The Scholar — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

This is the best Yum Cha in Canberra period!

The Scholar would easily rival other Yum Chas in Sydney.

Food Each dish we ordered was piping hot and fresh! This is the way Yum Cha is meant to be served! Each dish was delicious with no leftovers remaining... Everyone left satisfied.

Some of the dishes we ordered include: Siu Mai, prawn dumplings, chicken feet, Bean curd, combination dumpling, pork buns and more.

Ambience This is the Authentic yum cha ambience: line up in queue waiting for table, food delivered in trolleys, waiters selling other dishes on trays, alot of customer background chatter, staff constantly setting up tables and cutlery. This is the true yum cha experience!

Their tables are spacious and their chairs are very comfortable offering high back support (up to your shoulders). Thought I would point out these chairs as it is rare to see this in yum cha restaurants and definitely allows you to "lean back" properly and be comfortable.

Staff This is another one of their strengths: Their staff all know English and hence it is easy to communicate. Communication across all staff - all staff have hands-free radios on person. Therefore if one person's trolley doesn't have a particular dish you want, they will radio the team and the dish you are after will arrive in 30 seconds from another trolley that has it. Literally "reinforcements" arrive with the food you want! Bye bye disappointments!

I believe this is note worthy as this is the first Yum cha I have seen to do this!

(Other Yum Chas will simply leave it up to chance and the rotation of trolleys until you find what you want. I prefer the solution offered by The Scholar)

Value The Scholar represents fantastic value for money especially if dining in large groups. As a table of 4 we spent $92, tasted a wide variety dishes and left completely satisfied raving about this restaurant. Everyone on the table gave them full marks.

I will be telling everyone about The Scholar.

Thank you for having us.

Kris De Leon

Date visited: Lunch 1.30pm Sunday 14 April 2019 (post the Australian running...

We were there with a large group of nearly 30 for dinner, we had booked this table a month in advance and called the morning of to confirm again and the staff said it was all good to go. We arrived on time to find our private room set up for about 10, when we asked for more tables and chairs they informed us the room only fit 20 at best. We spent half an hour moving around choosing where to sit and ended up being completely separated as a group which defeated the entire purpose of going to dinner together. Then we tried to order drinks and every drink that came to the table was wrong, they were clearly very understaffed and unprepared for us. After we ordered our food we waited an hour and a half watching every other table around us get dish after dish. The wait time was ridiculous, we could hear the chefs laughing in the kitchen while we hadn’t been fed it was a joke. The most they could offer at the end of a horrible evening was a 10% discount. After frequently visiting this restaurant for years none of us will be back, extremely disappointed and...

I recently visited The Scholar for their Yum Cha lunch, and it was an incredible experience. The food was fresh, flavorful, and beautifully prepared. The Lo Mai Gai (Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf) stood out with its fragrant aroma and perfectly cooked rice, while the Siu Mai and Har Gow were classic dim sum dishes done just right—juicy, tender, and full of flavor. The Chicken Feet and Braised Beef Tendons were rich and comforting, and the Steamed BBQ Pork Buns were soft, fluffy, and filled with sweet, tender pork. To top it all off, the Hong Kong-Style Mango Pudding was a perfect way to end the meal—smooth, creamy, and bursting with real mango flavor.

The service was friendly and efficient, with staff bringing around trolleys filled with steaming dishes. They were helpful in recommending items and answering questions, which made trying new dishes easy and enjoyable. It did get a little slower during peak hours, but the staff’s attentiveness and warmth more than...