San Francisco's Chinatown, established in 1848, is the oldest Chinatown in North America — which means the dim sum culture here isn't a recent trend, it's a tradition with more than a century of continuous history behind it.
Two different dim sum formats, and it matters which one you're in
There are two distinct dim sum experiences, and they're not interchangeable. The classic cart-style format has servers pushing trolleys of dishes around the dining room, and you point at whatever looks good as it passes your table — it's social, a little chaotic, and largely about spontaneity. The newer order-sheet format has you checking boxes on a paper menu, which trades some of the spontaneity for the ability to actually get the specific dishes you want, since carts run out of popular items fast.
What to actually order if you're new to it
- Har gow — shrimp dumplings with a thin, translucent wrapper, considered one of the most technically demanding dim sum items to make well
- Siu mai — open-topped pork and shrimp dumplings, one of the most common starting points for first-timers
- Char siu bao — steamed buns filled with barbecue pork, available in a fluffy steamed version or a baked version
- Cheong fun — steamed rice noodle rolls, usually filled with shrimp or beef, served with a sweet soy sauce
A genuinely old institution worth knowing
Hang Ah Tea Room, tucked in an alley in Chinatown, claims to be the oldest dim sum restaurant in the United States, dating back to 1920 — a useful stop if you want a sense of dim sum history rather than just a meal. Good Mong Kok Bakery, meanwhile, is a well-known takeout-only spot where locals line up for cheap, high-turnover dim sum to eat on the go rather than sit down for.
Etiquette worth knowing
Dim sum is traditionally a communal, mid-morning-to-afternoon meal shared across a table of dishes rather than individual plates — ordering a wide variety in smaller portions is the normal approach, not an oddity. Tea is central to the experience too; the phrase "yum cha," which literally means "drink tea," is often used interchangeably with dim sum itself in Cantonese-speaking communities.