Lin Heung Tea House (蓮香樓) has been feeding Hong Kong since 1926. The original was founded in Guangzhou in 1889, and nearly a century later the Central branch is still running out of the same corner on Wellington Street. It closed briefly in 2022, came back in 2024 under new ownership, and carried on as if the city couldn’t function without it.
Getting a Seat
We walked in, talked to the person at the cashier area and found a table near the trolley. Almost immediately, a waiter drops off cups, a basin for rinsing our chopsticks, and a tally card that tracks everything you order.
DimSum
This is the part that makes it. No menu, no ordering app, no flagging someone to come take your order. Servers stand by carts stacked high with bamboo steamers, calling out what they have. You walk over to one, pick what you want, and they stamp your tally card and move on.
We went with seven dishes between two of us, which was exactly right. Har gow (虾饺) came out first, shrimp dumplings with thin, translucent skin that held without falling apart. Shumai (烧卖) followed, steaming and delicious. Both are the obvious starting points.
The lo mai gai (糯米雞) was the one I kept coming back to. Sticky rice wrapped tight in a lotus leaf, steamed until the rice takes on that faint earthiness from the leaf. It arrives looking like a small parcel you have to unwrap at the table. Custard buns (奶皇包) made it onto the table too, the filling warm and just sweet enough to finish off the meal. We also got the spare ribs, taro and pork, there was also a small bowl of pickled baby onions that appeared.
The walls of the dining room are lined with traditional Chinese calligraphy and landscape paintings, and at full capacity the place holds 300 people across 50 tables.
Worth Knowing
Go before 10am if you can. By 11, the room fills and the specialty dishes move fast. Some carts only circulate once. Definitely go with friends so you can order everything.
Lin Heung is not the slickest dim sum in Hong Kong. The room is aged, the tables are shared, its loud and chaotic. That’s the entire point. There’s nowhere else that feels quite like this.
Lin Heung Tea House | 蓮香樓
📍 160-164 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
🕐 Hours: Daily, from 6am (confirm current hours before visiting)
💰 ~HKD 100 per person (~$ USD)
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