San Francisco dim sum is the longest-running Cantonese tea service in the United States, with carts at Hang Ah on Sacramento Street and bamboo-steamer counters citywide.

Cantonese tea houses arrived with the first wave of Chinese immigration during the 1850s Gold Rush. Hang Ah Tea Room, opened in 1920 on Pagoda Place, is the oldest dim sum house in the country still operating; Yank Sing opened on Stockton in 1958 and moved to its SoMa flagship in 2002. The Bay Area's Cantonese diaspora kept the tradition closer to Hong Kong than New York's, where Toisanese dialects dominated; that means more har gow, more cheong fun and less Americanised chop suey. The cart tradition is mostly gone (cost of waitstaff), but Hang Ah still serves a fixed steamer menu, and Good Mong Kok on Stockton runs the takeaway window the city actually eats at on weekends.

5 editor picks for Dim sum in San Francisco, ranked by editorial score. All San Francisco signature dishes · Dim sum across every city.