Yum cha in Hong Kong: Tim Ho Wan and Lin Heung Tea House

Where is the best yum cha in Hong Kong? For many, the answer is immediate: Tim Ho Wan. This small and non-assuming yum cha house shot to fame in 2010 when it was awarded a coveted Michelin star. Owner Mak Kwai Pui had credentials behind him. He was the ex-head dim sum chef at the Four Season's hotel restaurant Lung King Heen. He opened the first Tim Ho Wan restaurant in 2009. Suddenly it was heralded as the cheapest Michelin-star restaurant in the world.

Today there are five Tim Ho Wan outlets spread across Hong Kong and a further four in Singapore. The queues are relentless at all of them. There are no bookings. You'll have to turn up and just join the queue.


Tables and chairs inside Tim Ho Wan at Sham Shui Po

Sometimes you'll get lucky, and if you arrive outside of peak hours you'll be able to walk straight in. After a day of shopping in Sham Shui Po we realised that the original Tim Ho Wan outlet was only a few blocks away and managed to walk straight in at 3pm. We'd only eaten a few hours ago and we weren't hungry, but facts like that would always be irrelevant on this holiday eating-fest.


Har gow prawn dumplings HK$25 / AU$3.60

For most Australians, yum cha is all about the mad chaos of yum cha trolleys circling the dining room. In Hong Kong however, these are seen as gauche and old-fashioned, with the majority using a la carte menus instead. This means your food is cooked to order as and when you require. It also means less heartache as you wait for the har gow trolley to finally appear.

Our har gow order is the first to arrive, plump pleated purses cloaked in steam. The skins are thin and slightly sticky. The prawns are fat and chunky in size.


Pork liver and pork stomach siu mai HK$25 / AU$3.60

Did you know that slices of pork liver on pork mince are the original siu mai, a small side dish served with tea? Tim Ho Wan is one of the few yum cha houses in Hong Kong to still serve this old-style dim sum. It's rustic in appearance but there's a deft elegance to its flavour, the sweet softness of the pork amplified by the thin slice of liver and the tenderly simmered pork stomach.


Baked barbecue pork bun HK$18 / AU$2.60

But the most famous dish at Tim Ho Wan has to be their baked barbecue pork buns. They arrive as a trio although one could easily be tempted to polish off all three. It's a polo or pineapple bun,  a sweet yeasted bun covered in a sugary crust.

Inside the bun you'll find a filling of chopped char siu pork in a sweet and sticky sauce. And the verdict? It's kinda incredible actually. I had expected to be disappointed after all the hype, but there's a magnificence about the fluffy bun, the juicy roast pork, and the distinct crunch of buttery sugar that combines and contrasts all at the same time.

The price is pretty stupefying too. It's less than 90c per bun. I should have ordered and eaten three.


Inside the baked barbecue pork bun


Lin Heung Tea House


Lin Heung Tea House

But if I were to name my favourite place for yum cha in Hong Kong, it would have to be Lin Heung. This old skool tea house dates back to 1928 and it ended up being my most memorable Hong Kong highlight of our trip.


Tea, dim sum and newspapers 

It's important to remember that yum cha wasn't always the convivial weekend catch-up we associate with it today. Yum cha in its original form was about tea and a small snack for breakfast, usually eaten very early in the morning by workers before they started their day. Lin Heung maintains this traditional clientele. Sure the place gets crowded with Lonely Planet-reading tourists by midday, but if you arrive at 7.30am like we did, you'll find yourself immersed in a room full of Hong Kong locals, mostly men, and the majority aged over forty.

Noone's here for conversation. Noone's here to cluck over the grandkids. It's about tea. A snack or two. And reading the newspaper. 


Rinsing our tea pots and cups with hot water

Tea is fundamental to the experience. Choose your brew and watch the entire ritual unfurl. The tea man on the floor will rinse your tea pots and cups with hot water, a courtesy to make sure everything is clean and sanitised.


Doing the first flush 

He'll then do a first flush of your tea, a rapid pouring of hot water over your tea leaves to "shock" them open. The water is poured out and then a second pot of water is poured to begin your first brew.


Pouring tea from our "cup-pot"

I loved the guy in charge of tea the morning we dined. He was old, wizened and looked like he'd worked here for half his life. His uniform - marked with his own employee number - was well-worn and weathered. He was quiet, patient and ever-observant, immediately alert to any tea pot that required refilling no matter where it was in the cavernous dining room. And that kettle was the biggest I'd seen. It must have weighed several kilos but he poured the  boiling water with grace, never spilling a drop.


Yum cha trolley

Lin Heung still uses yum cha trolleys, seen as old-fashioned in Hong Kong. The women in charge of the yum cha trolleys have been here forever too. Pig Flyin' recognised almost all of them. They're notoriously surly too, easily frustrated by questions and exasperated by tourists who don't understand Chinese. They're here to dispense dumplings as fast as they can, with a barking efficiency that is as amusing as it is petrifying.


Bamboo baskets filled with dumplings


Fish ball dumplings 鯪魚球

Unless you're in a group of six people, chances are you'll find yourself parked at a table that instantly becomes communal. Every seat is money and so we had our breakfast with a mix of senior citizens, none of whom paid us much attention.


Pork stomach siu mai 豬肚燒賣

We ordered far more food than any other gathering. Most patrons will languidly snack on one or two steamer baskets as they sip their tea and read the paper. We stood out in our voracious appetite for breakfast.

We feasted on hearty mounds of fish ball dumplings, traditional siu mai topped with pork stomach, and the more recognisable wrapped siu mai, called dry siu mai here because it's steamed in a basket on paper, not sitting in a dish moistened with water.


Dry siu mai 牛肉乾蒸燒賣


Waiting for more dim sum from the approaching yum cha trolley

The yum cha trolleys do circuits of the room but once demand outpaces supply, diners have no qualms in chasing after trolley in pursuit of dishes. It's quite a sight watching a mob of hungry diners urgently waving dockets in the face of the trolley lady. Occasionally people will queue at the kitchen door, and we watched some dishes get depleted before they'd even moved two feet from the kitchen.


Fish maw with chicken

Rustic is the name of the game here. That means dishes of fish maw (the fish's air bladder) braised until soft and slippery, cooked with chunks of chicken and Chinese shiitake mushroom.


Ju cheung fun rice noodles with pork liver 黃沙豬潤腸

And forget about cheung fun rice noodles with prawns or beef. Here the most prized variation is the one served with pork liver, another textural contrast of silky rice noodles wrapped around earthy hunks of pork liver.


Towers of bamboo steamers on the yum cha trolley


Fried fish cake with pork rind wrapped in Chinese cabbage

We pick our way through thick slabs of fried fish cake, wrapped up with pork rind and held together with soft steamed leaves of Chinese cabbage.


Beef offal with puffed pork rind 牛雜豬皮

And I'm loving the beef offal here too, resplendent in its golden hue, that's been slow-cooked to a melting tenderness.


Yum cha trolley getting refills from the kitchen


Steamed dumplings in bamboo baskets


Duck feet with pomelo skin 柚皮炆鴨掌

Yum cha ain't complete without a steamer of chicken feet, I say, but here we get to upgrade to a basket filled with duck feet. The slender claws aren't as fatty as chicken feet but they've soaked up the soy sauce just the same. It's served with pomelo skin, the thick pith soaked, fried and then braised in soy liquid. The skin changes so it becomes more like a sponge, soaking up all the braising liquid and imparting a faint citrusy tang.


Steamed pork meatball with quail egg 鵪鶉蛋燒賣

Steamed pork meatballs are dressed up with quail eggs and we also relish a soup dumpling, a kind of Cantonese precursor to Shanghainese xiao long bao.


Soup dumpling in broth

The dumpling is huge, packed with pork mince and a pocket full of soup. The clear broth is wondrous too, sweet and fragrant with a nourishing feel.


Pork inside the soup dumpling


Is it dessert time already?


Deep fried egg crullers 蛋散

I may have exhibited crazy eyes at the sight of these deep fried egg crullers. They're light, soft and airy with a crisp edge and a slight eggy-ness. A drizzle of honey adds a touch of sweetness.


Steamed sponge cakes and buns

I braved the crowds to score ourselves a serve of mah lai goh, or Malay steamed sponge cake.


Mah lai goh steamed sponge cake 馬拉糕

It's a dish my grandma used to make, and with that first bite of fluffy steamed cake, I'm whisked back to my childhood.


Yum cha docket kept underneath the glass = no risk of tea spillage on the docket!

I could have spent hours here watching the locals pass through. It's one of the few places that resonated as such a unique Hong Kong experience. I was mesmerised by everything, from the crotchety yum cha trolley ladies, to the dockets kept under the glass tabletop to protect it from tea spillage, to the hardworking tea pot man. I loved that everyone had their heads buried in newspapers, that the room was loud and chaotic, and that every table was communal.

Our yum cha ended up at H$260 or AU$36 between three people. Bargain.

If you go to Hong Kong, make this the top of your list. And get there early. It's worth it. 


View into the narrow kitchen


Forget Instagram - everyone at Lin Heung is staring into their newspaper


Yum cha crowd with newspapers


Giant kettles of boiling water for refilling tea



Lin Heung Tea House
160-164 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2544 4556

Opening hours:
Yum cha daily 6am - 3.30pm
Dinner 6pm - 11pm




Tim Ho Wan
Ground floor, 9-11 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2788 1226
Open daily 8am - 9.30pm 

Also at:
Hong Kong station - Shop 12A, Podium Level 1, IFC Mall, Central, Hong Kong
Open daily 9am - 9pm

North Point - Shop B, C & D at Sea View Building, 2-8 Wharf Road, Hong Kong
Open daily 10am - 9.30pm

Mong Kok - Shop G72A and C, Ground floor, Olympian City 2, 18 Hoi Ting Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Open daily 10am - 9.30pm

Tseung Kwan O - Shop 49, Ground floor, Popcorn 2, 9 Tong Chun Street, New Territories, Hong Kong
Open daily 10am - 9.30pm

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