San Francisco Dim Sum Guide: Chinatown and Richmond District (How to Order Like a Local)

San Francisco has some of the best dim sum outside Hong Kong. The combination of a large Cantonese-speaking population, decades of restaurant competition, and a customer base that knows what good dim sum tastes like produces a standard that most cities outside Asia don't match. The best restaurants are split between Chinatown and the Richmond District.

How Dim Sum Works

Dim sum (yum cha — "drink tea") is a Cantonese tradition of small dishes served with tea, historically as a morning or mid-morning meal. In San Francisco, service typically runs 10 AM to 2:30 PM.

Traditional cart service: servers push trolleys of steamer baskets and plates through the restaurant; diners select dishes from the carts as they pass. You wave down the server, inspect what's on the cart, and take what you want. The dish is stamped on your table card and tallied at the end.

Order-sheet service: some restaurants have moved to paper order sheets (less atmospheric but more efficient). You check boxes and the dishes come to the table.

Tea is ordered first and refilled throughout. Chrysanthemum (boeng faa), oolong (wu lung), and pu-erh (bo lei) are the standard options.

What to Order

Har gow (shrimp dumplings in thin translucent skin): the benchmark dish. The skin quality and the freshness of the shrimp indicate the restaurant's standard.

Siu mai (pork and shrimp open-top dumplings): the other benchmark. Often the first cart to make the rounds.

Cheung fun (rice noodle rolls): filled with shrimp, beef, or char siu pork, dressed with sweet soy. Silky and good.

Char siu bao (BBQ pork buns): baked (golden and slightly sticky, with a sweet filling) or steamed (white, soft). Both are correct.

Lo mai gai (sticky rice in lotus leaf): glutinous rice with chicken, Chinese sausage, and mushrooms, wrapped in a lotus leaf and steamed. The most substantial dish.

Egg tarts (daan taat): a custard tart in pastry, best eaten hot from the cart. The traditional finish.

The Best Restaurants

Ton Kiang (5821 Geary Boulevard, Richmond District): consistently considered the best dim sum restaurant in San Francisco. Cart service on weekends, order sheets on weekdays. Cheung fun and har gow are particularly good. Reserve in advance or expect to wait.

Yank Sing (101 Spear Street, SOMA): upscale dim sum near the Ferry Building, with the most reliably consistent quality across every dish. More expensive than the Richmond options but suitable for a business lunch or visitor who wants the full experience without navigating to the outer neighbourhoods.

Good Luck Dim Sum (736 Clement Street, Richmond): counter service only, takeaway-focused, cheap and excellent. The Clement Street of the Inner Richmond for neighbourhood dim sum.

Hang Ah Tea Room (1 Pagoda Place, Chinatown): the oldest dim sum restaurant in the United States, opened 1920. Small, traditional, in a Chinatown alley. More modest than Ton Kiang in range but historically significant.

Practical Notes

Weekend mornings are the traditional dim sum time — arrive before 11 AM at the better restaurants or wait 30+ minutes for a table. Weekday dim sum is significantly less crowded. Dim sum is a meal for groups — the more people, the more dishes ordered and the better the experience. Minimum two people; four to six is optimal.

Our Take

Ton Kiang for the best overall experience. Hang Ah for the Chinatown history. Yank Sing if you need a central location. Arrive before 11 AM on a Saturday with three or four people and order the har gow first.