We live in Seattle, home to the best Hong Kong-style dim sum in the Northwest. Going out as a family for dim sum is an easy and delicious cultural outing. Here’s our guide to seven of the best places to eat dim sum with the family.
At dim sum, no one cares if you have screaming kids. And the food is practically tailor-made for them: coming in small servings, a bite of this, a bite of that. If you have a picky eater, there’s always rice noodles.
Another reason to go out to dim sum? The restaurant business is never easy, and Seattle’s recent minimum wage hike makes it especially tough. When you go out to eat with the family, you support the vitality of our community.
We’ve highlighted where to find top-notch dim sum to try, from the Chinatown-International District (CID) to Bellevue, Renton, and back. Remember — you’re there for the food, not the ambiance, and most of these places are no frills. Note that dim sum hours are typically 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.-ish, after which some restaurants switch to a dinner menu. Your bill will vary of course, depending on your party’s belly capacity. I included our totals for one foodie mom and two hungry boys to give you a reference point.
- Dim Sum Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
- 900 S. Jackson St., Seattle
- Total: $51
Joyale is a unicorn in the CID. Not only does it have free 2-hour parking in the Pacific Rim Center garage, but it’s also one of the last hold-outs with cart service. Most dim sum restaurants pivoted away from carts during the pandemic, but there’s something so nostalgic about the Cantonese aunties wheeling by with goodies. Ordering is effortless. You point to whatever looks good (basically, everything), and then service is lightning-fast and brusque. It’s an old-school model that isn’t for everyone, but I find it refreshing.
Joyale turned heads in 2022, when Canlis chef Aisha Ibrahim named it her favorite spot for dim sum. When you spot the Asian elders and the big fish tank, you know the food is authentic. I hailed down the vat of congee with century egg—comfort food at its finest. For dessert, the egg tarts are perfectly flaky, and the mochi is fresh and soft.

Joyale is one of the few places that still does cart service. (Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
- Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday
- 10455 N.E. 8th St. Bellevue, WA
- Total: $131
In 2010, I was massively pregnant and waited two hours in line at the new Din Tai Fung in Bellevue, the first in the Northwest. Last year, Din Tai Fung moved to a new space on the first floor of Lincoln Square. I headed back with my now-teenager: the same to-die-for soup dumplings, but the dining room doubled in size and got a major glow-up. The vibe at Lincoln Square is upscale and luxe. You’ve heard that people vote with their feet? Here, people vote with their stomachs — the dining room was mobbed at 4:30 p.m.
You can’t go wrong with the classic Kurobuta pork xiao long bao, or for a bite of decadence, the Kurobuta pork and truffle. Other hits include the shrimp and pork shao mai, vegan dumplings and cucumber salad. The chocolate and mochi xiao long bao erupted with a sweet surprise, a burst of chocolate lava. In addition to Bellevue, Din Tai Fung expanded to Seattle’s Pacific Place and University District, as well as Tukwila’s Westfield Southcenter. The world-famous chain was founded in Taiwan in 1958. At every location, you can watch the kitchen staff whipping up soup dumplings through a plate glass window.

Din Tai Fung in Lincoln Square. You can watch the kitchen staff making soup dumplings. (Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
- Hours: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Tuesday, closed Wednesday
- 617 S. Jackson St., Seattle, WA
- Total: $40
The CID’s Dim Sum King is my go-to for take-out. There are a few tables, but most of the clientele is here to pick up steaming boxes of fresh dim sum. Dim Sum King has the best prices — hello, $1.30 barbecue pork bun! — and the best shrimp rice rolls, hands down, in the Seattle area. We love supporting local businesses, and Dim Sum King is a mom-and-pop shop, literally. Amy Eng is the mom and she runs the front of house. The dad, Zhen Yong Cai, is the chef. Be prepared to be upsold if you arrive toward the end of the day. I’ll wind up leaving with 30 shrimp dumplings, and I never mind one bit.

Dim Sum King’s Amy Eng. (Image: Barrie Silva Photography)
- Dim Sum Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
- 14505 N.E. 20th St., Suite R, Bellevue, WA
- Total: $96
Hardcore dim sum fans collectively swooned last spring when the vaunted Sun Sui Wah from Richmond, B.C., opened a Bellevue outpost. Richmond has the best dim sum — that’s just a fact — and now you can get it without an international road trip. We left Bellevue’s Sun Sui Wah with bellies full, wallet empty (that Canadian exchange rate sure would have been nice). It’s the kind of place you save for a special occasion, like a birthday or any other excuse you can come up with.
The lines have died down since the grand opening madness, but if you want to skip the wait entirely, parties of six or more can make a reservation. I waited an hour and a half for a table. Not mad at all; I used the time to shop at Asian Family Market and Taiwanese bakery 85 degrees C, both in the same parking lot.

Sun Sui Wah in Bellevue. (Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
- Hours: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily
- 664 S. Weller St., Seattle, WA
- Total: $38
Homestyle is a hole-in-the-wall in the CID that doesn’t get any glam press write-ups, no Instagram love, no TikTok fame. Until recently, it didn’t even have a website. It just quietly cranks out dim sum staples really well. No fuss, no muss. The classic menu items, like shao mai and chicken feet, are usually on hand for instant gratification. It’s worth the 10-minute wait, however, for the cilantro shrimp dumplings and chive shrimp dumplings. I always buy extra food to take home for weeknights when I don’t feel like cooking. The sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves and the steamed pork buns both reheat well in a steamer.
- Dim Sum Hours: 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
- 3750 E. Valley Rd., Renton, WA
- Total: $65
Triumph Valley is Renton’s gift to the dim sum universe. North end residents rejoice, a Shoreline location is scheduled to open this spring. (Keep an eye online for the opening announcement.) Triumph Valley is famous for the crispy shrimp rice roll, though priced a bit steep at $15.95. The salted egg yolk mochi is intriguing; a yellow puddle trickles out when you bite into it. Beyond these two headliners, try the pan-fried pork, shrimp and chive dumplings, the gigantic shao mai and the kid-pleasing red bean sesame balls. We thought we’d dodge the weekend crush by dropping in on a weekday. My strategy worked, sort of. No wait for a table, but also the slowest service in the history of dim sum.

Triumph Valley in Renton. (Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
- Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
- 424 7th Ave. S., Seattle, WA
- Total: $50
Jade Garden is the OG dim sum institution in the CID. It’s a second-generation family-run restaurant, owned by Eric Chan and his parents. It’s the place I always recommend to dim sum newbies and out-of-town visitors. You won’t be disappointed with anything you order. Our favorites are the savory radish cakes, the pan-fried prawn and chive dumplings and the potstickers. Jade Garden has a special place in my heart, as the scene of countless dim sum brunch meet-ups with friends over two decades. The restaurant has taken hit after hit, from the anti-Asian hate during the pandemic to Seattle’s minimum wage hike that kicked in Jan. 1. An extra $3 an hour might not seem like a lot to you, but to a small business with already thin margins… . Let’s go out for dim sum, and let’s do often.

Jade Garden takeout. (Image: JiaYing Grygiel)
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