Dim sum

What dim sum is

Dim sum is not one dish but a table full of them: steamed, fried and pan-fried bites, mostly small enough to eat in a mouthful or two. Many are wrapped in dough or a thin skin, with seafood, chopped meat or vegetables inside. A typical brunch brings steamed buns, dumplings and rice noodle rolls, along with green vegetables, stuffed eggplant or peppers, roasted meats, congee and soups. Sweet dim sum can be ordered at any point, because the meal has no fixed order. Estimates put the number of types across China at two thousand or more, with over a thousand said to come from Guangdong alone.

Tea and yum cha

The tea matters as much as the food, and the two are named together. Cantonese speakers say yum cha, to drink tea, when they mean going out for dim sum. Teahouse owners in old Guangzhou began adding snacks to their tea service, and that pairing grew into the meal people know now. The old phrase for it, jat zung loeng gin, means one cup and two pieces: two carefully made items, savoury or sweet, set beside the tea. Servers may bring a choice of tea, often jasmine, chrysanthemum, green, oolong or pu-erh.

How it is served

A restaurant that serves dim sum usually keeps several dozen dishes on offer. In the older style, servers walk the room with steam-heated carts, and diners pick what they want as the cart passes. Many places now cook to order as well. Some serve dim sum from five in the morning until mid-afternoon, and in Hong Kong and Guangdong a few keep it going all day and into the late evening. Dishes are ordered family style, and everyone takes from the shared plates. Desserts can arrive at any time, because the meal does not follow courses.

Etiquette at the table

Custom says the person sitting nearest the teapot pours for the others, and a younger guest may pour for an older one. Whoever receives tea says thank you by tapping the table twice with the index and middle fingers. One story explains the gesture: an emperor travelling in disguise poured tea for a servant, who could not bow without revealing who he was, and tapped his fingers instead. When a pot runs dry, diners leave the lid open on a hinged pot, or push the cover aside on a ceramic one, and a server refills it.

Where it comes from

Dim sum belongs to an old Chinese habit of snacking. The Song court, which ruled from the tenth to the thirteenth century, is credited with delicate dishes such as minced pheasant and sweets of steamed milk and bean paste. Guangzhou was busy with trade in the tenth century, and travellers stopped at teahouses there for tea and small plates. When the Mongols invaded in the thirteenth century, the royal court moved south and brought court cooking to the city. Cantonese dim sum then grew quickly in Guangzhou in the second half of the nineteenth century, first from local food, later from other regions of China.

How Dim sum is kept

Guests sit down and choose a tea first. The person nearest the pot pours for everyone, and those who receive tea tap two fingers on the table in thanks. Carts or servers bring small plates of three or four pieces, and the table shares them; people take one or two pieces and pass the plate on. More dishes are added through the meal, from steamed buns and dumplings to vegetables, roasted meats and soups. Sweet items can come at any point, since there is no set order. When the pot is empty, the lid is left open for a refill.

When and where

Dim sum belongs to the morning and early afternoon, and is usually eaten as brunch. Many Cantonese restaurants open for it at five in the morning, and more traditional places serve it until mid-afternoon. In Hong Kong and Guangdong, some restaurants offer it all day and into the night. There is no fixed date or season for it.

Cantonese dim sum comes from Guangzhou, in Guangdong province, and from the teahouses of southern China. Hong Kong keeps it strongly, and it is eaten across China and in Chinese communities elsewhere, though only about forty to fifty of the many types are common outside the country.

What Dim sum means

To Cantonese families, dim sum is a way of spending time together: the dishes are shared, the tea keeps coming, and nobody is in a hurry. Travellers once used teahouses to rest and talk business, and the meal still carries that sociable purpose. The two old ideas behind it, one cup with two pieces, and dishes that touch the heart, put the tea and the company on the same footing as the food. Dim sum is also a point of pride, a branch of Cantonese cooking with more varieties than any other part of China.

Questions people ask about Dim sum

See also

Gongfu teaA skilled Chinese method of brewing tea in small teaware with precise heat and timingHong Kong tea cultureMorning tea with dim sum and milk tea through the day, in Hong Kong's teahousesTea cultureHow tea is prepared, shared and served, from Chinese tea houses to Tibetan butter teaButter teaA salted tea churned with yak butter, served to guests across the Himalaya

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• The yum cha rules you need to knowBBC, Article
• The Lazy Susan, the Classic Centerpiece of Chinese Restaurants, Is Neither Classic nor ChineseSmithsonian Magazine, Article
• The yum cha rules you need to knowBBC, Article
• The Lazy Susan, the Classic Centerpiece of Chinese Restaurants, Is Neither Classic nor ChineseSmithsonian Magazine, Article

• Dim sum on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.