Dim Sum Library serves Cantonese classics with an art-deco twist

The Aqua Group, adding to its other 16 restaurants in three cities, recently opened Dim Sum Library in Pacific Place.

Drawing from an era when rickshaws trundled up and down the city’s roads and tea house patrons were accompanied by their pet birds, Dim Sum Library’s art-deco décor is consistently charming.

Though disappointingly in a mall, the restaurant’s soft lighting and glam atmosphere draws you diners in quickly. It’s dim sum after dark here, where tea gives way to cocktails and lounge music merges with low chatter.

We started with cocktails from the DSL Collection, all of which are tea infused. Tea-tinctured cocktails aren’t new, but they’re difficult to make well. We ordered One Thousand Years of Song (HK$85) – with Jasmine tea-infused Tanqueray gin and peach purée, egg white and lemon juice – and the Camellia Sinensis colada (HK$95) – also with Tanqueray gin, but with crème de cacao, pineapple, coconut cream and green tea powder. Neither of them disappointed.

Instead, the first had us marvelling at the quality of the tea alone. The second managed to merge a pina colada with a milk-tea delightfully.

The extensive menu is best sampled in a group, and an impressive portion of the menu is vegetarian.