Best Dim Sum in Toronto: Three Tables and a Chinatown Story

The best dim sum morning starts with a small plan: one friend per dish you want to try, and a big pot of tea in the middle of the table.

This is a guide built around the dish and its Toronto story, not a ranking. We confirmed three downtown-area tables are taking guests or orders right now, and we are adding more rooms, Scarborough included, as we confirm them. For the wider menu of the city, start with our guide to what to eat in Toronto.

What is dim sum, and how do you order it?

Britannica describes dim sum as a collective term for a broad assortment of small dishes of probable Cantonese origin, now a staple of Chinese restaurants around the world. Rolling trolleys are one way to serve it, and another is a printed card where you tick off what you want. Britannica groups the dishes into two broad families, steamed and fried, with char siu bao and siu mai among the steamed classics.

The name comes from the Cantonese word for “appetizer,” and the dish is thought to have begun in teahouses as a light accompaniment to tea. In Cantonese cuisine it is traditionally served for breakfast and lunch in restaurants. So go early in the day and treat the teapot as part of the meal.

That tells you how to order. Pick one steamed dish, one fried dish, and one thing you cannot pronounce yet. Then order a second round once the first has landed.

How did dim sum land in Toronto?

The story of where to eat it in Toronto follows the story of Chinatown. The City of Toronto Archives shows that by 1909 a Chinatown had emerged on Elizabeth Street, north of Queen Street. Decades later, in 1967, as Canada’s immigration laws let more Chinese immigrants enter, mostly from Hong Kong, the City of Toronto Archives records that a new Chinatown emerged around Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street. Two of our three tables are in Chinatown today.

The city’s map of Cantonese cooking did not stop at Dundas. A 1996 Statistics Canada report, cited by the Archives, showed large numbers of Chinese residents in Scarborough, Richmond Hill and Markham. The Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto opened Phase One in Scarborough in 1998. It is one reason the Toronto dim sum map reaches well beyond downtown.

Which dim sum tables should you start with?

1

Lai Wah Heen

DowntownOfficial site Share

Lai Wah Heen opened in 1995 as a white-tablecloth dim sum restaurant inside the Toronto Metropolitan Hotel, and it offered a refined, cartless style of dim sum. Toronto Life reported on July 11, 2025 that it was welcoming diners again in the same location, now a DoubleTree by Hilton, with the same layout. Toronto Life describes the daytime menu as focused on artfully prepared dim sum classics. The name means “a luxurious meeting place,” according to its OpenTable profile, which is a fair description of a table built for a long, unhurried lunch. The restaurant lists its tables on OpenTable. Our pick for a celebration.

2

R&D

ChinatownOfficial site Share

R&D describes its food as modern Canadian Asian cuisine and says it sits in the heart of Toronto’s Chinatown. Its website has a dim sum section on the menu. The MICHELIN Guide calls its assortment of decidedly untraditional dim sum a prime example of the restaurant’s freewheeling fusion cuisine. Daily Hive’s September 2025 rundown of the 2025 Toronto Michelin Guide includes R&D. Bookings run through OpenTable, and its booking page was live for today’s date when we checked. A Loop favourite for the person who wants dim sum to surprise them.

3

Dim Sum King

ChinatownOfficial site Share

Dim Sum King is at 421 Dundas Street West, and Destination Toronto’s April 2025 dim sum roundup calls it an institution for locals, tucked up on the third floor of a commercial building, where classics make their rounds on pushcarts. The restaurant’s own site puts steamed shrimp dumplings (har gow) and steamed BBQ pork buns among its best sellers. Its menu on Uber Eats is organized into steamed dim sum, deep-fried dim sum, rice noodle and congee, and sweet dim sum, which is a handy map for a first order. When we checked on October 18, 2026, its own site and its Uber Eats storefront were both set up to take orders. Our pick for a classic Dundas Street West lunch.

Where does Scarborough fit?

It belongs in the story, but we have not yet confirmed a Scarborough room the same way as the three above. The City Archives shows the community growing in Scarborough, Richmond Hill and Markham, and a cultural centre opening in Scarborough in 1998. We will add Scarborough dim sum here once it passes the same check. In the meantime, our Scarborough restaurants guide is a good place to start eating your way east.

What should a first-timer order?

Start with a steamed dumpling, a steamed bun and something fried, then add a rice noodle or congee dish if you want something soft and warming. That mirrors the steamed and fried families Britannica describes, and the sections on Dim Sum King’s menu. Share everything, order in small rounds, and keep the tea topped up. If a dish disappears fast, that is your answer for round two.

How do you plan a dim sum outing?

Go with a group of three or four so you can share. Order in rounds rather than all at once. Let someone pour tea for the table before anyone pours their own. And look at the neighbourhood while you are there: Chinatown rewards a walk before or after lunch, and our Chinatown restaurant guide picks up where this one leaves off.

Send this to the friend you would bring: the one who always asks for one more basket.