Hung Sum Restaurant

Not so well kept secret among Ottawans. This is a 100% family owned restaurant. Limited space and slow service since they refuse to hire outsiders for help. But once you bite on a piece of fresh har gor or chang feng, your frustration with the hour long wait disappears.
Note: It is your last chance to savour their delicacies: the family needs a vacation and is not renewing their lease. They have been secret on their timeline to reopen or not in a near future. It will be a big loss for Ottawa’s foodies community.

I’ve only been for take-​out, so this review is based on that.
First, this place is itty bitty — only five or six tables, and they were packed on a late Sunday morning, so take-​out was a good call. We called in our order but then I had a hard time finding parking, but luckily they waited to finish the last items in the order (the fried ones) until I arrived so that they didn’t get smushy. The woman manning the phone, cash, and waiting tables was very friendly and efficient.
There are no carts, but the dim sum is very good, and has some different options than what we’re used to. Loved the deep fried shrimp and water chestnut balls, for instance, and the pork and coriander balls. The old standbys, like fried taro and meat dumplings and the pork rice rolls, were also very tasty. The har gao were delicious — the shrimp had that snap you look for when you bite into a har gao and the wrappers didn’t disintegrate when we tried to pick them up the way they do at so many restaurants (and T&T). Would love to treat my sister in law, whose family is Cantonese and who lives in San Francisco, to a visit here — I think it would pass the grade!
I was excited to see some congee/​jook options on the menu and would like to give those a try. If I lived in the neighbourhood that would be a no-​brainer breakfast on cold, lazy mornings.
Price was a little high for dim sum, but about in line for what I expect in Ottawa, and to be fair we also probably went a little overboard in the quantity we ordered. Would love to come back and eat-​in, but we’ll be sure to come early if we do.

My former professor from my undergraduate years now lives in Ottawa. We last met four year ago, when he was still living in Thornhill. We lost touch for a bit, but I reconnected with him by letting him know that I would be in his city.
He suggested having a beverage at a café. He then got great recommendations from his friends to visit this restaurant for dim sum. We both hadn’t visited this place before, so I was game.
I picked him up and we drove to the restaurant. You can park on the street, which has metered parking.
The restaurant, as with many businesses in Ottawa’s Chinatown area, are converted houses. This one had a veranda. The first floor is the restaurant’s dining area, with a limited number of tables. The washrooms are on the second floor.
We got there just before 1 pm. There were two free tables, so we were fortunate to not have to wait. A bunch of folks cleared the place half an hour later, so I recommend coming during off-​peak lunch hours.
The folks working there speak Cantonese and English. The menu is itemized, and you mark the quantity next to the dim sum items that you want. The menu is in English and Chinese.
We ordered around ten items or so. He was pleased with how fresh and tasty everything was, from traditional har gow and siu mai, to sticky rice in a lotus leaf and pan-​fried pork and cabbage dumplings. I even taught him how to use chopsticks. He did well. We eventually asked for a fork.
We ended our meal with steamed cake. It was perfect. It was airy, light, fluffy, and not too sweet.
This restaurant is a hole in the wall. It’s such a gem. I recommend going here if you want authentic dim sum done right.

I don’t know where to start! I was craving some dim sum so i did some research and ended up here. Ended up walking in around 11:45. The place was pretty packed but ended up finding the last table. Took about 5 minutes to figure out what we wanted and then ordered. If you are looking at a quick place to grab lunch, this is not it. It took about 30 minutes for our food to start rolling out. It was definitely worth the wait. The food was hot and delicious. If you look up «hole in the wall» i believe you will see a picture of this place. Small, packed, a little pricey, a bit warm, but very yummy food.

This place is amazing. You will wait in line, but it’s well worth it.
Every dish was the best I’d ever had. My favourite was the pork and roasted peanut dumpling.
The sticky rice in the lotus leaf was also great. And the pork belly sticky buns… Awesome.
We’ll be back… Soon.

Best dim sum I ever had! My husband and I like everything we ordered, especially the chicken feet and the rice noodle rolls.

Went there not really knowing what to expect. Found a truly delightful restaurant. Dim sum was excellent. Fresh and tasty. It doesn’t get any better.

When it opened, it was the best dim sum place in Ottawa — comparable to Hong Kong quality. Hands down the best in Ottawa. I would back once a month for comfort food until a couple months ago. The chef changed. Everthing was off and now I would never go back. It was a waste of the $ 30 for a 2 person lunch. Such a shame.

A near perfect Dim Sum experience. I think it’s fair to call the place a «hole in the wall». It’s definitely frequented by the local residents of china town, always a good sign. We were welcomed warmly and the service was very efficient (contrary to what we saw in other reviews), we were in and out in less than 45 mins.
We were brought a wonderful jasmine tea by the pot as soon as we sat down. There’s no dim sum carts in this hot little restaurant, you order by checking off your selections on a paper menu. We had a couple steamed dumplings, pork shumai and the coriander dumplings, which were easily the highlight. Very fresh shrimp and a wonderful burst of flavor from the coriander. The dumplings had the perfect, thin, tender wrapper. Barbecue pork buns were also very nice. The buns were subtly sweet and not the least bit chewy like they can be some places. From the fried side of the menu we tried the ginger scallion beef dumplings. Excellent, with just the right filling to wrapper ratio and a melt in your mouth texture.
We topped the meal off with a house specialty which was Chinese style pork belly and preserved duck on a bed of rice. Such a wonderfully flavorful dish, that would be hard to describe.
This place was a great find, highly recommended. The only thing holding me back from five stars is how hot and loud a place it was to eat. It was five star from a food and service standpoint.

You know that moment when you walk into a random, unassuming place but then experience the most magical food ever? Well that’s what just happened tonight.
Hung Sum is a small restaurant off the edge of Chinatown that has the freshest, well prepared, flavorful (insert all other mouth watering adjectives here) dim sum I have ever tasted. I’ve often travelled for dim sum– eaten in Hong Kong, NYC, Toronto amongst a few. But this place is really a treat. I hope that people make the trip out. You’ll not be disappointed. Skip Yangtze and keep heading down somerset until you see a little house with a bright blue porch. Do not be deterred– you are just a few steps away from bliss!

First of all — you will have to wait! Whether it’s before getting a table or for your order. This is Dim Sum Slo-​food at it’s best. Chinese broccoli in garlic sauce looked like there wasn’t enough garlic for my taste, but when I let the flavours sink in – oh soo good. Sticky rice in lotus leaf looked soo small, but oh soo good. In general everything was worth the wait and the money. Every now and than go to this restaurant to remember what dim sum should taste like.

It’s Good Friday and my sister, her kids, and I drove downtown to a family run and owned dim sum restaurant. Hung Sum is on the outskirts of Ottawa’s Chinatown. It is in a remote location not easily distinguishable from the residential housing around it.
Hung Sum is a sparkling gem! We arrived at 1130 am. When we walked in the first thing I noticed about this restaurant is it is tiny!!! I betcha it seats a maximum of 25 to 30 customers!
After about a 45 min wait we were seated. The 4 of us ordered 15 dishes so we had quite a sampling of their menu.
I like to bug my niece Sam by saying the dim sun restaurants in Ottawa don’t compare to Big City Toronto or Big City Vancouver! It bugs her! She’s a small town girl and loves Ottawa! By the end of our dim sum I said Hung Sum is small but it’s food had Big City flavour!
All the dishes come out hot and super delish! The staff… The family that works the restaurant are hard working and friendly.
My advice come early otherwise be prepared to wait!

Delicious food, with great a la carte dim sum. They make their own rice noodles in-​house as well, making for great dishes.

Great little place outside of the immediate Chinatown area in Ottawa. But definitely amazing. You need to skip past all the other options before you get to this gem. It’s in this little converted house and although the dining room is quite small, the wait is never longer than 20 mins ish even during rush times.
This place has the most variety of dumplings I’ve seen outside of the dim sum places in Toronto. You’ve got to try them all!

Very solid dim sum place. Made to order vs on carts. Service wasn’t too bad, quick and efficient. It’s very small so I recommend going early to avoid lines. Some highlights were:
Chicken Feet — Very plump but not soggy. Nice kick to the sauce.
Shrimp Shiu Mai — Delicious, juicy. Very well done.
Fried Taro — Crispy but not overly oily.
Overall, everything tasted very good. Comparable to my visits to places in So-​Cal.
Avoid the pork belly with rice.

Pretty good food. There are quite a few options for Dim Sum, with some being quite good (I like the shrimp balls).

This is great authentic dim sum. I grew up in Hong Kong, know my dim sum; I can tell you with confidence that this is a great place to eat. Stuffed egg plant is good and the don’t worry that most menu items contain shrimp, as the shrimp is delish.

This place was neat. The dumplings were great. The service was expedient and the food was delicious. If you go, be sure to pay attention to the address /​street location because from the exterior, it can be easy to miss.

Please note that there are NO dim sum places where I live currently — super duper sad face — so I was extremely excited for even a sniff of a good dim sum place.
Imagine my face when I walked into this small dim sum place and was offered a menu to check off from. Where are the carts!!!
As I patiently salivate for my food to come out (food too quite awhile), I started rearranging my table and getting my table ready for delciousness consumption. My mind was just blown when I was told that they do not have hot chilli oil or hot mustard. What!!! What kind of dim sum restaurant is this!!!
Outlook was not looking so great for this delicious meal and I continued to pout in my seat.
EVERYTHING WAS FORGIVEN the moment I my food brushed my tastebuds. For all of their shortcomings, Hung Sum serves the freshest dim sum I have been privy to taste. I left fully, happy and with a butt load of take out for the road :-)
Tip: Try to go early because it’s small place in combination with it’s fresh to order set up means that one might wait quite awhile for a table if the restaurant is already full.

Best dim sum in Ottawa. Everything is made fresh and it shows. The place is too small for carts so it’s à la carte so everything is steaming hot when it comes out. I would say there is no or little MSG compared to the other dim sum places. I did not feel parched afterwards. The sticky rice, the Cantonese dumplings and the flat rice noodles were our favourites. Will come back to try more.