Wing Lee Bakery

Point at the tray, watch it fill, pay, leave: Wing Lee runs the fast version of dim sum, not the cart-and-teapot version.

A display case full of small things

The counter on Clement Street works as a Chinese bakery and a dim sum takeaway in equal measure. The case holds har gow, shumai, pork buns, potstickers, turnip cakes, sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves, egg custard, sesame balls and pineapple buns, which covers steamed, baked and fried in a single glance. There is no Western bread or viennoiserie here and no attempt at it.

The best way to read the case is mix-and-match: dumplings next to a pork bun, a turnip cake next to a custard, sesame balls after the savoury tray. Nothing is portioned so that one dish becomes the meal, which is the point. A tray assembled from five or six pieces is the format the kitchen is built around.

A Richmond District counter, run at speed

The room is practical and loud rather than designed. Orders go in at a glass that steams up as the morning goes on, and staff arrange the chosen pieces on a circular tray as you call them out. Decisions get made quickly because the queue behind expects it.

Seating is beside the point. There are places to sit, but they are a luxury for whoever arrives early, and most of what leaves the counter leaves in a bag. The storefront sets expectations before you are through the door, with large red lettering across the windows and a food-to-go message across the glass. This is a neighbourhood bakery in the Richmond, not a dim sum dining room.

Start with har gow, finish with egg custard

Har gow is the first order and the fairest test of the kitchen: thin wrapper, whole shrimp, no filler. Add shumai or potstickers for a second dumpling texture, then a pork bun when the tray needs weight rather than variety.

Turnip cake changes the rhythm, sliceable and savoury instead of filled and folded, and sticky rice in lotus leaves is the move when the tray has to work as a proper meal. For the sweet end, egg custard is the cleanest finish after all that steaming and frying, sesame balls cover the fried sweet lane, and a pineapple bun brings the bakery half of the counter into the same bag. Mixed and modest beats large: five pieces chosen well is the tray to aim for.