Dim Sum Bar TST – Harbour City

Dim Sum Bar TST
This is post #27,  part of my #50PostsIn50Days personal challenge to document my first 100 days in Hong Kong. Other posts in this series may be found at the bottom of the original post.

It used to be that you could only get dim sum in the morning, or during weekend brunch hours. However, more and more dim sum focused restaurants, many with a modern Chinese twist, are opening up around the city.

It’s true that most traditional Cantonese restaurants still only serve dim sum during the day. However, there are no shortage of restaurants serving dim sum at night now. One place we visited recently was near our old apartment in Harbour City: Dim Sum Bar, which is located at the Gateway Arcade of Harbour City, but has a separately outside entrance.
The full-color menu has a lot of dim sum items and gorgeous photos, so you can almost order with your eyes instead of reading the menu (which is thankfully written in both Chinese and English).

The menu has a mix of more traditional dim sum items and more creative items. We ordered mostly the creative items, though we did try a more traditional Steamed Shrimp Dumpling with Cabbage and Dried Scallop ($39), which was on par with many dim sum places. Maybe it wasn’t the best shrimp dumpling I’ve had, but it was solid.

The Pan Fried Turnip Cake with Dried Shrimp and Eel ($45) was untraditional because of the Japanese-style unagi placed on top of the dried turnip cake. I thought this dish was only OK. I wished the turnip cakes were pan fried a bit more, and I found that the eel on top made the whole dish a bit too rich for my tastes. I actually prefer the traditional version.

One of the highlights was the Baked Abalone and Chicken Pastry ($53 each), a decadent mini-chicken tart topped with a whole abalone. Prior to this, the only time I had ever tasted this pastry was at 3-Michelin starred Lung King Heen in the Four Seasons. I will say this one is not as good as that one, but it’s still enjoyable and definitely more accessible (Lung King Heen is really, really, hard to book!).

I was drawn to these cute deep-fried glutinous rice crab baos ($42 HKD) filled with dried shrimp and dried garlic.

There’s actually sticky rice inside the deep fried crab bun. It was pretty good, though have carbs inside carbs definitely made me feel like it was a bit heavier and more dry (less juicy!) than if it had meat or vegetables inside.

For some reason I am always drawn to dishes with sticky rice. I had never seen anything like this dish: It consisted of two glutinous rice patties coated and pan fried with egg and then made into a sandwich with minced chicken and BBQ pork sauce in the center ($36).

It was a fun dish and the flavors were enjoyable.

The Stir Fried Bok Choy with Garlic ($52) was great and provided a much needed balance to the other dim sum dishes.

General Thoughts – Dim Sum Bar TST

All in all, the food at dim sum bar is good. They distinguish themselves from other dim sum places in that they serve dim sum during dinner and they offer more interesting, not-your-typical dim sum items. Food-wise, it probably wouldn’t be my first choice restaurant for modern dim sum (I’d choose Social Place or Yum Cha for that), but it’s still a perfectly good restaurant and I wouldn’t hesitate to come back, especially if I could come back with more people to try more dishes!

The major benefits of this restaurant are many fold. The location is really, really convenient if you’re shopping at Harbour City. Furthermore, the prices are quite reasonable for the quality of the food and the premium location. Finally, it might be easier to book than some of the more popular places.

Dim Sum Bar TST
Shop G103, G/F,
Gateway Arcade, Harbour City,
Tsim Sha Tsui
Open 8AM – 10:30PM