Ding Dong! Dim sum delivered to your door

It was surely written in the stars that Tom Greenwood-Mears was destined to start up a dim sum business with Maya, his wife, when one of their first dates was at a class making these delicious little Chinese dumplings.

“We’d enjoyed dim sum for a very long time in restaurants,” says Tom, who grew up in Haddiscoe, “and we’d have it at home and we would get takeaways as well. Dim sum is best enjoyed when it has just been cooked – that's why takeaway dim sum isn’t particularly nice as it’s been hanging around for half an hour or an hour.”

The germ of an idea was formed four or five years ago, he says, when they started to use meal kits and thought the format was a good model for dim sum.

The idea didn’t go anywhere for a while, though they noted that when the pandemic struck a lot more meal kits came on to the market. Then in 2020, just as they were about to have their first child, Maya, who has had a career with national restaurants and food businesses, was made redundant.

So, they decided to explore the dim sum idea a little, initially more out of interest than with real intent, says Tom, though they did feel that it might be something they could turn into a business.

They started to put some menu ideas together, thinking about what people might want and got to the stage where they were thinking about how customers might cook it. “We were aware that a lot of people might not have a bamboo steamer [to cook the dim sum] so we started to develop a steamer that we might be able to send out with every order,” says Tom.

The biodegradable paper steamers come in the kit (Image: Ding Dong Dim Sum)

They came up with an ingenious steamer kit, which includes two paper steamers with a biodegradable plastic film liner and a stabiliser to allow you to balance them on your saucepan. The steamers can be used for two or three times before they need to be thrown away – they are compostable and are often used as gardening seed trays, says Tom.

Then he was made redundant from his job with a TV company - and from that moment on it was full steam ahead. With their redundancy money they started work in earnest on Ding Dong Dim Sum – Ding Dong as it comes to your door, of course. They sourced suppliers who made dim sum for London restaurants and worked with them on developing their idea for fillings and dips.

It launched last March. “Since then, it has been unbelievably busy,” says Tom. It’s been a crazy year” They now have ten staff members working for them and up to 900 Ding Dong boxes are sent out every week. Feedback has been massively positive, which has meant a lot of repeat business.

Gyoza dim sum (Image: Ding Dong Dim Sum)

Tom says that he was surprised at the breakdown of orders as 80% of orders are rural; they initially expected to have a bigger London customer base. But as rural folk don’t have easy access it makes sense that means they fulfilled their aim of making Dim Sum more accessible to more people at home to enjoy.

In the longer term they will be looking at introducing more bespoke flavours, a dinner party kit which might include drinks and have launched on Deliveroo. And they have managed all of this with toddler Ruben needing to be looked after as well. “it’s all been very exciting and fun,” says Tom.

Tom, 34 was brought up in Norfolk from the age of eight and went to Gresham’s and Wymondham College. While they are currently living in London, a return to the county is definitely on the cards in a few years, not least because his parents still live in the county, he says.

https://www.dingdongdimsum.com

A Ding Dong Dim Sum box (Image: Ding Dong Dim Sum)

The taste test

We tried out the new Ding Dong Dim Sum Peski pescetarian box, plus a couple of extras – a char sui bun and chicken gyoza.

It arrived beautifully neatly packed in a sort of wool insulation jacket with dry ice keeping it all sub-zero. When it came to cooking time, the instructions were pretty clear (the only confusion was ours, when we couldn’t remember which gyoza was which) and the steamers worked brilliantly.

It probably took about 20 minutes to get everything piping hot and ready to go and it was 20 minutes well-spent. The buns in particular were exquisite little fluffy clouds and the prawn gyoza was also outstanding. The dips were lively and fresh and brought it all together.

The boxes sell for around £30 for enough for two, which might sound a lot but you’d pay that for a very average takeaway. This is a bit special and of excellent quality – and the preparation heightens the anticipation.