Truth be told, we were a bit wary about dining a Yum Cha restaurant in Chinatown. Would it be too touristy? Would it be authentic? Nonetheless, we ventured to Trengganu Street to try out this dim sum restaurant in Singapore; what’s more we decided to throw ourselves in and try its dim sum buffet.
Yum Cha Restaurant: Dim Sum in Chinatown
Yum Cha restaurant is located in the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown, along Trengganu Street, off Temple Street.
You have to raise your eyes upwards to spot the restaurant because it located on the second floor and the signboard marking its location is slightly above eye level.
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On the ground floor, behind the shop selling all varieties of fruits, is the narrow stairway that leads up to the second level where the restaurant can be found.
A wooden signboard greets with the words “Yum Cha” welcomes guests who join the queue to the restaurant.
In case you think that it is a small restaurant, it is not. The Yum Cha restaurant stretches across the second level of three or four shophouse units. There is quite a decent amount of seating available.
Dim Sum Buffet at Yum Cha Restaurant
The dim sum buffet at Yum Cha in Chinatown takes place on weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm. It is billed as a Weekday High Tea Buffet. Each seating is for one-and-a-half hours only.
We were led to our seats by our host and before long, our server, a friendly aunty, came by to ask what we would beverage we would like. We ordered a pot of tea through her.
The buffet items can be ordered via the phone. Once on the ordering website, we simply had to pick the dim sum and other items that we wanted, scan a QR code to confirm our table number and submit the order.
A robot with big round eyes helped to bring the orders to our table while our friendly server helped to unload them onto the table.
What’s on the Yum Cha Dim Sum Buffet Menu
There are more than 50 items to select from on the Yum Cha dim sum buffet menu. These include steamed dim sum, fried dim sum, rice rolls, congee, side dishes and dessert to end off the meal on a sweet note.
We were just there as a party of two persons. Many of the dim sum dishes come in portions of three. What this meant is that we were limited to ordering (and eating) what we could manage. However, if you really wish to try more of the 50+ items available on Yum Cha’s dim sum buffet menu, we suggest that you can organise a party of three. This way, you would be able to save space in your stomachs to sample more varieties of dim sum.
Nonetheless, we think that we still did pretty well!
Dim Sum at Yum Cha Restaurant
As with every good dim sum meal, we had to sample the staples of har gow and siew mai.
The Yum Cha Prawn Dumplings or har gow came steaming in a bamboo basket. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the prawn dumplings. There was quite a nice bite to the prawns and we enjoyed them, especially while they were steaming hot. We would rate the Yum Cha Prawn Dumplings 4 out of 5. The meal was off to a good start!
Next, we had a basket of the Fish Roe Siew Mai. This was as enjoyable as the har gow and we liked the taste of the siew mai with the little pile of roe on top. We would also gave this a 4 out of 5.
We moved on to another dim sum staple – char siew bao or BBQ Pork Bun.
We have tried our fair share of char siew baos. Some of them were too doughy and others really very small.
However, the char siew bao at Yum Cha restaurant surprised us. It was absolutely a delight. We enjoyed how light and fluffy the bun was. The filling of BBQ pork was not overly sweet either.
We found the ratio of the BBQ to the bun to be satisfying. We would recommend that you should eat it once it arrives to fully enjoy the bun. We image that the bun would get harder once it cools down. We give it a 4.5 out of 5.
Another staple of any dim sum experience is fried carrot cake. Just like the other dishes that we had had so far, the fried carrot cake at Yum Cha was good too. It was served in a little basket rather than on the usual plate that you would find it served on. We enjoyed the crispiness of the edges and the flavour of the carrot cake. We would give it a 4 out of 5 rating.
Even More Dim Sum & Other Dishes from the Yum Cha Menu
Each table at the dim sum buffet is allowed one order of peking duck. So, of course we had to place an order for our plate of peking duck.
Unfortunately, this was a bit of let down, especially after all the preceding dim sum dishes.
The pancake was hard, as if it had been left out to sit for too long, and this overshadowed the duck. It is probably hard to be good at everything. We would the peking duck at the high tea buffet a 2 out of 5. We would probably pass on it the next time we go for the dim sum buffet at Yum Cha restaurant so that we can save space to try other dishes.
Next, we ordered the xiao long bao. The taste of the Yum Cha version of this dish was different from what we were used to. It was kind of unexpected and we would give it 3.8/5.
The phoenix claw (chicken claw) was on the peppery side. This can be good or bad depending on your preference. We actually liked the peppery taste and give it a 4.3 out of 5.
The fried Prawn & Mango Sesame Fritters represented another strong come back for the food at Yum Cha restaurant. This was nice and crisp with succulent prawns kissed by the sweetness of the mango. We would definitely order this again the next time we come by to Yum Cha restaurant.
The chee cheong fun or rice rolls with prawn was acceptable. They were nice and soft.
We also ordered Meat Dumplings in Chili Oil. Those who love garlic will appreciate the crunch of garlic bits in the vinegary sauce.
Another unusual dish that we had was the Pan-fried Pork Pancake. This looks like a slightly super-sized curry puff. Inside the pan-fried pastry was a mixture of meat. This was well seasoned and slightly sweet. It was nice but we were starting to reach the limit of what we could eat.
Other dishes we tried include Beancurd Roll with Superior Sauce as well as Crystal Chives Dumplings.
They even have Daily Double Boiled Soup on the menu (but this is limited to one serving only).
To round off the dim sum buffet experience at Yum Cha restaurant, we ordered two desserts. The Chinese Herbal Jelly and Fragrant Coconut Mango Pudding provided a sweet ending to our tea time sojourn!
On the whole, the stand-out dim sums to us at Yum Cha restaurant were the har gow, char siew bao and fried carrot cake. We also enjoyed the Prawn & Mango Sesame Fritters and Phoenix Claws. The Pan-fried Pork Pancake was another pleasant surprise.
Get Your Dim Sum Fix at Yum Cha Restaurant
We enjoyed our dim sum buffet at Yum Cha restaurant in Chinatown and will be back again, the next time with a third person so that we can sample more dishes.
Yum Cha also has another outlet at Changi City Point. Find out more about Yum Cha restaurant.
Yum Cha Chinatown
20 Trengganu Street (Off Temple Street), #02-01 Singapore 058479
Tel: 6372 1717
Email: chinatown@yumcha.com.sg
Opening Hours:
[Closed on every Monday, except Public Holidays]
Tues to Fri: 10.30 am to 9 pm
Sat, Sun & Public Holidays: 9 am to 9 pm
Yum Cha Changi
6 Changi Business Park Ave 1 #01-33, ERS BizPark @ Changi, Singapore 486017
Tel: 6789 1717
Email: changi@yumcha.com.sg
Opening Hours:
[Closed on every Monday, except Public Holidays]
Tues to Fri: 11 am to 3 pm, 5.30 pm – 9 pm
Sat, Sun & Public Holidays: 9 am to 3 pm, 6 pm to 9 pm
If you enjoyed this story, we think that you will also enjoy this other story on where to get dim sum in Singapore.
