Yum cha isn’t what it used to be, but these restaurants are offering innovative menus to keep the tradition alive – with or without the trolleys.
Yum cha has changed. That’s the first thing you need to know when considering where to head for some leisurely Sunday dim sum.
The sprawling suburban joints with the powered trolleys? They’re few and far between these days. Instead, if a restaurant is peddling a yum cha menu, it will usually be a tiered-price menu that’s a variation on an a la carte menu, or a banquet menu that presents a number of dishes (perhaps bottomless, within reason) for a set price.
Southside and Central executive chef Benny Lam remembers yum cha quickly becoming part of his Brisbane childhood after he moved with his family from Hong Kong in 1992.
“My uncle had a Chinese restaurant in Capalaba,” Lam says. “Every Monday was his day off so he would go to Chinatown [in Fortitude Valley] to buy groceries and have a bit of yum cha.
“Back then, it was the Chinese chef tradition to go to Chinatown on Mondays because the daytime would be so quiet at their restaurants. So you’d go in, and it had this really good vibe because you would see everyone and talk about this and that.”
Lam reckons yum cha isn’t what it used to be for two reasons.
First, fresh dim sum is hard.
“Because dumplings are handmade, you need to have a large restaurant and a super high volume to make it sustainable. Even a restaurant like Southside – if we did just yum cha, we’d 100 per cent have to close in a few months.”
“It was the Chinese chef tradition to go to Chinatown on Mondays … it had this really good vibe because you would see everyone and talk about this and that.”
Southside and Central executive chef Benny Lam.
But also, fresh dim sum is popular, and long ago became part of the everyday a la carte menu at upmarket Chinese and pan-Asian restaurants, meaning the need for yum cha-focused restaurants – or a yum cha service in those restaurants – fell away.
Those that remain are a bit hit or miss. The economies of scale Lam talks about mean a lot of restaurants are ordering their dim sum wholesale, rather than making it fresh themselves.
Everyone has an underwhelming yum cha story. The following list is not that. Here’s where to get your yum cha fix in Brisbane.
Southside
South Brisbane east Asian restaurant Southside recently revised its yum cha menu, which kicks off at noon every Sunday.
It features a la carte menu dishes alongside signature yum cha items, such as goldfish prawn dumplings with tobiko, and panfried pork gyoza with a dan dan sauce and vinegar caramel. The menu is priced at $59 without drinks, or $99 with a two-hour beverage package that throws in house wines, tap beer and signature cocktails.
Where to enjoy it? Outside, in the restaurant’s bucolic fern garden beneath the train overpass is best.
63 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane, southside-restaurant.com.au
Ru Yi Dim Sum
A bunch of top Brisbane chefs will happily chew your ear off about Ru Yi – Lam, Stanley’s Louis Tikaram, and The Fifty Six’s Gerald Ong among them.
This is closer to the traditional yum cha experience, but with the trolley replaced by an extensive sub-menu of dim sum, tiered in price. Dishes range from a wide variety of dumplings (prawn and chive, prawn and water chestnut, assorted mushroom, to name a few) to pork buns, steamed chicken feet with signature sauce, congee, and rice noodle rolls.
Everything is housemade, meaning the dumplings are fresh and precisely executed.
Don’t be put off by the location within Calamvale Central shopping centre: the restaurant itself is a charming, comfortable little space in which to spend an hour or two. Just be sure to book because this place absolutely pumps most services.
Shop 59/662 Compton Road, Calamvale, ruyidimsum.com.au
Longwang
This slick CBD diner from Tassis Group bills itself as pan-Asian, but Cantonese is the cornerstone of Longwang’s cuisine so it leans hard into yum cha over summer, 11am-4pm on Friday and Saturday, and all day on Sunday.
Named Yum Cha Cha Cha, the menu features dishes such as natural oysters; a beef tartare bite with chilli kosho, chives and tobiko; a wagyu beef dumpling in a beef broth with chilli oil; and XO prawn toast. For drinks, there are wines by Counterpoint and house beers on tap, but you can add cocktail jugs or a premium drinks upgrade.
Yum Cha Cha Cha runs from December 15 to January 31 and is $68 per diner for a 90-minute sitting, or $78 per person for a two-hour sitting.
144 Edward Street, Brisbane, longwang.com.au
Landmark Sunnybank
These huge yum cha spots arguably aren’t what they used to be, but Landmark Sunnybank remains an institution in the southern suburbs, and at busy times, at least, you’ll get some trolley action.
Expect a yum cha menu with tiered pricing and dishes such as steamed spare ribs in black bean sauce, Shanghai pork dumplings, and steamed custard buns, along with barbecue dishes and seafood.
Just don’t leave your visit too late on the weekend – this place is immensely popular. Golden Lane, in the same centre, is also worth a shout-out.
101/358 Mains Rd, Sunnybank, landmarkrestaurant.com.au
Goodtime
This neatly designed little restaurant has quietly developed a loyal local following since opening in one of the old warehouse spaces in West Village in September 2024.
Monday to Thursday it presents its dim sum items as a banquet menu priced at $29 with any drinks order, or $69 with bottomless drinks.
Dishes include pork xiao long bao, crispy pork gyoza, chicken siu mai, salt and pepper chicken, and crispy fried squid with salt and pepper.
Shop T22/45 Mollison Street, West End, goodtimecheers.com
Stanley
Stanley runs a yum cha menu every lunch Monday to Saturday, but on Sundays from 11.30am it becomes more of an event with a yum cha banquet for $59, or a champagne option for $158, and DJs spinning on the restaurant’s riverside deck.
The menu includes dishes such as prawn and chive spring rolls; Moreton Bay bug spring rolls; steamed barbecue pork buns with chilli jam; and pork and prawn dumplings served with either an aromatic broth or spicy sichuan with peanut and sesame.
The champagne package adds two hours of free-flowing Louis Roederer.
5 Boundary Street, Brisbane, stanleyrestaurant.com.au
Yum Cha Garden City
This handsome spot in the Westfield Mount Gravatt dining precinct presents its yum cha menu as a one-hour all-you-can-eat (with a drink purchase) deal, with prices for adults $59 during the week and $69 from Friday to Sunday and on public holidays.
Expect the yum cha classics, from pork and shrimp siu mai and barbecue pork buns through to crispy skin chicken and a variety of cheung fun. There’s also a premium section limited to one order per diner – think steamed scallops in garlic sauce, crispy roast duck, and black truffle fried rice.
The fitout is a modern interpretation of a classic Chinese restaurant, with parquet floors, white table linen and red and mirrored features, making it a neat place to dwell over some dim sum.
Shop R6, Westfield Mount Gravatt, Cnr Logan and Kessels Road, Upper Mount Gravatt, yumchagc.com.au
Supernormal
A modern yum cha offering in all but name, every Sunday from 11.30am this riverside blockbuster looks not to just Hong Kong and China, but also Korea and Japan, for a tight menu of dim sum that changes weekly.
Check the restaurant’s website to find out what’s on that week but expect dishes such as Moreton Bay bug toast; vegetable dumplings with shiitake XO; prawn and chicken dumplings with chilli vinegar; barbecue pork buns; and oxtail dumplings with red radish and orange.
All are priced to be ordered individually to keep things approachable and flexible, and the a la carte menu is still available. In conjunction with the yum cha menu, the bar is stirring a tight, seasonal selection of chuhai highballs.
443 Queen Street, Brisbane, brisbane.supernormal.net.au
Donna Chang
This beautiful CBD restaurant feels tailor-made for a leisurely Sunday gathering, and Donna Chang has addressed that with a yum cha banquet menu.
There are three variations: standard, pescatarian and non-pescatarian. Expect dishes such as pork xiao long bao; Moreton Bay bug dumplings; chicken, prawn and shiitake siu mai; cumin-spiced lamb buns; prawn and wombok gyoza; and a sesame prawn toast with a seaweed mayo.
Donna Chang’s yum cha runs every Sunday 10am-12pm.
Suite 3/171 George Street, Brisbane, donnachang.com.au
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Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.