Wokano

I’ve been eating dim sum all of my Chinese life, and Wokano is the best dim sum place in Philly right now. The service is fast and friendly, and the food is delicious. The dim sum is fresher than the overrated Ocean Harbor in Chinatown, and there’s never an insane wait for a table, since they have a huge dining room.
My family and I have been going to Wokano for several years now for dim sum and dinner. The dinner menu is also fantastic. We are always greeted with warm familiarity by the owner, who takes good care of us during our meals.
Most days the restaurant isn’t very full, but it seems the secret is getting out. I was there today for dim sum and the crowds kept rolling in.

I’ve been here a few times. Each time was overpriced. Here is today’s bill: $ 28.50 for the following: two plates of har gow (shrimp dumplings, 4 per order), one tofu skin roll (3 per order), one shrimp shu mei (4 per order), one pineapple custard bun (3 per order), one crab claw, and a Coke. WHAT!!! This food is seriously overpriced. The har gows are good, the shu mei is okay, the tofu skin rolls are seriously greasy, the crab claw was the most disgusting crab claw I’ve ever eaten. Perhaps the best part of the meal was the pineapple custard buns. I knew there was something fishy when the servers marked almost every plate as «extra-​large» or «large». Since when are har gows considered an extra-​large plate? This place should go out of business, the sooner the better!!! The only good thing about this place is the free parking. DO NOT GO HERE!!!

Let me start out by saying that my husband (my then boyfriend) and I have been coming to this place for years. It was a convenient locale for dim sum. It was «allright» dim sum.
Its not THE best.
I would give this restauarant a 0.5 star if I could. The food is good and crunchy (shrimp balls) but the service is extremely slow. It was terrible. I am not even joking! We were sitting for over an hour waiting to give our order. We didnt get the food we ordered. We just paid what we had: two small plate dishes and rice.
Very disappointed.
Its like they only have one stove top to cook each dish and only one waitress. I felt really bad for thr waitress. She was the only one running around. She was honestly the only one working. She was great. But she was gone half the time too– probably also prepping food in the back.
They need to work on a lot of things. Gordon Ramsey would be livid. I am sorry, but I am never coming back here.

This place had the shittiest customer service & the dim sum wasn’t even that good. They ran out of half the things listed on the dim sum menu. We contemplated canceling our order & walking next door to the phở place, but we had my father with us & didn’t want to inconvenience him. That’s the only reason we didn’t tell this place to kick rocks. Never going back though, that’s for sure. Too many good dim sum places for us to go back to this shitty place.

Good dim sum! Really great variety. I think some other comments complain about not knowing most of the types of plates but I think that is what makes dim sum really fun! There are the usual favorites like shumai and shrimp noodles but then so many more to try! I also think they are pretty inexpensive, but I could just be used to DC prices.

CHINESE FOOD AFICIONADOS ALERT: Wokano is woeful in its ambiance, service and food.
Not only is there no atmosphere in the huge room that harbors tables and chairs, there was little heat on the evening of Feb. 6, 2015, when my girlfriend and I sat to order a large bowl of Wonton Soup, Shumai, and the house special of rice, ham and chicken. Because heat wasn’t present, the soup and tea cooled off quickly.
Furthermore, four Asian kids between the ages of six and eight were running wild around their own table, removed from the adults, throughout the entire meal. Bad for digestion.
The service was slow and hindered by the fact the the waiter didn’t have a good grasp of English. Anticipating this, I showed him the menu and pointed to the dishes I wanted. Thirty minutes after we ordered and drank the cold soup and tea, and ate the less than tasty shumai, I asked him where the house special was.
He said: «You want it?»
I shook my head in disbelief and said: «YES!» When the dish arrived, the food was tasteless.
Never again.
Bill Iezzi

I come here only for their dim sum. I must say their dim sum is the best tasting compared to imperial inn and joy tsin lao.
Upon walking in you are seated quickly served with hot tea. Carts of dim sum arrives at your table as soon as your seated and you pick your choice. I usually get the pork and shrimp shu Mai, chicken feet, shrimp noodle, pork rib tips, and pork buns. I especially like the flavors of the chicken feet and rib tips. Other restaurants I’ve been to are usually dry and bland.
Service is ok.

I’ve been here before, prior to my Unilocal days, and now I remember why I don’t come here often. Our party of 5 came here for dim sum on Sunday. This is prime time for dim sum. This is where you bring your «A» game Wokano. Instead, your best efforts only got 2 stars overall. The food is 3 stars. A few dim sum staples are here, hot and in abundance. But damnit, I need more than just ha gow (shrimp dumpling) and the congee cart circling our table for an hour. Where’s the rest of the food?
The service is subpar. The staff here is pleasant but maybe just under staffed and overworked. It took them over 10mins to greet us and seat us. There were more than enough empty tables. After grabbing dim from the first 3 carts, we sat there for 30 mins wondering «is this it? Is there anything else?».
I Wish:
–more variety
–more staff
Tip: There are 2 entrances. The hostess only greets you at the entrance closer to the parking lot.
I left Wokano hungry and disappointed, again. There’s potential for Wokano to capture the dim sum market in South Philly but they’ll need to improve to steal some of the Phở & Vietnamese food market share.

Literally the worst service I have ever experienced in my life. My family and I came in that evening no greeted us. There were a lot of open tables, but we weren’t seated until 30 mins after. When we sat down the table was so dirty, and no one bought us any water or tea. We sat there for about 20 minutes and I had to get up and asked for water. A waiter came and when I asked for duck, he told me that they were out but he spoke in a very hostile manner. Since they did not have what I asked for, I asked for something else and in the middle of telling him what I wanted HE WALKED AWAY. Rude. After at least another 20 minutes (we have been there for an hour) he came back, and took our orders.
We waited for almost 2 hours before our food came. Our food came out cold? Like did they not cook it???
I paid $ 200 for terrible service and awful food. I’m never coming back.

Worst service attitude in the world of dimsum of philadephia.
I never give 1 stars like I give it here.
1. No one at the front to greet you when you walk in. Yes they are busy tending to their cash registers
2. Dimsum variety I can count on my one hand, literally only 5 dishes that I get is here and the rest I don’t know where they are. When asked for an item, they made it and brought it out with an attitude like I was ordering something out of the ordinary. It’s dimsum… It’s on the menu… Why the attitude?
3. At the end when we finished, we needed a box to put our leftovers in. The front desk is where we went to ask for a box since everyone else is busy manning the carts. After paying for the bill, the guy gave nasty attitude saying «there are no boxes here, you think we would put boxes here, they are in the back, where currently I don’t have time to get it, I am busy» with that while he was collecting money into the cash register.
I am sorry. This is the absolute worst treatment anyone can have when it comes to dimsum, actually, any restaurant for that matter.
If you want more business, don’t scare away new customers with your bad attitude. I am never coming back here.

I don’t understand why this place always take forever to have these carts rolling around the restaurant. They are always out of the food and need to make the new ones. Every time I’m there for dim sum, my table is either empty or with some empty plates. I’m always waiting for the food to arrive. I like their chicken feet, very well seasoned. I order two orders every time I’m in. However their shrimp dumplings and shrimp shumai tastes some kind of funny. I think probably the shrimps have gone bad or something.

Some harsh reviews on here lol. most are kinda true… probably depends on the staff that day.
I’ve come here many times over the years, mostly for dim sum but also for dinners.
First, the main pros of this place.
Location. This is probably the main reason my family goes here. The location is just convenient and parking is easy (come early for the parking lot, or there are some street parking around the corner). We come with 2 – 3 cars. so parking in Chinatown would be a hassle.
Space. The restaurant itself is fairly large so you have enough elbow room to eat. The place is fairly clean as well as the bathroom, and the décor/​tables/​etc are also up to date. The space also has WINDOWS. Natural light for brunch? Sure!
Price. The prices are decent. Some people will argue «you get what you pay for». I’ll discuss food in a second. Like i said earlier, my family comes here often and for the price and dishes we order, we spend a good amount less than other chinese restaurants.
Now, on to the food.
Dim Sum. I personally think there Dim Sum isn’t bad. Its NOT AMAZING… but its not horrible either. Whatever i order, i usually like. They have the main dim sums and they do them well here. (shrimp dumplings, chicken feet, pork ribs, etc). Are they the «best of philly» ?? No. i don’t think other dim sum places are always 100% consistent delivering their food. This place, however, is fairly consistent. I’ve never had anything cold served during dim sum… while other places have. There aren’t the newer options of dim sums so the carts revolve around quickly. The ladies are friend and know a little english. I speak my broken chinese and they laugh. everyone is having a good time.
The dinner here is pretty good here too. Although I haven’t had it in a while… the times i did, they were good. Lobster HK style, soups, vegetables, steamed fish, clams, etc… they all were pretty authentic and tasty. Again, were these the best of philly? Probably not.
The service is a hit or miss. Every time I go to dim sum or chinese dinner, i don’t expect 5 star service. hell, i don’t expect any good service at all. This place is the same. I think thats how all asian places are, so you either get use to it, or you keep expecting something that is just not ingrained in chinese/​vietnamese culture and get upset. What you should reasonable expect? Water, tea, ordering your food, and bringing your food. That’s what i call «good» asian/​dim sum service! And Wakano does that for me. You need a plate? napkins? chop sticks? Look at the next table and take it. Or get up and go to the area that stores all that stuff. Why? Because its faster and easier than complaining they are «horrible servers». I do it all the time. Bad manners? I think not… just hungry.

Wokano is a decent dim sum restaurant on 11^th street in South Philly. The parking lot here can get really crowded but there is decent street parking. The place itself is a decent size with windows all around which make it brighter and a better setting than most other dim sum places in Philly.
Dim sum is pretty much the Chinese version of brunch where servers will come around with different carts of food ranging from pastries to congee to steamed shumai. The menu is usually similar from restaurant to restaurant with a few being specific to that restaurant, Wokano does not have this and has one of the smaller selections that I have been to. The food itself is okay, edible but there’s nothing special I can say about it. They also do offer a variety of teas to choose from.
What makes Wokano appealing is that it is not in a busy area and convenient to get to. It is one of the few Dim Sum restaurants in the city but not in Chinatown which is can get really crowded on the weekends and tough to park at if you’re driving. Wokano, although not the best dim sum in terms of taste is easier to get to by car or the subway which lets you off 2 blocks away. The place is good enough if you want a peaceful meal and avoid the crowds on a weekend.

Went to Wokano for dim sum on a weekday lunch some months ago.
We tried lots of different dim sum here and it was all pretty disappointing, ranging from acceptable to unpalatable. The Lo mai gai (sticky rice with chicken & savoury things wrapped in lotus leaf) and Braised chicken feet were a couple of the better ones. The Steamed meatballs tasted pretty bad, as did the fish balls, which were mostly filler, flavourless, and also had a weird (bad) texture. For the dumplings we tried, the dumpling skins were rubbery and thick — when they should be perfectly steamed, thin and delicate. Other dim sum we tried generally wasn’t good, but could be eaten if you’re desperate.
If you’ve ever appreciated good dim sum, then I don’t think you’ll find it here. But, if you don’t care about the quality of the food (or if you’ve never had good dim sum), then maybe Wokano could be an acceptable place to go to for kicks.
Service was okay.
Food… not so much.

Service: 4stars Their service is actually better than most Chinese establishments. Upon walking in, I was kindly seated even though I was waiting on two guests. The server brought over green tea and water while I waited. All the push cart ladies that came by, were friendly even though I wasn’t getting any food while waiting. I guess I don’t know if this service is super amazing superior… or just that Chinese restaurants generally have rude service. nevertheless
Food: 3 stars at most
I enjoyed the crystal shrimp dumpling, shrimp fun, and shrimp shumai. They were good, pretty standard nothing amazing though.
The turnip cake was cold upon serving. It had the thick soy sauce, but no garlic. Again. it was cold. The best thing about the turnip cake is the crispy outside, hot mushy starchy inside. LE-​SAD. The pork was underseasoned, fatty and unremarkable
Convenience: if you’re craving Dim Sum on a Sunday. I’d just go here. Unless you want to trolley to Chinatown. AKA, if you’re DRIVING. come here. Much more parking (I suggest side streets, not that crazy clusterparking lot). Chinatown on a Sunday is straight scary. And I wouldn’t say this place is better nor worse than Ocean harbor.

This place has some of the worst service you will ever come across in your life. If there is any reason to come here, it must be for that blood-​boiling experience. I’m sure the waiters would prefer it if you don’t come in at all. Perhaps the restaurant is just a front and they have better and more lucrative things to deal with out back.
I have been to Wokano at least a dozen times and the service just keeps getting worse. Why do I keep coming back? It’s definitely not because they have good food, because although the food is edible, it is mediocre at best. I just happen to know people who like to come here… I guess they enjoy the empty space.
As of this last visit, I think the staff has given up completely. My party and I filled up two large tables during Sunday dinner. We were the only ones there until another family came in way later that night. The waiters left their order notepad with the menus they handed us. I would have taken my own order but I didn’t have a pen.
When I was able to flag down one of the three (clearly so busy) waiters to ask if he wanted me to write down my own order, the he told me he «could» do it for me. He gave me the impression that this was a favor that he didn’t give to just anyone. Wasn’t I so special? Then he took our order in a half-​asleep mannerism that clearly indicated he had mentally checked out — maybe a few months ago. Fifteen minutes later, I was able to flag down another waiter to bring us water. We were still the only people there at this point and the waiters were either congregating over at the cash register or staring blankly at walls.
When our food finally came out, the waiter asked if we wanted white rice or fried rice with our food. As I asked the opinions of the other people at my table, the waiter just turned around and walked away. I watched the waiters as they stood at the cash register with nothing to do, occasionally watching television or something on their computer screen. I waved my arm and one waiter eventually came over to take my request for rice. He then walked back to the cash register and proceeded to just stand there. He didn’t get the rice or tell anyone to do it. He just went back and stood there, with the occasional wall stare.
At this point we realized we were missing a plate and I couldn’t get anyone’s attention so I just got up to grab my own from another table. A waiter saw me and didn’t care — because why make the walk over to our table when the other side of the restaurant had walls to look at?
When our rice finally came out, it was four bowls short.
Their food is nothing spectacular. They do not have a single dish I would recommend. If you desperately need Chinese food, you should go to chinatown or just get takeout. Maybe their dim sum is better, but their dinner dishes range from bad to average. Some of the meats seem like they were just frozen and reheated.
This place is open late, which is probably good for drunk people or post parties. But if you are not a late night drunkard and just want to dine in the area, go to Nam Phuong or Viet Huong next door for superior food and infinitely better service.
Or better yet, just stay home. I’m pretty sure instant noodles come in a variety of flavors now.

If you’re feeling adventurous on a weekend afternoon, this place comes up spades. It’s traditional dim sum with no Americanization whatsoever. It takes a couple tries to figure out what you like, but it’s worth it for the experience. We like the dumplings, chicken feet, and shumai. The fried dough is interesting, and I love the vinegary dipping sauce with just about anything. Stay away from the stuffed buns as they tend to be a little dry.

We were wandering around on a Sunday morning looking for a place to brunch. The lines were too long for our hungry bellies elsewhere, so we Unilocaled to find nearby options and discovered this place.
There were two winners for me: the shrimp shumai and the congee. Man, the congee– cooked to perfection and with so much flavor.
Everything else was just so-​so, daikon cake was overcooked and cold/​not too tasty by the time the cart made it to us.
Prices are reasonable, there’s ample seating, and the staff is courteous. Won’t be my first choice for future dim sum, but glad I gave it a try.

It’s the on the corner of 11^th and Washington Ave. I’d say this is the best dimsum in south philly. There’s no line compared to chinatown but the quality is still good. NO LINE, I repeat, NO LINE. so yeah that’s all I needed to know.
The reason I’d give it a 4 is because service is kind of slow. They have all the dishes that the places in chinatown have but it’s definitely easier to find parking here.
I’d def come back to this place!
They take card too (might be a min like 15 or something)

Wokano and I, we have a history. It is a very long story involving a big group of unhappy people over food and karaōke. Basically every person we spoke at the place told us different things about their karaōke service. This was when the place first opened and they were terrible in term of service.
My current experiences with Wokano has been good because I only come for their dimsum, which is one of the best in Philadelphia base on taste, price and parking. Sure, places in Chinatown has more variety (but way too many for brunch), tastes good, but is super pricey and horrible for parking. Therefore I’ve been a regular at Wokano.