Hong Kong Dim Sum Institution Lin Heung Tea House Not Closing Down After All

If you've holidayed in Hong Kong, chances are you’d have visited — or at least been recommended to visit — Lin Heung Tea House. The 93-year-old, double-storey dim sum institution on Wellington Street in the Central district is famed for its authentic yum cha experience: its dim sum is served piping hot in bamboo steamers which you have to get, we mean snatch, yourself from the traditional pushcarts pushed by curmudgeonly servers making their rounds in the restaurant. After you’ve jostled with other hungry diners (both scarily aggressive tourists and local regulars alike) for your desired dishes, the pushcart auntie stamps your orders on a bingo-like card to track your bill. Part of Lin Heung's charm is also due to the fact that its retro dining room looks like a Cantonese movie set from the '30s or '40s.

Early last year, the Hong Kong media shocked Lin Heung’s fans by reporting that the tea house is shuttering at the end of this month after decades of being in business. The decision to close apparently came about after Lin Heung was unable to renew its two-year lease with its new landlord.

The prime CBD location building housing Lin Heung was reportedly taken over by a property development company, which had planned to demolish the building to make way for a new commercial high-rise. Upon hearing news of its impending closure, Lin Heung’s customers flocked to the restaurant for one last plate of char siew bao, its famously fluffy malai gao, chicken feet and shrimp cheong fun rolls.

But plot twist! It was reported by TimeOut Hong Kong yesterday (February 27) that Lin Heung Tea House is not closing down for good after all. In fact, it will continue to operate under its current team of longtime employees, after the restaurant managed to renew its lease for another three years. Whew.

There were some changes made to the restaurant, though. Following a brief one-day closure today (February 28), Lin Heung Tea House will reopen with a new name, Lin Heung Tea Room, and dinner service will no longer be offered.

Otherwise, it seems like you will still be able to ‘enjoy’ the same chaotic experience of dining at Lin Heung. It takes a masochistic diner to appreciate the drama of finding seats at the perpetually crowded, noisy and not quite sanitary dining room. You need a special kind of mettle to duke it out, Hunger Games-style, with the other customers for first dibs on the fresh dim sum when they are randomly wheeled out from the kitchen on pushcarts. Forget decorum; it’s every man for himself at Lin Heung when it comes to getting your choice morsel. Where’s the siew mai cart? OMG the har gow pushcart is here, gotta run.

And be prepared to share seats with strangers at greasy tables (that grimy floor needs some serious scrubbing). All that aside, it's still a charming experience — especially if you go early around 7am to 8am for breakfast, before the tourist hordes descend. That's when you'll rub shoulders with calmer, friendlier local regulars who might even chat with you.

The notorious service standard at Lin Heung is oft complained about, too. Don’t expect pleasant staff patiently taking your orders tableside. Sometimes, you'll be ignored (especially if you aren't a regular). Lin Heung’s elderly waitstaff, most of whom we’ve regularly seen for the past 10 years that we've been dining there, is ruthlessly efficient and gruff, though inherently caring. We once overheard a pushcart auntie drawling in Cantonese affectionately to a customer: “Eh you always eat char siew buns, how come today never order? Saw a ghost ah?”

But we say it ain’t a classic adrenaline-fuelled Hong Kong yum cha sesh till a harried Lin Heung waiter screams in your face: “Quick! What tea you want?!”

Lin Heung Tea House, 162 Wellington St, Central, Hong Kong. Tel: +852 2544-4556.

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