The metro loses a Gimme Sum but gains dim sum at the newest Bo Lings

Before Nathan and Mendy Tannahill, the owners of Tannahs Asian Fusion, decided to give their restaurant its current name (see review here), it was a franchise of the Gimme Sum chain. The name always struck me as a classless pun on the Chinese tradition of dim sum, which involves servers pushing metal carts around a restaurant, allowing diners to take their choice of tiny dishes — frequently light, snack-sized dumplings, rolls, porridges and buns that can be eaten with tea. Over the years, I've seen several translations of the Cantonese phrase dim sum: "Touch the heart," "order to your heart's content" and "little tokens" among them.

Even though his restaurant is no longer associated with the chain, Nathan Tannahill hasn't completely abandoned the idea of small plates. "We don't have an extensive dim sum selection," he tells me, "but we do offer hand-rolled spring rolls and pot stickers."

That's not really dim sum in my book. I'm no expert on the subject, but I've long enjoyed the bustling dim sum service at Bo Lings on the Country Club Plaza (4800 Main). For years, that location and the Bo Lings at 9055 Metcalf have offered the metro's most formal dim sum affairs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

Now the newest Bo Lings location, in the City Market (20 East Fifth Street), offers a surprisingly full menu of dim sum choices — minus the carts — every day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bo Lings owner Richard Ng admits that most of his patrons prefer the cart service. However, he says, "We do have customers who crave dim sum right away, so they're happy about the dim sum menu."

It's not a cheap meal, which is why it's best to put together a small group to share these dainty plates of steamed roast-pork buns, steamed chicken feet, shrimp balls, pan-fried funn rolls and caramel custard. I was craving dim sum myself one day last week, but because I was dining solo, I ordered only one dish off the dim sum menu — a fried scallion pancake — along with my more traditional lunch. At Bo Lings, this light, flaky pancake looks more like a doughnut, but it was sum-thing else, I promise you.