A Mà — Cantonese for mother, for grandma — is the affectionate name of this Hong Kong restaurant. Artist Trấn Thành, of Chinese descent, opened it with sister Huỳnh Mi in 2019 with a simple wish: Saigonese could eat proper Cảng Thơm dim sum without flying to Hong Kong.
The room is a miniature 1980s Hong Kong: a ceiling of hand-painted oil-paper umbrellas, woven bamboo lamps, red-and-blue neon signs, old Chinese newspapers and opera masks. Every dim sum steamer is finished like a small artwork.
Today A Mà has two branches — 62 Vo Van Tan (D3) and 189 Cong Quynh (D1) — still packed nightly. People come for the dim sum, stay for the atmosphere, and return because it feels like family.
“People come for the dim sum, stay for the atmosphere.”
