A detailed overview of how Michelin Stars are awarded

**Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong since January 2nd 1972 - I know the place.**

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The Top 15 Dim Sum Restaurants in Hong Kong 2026

A detailed overview of how Michelin Stars are awarded in HK

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The Luk Yu Tea House | Dim Sum Restaurant est. 1933 | Hong Kong

Ask 1,000 people and you will get 1,000 different lists for the best Dim Sum Restaurants in Hong Kong, this is my top 15 list, remember food is very subjective!

I do not do food tours in Hong Kong (and I have written blog posts on the reason why), I leave that to local experts.!

This blog post has driven me nuts because Dim Sum has a somewhat mythical statue in Hong Kong, it is such a subjective matter, do a Google or AI search and you will get different results depending on how you phrase the question particularly when it comes to a list of the best Dim Sum Restaurants in Hong Kong… just about every online publication you can think of has posted a list and every single one of them is different as they depend on the point of view of the person that has curated the list.

Over the decades I have had to listen to my wife’s relatives (a very large % are Hong Kong Chinese) telling me to try dishes that would make a dead dog barf and that is the real issue

I am very, very fussy when it comes to food and my basic rule of thumb is never to go out of my comfort zone and I have annoyed many friends and family members over the years for refusing (for example) to eat a fishes eyeballs, I hate fatty foods and anything with bones, I do not like a lot of seafood and I refuse to eat offal and a lot of street food I will simply refuse to eat it because it looks and smells disgusting and do not get me started on spicy food!

Hong Kong has 17,150 (ish) restaurants in Hong Kong that are licenced as of December 2025 and a significant number of unlicenced restaurants and I reckon I have eaten at close to 1,400 restaurants in Hong Kong since 1972

I have eaten at 12 of the 15 restaurants on the list below and there are probably another 20 I could have included! ( you have to draw the line somewhere.)

Trust me, this does NOT make me an expert on food, food is a very polarising subject in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Chinese folk here, well food is a religion and rightly so, for Non Chinese people the diversity of restaurants here is simply amazing.

A lot of my friends who do tours, do awesome food tours and I can guarantee that they will totally disagree with my list! I know that a lot of food tours here will include stops for street food and at what I call very local restaurants where there might not be an English menu or English speaking staff, I am probably wrong on this but sometimes I have the slight suspicion that they deliberately choose a particular restaurant that looks really dodgy and “local” because they do not want to frequent a restaurant that is full tourists.

I can certainly appreciate this - if you read a lot of Tripadvor reviews for example, a lot of tourists will mention that there was no tourists present and they loved that it was a really local experience, I have been there done that and wore the t shirt after living here for over 50 years.

…. and no, I do not speak Cantonese nor can I read Chinese, I do not have the language gift but my wife and her family are all fluent in Cantonese.

My view is that the quality of the food is paramount and it has to be reasonably priced and in an easy to get to location and I have no interest in talking to the chef or getting the history of the ingredients or the history of the food with regards to Chinese Culture, that is best left to the experts and I am not a food expert and yes, this is why food tours are incredibly popular in Hong Kong and yes, I have links to the 3 best food tour companies at the end of this post.

Despite my comments I must stress that a lot Chinese food I just love and there are very few Dim Sum dishes I will not eat and I have eaten at some of the most hightly rated Dim Sum Restaurants in Hong Kong and yes including those with 3 Michelin Stars and prices that make your eyes water,

So my point is very simple, you can never even get 2 people to agree on food they eat in restaurants, if you have a group of 10 people, 4 will say it was great, 4 will say it is ok and 2 will complain bitterly

You also have to take into account that in modern times many people have very real food allergies, some are vegetarians and many like me are very fussy and a big issue that most food tour companies will not talk about is that Dim Sum means eating a wide variety of dishes and in my experience some will be great and some will not hit the spot and that can affect your overall impression of your food experience, just take into account you cannot judge the experience in a Dim Sum Place on just one dish.

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Dim Sum Restaurants | Jamie’s Top 15 List | Hong Kong

Typical Local Dim Sum in Hong Kong

Maxims Palace at City Hall in Hong Kong

Lobster Soup Dumpling at Mott 32

One Dim Sum - very popular restaurant

Din Tai Fung - awesome Soup Dumplings

Ding Dim 1968 - not as touristy as your think

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Dim Sum Restaurants | Popular Places | Hong Kong

Dim Sum is the sacred Hong Kong ritual of yum cha, friends and guests gathering together to dine on dim sum bites, has become enshrined in the unique culture of Hong Kong - talk about high expectations!

I am also sad to say that my families favourite Dim Sum place in the Prudential Centre in Jordan, on Nathan Road has closed down, it was called the Majesty Chinese Restaurant and our family had being going there for decades, I was there 3 months ago with 30 other family members

Three of my favourite Dim Sum Places did not make my list for very specific reasons

• Maxims Palace Restaurant at City Hall in the Central Business District, I have been going there frequently since it opened in 1980, it is beyond iconic, it is huge and the Dim Sum is amazing but it is very expensive and 7 days a week there are long lines at lunchtime (no reservations) but I just love the place

• Mott 32 - the greatest ever dish I have had in any restaurant was the Lobster Bisque Soup Dumplings (which is one piece in a large dish) I experienced it with some guests from the USA and all of us had 3 pieces each (luckily my guests treated me and to be fair they did not bat an eyelid when the bill came!) It is also located in the Central Business District

• Din Tai Fung - has always (and still is) my default restaurant for Dim Sum and is located at Silvercord Mall in TST Kowloon, so very easy to get to and it is amazing for lunch and dinner but for Hong Kong people it is NOT traditional Dim Sum you get in Hong Kong. It is a Taiwanese Chain, it has a massive menu in English and it tells you exactly what the ingredients are in the dish with simple symbols, so if you are allergic to certain types of seafood or you do not eat pork or you are simply a vegan then this place has you covered. I have never had a bad meal there and all my guests loved the food quality and huge choice of Dim Sum and such.

I would also mention that I have a soft spot for the Luk Yu Tea House which is in a very convenient location in the Central Business District, it is old school (it opened in 1933) and I have always enjoyed going there even if it is a tad expensive.

,,, and yes there are some famous Dim Sum restaurants that I do not like at all, they are all famous, quite large and very local and very popular which means they are jam packed and I simply do not like the crowds and the slow service, but hey that’s just me.

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Dim Sum Restaurants | Michelin Guide Awards | Hong Kong

Another point I need to raise and please appreciate that is simply a personal point of view is that if you are a slave to review sites such as Tripadvisor or Open Rice Hong Kong then you have to take a lot of negative reviews with a pinch of salt (!)

I feel sorry for a lot of restaurants, they could have the greatest food in the world but there are people who will trash them and the better your reputation you have (and or the number of Michelin Stars) then you are guaranteed some very nasty reviews.

I look at it logically, we have over 8 billion people on the planet and therefore 8 billion different opinions on food.

We have some very pretensious people in Hong Kong (food critics and such) - one of my favourites quotes was made by a Food Tour Company and one of their expert gourmet guides loved to “deconstruct a bowl of wonton noodles” as if it was some sort of mythical dish eaten by Royalty and such. (and Maks noodles, a small chain here has some terrific wonton noodles at a very reasonable point) no need to deconstruct just enjoy the whole slurping experience!

“Yes, it's true that some Hong Kong restaurants have closed after getting Michelin stars, a phenomenon sometimes called the "Michelin Kiss of Death," due to intense pressure, sudden rent hikes from landlords anticipating higher profits (like Kai Kai Dessert), unsustainable business models (like D.H.K. owing salaries), changing market demands, and high operating costs making it hard to balance quality with profitability. The award brings fame but also immense operational challenges, leading some to shut down despite the prestige” a response to a question I posed!

How about that then! I would also ask you to please have a read of this detailed breakdown of the whole Michelin Star process which is a worldwide standard, not just Hong Kong specific

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The Criteria | Michelin Guide Awards | Hong Kong

Above is the very specific list of criteria when it comes to awarding restaurants a coveted Michelin Star Award in any category, I had absolutely no idea of the criteria nor its complexity!

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Curated List of Restaurants | Michelin Guide Awards | Hong Kong

For the complete list of all Michelin starred restaurants in Hong Kong please go their site, there is link button directly under my photograph at the top of this page.

The 3 Best Food Tour Companies in Hong Kong

Below please find links to the 3 best food tour companies in Hong Kong | They are my great friends and I have worked closely with all three of them for well over a decade - I highly recommend them

Please note that I do not, nor have I ever done food tours in Hong Kong, best left to the experts, all of them have a top notch team of guides, all there of them do private tours and group tours and none of them will fill your head with pretentious waffle

A special mention to Amy of Hong Kong Greeters who also does a specific Vegetarian Food Tour which is very popular.

Learn more | The Best Food Tours in Hong Kong 1 - Hong Kong Foodie Tours

Learn More | The Best Food Tours in Hong Kong 2 - Hello Hong Kong

Learn more | The Best Food Tours in Hong Kong 3 - Hong Kong Greeters