Dumpling Home (and its sister restaurant Dumpling Story) takes gold—it’s our highest-rated dumpling restaurant. At this walk-in-only Hayes Valley spot, you'll witness hand-folded wrapper and filling mastery. The xiao long bao skins are translucent enough to see the pork-y soup, and green-tinted vegetable dumplings are pleated to look like sleeping hedgehogs. The non-dumpling dishes are also champions, like the sticky-sweet chicken wings and springy dan dan noodles.

You’re coming to Yuanbao Jiaozi to break your personal record for the number of dumplings with pudgy creases eaten in one sitting. They make up most of the menu at this casual Sunset restaurant, and are folded up and dropped in bubbling vats of water for you after you order. The fabulous dumplings come in sets of fourteen, with fillings like pork and napa cabbage, chicken and corn, or mushroom and fish.

You’re at Hon's Wun-Tun House in Chinatown for one reason and one reason only—delicious wonton soup. They’ve been a fixture in Chinatown for more than four decades, and the space has barely changed over the years. The interior is simple and tiny (there’s just a few tables laid out on utilitarian brick-colored tile) and service is a bit on the curt side, but we never mind because you’ll be in and out having consumed life-giving soup in 20 minutes flat.

R&G Lounge has seen more birthdays, wedding banquets, and graduation celebrations than all the for-hire clowns in California combined. The multi-level seafood institution, established 1985, is still the place to mark a grand occasion—that’s because the Cantonese seafood, noodle, and rice dishes are as fantastic as ever. Pack a dozen or more of your favorite people around a round table and fill every inch of it with salt and pepper crab, sweet glazed sea bass, and salted fish fried rice.

Ever had xiao long bao tableside service? Neither had we, until we came to HK Lounge Bistro in SoMa. Staff delicately pull soup dumplings off a steamer, dunk it in vinegar, and top it off with a string of ginger before handing the whole thing to you on a spoon. All of the dim sum at this place is some of the best in the city, but it’s the service—which will make you feel like you just stumbled into a luxury airport lounge—that takes a meal here over the top.

This small, always-packed Chinatown restaurant offers regional Chinese noodles galore. It’s also where we like to park ourselves on casual weeknights to get a steam facial over a bowl of dan dan noodles. The broth is nutty and rich, there’s an overabundance of wheat noodles, and it all leaves a tingly, numbing sensation in your mouth that somehow doesn’t overpower. On days when you really want to stay under the covers, order a wonton-packed soup with chicken broth.

Restaurants in the SF Dim Sum Universe range in price points. They include everything from fancy Harborview to bakeries like Good Mong Kok where full meals hover around $7. Dragon Beaux is the happy middle we always prioritize. Purple booths are flanked by gold pillars, intricate carved panels separate two dining rooms, and colorful beet and kale xiao long bao and charcoal sponge cake rolls go the extra mile in the presentation department.

Yank Sing is the city’s most famous dim sum spot—it’s been around since 1958 and is known to draw huge crowds, especially at the larger Spear Street location inside the Rincon Center. And while they’re arguably not the best dim sum spot in the city, Yank Sing is still a classic we love, and coming here at least once is a quintessential dining experience. You’ll have your pick of everything from phenomenal kurobuta pork and Napa cabbage dumplings and steamed BBQ pork buns to scallop siu mai.

Mouth-numbing wizardry via fiery flavors is going down at Z&Y in Chinatown. These Sichuan dishes demand your attention. Specialties include fish filet soaked in hot chili oil, mapo tofu with lip-tingling spice, and clay pots filled with chilis and an aquarium’s worth of shellfish. We never leave without that mapo tofu and a bowl of hot and sour soup. The snug space is málà heaven for anyone who loves a good mouth burn.

Just across the street from Z&Y is their swankier fowl-focused offshoot, Z&Y Peking Duck. And as you’d expect from a restaurant with the dish in its name, the duck here deserves all of your attention. It’s carved under a spotlight in the dining room with the razzle dazzle of an Olympic ceremony and arrives in front of you gleaming and tender. And it’s not even the only reason to come to this Chinatown spot—the other Sichuan dishes on the menu pack heat and flavor.