Small plates and endless tea, taken loudly and early, and the single thing Hong Kong does better than anywhere.
Dim sum is Cantonese and Hong Kong is where it is best. The meal is called yum cha — drinking tea — and it is traditionally a morning and lunchtime affair, taken with family, loudly, in large rooms.
How it works
Two systems.
Trolleys — the older way, now increasingly rare. Steamer baskets are wheeled between tables and you point at what you want; a card on your table is stamped for each dish and totalled at the end.
Order sheets — the standard now. A paper menu with boxes, ticked with a pencil and handed to a waiter. Dishes are priced in categories: small, medium, large, special.
Tea is chosen first. Bo lei (pu-erh) is the default with dim sum, dark and earthy and good with fat. Sau mei, heung pin (jasmine) and tit kwun yam (Tieguanyin) are the other common choices.
Tea etiquette
Tap two fingers on the table when someone pours for you — a wordless thank you, said to derive from a Qianlong emperor story, and used constantly.
Leave the lid ajar on the empty teapot and it will be refilled without asking.
Fill others’ cups before your own.
What to order
Har gow — prawn dumplings in a translucent wheat-starch wrapper, which should have at least seven pleats and hold together when lifted. The test of a kitchen.
Siu mai — open-topped pork and prawn dumplings, usually with a dot of roe on top.
Char siu bao — barbecue pork buns, steamed and fluffy or baked and glazed.
Cheung fun — rice noodle rolls filled with prawn, beef or char siu, with sweet soy.
Lo mai gai — sticky rice with chicken and sausage steamed in a lotus leaf.
Chiu chow fun gwo, wu gok (taro puffs), phoenix claws (chicken feet, braised — genuinely good), turnip cake, spare ribs in black bean, and egg tarts to finish.
Where
Lin Heung Tea House in Sheung Wan was the last great trolley house and its situation has changed more than once — check whether it is trading before making a trip.
Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons was the first Chinese restaurant anywhere to hold three Michelin stars.
Tim Ho Wan started as a tiny shop in Mong Kok and became the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world; it is now a chain and the baked char siu buns remain excellent.
Maxim’s Palace in City Hall, Central, still runs trolleys in a vast banqueting room with harbour views, and is the easiest introduction.
Luk Yu Tea House, from 1933, for the room.
Timing
Traditionally morning into early afternoon. Popular places do not take bookings for small parties at peak times and the queue on a Sunday can be an hour — that is families doing their weekly yum cha and it is worth waiting for.
Go on a weekday morning if you want space.
