Dumpling King

Dumpling King

572 Station St, Box Hill

(Ph) 9890 3719

We come to Box Hill to do shopping so regularly and we always just randomly go to a restaurant to get food. This time I thought I'd do some research and find a good place first - Dumpling King seems to have quite good ratings on Urbanspoon so decided to check it out.

We came at 2.30pm and the waiter said their lunch period ends at 3pm so we have to leave by then - whatever we were hungry so we sat down anyway. There were tablecloths on the table and lanterns hanging off the ceiling - was very Westernized, as was most of the customers there.

P said he felt like Char Kway Teow - we thought a dumpling restaurant must sell fried rice noodles right? How wrong we were - the closest they had was Singapore Fried Noodles, which aren't rice noodles boo =(

How strange of them to serve it up on a curry dish?! I guess there is curry flavour in it lol, I'm not a fan of Singapore Fried Noodles - it's just the noodle version of fried rice, where you just chuck in whatever you find in your fridge and mix some curry powder into it. Was alright - P said it tasted like the ones he used to get at uni which means it's not very good =P

I came here for the dumplings so of course I had to get dumplings - Pan Fried Beijing Style Dumplings - pork and Chinese leeks (10 pcs) $9.80

Who calls it Chinese leeks?! Chinese chives or spring onion maybe? lol. There was "Award Winning Dish" next to this dish on the menu. Unfortunately I really don't agree. They were quite ordinary - skin was quite thin but wasn't fried crispy enough.

Of course I had to order Steamed Shanghai Dumplings - pork and Chinese Soup Fillings (5 pcs) $6.20

This also had "Award Winning Dish" next to it - but my, this was even worse than the fried dumplings. There was barely any soup inside and the skin was kinda thick. Plus they didn't give us any ginger - for a restaurant who's famous for their dumplings how can you not give us ginger?!

And we felt like we had to rush our food 'cause we thought they were going to kick us out at 3pm, but they were still seating people at 2.45pm so surely we knew they couldn't close the restaurant at 3pm. Maybe it was just no ordering of food after 3pm?

Food~
3/10 - was very ordinary, had such high expectations of this place but seriously nothing compares to Shanghai Street =(

Service~
3/5 - not bad for an Asian restaurant, but like I said, they're aiming at Western customers here =P

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite a large restaurant, think it used to be 2 separate restaurants and they bought the store next to them to expand 'cause it's like 2 separate rooms

Not sure if I'll come here again...

C.
xo

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01/07/2013

Got the new Entertainment Book! Boxhill restaurants are never featured in it so when I found Dumpling King in it, and apparently rated as one of Melbourne's Top 5 Yum Cha Restaurants by the Herald Sun - I thought I had to come.

I don't remember Boxhill really having any proper yum cha restaurants let alone one of Melbourne's best - oh how wrong they are! It was only when we arrived that I realised I had been here before and they definitely don't serve proper yum cha food here They have some yum cha dishes you can order on a piece of paper instead of the proper yum cha carts, and all the dishes were very Western yum cha dishes - boo!

We were inside already so thought we'd give it a second chance - we decided to get some dumplings again and maybe a few yum cha dishes.

P got a bowl of wontons in soup - which surprisingly was one of the better dishes of the meal. Nothing too special but not too bad, and quite generous in numbers and in prawns for the filling inside.

I had forgotten how bad the dumplings are here - and it was no different this time. Thick skin and no fried enough to a crunch yet was very oily.

The Xiao Long Bao was the same again - thick tough skin..

Though it did have some tasty broth inside.

P wanted some fried wontons which were on the yum cha list - I had never noticed this before but fried wontons and soup wontons are folded differently where for the fried ones they leave more of the skin hanging so it's more crunchy =) This was pretty good, but yes it was a very Western dish so maybe that's what they're good at?

Last we got a BBQ Pork Bun $5 for 2 so actually pretty expensive =/

Ohmygawd look how red the BBQ pork is?! So much food colouring ugh (Western dish yet again!), bun was quite soft though.

The Caucasian couple next to us didn't finish most of their dishes - guess they don't please the Caucasians either! I guess after the 25% off was the meal was alright but no third time lucky for this restaurant from me!

Raramen

Raramen

Centro Boxhill Market, Boxhill

(Ph) 9899 8966

We wanted some food after our shopping at Boxhill one Sunday afternoon - walked past this "Raramen" and saw the Free Slurpee sign so decided to check it out. It was a freezing day but how can you say no to free slurpee?

P had wanted Japanese ramen but as soon as we sat down we knew it wasn't Japanese ramen but just Chinese noodles. He got House Special Rice Noodle Soup - beef, egg, vegetable, spring onion, noodle, soup $9.80

I really like this type of noodles when made properly - 瀨粉 (lai fun). I just wikipediaed it - they call it "rice spaghetti" with a description of "thick round semi-translucent made from sticky rice". Normally you'd expect "rice noodle" to be the flat fettucini like type, so P was disappointed as he wanted them. Lai fun is meant to be bouncy and chewy like sticky rice, but this wasn't, and it wasn't translucent either. Think they made it out of normal rice instead of sticky rice so didn't have the right texture, which was a bit disappointing =( I was craving the delicious bowls you get in Hong Kong served with roast goose =( The beef brisket was quite tender but the broccoli tasted like it was raw and they gave way too much preserved vegetables for our liking =/

I of course had to order some Xiao Long Baos - when will I learn to order something else? =P They took forever to come out - it actually wasn't that long but in this fast-food-like restaurant, 10 minutes felt like a long time since everything came out in less than 2 minutes lol =P

Finally they came out - and they were a disappointment as well =( firstly, no ginger tsk tsk. And secondly the skin was so thick with minimal soup - sigh. Really need to go back to Shanghai Street!

P got me some Slurpee - the first cup he got me was mainly just liquid with no ice, he said the ice wouldn't come out =/ so he tried a 2nd cup from the other machine which was slightly better (pictured below) but was still more water than ice lol. Bit too sweet for my liking, but the kids around us were all enjoying their slurpees - novelty factor is nice.

Surprisingly enough, next to the slurpee machines P found a pot with some red bean dessert inside!

And it was surprisingly delicious! We both had a bowl each and agreed that this was the best part of this meal =P too bad by this stage we were both quite full and couldn't fit a 2nd bowl in... next time should just sit down and just have this dessert haha =P

Food~
4/10 - fast cheap Asian food, definitely try the red bean dessert though!

Service~
2/5 - fast, but not enough waiters on this busy Sunday lunchtime

Atmosphere~
2/5 - quite spacious so can fit big groups and families but means it's quite loud too =P

C.
xo

Dumpling World

Dumpling World

620 Collins Street, Melbourne

This restaurant used to be a Chinese restaurant - I never tried it but P said it wasn't very good. A few weeks ago we saw it became "Dumpling World" - not sure if it's the same owners but it looked quite busy and I <3 dumplings so thought we'd give it a try!

P wanted Pork Wonton in Soup (15pcs or 8pcs with noodle) $9.00. We opted for the wonton only option since we came here for dumplings anyway =P

These wontons don't really look like wontons... more like dumplings... they don't have the long flowy tails but instead are just folded to one side =( So when you bite into it there's lots of skin on one side =/

And the soup was a very strange... it was a seaweed soup - how strange with wontons?! but that's not the worst part - there were lots of bitsy stuff on the bottom, I don't mean the normal spring onions and coriander stuff, but there were white bits at the bottom - kinda looked like rice o_Oa hmmm

We also got a Pork and Cabbage Dumpling (15 pcs) $8.80 - extra $1.00 for fried dumplings. Who doesn't get dumplings fried?! Le sigh.

Big dumplings! Meat was quite tasty and juicy but the skin was a tad thick... and they didn't fry it enough, wasn't that crunchy - I paid an extra $1.00 for the crunchiness!

How could I go to a dumpling place without ordering Shanghai Steamed Pork Dumpling (8 pcs) $9.80

Looks so regular shaped and stiff and not very juicy hmm...

But there was actually a lot of juice inside! And the meat was quite tasty =) Though no ginger given and the meat wasn't gingery at all - unlike Shanghai Street Dumpling =( Skin was a tad thick too in comparison to Shanghai Street... P said maybe they buy the dumplings pre-made 'cause they all looked so regular but I think that would cost them more... you'd think if you open a dumpling restaurant you'd have someone who can actually make XLBs =P

Food~
5/10 - was alright... maybe a tad better than Shanghai Dumpling House and cleaner =P but definitely doesn't compare with Shanghai Street Dumpling <3

Service~
3/5 - surprisingly quite good for a Chinese restaurant =P

Atmosphere~
3/5 - not bad, quite spacious inside =)

C.

xo

Shanghai Street Dumpling

Shanghai Street Dumpling

342 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9600 2250

E had told me about this new awesome dumpling place on Little Bourke, but on the opposite end of Chinatown - who would have thought there'd be a good dumpling place up this end? It's a very small place, sitting only about ~10 groups of up to 4 people. 

J and I love dumplings, so we decided to give it a try! I had read there was usually a line here during lunch times, so we decided to go when it opens - 11.30am =) Managed to get a comfortable table! Sure enough, at 12 noon, there was about 5 groups of people waiting in line outside =/

We knew we had to order Homemade Traditional Steamed Xiao Long Bao (8 pieces) $8.80. We were tossing up between Homemade Shanghai Fried Pork Mini Bun (6 pieces) $8.50 or Pan Fried Pork Dumplings (15 pieces) $8.50. We decided on the pork mini buns =)

We had waited about 15 minutes and the food still hadn't come yet. The table next to us had ordered a plate of Pan Fried Pork Dumplings - looked and smelt soo good and we were both super hungry, so we decided to order a plate of them as well!

The XLBs came first! <3

Such big dumplings, beautifully pleated! Skin was thin yet didn't break easily =D Dumpling was full of broth inside! <3 The broth was so hot we both burnt ourselves in our impatience to dig into our dumplings =P Only downside was there was no plate of ginger with vinegar like you get at most "higher class" dumpling places, but you could taste the ginger in the meat - delicious!

Next came the Pork Mini Buns - they could have plated it slightly nicer, instead of this strange triangle configuration =P

Super crunchy on the outside!

We fully were not expecting it, but the buns were full of broth too! J poked at her bun and broth squirted out =P So different, usually dumplings/buns with broth are steamed but these were fried yet full of broth - yum!

We were kinda full already - kinda regretted ordering the extra plate of dumplings =X They did eventually come but we only had one each and doggy bagged the rest =P

Dumplings were quite good too, super crispy on the outside but without the broth inside - I wonder if they use different pork mixtures for all the different types of dumplings/buns or if it's just the same? 'cause the bun meat and the pan fried dumpling meat didn't taste as gingery as the XLB meat hmm..

Food~
8.5/10 - thin dumpling skin, juicy meat, delicious broth! If only they provided some ginger too =P

Service~
2/5 -quite casual here but not too bad

Atmosphere~
2/5 - very rushed and claustrophobic with so many people waiting in line during peak lunch time - come before/after the peak to avoid the wait line!

Gotta say definitely my new dumpling place! The price of Shanghai Dumpling House but the quality of HuTong Dumpling Bar! Will definitely be back! =)

C.
xo

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10/06/2012

So I came back for a 2nd time but for dinner this time... we came at 5.30pm so we could get a table before the dinner crowd, sure enough at 6pm there was a massive line outside the restaurant already! We ordered the Pan Fried Dumplings and Shanghai XLBs again... the standards had dropped so much! The fried dumplings weren't even crispy and the XLBs didn't have the gingery taste and not as much broth as last time =( Why is it that once a restaurant gets famous the standards drop? =(

Shanghai Dumpling House

Shanghai Dumpling House

25 Tattersalls Lane, Melbourne

(Ph) 9663 8555

A was in Melbourne for a few days! She hasn't been back since the end of last year, and really missed the rowdiness of Melbourne compared to Alice Springs =P so she suggested coming to Shanghai Dumpling House - where we came a year or two ago with another friend. That time, while we were waiting in line, we met a group of Canadians who ended up sitting at the same table as us upstairs. We looked at the menu and saw they had a buffet for $12 per head - all you can eat dumplings of all kinds, various buns, steamed vegetables, fried rice, dessert items eg pumpkin cake.. it was a bargain to the max! But it's minimum of I think 5 people for the buffet - since we only had 3 this time, we couldn't get the buffet, and instead just chose our own dumplings =)

We got here nice and early this time - 6pm so we didn't have to wait in line at all =)

We got 2 serves of spring rolls to share - ~$3 for 3 spring rolls to start off with.

Spring rolls

Too bad they're vegetarian, so the filling wasn't that tasty - but spring rolls are always a great entree =)

Of course we had to get a plate of fried pork dumplings - 15 for ~$8

Fried pork dumplings

So oily but deliciously crunchy bottom with juicy mince inside =)

Next came the dimplings in chili oil ~$7

Dumplings in chili oil

I've never ordered this before - I thought the chili oil would be more thick and more like a sauce as opposed to a soup, but it wasn't, so it wasn't as chili as I thought it would be - which is good =P Dumplings just tasted like the normal steamed pork dumplings, with the slightest hint of chili on the outside - not too bad =)

We ordered a plate of noodles just in case we weren't full - stirfry noodles with seafood ~$8

Stirfry noodles with seafood

I wasn't a fan of the noodles - was a bit tasteless and I guess it's just me personally not really liking egg noodles.

Lastly came the steamed Shanghai dumplings ~$8

Steamed Shanghai dumplings

My favourite dumplings of all time! <3 The skin is a bit thick here compared to the perfect ones, but the meat is very juicy and when you bite into the dumpling, delicious soup leaks out =) Perfect with a touch of vinegar!

We were so full after it all - what can you expect for less than $15 per head!

Feel a bit dirty every time I come here, everything is so rush rush from ordering to the food coming to our table and the man kept trying to shoo us out - we realized why afterwards, the line outside was massively long! I don't think I'd ever line up for dumplings here again, but once in a while - cheap dumplings are always good =)

7.5/10

C.
xo

See Max Brenner for our dessert afterwards..