I wish there were more things I admired about New Kowloon. More than anything, I wish I liked its food. But multiple visits do not turn my desires into reality.

The restaurant specializes in Hong Kong-style seafood and daily Cantonese dim sum. A server tells us New Kowloon has both Chinese and Vietnamese owners. With its stately, traditional decor (gilded wood carvings of dragons and other mythic creatures) and ballroom-size rooms, it's perfectly positioned to handle big crowds for banquets and other gatherings.

Yet New Kowloon, named after the large mainland peninsula where part of Hong Kong is situated, is never packed. Not even close. During most of my visits, only a handful of tables are occupied, even during prime-time weekend dim sum service.

Carts roll by our table, and we point, and we taste, and time after time we are disappointed.

The most obvious and basic problems plaguing New Kowloon's dim sum stem from mishandling. The kitchen either is overestimating demand or just isn't getting items out fast enough. Having sat too long after cooking, deep-fried items such as Bee Hive Taro ($2) look and taste greasy and unappetizing.

Other items, such as Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce ($3.20), are tepid upon arrival. On one occasion I point out this temperature problem to our server, who asks: "You want it hot?" "Yes, hot," I reply. She takes the dish away and I wonder if she simply nukes it in the kitchen. At any rate, our broccoli comes back piping hot, a rare occurrence at New Kowloon.

		Loren Callahan / P-I
	Prawns with Snow Peas, left, and Clams With Black Bean Sauce are among the entrees at the New Kowloon Seafood Restaurant at 900 S. Jackson St. in the International District.

Some dim sum items I would order again. The congee ($3.20) cart is a good thing, even if the accompanying deep-fried Chinese breadsticks, resembling long donuts, are never hot and always greasy because they, too, are not fresh. (No matter that we ask whether they're hot and fresh. The cart person always says they are. And they always aren't.) Both a Chicken Congee and the Century Egg with Pork version are comforting and -- joy of joys! -- steamy hot. Some additional fresh cilantro for both kinds of congee would be nice, but that's a minor complaint.

Another good bet are the pale, flat, glutinous squares made from turnip or taro ($2.50), dotted with bits of red Chinese sausage. I know this item as "cake"; New Kowloon calls it "pie": Same deal. Add a splash of soy and you're off to the races.

Two other tolerable "large dim sum" ($3.20 each) offerings are Stuffed Green Pepper, crisp, flavorful green pepper topped with baked shrimp; and Sticky Rice Package, hot, compact sticky rice mixed with various meats and vegetables wrapped in lotus leaves.

You also can't go wrong with the innocuous Baked BBQ Pork Bow ($2) or Sesame Roll ($2) with sweet lotus seed-paste filling.

Avoid the dense and disastrous Shu-My ($2.50), the boring Steamed Chicken Bow ($2), the unpleasantly loose-skinned Shrimp Ball ($2.50) and the overcooked Pot Stickers ($2.50).

I have no better luck when ordering off New Kowloon's dinner menu. The flavors one expects in these classic Hong Kong-style dishes are missing or in the wrong proportions. I often feel as if I'm eating second-generation reproductions of the real thing.

Clams with Black Bean Sauce ($8.95), for example, sports some sweet bivalves, but the sauce contains too much cornstarch and too much grease. The pungent, salty black beans are too dispersed to give the punch I want.

House Special Chow Mein ($7.95), crisp, pan-fried egg noodles topped with various morsels of seafood, meats and vegetables, also fails, thanks to an overly corn-starch-burdened sauce.

Crab With Salt and Pepper (seasonal price) proves to be a small Dungeness crab, deep-fried, greasy and forgettable. Most of the salt, pepper and chopped garlic ends up on the plate rather than on the crab.

		P-I.

Even the better choices I sample require some tabletop tweaking. Hot and Sour Soup ($6.95) is good when made fresh to order on one occasion, but consistently needs a dash more soy and a sprinkle of white pepper. West Lake (Beef) Soup ($6.95) calls for more fresh cilantro and a shake or two of white pepper.

Prawns With Walnuts and Cream Sauce ($11.95) and curried Singapore Fried Rice Noodles ($7.50) don't require doctoring but remain pale, albeit palatable, versions of dishes I normally enjoy.

Which pretty much summarizes all my dining experiences at New Kowloon, except for the palatable part.

P-I restaurant critic Penelope Corcoran can be reached at 206-448-8391 or penelopecorcoran@seattlepi.com.

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