Yum Cha Restaurant

Yum Cha
A few weeks ago, we decided to take a trip down to Chinatown for their CNY celebrations. It is our annual pre Chinese New Year routine to be in Chinatown to soak in the Chinese New Year atmosphere.

See our post on the CNY celebrations in Chinatown

Yum Cha

Before we start our walk, we decided to have lunch at Yum Cha.The last time we were here was at 2009. We are pleasantly surprised that we could still taste the heart of Chinatown 4 years onwards. We did take quite a while to find the place, but once you spot the sign , it should be a breeze. Just look for the sign inside the five foot way along Trengganu Street. You will located the 'entrance' which is still a staircase to the restaurant.

Yum Cha

The definition of Yum Cha is as follows
Yum cha (simplified Chinese: 饮茶; traditional Chinese: 飲茶), also known as Ban ming (品茗), is a Chinese style morning or afternoon tea, which involves drinking Chinese tea and eating dim sum dishes. Yum cha in Cantonese literally means "drink tea", while ban ming is a more poetic "tasting of tea"(Source- Wikipedia)
The term Yum Cha is commonly used in Hong Kong to represent a Dim Sum Meal.

Dim Sum Card

Yum Cha restaurant serves mostly Dim Sum. So it is not surprising what we had decided for lunch

Prwan Rice Flour ($4), Custard Buns ($2.2), Egg Tart, Lotus Leaf Glutinous Rice ($4.2), Garlic Soft Shell Crab($8.5)

We must be pretty hungry as we took more than 10 dishes of dim sum. My favourite would be the Yum Cha Prawn Dumpling (I love the skin!) and Kor Kor one would be the Custard Bao. There are more than 50 dishes avaliable for order.

Pork ribs, Fish Row Siew Mai ($3.80),Prawn Dumpling ($4.60),Prawn & Asparagus Dumpling ($4), Xioa Long Boa($4.2)

The individual dim sum dishes were all taken from pushcarts. There will be roving pushcarts that will have different kinds of dim sum on it. They normally come according to types ( i.e. Steam dishes, fried dishes , dessert). Occasionally there will be staff carrying selected individual dishes ( usually the more expensive variety) around.

Push carts

You could also order off the menu. However we think if you do that, you might need to wait a while as most staff will be on pushcarts.With its limited staff, it will not be surprising if your wait is long and thus affect the view of the service standard. We would advise to just get the food off the pushcarts (Trust us, it is more fun doing it that way) since that is what they are known for.
We had ordered a dish (Char Siew Pastry) and it took about 10 minutes to arrive. We had almost forgotten about it by the time it arrives. So do set your expectations when it comes to ordering dishes.

The interior

To be honest, we are not food connoisseur. Since our parents are Scorpios, they are most likely to be impress with ambiance rather than the food itself. Given it's authentic setting ( in a quaint shophouse with a 'hidden' entrance, pushcarts and all), we actually thought the slogan ' Taste the Heart of Chinatown' fits Yum Cha perfectly. In terms of cleanliness, the restaurant was also well maintain and looks as good as our parents had remembered 4 years ago.

Lots of selection available

Price wise, it is rather reasonable with average $4 per dish. The premium dishes does cost more at $8 upwards, but they are generally bigger in portions as well. We had about 12 dishes in total ( Mom and Dad did not eat breakfast and they were awfully hungry) and the bill cost about $70.
If you happen to be in Chinatown for a trip, you may consider taking some time off to Yum Cha.