Best Dim Sum in New York City

New York City has two great dim sum epicentres: Manhattan's Chinatown — centred on Canal Street and Mott Street — and Flushing, Queens, which has developed into one of the most extraordinary Chinese food destinations outside of China itself. Each offers a different experience, and serious dim sum enthusiasts make pilgrimages to both.

Manhattan Chinatown's big traditional restaurants — with their clattering carts, bustling atmospheres, and decades of institutional memory — represent old-school Cantonese yum cha at its most characterful. Flushing's dim sum scene is more diverse, offering Cantonese alongside Shanghainese soup dumplings, Sichuan street food dumplings, and regional Chinese specialties rarely found outside China. The dim sum at Nom Wah Tea Parlor in Manhattan, in business since 1920, is a historic institution.