One of Chicago’s Top Dim Sum Restaurants Opens in South Loop

Essential Chinese dim-sum specialist MingHin Cuisine has opened its fifth restaurant, expanding its repertoire into Japanese food for the first time. MingHin Cantonese & Japanese Cuisine opened Sunday in the South Loop with a lengthy, comprehensive menu. Ownership plans to add sushi and hibachi, though they haven’t yet said when they’ll start serving those items.

South Loopers have been eagerly waiting for the opening. Part of the space was previously home to neighborhood Thai restaurant Ma & I, which closed in 2015 after 10 years. MingHin should fill a void for Chinese food for those who don’t want to travel to nearby Chinatown. The owners of Pan-Asian mini-chain Hot Woks Cool Sushi also have a South Loop restaurant, Asian Outpost.

But MingHin veterans know that the restaurant offers a true dim sum experience, complete with menu forms and lazy Susans stationed at the center of the tables. The spacious, bi-level restaurant offers a range of seating options, from typical tables, chairs, and banquettes, to high stools along a square, elevated bar, to intimate tatami rooms with low tables and cutout space underneath for leg room. Unlike other locations, this one doesn’t have a private dining room.

The design is similar to the other locations with mostly bronze, blue, and orange tones. The space features light wood floors and subtle greenery. Illustrated koi fish hang overhead, as do a menagerie of light fixtures that resemble baskets and birds in flight.

MingHin’s original spot in Chinatown opened in 2010. Ownership has gone on to expand into locations in Lakeshore East, and in the suburbs in Naperville and Rolling Meadows. The restaurant earned Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition from 2016 through 2019.

MingHin Cantonese & Japanese Cuisine, 1234 S. Michigan Avenue, Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.