Growing up, we remember listening to this age-old warning from our elders at the dinner table: don’t play with your food. But here at Dim Sum Icon, you’re more than encouraged to forget everything you were told. This cheeky restaurant in Hong Kong has been making waves on social media with their ‘interactive’ food, changing the way we eat traditional dim sum.
Its famed Gudetama (the lazy egg character from Japan’s Sanrio) buns, where customers can happily ‘poke’ its ass with a chopstick and have chocolate lava oozing out, have gained serious traction on Instagram and Snapchat alike.
Located in THE ONE at Tsim Sha Tsui and Century Square at Central, this restaurant rolls out Japanese animation dim sum, switching up the menu every three months. Gudetama, Kobitos and Little Twin Stars are just some of the Japanese characters that have made their way into dim sum baskets.
The star on the menu is evidently their super interactive character buns – a hole is poked into the buns with a chopstick, and these characters will either ‘vomit’ or ‘poo’ their molten center onto your plate.
A crowd-pleaser would be the Kobitos-themed creamy custard oat buns (49 HKD). The Kobitos figure’s mouth will ‘vomit’ milk custard upon squeezing – not quite the visual feast that usually comes to mind when we think of molten food. Highly entertaining or just borderline revolting? We reckon it’s a queer mix of both.
Crayon Shin-chan – or La Bi Xiao Xin (蜡笔小新) as we affectionally know him – is the latest addition to the menu. There is no preparing yourself for the gush of brown filling that oozes out of his private parts when you squeeze these bizarre buns.
Apart from their character buns, Dim Sum Icon also has other dim sum offerings like rice rolls and siew mai (prawn dumplings), as well as heartier mains like fried rice and Hong Kong style noodles. Wash down your meal with an iced chocolate or a dessert – these you can’t play with.
Dim Sum Icon
B/F, Century Square, 1 D’Aguilar St, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2807 1682
Opening Hours: 11am – 11pm (Mon – Sun)
L308, 3/F, The ONE, 100 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
(Tsim Sha Tsui Station, Exit B1 or B2)
尖沙咀彌敦道100號The ONE 3樓L308號舖
Opening Hours: 11am – 11pm (Mon-Sun)
