47 restaurants in 47 days: #21, Cho’s

Cho’s Restaurant
213 S. California Ave., Palo Alto

I’ve had this dim sum jones for a couple of days now. (Wouldn’t that be good name for a fictional character? Dim Sum Jones, Chinatown Detective. OK, maybe not.) So I went looking for this neighborhood institution.

You probably wouldn’t notice Cho's if you weren’t looking for it. And, as another reviewer suggested, once you notice it, you might think: Is this a restaurant, a tiny store, or a barely converted broom closet?

There’s just room inside for a one-man kitchen, two small freezers, and four tables, but there’s some cheap and yummy dim sum happening here. I picked out all my favorites for a take-away lunch -- three pork potstickers, three steamed pork dumplings, a steamed barbecued pork bun, and a steamed bun filled with sweet lotus seed paste –and paid just $5.75.

It was too much food, but I gobbled it all anyway. The filling of the sweet lotus bun tasted like honey. Craving satisfied.