Can something so cute be edible?

Yum Cha is a restaurant contemporary Chinese Restaurant that added a playful twist to the traditional Southern/ Cantonese Chinese cuisine. Yumcha in Chinese means 飲茶, the translation means 'drinking tea'. It is because tea and food plays an equally important role in Yumcha and many believes that the tea balances or neutralizes the oily dim sum. 
In this style of dining, people would usually order what is called the dim sum, 點心. Dim sum is not just one type of food but it means a variety of small delicacies. Dim sum are usually served in small bite-size portions and it is usually steamed or fried. It includes both savoury and sweet foods. People would usually order the savoury food before the sweet, similar to Western style of dining (main course before dessert), but it may not be the case. There is no strict order of savoury food must come before the sweet, so sometimes people may eat a mixture of savoury and sweet dim sum at once. 

Time of day to Yumcha: ​Many Cantonese restaurant offers 'Yumcha' in the morning till late afternoon, which substitutes either breakfast, brunch or lunch. There are very few restaurants that would offer dim sum at night. 

What is special about this restaurant, Yum Cha?
This restaurant created dimsum that are not just tasty but aesthetically pleasing. It does not treat Cantonese food not only as a pleasure for taste but also for the visual. As you scroll to the photos below, you will see buns that resembles animals and multicoloured, ​

Pineapple pastry that shaped like sparrows and was served in a 'bird cage'.

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Hot Custard Bun that has eyes on top of them. When I bite into it, I created a cute animated character that look shocked. This bun is a cute version of the traditional Yellow Custard Bun(爆漿流沙奶皇包). Good custard bun should have golden sweet liquid coming out of the bun once the bun is broken. The picture on the left is what a traditional custard bun look like. 

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BBQ Piggy Bun. 
​This bun is a contemporary version of Steamed BBQ Pork Buns,Char Siu Bao (叉燒包). The bun is filled with juicy and flavourful barbecue pork inside. The picture on the right is what the traditional Char Siu Bao look like. ​​

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​Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll/ Cheung Fun (蝦腸粉​)
Rice Noodle Roll is a thin sticky rice sheet wrapped around filling. The dish we ordered above is a shrimp filling one. Some other typical fillings for cheung fun are barbecue pork, beef and deep fried dough. The image on the left is what the it would typically look like. 

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Egg white and Ink Seafood Fried Rice. 
This Fried Rice was full of flavour and the texture of the rice was just right, not too soft or too dry. I really enjoyed eating this dish.

Shrimp Dumpling, Har Gaw (蝦餃). 
The shrimp dumpling in Yum Cha is a multicoloured version of the traditional one. The traditional dumpling usually wrapped shrimp filling in a half white half translucent paste. But this one shown above and below has pink, orange and green hue on it topped with a brush of gold paint on each dumpling. 
The image on the left is what a traditional ​蝦餃 would look like. ​

Shrimp Dumpling, Har Gaw (蝦餃). 
The shrimp dumpling in Yum Cha is a multicoloured version of the traditional one. The traditional dumpling usually wrapped shrimp filling in a half white half translucent paste. But this one shown above and below has pink, orange and green hue on it topped with a brush of gold paint on each dumpling. 
The image on the left is what a traditional ​蝦餃 would look like. ​

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Yum Cha puts a lot of attention to details, the menu and the cutlery are just as visually pleasing. 

Overall, Yum Cha is a innovative dim sum place that changed my view on how I see dim sum. Since childhood, I see Yumcha as a traditional dining experience that involves a lot of talking with the elders, tea drinking and food of course, a place where family gather. But now I see it as a place where I can dine with friends and new dining experience that emphasis on the visual. I would definitely recommend for those in Hong Kong or are visiting to give it a try. (But do try to make a reservation or go early or expect to wait for a while) 

Addresses: 
1) Tsim Sha Tsui: 4/F, 20-22 Granville Road, TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong
2) Central: 2/F, Nan Fung Place, 173 Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong Kong

Opening Hours: 11:30am to 11pm

Phone: +852 2751 1666

Website: http://yumchahk.com/ 

​(This is not a sponsored article.) ​