Cantonese small-plate breakfast and lunch tradition: steamed dumplings, baked buns, rice noodle rolls and dessert plates served from rolling trolleys.
Cantonese yum cha arrived in Sydney with the 1850s gold rush Chinese community and the post-1970s Hong Kong diaspora. Marigold Restaurant on Sussex Street and East Ocean on Dixon Street ran the canonical large-room trolley yum cha through the 1980s and 1990s. The format remains the weekend ritual for Sydney families across Cantonese, Hong Kong and Vietnamese-Chinese communities; modern rooms (Mr Wong, Spice Temple, Yellow's vegan yum cha) extend the canon.
2 editor picks for Sydney Yum Cha in Sydney, ranked by editorial score. All Sydney signature dishes · Sydney Yum Cha across every city.
Mr Wong ★ 4.6
cbd · 3 Bridge Lane, Sydney NSW 2000
Merivale's 240-seat Cantonese basement on Bridge Lane in the Sydney CBD. Peking duck carved tableside, yum cha at lunch, dim sum on tea trolleys.
Spice Temple ★ 4.5
cbd · 10 Bligh Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Neil Perry's Spice Temple sits below the Art Deco City Mutual Building at 10 Bligh Street in the Sydney CBD. Regional Chinese, dark room, sichuan-heavy.