Explainer | 5 budget Hong Kong dim sum restaurants where you can eat for around HK$100 a head, from old-school trolley service to modern and Michelin
- We try budget dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong, including traditional, contemporary and even one Michelin-starred outlet
- We score for ambience, price and service, and of course the food, from classic siu mai to modern deep-fried custard buns
Our brief: visit five of Hong Kong’s many restaurants specialising in dim sum, and keep the bill at each one as close as possible to HK$100 or under per person, including tea.
That obviously ruled out hotel restaurants and places where the tai tai set gather, where we’d be lucky to have two pieces each at that price.
As we visited the five budget-friendly establishments, we realised that dim sum has come a long way from the small steamed, baked or fried treats that were originally created to have with tea (dim sum is also called yum cha, or drink tea).
Today, it can be a full meal served at any time of the day. It’s no longer just a Cantonese thing, either: while classics such as siu mai (open-topped steamed dumplings) and har gow (shrimp dumplings with translucent wrappers) remain on most menus, dim sum offerings can now include Western touches, and various dumplings and snacks from other Chinese regions.
1. Lin Heung Tea House
Ambience: Old school and casual. The birdcages hanging from the ceiling and the traditional calligraphy menu evoke a bygone era, but the lively crowd of elderly regulars keep the place familiar and casual. Most of the regulars are chatting or reading newspapers.