Yum Cha Chinatown

Yum Cha Restaurant

Yum Cha
A few weeks ago, we decided to take a trip down to Chinatown for their CNY celebrations. Of course, 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 started our walk, we decided to have lunch at Yum Cha. The last time we were here was in 2009. We are pleasantly surprised that we can 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 movement inside the five-foot way along Trengganu Street. You will locate 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)
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 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 available for order.

Pork ribs, Fish Row Siew Mai ($3.80), Prawn Dumpling ($4.60), Prawn & Asparagus Dumpling ($4), Xiao 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 them. They usually come according to types ( i.e. Steam dishes, fried dishes, desserts). Occasionally, staff will carry selected individual containers ( usually the more expensive variety) around.

Push carts

You could also order off the menu. However, if you do that, you might need to wait a while as most staff will be on pushcarts. With its limited team, it will not be surprising if your wait is long and thus affect the view of the service standard. We recommend getting 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) that took about 10 minutes to arrive. We had almost forgotten about it by the time it arrived. So do set your expectations when it comes to ordering dishes.

The interior

To be honest, we are not food connoisseurs. Since our parents are Scorpios, they are most likely to be impressed with the ambience rather than the food itself. However, given its authentic setting ( in a quaint shophouse with a 'hidden' entrance, pushcarts and all), the slogan ' Taste the Heart of Chinatown' fits Yum Cha perfectly. Regarding cleanliness, the restaurant was also well maintained and looked as good as our parents had remembered 4 years ago.

Price-wise, it is relatively reasonable, with an average of $4 per dish. The premium plates cost more at $8 upwards, but they are generally bigger in portions. We had about 12 words ( Mom and Dad did not eat breakfast, and they were starving), and the bill cost about $70.
If you are in town for a trip, you may take some time off to Yum Cha.

The Little Details

Yum Cha Chinatown 20 Trengganu Street

#02-01Tel :63721717

*PS This is not a sponsored post.

*PSS We wish it was...