We took the East Rail line from Sha Tin down to Hung Hom to meet old friends for dim sum — and the first thing that hits you is the noise. A good dim sum hall is loud: a full room, trolleys and steamer baskets, tea being poured, half a dozen conversations at every table. That din isn’t a fault of the place; it’s the whole idea. Yum cha — “drink tea” — is a social meal by design, built for long, unhurried mornings with family and friends, the small plates arriving a few at a time so the table never really stops.
Ours did exactly that: the baskets kept coming — har gow and siu mai, char siu bau, lo mai gai unwrapped from its lotus leaf — and we kept eating, the afternoon dissolving into the pleasant blur of good company and too much food.
If dim sum is new to you, it’s worth reading up on the classics before you go, so you can order with a bit of confidence rather than pointing hopefully at a trolley.
The dim sum classics and where to find them: What to Eat in Hong Kong