Meet the restaurant that made me realize how delicious the Cantonese food could be in Orlando.
And since my first time eating here, I’ve been nothing short of impressed by the Cantonese restaurants in this city.
If you walk into a Chinese restaurant and “seafood” is part of its name, you can expect it to serve Cantonese cuisine specifically. This is likely because Guangzhou (also known as Canton) is located along the South China Sea, along with other cities in the Guangdong Province and Hong Kong. This prime location by the sea means the seafood in this region is always excellent, fresh, and pretty plentiful. Cantonese food is one of the most well-known Chinese cuisines in America — dim sum is most frequently associated with Cantonese cuisine. Many of these seafood restaurants do dim sum services, whether it’s by ordering from a menu or waving down the people who push the iconic dim sum carts. Ten Ten Seafood and Grill offers the beloved push cart service, so you’re never at a shortage of quick decisions needing to be made when you’re here.
During fall of 2021, my family came here once or twice a week. It’s not uncommon for Cantonese people to go to dim sum daily. People go with two or three friends, and they split a pot of cha and two or three dim sum dishes. Dim sum is designed to be shared — a steamer of siu mai may come with three pieces, for example. People may go to dim sum as a morning or afternoon snack, making dim sum an easy, delicious excuse to catch up with friends. Whenever we went to Ten Ten, we saw many of the same people with the same trusty two or three steamers of dim sum.
Ten Ten offers the beloved push cart service, so you’re never at a shortage of quick decisions needing to be made while you’re here. They not only offer basically every dim sum dish you’d want, but they also do it excellently. Might I make a case for the best egg tarts in Orlando, potentially in all of America? Continue scrolling to see what’s up 👀 However, like all dim sum restaurants, you can participate in picking dishes from the carts and/or order something to be prepared a la carte.
Let’s get to it!
It’s so simple, but it will always be a favorite. This har cheung fun, or shrimp rice noodle roll, is one of the most popular dim sum dishes, and for a good reason. Rice noodle rolls can be filled with anything, whether it’s beef, char siu, or youtiao (Chinese donut). Plus, once they’re topped with the sweet soy sauce, it’s hard to beat the simple, yet perfect match of rice rolls and sweet soy sauce. Regular soy sauce won’t do, yet to this day, I still don’t know exactly what kind of soy sauce dim sum restaurants use.
Ten Ten’s rice noodle rolls are well-executed, as the batter is always well-mixed, meaning the rolls are not too thick or too thin and are never doughy.
Tofu skin rolls have mixed reviews in the Liu family. Personally, these weren’t always my favorite, but my sister loves them. However, I now also really like this dish now. The tofu skin rolls are deep-fried, which puffs up/activates some layers and gives it the flavor of fried food. However, they are then steamed, which makes these rolls soft and slightly chewy.
When I say there’s no other preparations of seafood I love more than these two, I mean it!
The front dish, which is also pictured at the top, is bei fung tong 避风塘 style seafood. Bei fung tong translates into “typhoon shelter,” because of how it originated in Hong Kong’s typhoon shelters. This preparation can be ordered with any choice of seafood, but we always get it with three kinds — scallops, shrimp, and squid. While every restaurant does this dish differently, Ten Ten’s is deep-fried and battered seafood that is then tossed with fried garlic, onions, scallions, and chilies. The result is an unbelievably aromatic, deep-fried pile of crispiness.
The back dish is the classic Cantonese-style ginger scallion lobster, a common course in Cantonese banquet weddings. This deep-fried lobster is stir-fried in a ginger scallion-infused oil and is lightly seasoned with shaoxing wine and soy sauce. Ten Ten sometimes offers deals where they do these lobsters for around $25, although it is variable due to the ever-fluctuating market price of seafood. When these sales are offered, they’re a great opportunity to try out this incredible preparation of lobster.
Also known as beef chow fun, this dish is a popular Cantonese dish that consists of wok-tossed rice noodles, soy sauce, thin steak, mung bean sprouts, onions, and scallions. The ingredients are so simple, but requires years of perfecting a technique, according to my dad. This is because chefs need to develop the wok hei, or the “wok’s breath/air.” This article on the Michelin Guide explains it quite well. To achieve wok hei, chefs must use intense heat and have lots of stamina, because the food needs to be constantly tossed. While many professional chefs have little to no arm and hair, my dad always says Cantonese chefs are especially prone to this, because they constantly have their wrists/hands near the flames. Anyway, I digress. The wok hei produces a unique smoky, often caramelized, savory taste — it’s something that needs to be experienced to understand. I’m hungry just thinking about all the dishes made with wok hei.
Ten Ten makes a great chow fun, and I can’t wait to go back home and eat it. Over these past few years, it’s landed at the top of my favorite food rankings. This is my dad’s favorite dish, and eating it with him has made me a superfan. For fellow cooked onion/scallion lovers, you will be satisfied!
Yes…the best egg tarts I’ve ever had. Yes, they’re in Orlando, Florida. Please hold the chuckles, but I’m being honest when I say some of the best food I’ve had in my life has been in Orlando. Perhaps it’s recency bias or even the fact that I’m older and know my taste buds better now, but nonetheless, I absolutely adore the Orlando food scene.
These egg tarts deserve a four photo spotlight. I also included four, because it demonstrates their different look each time I go. You can tell these are made in-house because of that! Despite the different looks, they never fail to deliver on the flakiest crust and perfect custard. Absolutely exquisite. 🤌
Ten Ten remains at the top of my favorite restaurants in Orlando, because they always deliver on my Cantonese favorites at the highest quality. Coming from a Cantonese family, I’ve enjoyed my fair share of great Canto food. However, Ten Ten is special to me, because it solidified to me that I could find a home here in Orlando. I’ve since discovered several other fantastic dim sum places, but I feel like I learned so much about Cantonese food just from coming here. Fall of 2021 was the freest I had ever been, and I got to yum cha with my grandma and dad more times than I had my whole life before that. During these meals, my dad and grandma introduced me to dim sum traditions and dishes beyond my childhood favorites of cheung fun and sesame balls. I’ve felt so much more connected to Cantonese culture since we’ve discovered this restaurant — so Ten Ten will always represent the start of my journey in absolutely loving my Cantonese heritage.
Ten Ten Seafood and Grill at 5600 W Colonial Dr, Orlando, FL 32808
See you soon,
Carissa 😊