Despite his Wharton degree and his stints with Chase Manhattan Bank in Hong Kong and Bangkok, Pin is more Thai than Western in style.

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Maxim's is arguably the most famous dim sum spot in town, a 32-year-old restaurant in the middle of packed Central district that serves classic Hong Kong-style dishes to locals and visiting dignitaries.

WSJ: The Best Dim Sum in Hong Kong | In Search Of

Shanghai's Pudong district, across the Huangpu river from the old foreign bank buildings on the Bund, shows just how serious China is: a Hong Kong-style skyline of towering buildings, including one housing the largest stockmarket trading-floor in the world, all of it built in just the past decade.

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But in Hong Kong little stays the same for long, and in recent years chefs have begun taking fresh approaches to native-style dim sum, bringing a dash of extra excitement to a meal that wasn't exactly lacking in popularity in the first place.

WSJ: The Best Dim Sum in Hong Kong | In Search Of