MU Dimsum – Cantonese ritual rebuilt in wood near Centrale

MU Dimsum occupies a corner building where Via Aminto Caretto meets Via Fabio Filzi, a few steps off Via Vittor Pisani, the boulevard that runs straight into Milano Centrale. It opened in early 2018, the Milan sibling of Mu Fish, the fusion restaurant that owners Liwei and Suili Zhou had launched in Nova Milanese the year before. The name folds two ideas into one: MU, the Chinese word for wood, and dimsum, the small plates built around the Cantonese yum cha ritual. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a nod to a kitchen that treats Hong Kong and Cantonese staples as worth the same care as any tasting menu, pairing a repertoire of two dozen dumpling styles with tableside Peking duck theatre, a tea list that runs the length of China's growing regions, and a seasonal set menu named Taste of China.

01The room and the setting

The dining room is a bright, high-ceilinged volume with a mezzanine overlooking the main floor, its warmth built almost entirely from wood — a deliberate echo of the restaurant's own name. The kitchen itself sits in full view near the entrance, a detail long noted by local reviewers walking past on Via Fabio Filzi.

Large windows, close-set lacquer-toned tables and soft spot-lighting give the space a sense of occasion without stiffness, equally suited to a quick lunch between trains and a slow, multi-course dinner.

02The owners and the kitchen

MU Dimsum belongs to Liwei and Suili Zhou, a couple originally from Zhejiang who built a small group of Cantonese-leaning restaurants around Milan, starting with Mu Fish in Nova Milanese. Suili runs the dining room in person and leads the restaurant's tea ceremony, a ritual guests are encouraged to experience at the end of a meal.

Insider tip

Book ahead for the whole Peking duck; tasting menus are served for the full table only.

The kitchen is currently led by executive chef Bryan Hooi Mun Chung, of Sino-Malaysian background, who joined after seven years cooking at Ba in Milan, with earlier postings in Doha, Singapore and the Maldives. Sous-chef Alessandro Berlanda oversees both the savoury pass and the pastry section.

03The cooking

The à la carte menu, updated regularly, divides into dim sum, cheung fun rice rolls, griddled bao, rice and noodle dishes, and a run of meat and seafood mains that range from almond-and-shiitake chicken to a whole steamed sea bass in chong yu sauce for two. Vegetable-led dishes, such as a Sichuan mapo tofu and a smoked yuxiang eggplant, sit alongside the richer plates rather than apart from them.

Peking duck is the signature set piece: a whole bird, ordered in advance, is carved at the table through three separate stages — the crackling skin first with sugar and warm crepes, then the sautéed meat with peppers and celery, and finally the bones, fried and eaten by hand. A single duck course and a premium version finished with Osetra caviar are also offered for smaller tables.

04What to order

Beyond the duck, the dim sum counter is the place to start: har gau shrimp dumplings, mushroom-and-truffle 'Mezzaluna nel bosco' ravioli, and the house xiao long bao sit next to a wagyu dumpling and a black cod dumpling finished with squid-ink powder. The classic cheung fun comes filled with beef, and the char siu bao arrives grilled rather than steamed, its organic pork caramelised to order.

Two tasting menus frame the rest of the kitchen's range: the Traditional Tasting moves from a mackerel spring roll through a five-dumpling combo, homemade beef rice tagliatelle, char siu bao and a choice of Peking duck or XO squid, closing on a green-tea mango mochi, while the longer Taste of China menu builds through courses such as a Chaozhou-style foie gras, a Longjing tea-oil oyster and a claypot wagyu with Sichuan pepper. A vegetarian tasting runs in parallel for tables that want it.

05Tea and wine

MU Dimsum devotes a full menu to tea, spanning green, white, yellow, oolong, black and pu'er leaves sourced by region and harvest year, from smoky Lapsang Souchong to delicate jasmine and rose-scented blends that Suili composes herself. Both tasting menus can be matched with a tea pairing instead of wine.

The wine list ranges widely between Italian and international producers, including a number of natural and small-grower labels kept, by most accounts, at reasonable mark-ups rather than the steep multiples common around the station.

06The neighbourhood

The restaurant sits in the business district between Stazione Centrale and Piazza della Repubblica, adjacent to Via Vittor Pisani, the avenue that runs directly into the station concourse — a location that makes it as practical for a pre-train dinner as for an evening out.

The corner position, with windows onto both Via Aminto Caretto and Via Fabio Filzi, was part of the original design brief when the restaurant opened: a visible kitchen and a bar at the back, built to anchor a quiet street a few minutes off the city's busiest transport hub.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.