paper Lantern opened because they knew Capital was closing (same ownership right?).

Had they known THW was going to take Capital's spot, I think they might have planned differently.

To people who aren't familiar with North or South China like me... they may consider them the same and just choose THW because of the hype. If you don't think THW will hurt Paper Lantern's business... we diverge.

Or it could drive PL?s business. People too hungry to wait for THW will go there instead. All dumpling type foods are the same right?

But what?s more interesting to me is what GP does with its retail?  What will the mix of eateries be?  DJ is great and all, but it?s far from this side of town.

GP apparently doesn't believe in retail...just shipping containers and food carts.

All great things takes planning, time, and money. It will comes. I have no doubt it will be top notch.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

I guess we will have to disagree.

Paper Lantern opened because they knew Capital was closing (same ownership right?).

Had they known THW was going to take Capital's spot, I think they might have planned differently.

To people who aren't familiar with North or South China like me... they may consider them the same and just choose THW because of the hype. If you don't think THW will hurt Paper Lantern's business... we diverge.

Or it could drive PL?s business. People too hungry to wait for THW will go there instead. All dumpling type foods are the same right?

But what?s more interesting to me is what GP does with its retail?  What will the mix of eateries be?  DJ is great and all, but it?s far from this side of town.

GP apparently doesn't believe in retail...just shipping containers and food carts.

All great things takes planning, time, and money. It will comes. I have no doubt it will be top notch.

PP opened in 2013 and Five Points have been constantly changing their plans in adding more and more residential units. 

You need to have this stuff already lined up when you are doing the community as a whole...I feel like Five Points is just trying to break even with the residential units.

 

[irvinebullhousing]

Remember, there are external forces and interest at work too. Everybody want a piece of the pie. Not the Marie Callendar type . Vets want their cemetery, City of Irvine wants their retails, the County of Orange wants their shopping space and hotel for their revenue. For FivePoints to take it this far is not an easy feat. There are literally hundreds of hurdles that was crossed and still hundreds to go. The political and financial battles waged on all sides.

It took nearly 15 years from the time Irvine voters rejected the proposed airport at el toro, to the time it broke ground. FivePoints vision was steady and still is. Great things will come. I can understand you as well as our patients has been tested.

 

[bones]

Remember, there are external forces and interest at work too. Everybody want a piece of the pie. Not the Marie Callendar type . Vets want their cemetery, City of Irvine wants their retails, the County of Orange wants their shopping space and hotel for their revenue. For FivePoints to take it this far is not an easy feat. There are literally hundreds of hurdles that was crossed and still hundreds to go. The political and financial battles waged on all sides.

It took nearly 15 years from the time Irvine voters rejected the proposed airport at el toro, to the time it broke ground. FivePoints vision was steady and still is. Great things will come. I can understand you as well as our patients has been tested.

Those are fair points but the execs at 5P have been paid handsomely for negotiating through those hurdles. Didn?t their C suite make over $50m in 2016 or 2017?  Haddad is the highest paid ceo in the homebuilding business.

 

[Happiness]

I guess we will have to disagree.

Paper Lantern opened because they knew Capital was closing (same ownership right?).

Had they known THW was going to take Capital's spot, I think they might have planned differently.

To people who aren't familiar with North or South China like me... they may consider them the same and just choose THW because of the hype. If you don't think THW will hurt Paper Lantern's business... we diverge.

Dim Sum is meant to be eaten with a group slowly and with tea.  It's like brunch.  PL serves a causal sit down/take out aimed for relatively fast eating. 
People who want to eat dim sum will not go to Paper Lantern and people who want to eat XLB and Northern Style dumplings will not go to THW...there is no overlap. 

To the extent that people are unaware of the differences between the two restaurants, any confusion would be dispelled after the first visit.  It would be realizing that a hot dog taste nothing like a hamburger.

People may go to the new restaurant over PL but that's not direct competition...just additional competition

I don't want to split hairs but XLB is from Shanghai which is not in Northern China.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

Remember, there are external forces and interest at work too. Everybody want a piece of the pie. Not the Marie Callendar type . Vets want their cemetery, City of Irvine wants their retails, the County of Orange wants their shopping space and hotel for their revenue. For FivePoints to take it this far is not an easy feat. There are literally hundreds of hurdles that was crossed and still hundreds to go. The political and financial battles waged on all sides.

It took nearly 15 years from the time Irvine voters rejected the proposed airport at el toro, to the time it broke ground. FivePoints vision was steady and still is. Great things will come. I can understand you as well as our patients has been tested.

It's ridiculous poor planning...just like they didn't finish the schools in time for the residents. 

 

[irvinebullhousing]

Remember, there are external forces and interest at work too. Everybody want a piece of the pie. Not the Marie Callendar type . Vets want their cemetery, City of Irvine wants their retails, the County of Orange wants their shopping space and hotel for their revenue. For FivePoints to take it this far is not an easy feat. There are literally hundreds of hurdles that was crossed and still hundreds to go. The political and financial battles waged on all sides.

It took nearly 15 years from the time Irvine voters rejected the proposed airport at el toro, to the time it broke ground. FivePoints vision was steady and still is. Great things will come. I can understand you as well as our patients has been tested.

Those are fair points but the execs at 5P have been paid handsomely for negotiating through those hurdles. Didn?t their C suite make over $50m in 2016 or 2017?  Haddad is the highest paid ceo in the homebuilding business.

You are correct. CEO do makes great money. There are many CEO whom made lots of money and failed the company. Not only they walked away with a golden parachute, the company disappear as well. Ed Zanders, Motorola CEO for instance, it was the icon of mobil phone with the flip phone, then in the early 2000 it started to go down hill and ultimately sold off and so the name Motorola almost disappear.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

I guess we will have to disagree.

Paper Lantern opened because they knew Capital was closing (same ownership right?).

Had they known THW was going to take Capital's spot, I think they might have planned differently.

To people who aren't familiar with North or South China like me... they may consider them the same and just choose THW because of the hype. If you don't think THW will hurt Paper Lantern's business... we diverge.

Dim Sum is meant to be eaten with a group slowly and with tea.  It's like brunch.  PL serves a causal sit down/take out aimed for relatively fast eating. 
People who want to eat dim sum will not go to Paper Lantern and people who want to eat XLB and Northern Style dumplings will not go to THW...there is no overlap. 

To the extent that people are unaware of the differences between the two restaurants, any confusion would be dispelled after the first visit.  It would be realizing that a hot dog taste nothing like a hamburger.

People may go to the new restaurant over PL but that's not direct competition...just additional competition

I don't want to split hairs but XLB is from Shanghai which is not in Northern China.

Yes XLB is from Shanghai...which is Central China!

 

[Irvinecommuter]

Remember, there are external forces and interest at work too. Everybody want a piece of the pie. Not the Marie Callendar type . Vets want their cemetery, City of Irvine wants their retails, the County of Orange wants their shopping space and hotel for their revenue. For FivePoints to take it this far is not an easy feat. There are literally hundreds of hurdles that was crossed and still hundreds to go. The political and financial battles waged on all sides.

It took nearly 15 years from the time Irvine voters rejected the proposed airport at el toro, to the time it broke ground. FivePoints vision was steady and still is. Great things will come. I can understand you as well as our patients has been tested.

Those are fair points but the execs at 5P have been paid handsomely for negotiating through those hurdles. Didn?t their C suite make over $50m in 2016 or 2017?  Haddad is the highest paid ceo in the homebuilding business.

You are correct. CEO do makes great money. There are many CEO whom made lots of money and failed the company. Not only they walked away with a golden parachute, the company disappear as well. Ed Zanders, Motorola CEO for instance, it was the icon of mobil phone with the flip phone, then in the early 2000 it started to go down hill and ultimately sold off and so the name Motorola almost disappear.

I don't think he is failing his company at all...he is making them a ton of money by selling residential property...those make instant money. 

It's the BP/GP people that suffer. 

Wild Rivers is supposed to come in in 2020...I don't see how they can possibly do that.  Construction alone would take a year+

 

[irvinebullhousing]

Remember, there are external forces and interest at work too. Everybody want a piece of the pie. Not the Marie Callendar type . Vets want their cemetery, City of Irvine wants their retails, the County of Orange wants their shopping space and hotel for their revenue. For FivePoints to take it this far is not an easy feat. There are literally hundreds of hurdles that was crossed and still hundreds to go. The political and financial battles waged on all sides.

It took nearly 15 years from the time Irvine voters rejected the proposed airport at el toro, to the time it broke ground. FivePoints vision was steady and still is. Great things will come. I can understand you as well as our patients has been tested.

Those are fair points but the execs at 5P have been paid handsomely for negotiating through those hurdles. Didn?t their C suite make over $50m in 2016 or 2017?  Haddad is the highest paid ceo in the homebuilding business.

You are correct. CEO do makes great money. There are many CEO whom made lots of money and failed the company. Not only they walked away with a golden parachute, the company disappear as well. Ed Zanders, Motorola CEO for instance, it was the icon of mobil phone with the flip phone, then in the early 2000 it started to go down hill and ultimately sold off and so the name Motorola almost disappear.

I don't think he is failing his company at all...he is making them a ton of money by selling residential property...those make instant money. 

It's the BP/GP people that suffer. 

Wild Rivers is supposed to come in in 2020...I don't see how they can possibly do that.  Construction alone would take a year+

I use to drive to a differrent town, a different city to get a bowl of noodles of choice, or to a great steak-house because Irvine lack of it. Now I only have to drive to a different village in Irvine. I am not sufferring.

 

[Happiness]

I looked at Tim Ho Wan's website and they have locations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia, and the USA.

Doesn't Mainland China get any love?

 

[irvinebullhousing]

Went there earlier today. 11:17 AM to be exact. Use the Mcgaw entrance and parked at the church lot to avoid the chaos. Made my way thru the alley on foot without any commotion. Then as I get closer to the dumpling place, people already forming a long line outside and stretched all the way to BCD tofu house.

Given up on the ideas of eatin? dumpling, I went to the sushi revolving place for quick few plate to tie me over. 11:55 done and walk back to see what with the line at thw. The line still have not moved much. I decided to grab the menu to see pricing and option and use the bath room.

LO and BEHOLD, about half of the restaurant tables were unoccupied. There were plenty of workers yet the line is increasingly longer. And....people willing to wait. It as if that?s their purpose for the day is to stand in line no matter what to eat dumpling, no matter what it takes.

Then I had a flash back of the younger me, back in the day going out to clubbing and the line were horrendously long yet when you finally get inside, you like the only few people roaming around.

Is this intentionally done to create a hype? I think so. I can?t critique on the food yet because there is no way in hell I am going to kill 2 hours of my day to sample their food.

 

[Cares]

I went yesterday. Got in line around 9:45am for a 10am opening. I was lined up all the way past BCD. For the first 1.5 hours they weren't using Yelp waitlist for some reason so everyone was just standing there in line. I think at some point the property management told them they had to do something because people were walking in the streets because of how crowded the line was. Eventually they opened up the Yelp waitlist got my name on the waitlist around 12pm. Got a table and ate around 1pm so total about 3.5 hours of waiting.

Service left more to be desired. About 5-6 items were sold out. One item took over 1 hour to get to me. At least they comped part of my meal for me. Food was delicious though. All in all I say the food is worth the wait and I would wait again if it was for a "special" occasion but I wouldn't wait just for the heck of it.

Lesson learned is that you probably have to show up 1 hour prior to opening to guarantee the shortest wait...and also not on Mother's Day.

 

[eyephone]

Just me. I?m not going to wait in line that long. (does not sound like fun, but some people might like that)