10 Best Dim Sum Restaurants in Singapore (August 2026)

These apply everywhere below and they change what you book, not just where.

• Dim sum is a lunch service at the top end. Lei Garden, Cherry Garden and Summer Pavilion all serve dim sum at lunch and switch to a full Cantonese dinner menu in the evening. If you book a Michelin-starred Cantonese room at 7pm expecting a steamer tower, you will get a very good dinner that is not the meal you wanted. Book lunch.
• The star costs less than the buffet. This one surprises people. Individual baskets at Lei Garden are S$6.80 to S$12.80 and you can eat well for around S$50 a head at lunch. The weekend a la carte dim sum buffet at Man Fu Yuan is S$98++. Both are legitimate, but if you assumed the Michelin room was the expensive option, it is the other way round.
• Trolleys are gone. Pushcart dim sum, where the food comes past on a cart and you point at what you want, has almost entirely disappeared here. Red Star is the last one holding the line. If the trolley experience is the point of the outing, there is one address, not a shortlist.
• Halal dim sum is a reformulation problem, not a substitution one. Char siew bao is barbecued pork by definition and traditional siew mai is pork and prawn. A halal kitchen cannot simply swap an ingredient and keep the dish, it has to rebuild the classics with chicken or beef and make them work. That is why certified options are thin on the ground, and why the good ones are worth naming.

One more thing that changed this year. The A, B or C sticker you see near the door used to be an annual hygiene grade. Since 19 January 2026 the Singapore Food Agency has run the Safety Assurance for Food Establishments framework instead, which grades on food safety track record over time and on whether the business has a food safety management system and a trained hygiene officer, rather than on one inspection. The letter looks the same and now means something more demanding.

Lei Garden holds one Michelin star in the 2026 guide, and has been starred from 2016 to 2019 and again from 2021 through 2026, which is a longer unbroken run than almost any Cantonese room in the city. What makes it my first recommendation is not the star though. It is that the star is affordable.

Baskets run S$6.80 to S$12.80. A lunch of six or seven dishes between two people lands around S$50 a head, which is what you would pay at a decent mall restaurant with none of the technique. The har gow skin is thin enough to see the prawn through and does not tear when you lift it, which sounds like a small thing and is the entire craft.

The catch, and it is the reason to read this before booking: dim sum is served at lunch only, 11.30am to 3.30pm. Book dinner and you get the full Cantonese menu, roast meats and double-boiled soups, which is excellent and is not dim sum. Reserve ahead, because CHIJMES fills up.

Where: CHIJMES, 30 Victoria Street, unit #01-24
Price: Baskets S$6.80 to S$12.80, about S$50 to S$100 per pax for a full meal
Dim sum hours: Lunch only, 11.30am to 3.30pm
Recognition: One Michelin star, 2026 guide
Order this: Har gow, and whatever the roast is that day

Swee Choon has been on Jalan Besar since 1962 and is the answer to more questions than any other restaurant on this list: cheap dim sum, late night dim sum, dim sum with a big group, dim sum at 1am after a shift. Items start at S$1.60 and the average spend sits around S$22 a head, which for six decades of reputation is remarkable.

The news this year is that the Jalan Besar flagship went to seven days a week on 12 January 2026, for the first time in 64 years. It used to close on Tuesdays and generations of people planned around it. Hours are 7am to 2am Sunday through Thursday, and 7am to 4am on Friday, Saturday and the eve of a public holiday.

Order the mee suah kueh, which is a deep-fried wheat vermicelli cake and is not something you find elsewhere, and the liu sha bao. Expect to queue at peak, and note there are now six outlets including AMK Hub, NEX, Changi City Point and Anchorvale if the flagship is a nightmare.

Website: sweechoon.com
Where: 183 to 193 Jalan Besar, plus five other outlets
Price: From S$1.60 an item, about S$22 per pax
Hours: 7am to 2am Sun to Thu, 7am to 4am Fri, Sat and eve of PH
Order this: Mee suah kueh, liu sha bao

If you have ever wanted the version people describe from old Hong Kong, where a woman pushes a steaming trolley past your table and you point at what you want, there is one place left. Red Star opened in 1970 on the seventh floor of a block on Chin Swee Road, founded by four chefs known locally as the Four Heavenly Kings, and it still runs the carts.

Go in with the right expectation. Pushcart service means you eat what is passing, not what you ordered, so it rewards going early and going with a group so you can accept more carts. Average spend is around S$28 a head. The room is a function-hall from another era, the view over Chinatown is better than it has any right to be, and the whole thing feels like it is on borrowed time.

Hours are the other thing to get right: 7am to 3pm and 6pm to 11pm on weekdays, but weekends are 7am to 3pm only. Weekend mornings are the classic slot and also the busiest. Get there before 10am.

Website: red-star.com.sg
Where: Block 54 Chin Swee Road, #07-23
Price: About S$28 per pax
Hours: 7am to 3pm and 6pm to 11pm weekdays, 7am to 3pm weekends
Best known for: Being the last trolley service in the city, and open since 1970

Cherry Garden at Mandarin Oriental picked up a one Michelin star in the 2026 guide, which is the most interesting new entry in this category in years. The reason is Chef Fei. He was born and raised in Chaoshan in Guangdong, and his Guangzhou restaurant, Jiang by Chef Fei, has held two Michelin stars for seven consecutive years.

What he brought to Singapore is a Cantonese kitchen with genuine Teochew grounding, which is a different and less common thing than a straight Cantonese room. It shows up in the lighter, cleaner treatments and in the seafood. Dim sum runs a la carte at lunch, 12pm to 2.30pm, alongside a five-course set lunch at S$128++ per person. Dinner is an eight-course set at S$198++ and is not a dim sum meal.

This is the one to book when the occasion warrants it and you want to eat something you have not eaten before, rather than a better version of what you already know. Reserve well ahead. A new star does that to a room.

Website: mandarinoriental.com
Where: Level 5, Mandarin Oriental, 5 Raffles Avenue
Price: Five-course set lunch S$128++, eight-course set dinner S$198++
Dim sum hours: Lunch, 12pm to 2.30pm
Recognition: New one Michelin star in the 2026 guide

Summer Pavilion at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia has held a Michelin star for years and it is the room I would book when the company matters more than the adventure. It is quiet, the service is unhurried, and the dim sum at lunch is precise in a way that is easy to miss until you eat somewhere else afterwards.

The set menus climb steeply, from around S$288 per person for six courses, and that is not the way in. Order the dim sum a la carte at lunch instead and you get the same kitchen for a fraction of it. A five-course set lunch is also offered, built around dim sum, a Cantonese soup and handmade fish noodles with lobster, which is a good middle option.

Where this beats Lei Garden is comfort and where it loses is value. If you are taking a client, a parent or anyone who will notice the room, this is the pick. If you just want the best baskets for the money, it is not.

Website: summerpavilion.com.sg
Where: The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, 7 Raffles Avenue
Price: Dim sum a la carte at lunch, set menus from about S$288 per pax
Recognition: One Michelin star
Best for: A lunch where the room and the service are part of the point

Man Fu Yuan runs the dim sum buffet everyone means when they say dim sum buffet. It is a la carte rather than a counter, so you order from a list and it arrives freshly steamed, over 40 selections, at S$98++ per adult and S$48++ per child aged six to twelve. Weekends and public holidays, two lunch seatings.

Whether it is worth it comes down to how you eat. Order ten or twelve different things across two hours and it is good value against a la carte pricing at this level. Order four dishes and a pot of tea and you have paid a large premium for the privilege of stopping. It suits a group that wants to graze and talk.

Worth knowing: the hotel around it changed on 1 January 2026, when IHG stopped managing the property and it reopened as Frasers House under the Luxury Collection. The restaurant came through intact with the same kitchen. A lot of listings still have the old hotel name on them, so search for the restaurant rather than the address.

Website: manfuyuansg.com
Where: Frasers House, near Bugis and Bras Basah
Price: S$98++ per adult, S$48++ per child aged 6 to 12
When: Weekends and public holidays, lunch, two seatings
Best for: Grazing through 40 dishes with a group

Worth being straight about this one, because the marketing is not. Tim Ho Wan won a Michelin star at its original Mong Kok shop in Hong Kong, a tiny room with a handful of tables. The chain that expanded across Asia does not hold that star and has not for a long time. What it does still have is the recipe.

The Baked BBQ Pork Bun is the dish that earned the star and it remains genuinely very good: a crumbly, sweet polo-bun crust over savoury char siew, S$6.80 for three. If you order one thing here, order that. The rest of the menu is solid mall dim sum at S$20 to S$30 a head, which is a fair deal and not a revelation.

There are eight outlets: Aperia Mall, Great World, Jewel Changi, Peak at Marina Bay Sands, Tai Seng, Tampines 1, Waterway Point and Westgate. The original Plaza Singapura branch, which was the first Tim Ho Wan outside Hong Kong when it opened in 2013, closed on 12 July 2026, so plenty of directions online now point at a shop that is not there.

Order online: timhowan.oddle.me
Outlets: Aperia, Great World, Jewel, MBS, Tai Seng, Tampines 1, Waterway Point, Westgate
Price: S$20 to S$30 per pax, Baked BBQ Pork Bun S$6.80 for 3
Michelin: The star was the Mong Kok original in Hong Kong, not the chain
Order this: The Baked BBQ Pork Bun, and little else needs deciding

Victor's Kitchen is a small Hong Kong style kitchen tucked into Sunshine Plaza, with a second outlet at Chinatown Point, and it has the kind of reputation that survives entirely on one dish. The Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun, S$5.90 for three, is the one people argue about, and the argument is usually whether it is the best in Singapore or merely in the top two.

The rest is well-made Hong Kong dim sum in the S$5.50 to S$8 range per dish, cooked to order in a kitchen you can more or less see into. It is not a comfortable restaurant and it is not trying to be. Tables are tight, the queue spills out, and the payoff is that the food arrives hot rather than having sat in a warmer.

Split the buns as soon as they land. A lava bun that has been sitting for four minutes is a different and much worse thing, which is exactly the argument for a small kitchen over a large one.

Website: victors-kitchen.com
Where: Sunshine Plaza and Chinatown Point
Price: S$5.50 to S$8 a dish, about S$20 to S$30 per pax
Order this: Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun, S$5.90 for three
Note: Small room, expect to queue and to eat elbow to elbow

The Dim Sum Place opened on North Bridge Road in 2016 and is the MUIS-certified halal dim sum restaurant I would actually send someone to, rather than the one that merely exists. It has since added Changi City Point in 2021, The Centrepoint in 2023, and Causeway Point in 2025, plus a Johor Bahru outlet, which is a growth curve you do not get on novelty.

What they had to solve is the hard part described above: char siew bao and siew mai are pork dishes, so the kitchen rebuilt them rather than substituting into them. The results are their own thing rather than an imitation, and the salted egg custard bun, the Peking duck wrap and the dry beef brisket noodles are what regulars order. Expect S$20 to S$30 a head.

It is a sister business to The Ramen Stall, which tells you the operating model: a halal kitchen doing a cuisine that is normally closed to halal diners, done properly enough to stand on the food. Book a week ahead at weekends, because it fills.

Website: thedimsumplace.sg
Outlets: North Bridge Road, Changi City Point, The Centrepoint, Causeway Point
Price: About S$20 to S$30 per pax
Certification: MUIS halal-certified
Order this: Salted egg custard bun, Peking duck wrap

126 Dim Sum on Sims Avenue is the one you end up at rather than the one you plan. It runs deep into the night, closing at 5.30am from Tuesday to Thursday and midnight on other days, and it has been the answer to a 3am craving in Geylang for a very long time.

It nearly did not survive. The original owner retired and the place shut in mid-2024, which was treated as a genuine loss locally. It reopened in January 2025 at the same address after a renovation, with a more modern room than the version people remember. The Chilli Crab Siew Mai at S$6.80 for three is the signature and is exactly as Singaporean as it sounds. Shrimp dumplings are S$4.80 for three, and a meal lands around S$20 to S$25.

The one practical warning: it has no working website. The domain that used to serve one no longer resolves, and its Facebook page is where hours actually get posted. Given the hours change by day of the week, check before making a late trip out.

Where: 126 Sims Avenue, Geylang
Price: Chilli Crab Siew Mai S$6.80 for 3, shrimp dumplings S$4.80 for 3, about S$20 to S$25 per pax
Hours: Late, and they vary by day. To 5.30am Tue to Thu
Website: None. Check the Facebook page for current hours
Order this: Chilli Crab Siew Mai

Most of this is visible in the first two baskets.

• The har gow skin. It should be thin enough to see the prawn through, hold together when you lift it with chopsticks, and not be gummy. That single dumpling tells you more about a kitchen than the rest of the menu, because it is difficult and cannot be faked with a good filling.
• Whether it was steamed to order. Ask, or just notice. Food that has waited in a warmer arrives at the table warm rather than hot, and the skins go tough. This is the main reason a cramped shophouse kitchen often beats a large hotel one on the same dish.
• Whether dim sum is served at the hour you are booking. Covered above and worth repeating, because it is the most common way people are disappointed by an expensive Cantonese restaurant.
• Halal certification, if it matters. MUIS is the sole certifying authority in Singapore, so a restaurant describing itself as "no pork no lard" or "Muslim friendly" is not certified. Check it on the MUIS halal directory, which lists every certified eating establishment, or look for the certificate at the counter.
• The hygiene grade, read correctly. The A, B or C on the door now comes from the SAFE framework rather than a single annual inspection, so it reflects a track record. A grade A under the new system is a stronger signal than a grade A was in 2024.

If the meal is really about the occasion rather than the dumplings, my picks of the best date night restaurants in Singapore and the best family-friendly restaurants cover that field, halal restaurants in Singapore goes deeper on certified kitchens, and the best buffets in Singapore covers the all-you-can-eat lane properly. For the wider picture, my guide to the best restaurants in Singapore is the hub for this whole cluster.

Dim sum in Singapore costs about S$20 to S$30 per person at a casual restaurant or a mall chain, S$50 to S$100 at a Michelin-starred Cantonese room at lunch, and S$98++ for the weekend a la carte dim sum buffet at Man Fu Yuan. Individual baskets run S$1.60 at Swee Choon, S$5.50 to S$8 at a Hong Kong style shophouse, and S$6.80 to S$12.80 at Lei Garden.

Note that ++ means GST and service charge are extra, adding roughly 19%. A S$98++ buffet is about S$117 on the bill, which is worth doing in your head before you decide it is better value than the starred lunch.

The Dim Sum Place is the main MUIS halal-certified dim sum restaurant in Singapore, with outlets at North Bridge Road, Changi City Point, The Centrepoint and Causeway Point. Tian Tian Yuan and Tim Sum Magic also serve halal dim sum. The major names most people think of first, including Tim Ho Wan, Crystal Jade and the hotel Cantonese rooms, are not halal-certified.

The reason the list is short is structural. Char siew bao is barbecued pork and traditional siew mai is pork and prawn, so a halal kitchen has to rebuild the classics with chicken or beef rather than substitute an ingredient. Verify any restaurant on the MUIS halal directory before booking for a halal table, because "no pork no lard" is not certification.

Lei Garden at CHIJMES, Summer Pavilion at The Ritz-Carlton Millenia, and Cherry Garden by Chef Fei at Mandarin Oriental all hold one Michelin star in the 2026 Michelin Guide Singapore and serve dim sum at lunch. Cherry Garden is the newest of the three, awarded its star in the 2026 selection. Tim Ho Wan is often assumed to be starred in Singapore, but the star belonged to its original Mong Kok shop in Hong Kong.

Michelin listings are reassessed every year, so check the current guide before relying on a star for a booking. The practical point for a diner is that a starred Cantonese room is usually cheapest at lunch and dim sum is normally a lunch-only service.

Swee Choon Tim Sum on Jalan Besar serves until 2am Sunday to Thursday and until 4am on Friday, Saturday and the eve of a public holiday, and since 12 January 2026 it opens seven days a week. 126 Dim Sum Wen Dao Shi on Sims Avenue in Geylang runs until 5.30am from Tuesday to Thursday, with shorter hours on other days.

Those two cover almost all of the late-night demand in Singapore. Both fill up after midnight at weekends, and 126 Dim Sum changes its hours by day of the week and has no working website, so check its Facebook page before making the trip.

Red Star Restaurant at Block 54 Chin Swee Road is the last place in Singapore still serving dim sum from pushcart trolleys wheeled between the tables. It has been open since 1970 and runs 7am to 3pm and 6pm to 11pm on weekdays, and 7am to 3pm at weekends. Weekend mornings are the traditional slot and the busiest, so arrive before 10am.

Trolley service has disappeared almost everywhere, including across much of Hong Kong, because it needs a large floor, a big kitchen and a constant flow of diners to work economically. Ordering from a paper checklist is now the norm here, so if the carts are the experience you are after, there is one address rather than a shortlist.

If you want the best baskets and only book once, Lei Garden at lunch. It holds a Michelin star, the har gow is the benchmark, and it costs less than the hotel buffet, which almost nobody believes until they see the bill. If you want the experience rather than the technique, Red Star on a weekend morning before 10am, because it is the last trolley service in the city and it will not be here forever.

Swee Choon is the one I recommend most often, because S$22 a head at 1am has no real competitor. Cherry Garden if you want to eat something genuinely different and the occasion justifies S$128++. The Dim Sum Place if the table is halal, and it is a proper kitchen rather than a compromise. Victor's Kitchen if you are only there for the lava bun, which is a completely legitimate reason to cross town.

Two habits worth forming. Book lunch, not dinner, at any starred Cantonese room, because dim sum is a lunch service and this is the single most common way people waste an expensive reservation. And judge a new place on the har gow before anything else. Thin skin, whole prawn, holds together when lifted. Everything else on the menu can be taught. That one cannot.

One last note for the trade. Researching this, the thing that struck me is how many genuinely excellent kitchens here are invisible online. One of the best late-night dim sum restaurants in Singapore has a dead domain and posts its hours on Facebook, and a Michelin-starred room is easiest to find through a mall directory listing. If you run an F&B business and the website is the weak link, my web design for restaurants is built around exactly that, or get a quote and I will tell you honestly what would move the needle.