Yue Chuan at The Kingsbury JanadhipathiMawatha, Colombo 1, Ph: 2421221

Available only on weekends, Dim Sum at The Kingsbury come as part of a set menu, priced at Rs. 2,750. They’re prepared by a Cantonese chef, Chef Zhang Hui who chooses six dim sum dishes from over 50 varieties he knows how to make. While there are appetisers and soup to begin with, mains and dessert to follow, the dim sum baskets are really the best part of this menu.
On offer currently are delicious hargow – each delicately pleated white dumpling stuffed with shrimp.

There’s also chicken and shrimp shaomai speckled with orange fish roe and vegetarian qingcaibao stuffed with bakchoy. With the vegetable dumpling or sucaijiao it makes up the two vegetarian offerings. Rounding out the menu are two other favourites – fuzhujuan or steamed bean curd skim rolls stuffed with pork and zhenzhuyanzi, popularly known as pearl balls. These chicken meatballs are delicately flavoured and covered in glutinous rice.

The dim sum are served with pickles, nuts and sauces. Thin strips of ginger soak in a bath of red vinegar, complimenting the flavours of the dim sum without overpowering them. While well made, The Kingsbury’s dim sum suffers from the disadvantage of not enough variety while the portion of only 12 dim sum per head may leave the truly dedicated dim sum eater unsatisfied.

Warehouse Project Stall, At the Good Market on Thursdays, Battaramulla.

We’ve heard only good things about the Warehouse Project’s dim sum. They’re made and served up by Melissa (who is also known as the expert baker behind the Warehouse Project’s delicious cakes) and her mother Seeshio. Pre-made and frozen, they’re popped into a steamer in front of you and then served up with soya sauce.

On offer that Thursday was a choice of chicken and mushroom or chicken with seafood. The price of Rs.500 for five, confirmed that wherever you eat dim sum in Colombo, it’s an expensive undertaking. Seeshio obligingly set up a mixed plate, so we could try both varieties and while we preferred the chicken and seafood combo, we were actually rather disappointed with our shaomai. Though well made, the flavour balance was off and we didn’t even finish our plate. Considering how popular the stall is, you’d hope this was just a bad day – especially since all funds go toward a good cause. Even if you aren’t after the dim sum, it’s worth stopping by to taste the homemade gotukola pesto and cashewnaise sauce – smear some on a cracker, and nibble away.

Emperor’s Wok at the Hilton, Sir Chittampalam A Gardiner Mawatha, Colombo 2 Tel: 011 2 492492

At Emperor’s Wok, one of the most sought after dim sum chefs in town rules the kitchen. K.A Romlos has been making dim sum for 16 years and he’s elevated it to an art, producing some of the best we’ve eaten so far. It’s a buffet system here – you order whatever you’d like by placing a tick next to the dish on the printed sheets on your table. If you want more, you get busy ticking.

Dim sum are divided into with pork (5 varieties) and without pork (8 varieties), with soups and conjee as well as rice and noodles to choose from if you’re inclined to mix it up. It’s hard picking favourites here because it’s all very good but don’t miss out on the deep fried prawn toast and the deep fried seafood and crab claws. Oh yes, and the shrimp hargow dumplings, steamed fish fillet in lemon sauce, pork and prawn siumai, the steamed pork spare ribs in black bean sauce, BBQ pork buns, the Shanghai dumplings and the pan fried turnip cake. Dessert, a very light, not overly sweet mango sago, is a perfect finish to the meal.

Chef Romlos’ dining room is packed on weekends, with reservations running out by Friday, so book early. It’s expensive at Rs.2188 (that comes to around 2,800 with taxes) but if you’re willing to forego some of the variety, you can still have his signature dishes on a weekday for around Rs. 2,150.