# Talk Dim Sum — Your dim sum companion

> Chinese food pronunciation guide and restaurant finder with AI recognition. (iPhone/iPad app by Technicat, LLC.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/talk-dim-sum/id953929066 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Technicat, LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/295241742)
- Category: Food & Drink, Reference
- Price: Free with in-app purchases (on sale, was $0.99)
- Rating: 4.80/5 from 345 App Store ratings · 27 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 12+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 115 MB
- Languages: American English, French (France), German (Germany), Italian, Japanese, Klingon, Korean, European Portuguese, European Spanish, Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong SAR China)
- Released: 2015-02-12
- Data updated: 2026-08-30
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/talk-dim-sum/id953929066/reviews.md

## What is Talk Dim Sum?

Love dim sum, but don't know what to order or how to order? Bring this app, find what you like, and tap the speaker icon to hear the dish pronounced in Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin) using iOS text-to-speech.

I made this app after visiting Hong Kong and trying to crash course learn Cantonese in the food courts. The early focus was just on dim sum and Cantonese text-to-speech and my favorite restaurants, but has since expanded (based on user tips and requests and my own interests) to more broadly cover Chinese and Chinese-adjacent food (over five hundred dishes) and include features such as Mandarin (traditional and simplified), search (English and Chinese), saving favorites, AI camera recognition of dishes, speech-to-text pronunciation practice, basic phrases, and over five hundred restaurants in the US (sorry, I gave up  on trying to list every restaurant in the world, it's just not feasible).

Tips:

If the voice is stuck in Cantonese or Mandarin even after switching the tabs in the Practice screen, go to the Settings app, select Accessibility then Spoken Content and check the Chinese voice. If it's not one of the Siri voices, try selecting Siri in Mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan.

If you don't hear the Chinese speech

1) check the mute switch on your iPhone and make sure it isn't on.
2) text-to-speech for a particular voice sometimes seems to require an internet connect, at least on initial use (same with speech-to-text, the microphone practice button).
2) sometimes a device will have trouble accessing the text-to-speech voice (it's the Hong Kong Chinese voice used for Accessibility in Settings), so try turning your device off and on.

Tapping the speaker icon plays back the Chinese pronunciation at half speed to help you learn. Tap the microphone icon to bring up more options, including adjusting the playback speed, switching between Cantonese and Mandarin, and practicing speaking (the speed and language settings are also in Settings).

Aside from the default speed, the speech may sound not quite natural because the app does not play back recorded speech but instead uses iOS text-to-speech functionality, which utters one character (i.e. one syllable) at a time, which may not match how an entire compound word or phrase is normally pronounced (you can hear this effect when using Siri).

The home screen shows categories of dishes. Tap each category to see the dishes. Or tap on the Search button at the top left (some vocabulary items like "takeout" are not in categories but available in via search).

Talk Dim Sum is developed with:

The dim sum icon from Stock Image Folio on Iconfinder.com.
The technicat logo designed by Dakota Snow.
Restaurant link icons from Simple Icons.
Photos from many dim sum excursions.
Regional map images from Wikipedia (Creative Commons License from Wikimedia).
Swift open source packages: AlertToast, ImagePickerView, LinksKit, Qgrid, SQLite.swift, SwiftUIPager, and SwiftyJSON.

## Key features

- Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciation
- English and Chinese search
- Save favorite dishes
- AI camera dish recognition
- Speech-to-text pronunciation practice
- Over 500 US restaurants listed

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Talk Dim Sum Pro | $0.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Talk Dim Sum?

Overall sentiment: mixed

**Pros**

- 👍 Great for learning dim sum
- 👍 Useful for ordering food
- 👍 Helpful for non-native speakers
- 👍 Good visuals and audio
- 👍 Covers many dishes
- 👍 App is actively maintained
- 👍 Easy to use
- 👍 Fantastic for self-studying
- 👍 Exciting to find Mandarin option

**Cons**

- 🐛 App freezes on picture tap
- 🐛 Speech sound not working
- 🐛 Incorrect Cantonese pronunciation
- 🐛 Wrong word usage
- 🐛 Audio recordings are bad
- 🐛 Language setting issue (Mandarin/Cantonese)
- 🐛 Not enough dishes

**Commonly reported bugs**

- App freezes when tapping on food pictures
- Speech function has no sound
- Cantonese voice pronunciations are incorrect
- Wrong word usage and pronunciation (Mandarin vs. Cantonese)
- Audio recordings are laughably bad
- All dishes displayed in Mandarin instead of Cantonese
- Sound not working, even when highlighted

**Most requested features**

- Add Boba names and rituals
- Add conversations for ordering
- Add more Chinese food items
- Add various teas

## Recent user reviews (10 of 27)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/talk-dim-sum/id953929066/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Tapping on picture freezes appp

*2025-10-26*

It’s a nice app until you click on the food picture and app freezes. Can’t get back into app without deleting it and downloading again. A serious bug

**Developer response:** Sorry, I don't get notifications so I just saw this. I encountered this in the app I'm currently working on also, left swipe on the fullscreen image (implemented with the fullscreencover feature in SwiftUI) gets stuck in iOS 26. I haven't been updating it since I made it free, but I'll take a look (the bigger problem is that the speech-to-text is broken in iOS 26). You don't need to delete the app to restart - swipe up from the bottom will show you the actively running apps and swiping up on each will kill the process so you can relaunch the app.

### 5/5 — Love this app, but…

*2022-12-24*

This is a great app and I’ve been able to share the names of some favorite dishes with my son. But just today when we opened the app, we were quite upset to find that all the dishes are now in mandarin instead of Cantonese. What happened? I  checked the option for Cantonese instead of Mandarin and it’s all still in Mandarin. Please fix. Thank you!

**Developer response:** Update: another user figured out this happens if the voice setting for Chinese is not Siri. I was able to reproduce this behavior and the workaround. 

“Since the app uses iOS's text-to-speech, I looked into Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices > Chinese. I think the problem happens if the user chooses any voice that isn't a "Siri" voice.

So, for example, if "Tingting" was selected, I only hear Mandarin in the app. If I select "Sinji", I only hear Cantonese in the app. When I select any of the "Siri" voices, I can hear both Mandarin and Cantonese in the app.”

### 2/5 — Speech doesn’t work

*2022-09-12, version 4.8.8*

When you tap the speaker, the characters turn red in sequence but there is no sound, so you can’t è actually hear how to pronounce.

### 5/5 — Totally awesome app

*2022-05-06*

My husband is from Macau in Speak Cantonese. I’ve been self studying Cantonese for almost 30 years. I was always frustrated when going to the restaurants because the dishes don’t seem like anything from regular Cantonese. So this app is so fantastic. I downloaded this app several years ago when it only had something like 20 or 30 dim sum dishes. About three months ago I went back to the app and was shocked to see it has so many more dishes included. I have memorized all of the dishes in the entire app for Cantonese. I also study Mandarin on the side. And was wishing that this app had also Mandarin. Today I was thinking I bet you it has Mandarin somewhere. And I just found out how to turn it on. I was extremely excited. Love this app and it’s perfect for anybody studying Mandarin or Cantonese and wants toBe able to read the menu in the Chinese restaurant

**Developer response:** Thanks for the nice review! This app is kind of like a language app disguised as a food app, I made it primarily to learn Cantonese (so I could order food in Hong Kong), but enough people find it useful I feel compelled to keep adding to it. Besides the additional dishes, a lot of the features are user requests too, like the Mandarin support you mention (and then I had to add simplified characters to be complete), the search feature, favorites...so just let me know if you have more ideas!

### 4/5 — Sound doesn’t work

*2021-07-06, version 4.0.4*

Is it suppose to have no sound unless you upgrade?

### 5/5 — so awesome dim sum :)

*2021-02-19*

Thank you, so much for creating this app. I can speak Cantonese, however i don’t know how to read a lot of Chinese so the only dim sum names I know are some basic ones! Addition, my kids will love this! This will allow them to learn to order for themselves.

If possible add some
Boba names :)and the complicated ice and sugar Ritual.

**Developer response:** Boba is a good idea! Thanks for the review!

### 5/5 — Made to order

*2021-02-12*

This is one of the best applications on my phone. As a 3rd generation Chinese American, it is a little embarrassing not to be able ask for my favorite items by name. This app has changed all of that. My biggest problem is that the servers now assume I’m a native speaker and start to converse with me in Cantonese about other things.  I’m suddenly toast.  LOL

**Developer response:** Thanks for the great review! I have the same problem, if I manage to say something in Cantonese correctly, I get a whole dialogue in return!

### 3/5 — Dim Sum review

*2021-02-08, version 3.79*

I gave it a sub-par rating because not enough dishes

### 5/5 — Phrases

*2020-06-07*

Can you add conversations on how to actually order something ? Like Yat lung haa cao. Leong tip cheong fun. Yap pei Cha,   Fogei lip jau (to put this on a bag),and finally Maai taan.

**Developer response:** Great idea! Definitely, I had a long-term idea that on each dish screen you could bring up the phrase on how to order it. In the meantime, I'm slowly (very slowly) adding to the phrases screen, but I'll keep working on it!

### 5/5 — THEY THOUGHT OF EVERYTHING

*2020-04-18*

I haven’t been this surprised by such a useful app in ages! I’d recommend it to anyone who likes Dimsum!

**Developer response:** Thanks, I hope everyone who likes dim sum will try the app, and also anyone who would like to learn about dim sum!

## Frequently asked questions about Talk Dim Sum

### What does Talk Dim Sum do?

This app helps you navigate Chinese and Chinese-adjacent food, including dim sum. It provides pronunciations for dishes in Cantonese and Mandarin, allows you to search for items in English and Chinese, and lists over 500 restaurants in the US. It also features AI camera recognition for dishes and speech-to-text practice.

### How can I practice pronunciation with this app?

The app offers speech-to-text functionality, allowing you to practice speaking dish names. You can adjust playback speed and switch between Cantonese and Mandarin. If the voice is stuck on a specific language, check your iOS Accessibility settings under Spoken Content to ensure the correct Chinese voice is selected.

### Is this app free to use?

The app is free to download and use, with in-app purchases available. This means you can access core features without immediate cost, but some additional functionalities or content might require a purchase.

### What are the technical requirements for the app?

The app utilizes iOS text-to-speech and speech-to-text functionality, which may require an internet connection, especially for initial use. Ensure your device's mute switch is off and that you have a stable internet connection for optimal performance. Restarting your device can also resolve voice access issues.

### Can I use this app to order food?

While the app doesn't directly facilitate ordering, it equips you with the knowledge to order confidently. By providing accurate pronunciations and dish names in both English and Chinese, it bridges the communication gap when ordering at restaurants or for takeout.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 6.9.0 — 2026-07-04

- add Wu's Shanghai Dumplings in NJ
- update mapo tofu training data

### 6.8.9 — 2026-06-12

- require iOS 26
- remove Dim Sum Hut in Reno, NV
- update link for Rainbow Kitchen in Las Vegas, NV
- update link for The Spot Dim Sum and Boba in Sparks, NV
- fixed romanization for eggplant tofu noodles
- add Charles Yu (sci-fi writer)
- add John Chu (sci-fi writer)

### 6.8.8 — 2025-12-15

quick fix removing features that don't work in iOS 26

### 6.8.7 — 2024-11-18

Fixed missing photo for red bean moon cake

### 6.8.6 — 2024-11-03

Las Vegas update: added Jasmine (in the Bellagio, so it ain't cheap, especially the abalone siu mai), removed Noodle House, and fixed a bunch of links (casinos apparently like changing their restaurant URLs).

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## More apps by Technicat, LLC

- [Fugu Maze](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fugu-maze/id295808255)
- [HyperBowl](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hyperbowl/id344209253)

All apps by Technicat, LLC: https://appshunter.io/developer/295241742

## Related topics

[dimsum](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/dimsum) · [cantonese ai](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/cantonese-ai)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-30.*