Your first yum cha visit: the Cantonese conversation from tea to the bill

幾多位呀 asks how many people need seating. 位 is the courteous counting word used for people in this service context. 兩位，唔該 gives the number directly; you do not need to describe every member of the group. If you already have a booking, show or give the booking details when the staff ask.

Wait for seating instructions rather than assuming an empty place belongs to your group. Sharing a table and having a table reserved are different arrangements. Auntie’s table-sharing line can help in the first situation, but it does not tell a host that you have made a reservation.

The short question 飲咩茶呀, jam2 me1 caa4 aa3, asks which tea you would like. If the names are unfamiliar, look at the tea list before answering. Choose one listed tea and practise that name, rather than guessing from the English colour of the brewed drink. Tea names identify varieties, not simply how dark the liquid looks.

For example, 普洱 is pou2 nei2, pu-erh tea. This is a vocabulary example, not a claim that every restaurant offers the same teas. If you need water added to a pot, Auntie’s 唔該加水 supplies a concise request. You can point to the pot so the intended action is clear.

The Tourism Board’s dim sum guide includes restaurants with different styles and a trolley-service example. That variety is a reason to look at what your chosen venue actually does. A paper order sheet, a staff member taking an order and a trolley each give you different visual clues.

With an order sheet, distinguish dish names from the space for quantity. With a staff member, point to the menu name while saying the amount. If you are choosing from a trolley, establish what the dish is before agreeing to it. These are practical responses to the current service method, not rules about how all yum cha must work.

Ordering for a group introduces a second number: how many portions of each dish to buy. That is separate from the number of diners. 呢碟夠幾個人食呀 asks how many people a dish serves, but an answer is still an estimate about that dish; appetites and the rest of the order matter.

Keep track of what has arrived before adding more. When the group is finished, 唔該埋單 asks for the bill. Decide among yourselves who is paying separately from making that request to staff. This avoids treating a simple bill request as if it also arranged equal shares or separate transactions.