Day off today, so I thought I'd pop into the Oriental Tea House on Chapel St for lunch.It's been a…read moregood month or two since my last visit,and I was craving some of their delicious dumplings. My server Nathan seated me within a minute of my arrival,and then asked if I wanted my 'usual' ? I thought he was kidding,but I wanted to see how this played out,so I asked Nathan what he thought my 'usual' was ? He replied 'chicken noodles,and satay dumplings'. He nailed it !! I could not believe it !! To say I was blown away would be an understatement. The food was superb, Nathan's service was amazing,and I can't wait to come back for my next visit. If I could,I'd give the Oriental Tea House 10 stars on today's experience. Keep up the great work guys..

I ordered the pork buns for a takeaway. I was a bit surprised when I opened the box. They looked…read morelike they were still raw. Like an uncooked pillsbury dinner rolls, they were literally still tacky. The pork inside was terrible! Was tough and there appeared to be some kind of bean in it. I would not recommend these. The tea selections is great.

If you fancy a true Chinese style's Chinese cuisine (China), Shanghai Dynasty would be ideal for…read moreyou. From decoration, to customer services, to fish tanks (seafood tanks), to menu, it surely mirror how China's dining scenary is. It is slightly pricey, however, the service and variety of their menu do live up the price tag. A few highlight of dishes would be Weird Chicken, Beef & Bun, Dark Soy Sauces Duck Tongue, Sweet & Sour Pork Rib. meow........

Father's Day 2015. This is the best Yum Cha I've had all year. So tasty, fresh & tender…read more The place looks like a throw back from a time long gone. But, don't let that put you off, the ambience only adds to the experience. Yuuummm

Atmosphere I actually like the atmosphere here! It is styled…read morein a very classy and modern way with a touch of Asian trinkets here and there. This place is very clean and the kitchen is in open view. It's pretty casual, but still maintains a sense of class at the same time. Service I had a young Asian woman as my waitress and she was very courteous and efficient as well. After I finished my food, a young man came to take my dish away but he was polite enough to ask me first. My waitress was quick to take my order and the time it took for my food to arrive was pretty reasonable as well. Food The first thing I should note is that their menu definitely lacks a bit of variety, so there is no guarantee that you would be able to find something you like here. They have dim sum, noodles, and rice, but no variety within those categories. Luckily I spotted "Xiao Long Bao", a dish I always enjoy (steamed pork dumplings, delicious!) for 9.50. In contrast, their drinks menu has a lot more variety than their actual food menu, which I find a bit silly but that's okay! They have alcohol as well as a vast assortment of non-alcoholic drinks and I went with the coconut juice for 3.50. Time it took for food to arrive: 11 minutes. I LOVED my meal. The Xiao Long Bao was delicious. When I bit into it, I tasted the rush of the soup in my mouth and mmmm.... sooooo good! The coconut juice was very flavourful and had bits of actual coconut in it as well! NOTES: ~ They have a policy that if you are not allowed to split the bill, so something to keep in mind. ~ At each table they have two identical looking soy sauce bottles but LOOK AT THE TOPS. One will be labeled "V" and the other "S" - for vinegar and soy sauce. Both the sauces are black, so it is very easy to make a mistake. When I first sat down I thought they just had 2 soy sauce bottles at every table until I took a closer look! I would definitely recommend this place, but if you are really picky with Chinese food, it might be a bit tough to find something you like here with the lack of variety in their menu. But if you find something that you might enjoy, this place will probably deliver quality.

I have 88 problems, but this dumpling house ain't one…read more Easy to miss and doesn't stand out if you're not looking for it. When you do find it, the Asian inspired décor is a nice touch, feels cosy. It's a casual scene, but the tables and chairs could be better. Service is friendly and efficient, everything happens fast, which is pleasing to see. The food is delicious and you wouldn't pick it as it doesn't feel like it will deliver, but it does with bells on. The Rice Paper Rolls and Golden Chilli Oil Pork Dumplings were our starters with Vietnamese coffee. The peanut dip that came with the rice paper rolls didn't pack enough flavour, but the soy sauce on the table was a quick fix for that. Enjoyable and light. The golden chilli oil pork dumplings were insane. Juicy, soft, tender, and if you're not careful, you could almost eat your fingers off. The chilli oil can be used in all your dishes to give it the necessary POW factor if it's missing. A must have dish if you're struggling to pick from the menu. I have a love, hate relationship with the Vietnamese coffee. There's not enough, I could drink this all day and cannot get sick of it. The Salt and Pepper Prawn and Stir-fried seasonal vegetables with chicken were the mains. Everything you have come to expect from the salt and pepper prawns was here, generous servings cooked with wonderful salty condiments (spring onions, chilli to name a few) that released a grilled and tasty favour that goes well with anything (dip the prawns in the chilli oil and don't look back). The stir-fried seasonal vegetables and chicken was a classic dish done right, filled with flavour, which was saucy, satisfying and rounded off the selection. Chicken cooked perfectly along with the vegetables. This is good quality food that strikes the taste head-on and is modest with its presentation. I can't wait to try everything else on the menu, but I fear I might keep ordering the chilli oil pork and Vietnamese coffee over and over again, but, who could blame me?

This is another one of those places that I have walked past quite often, namely because one of my…read morefavourite pubs happens to be just down the road from it. Unfortunately, it is only generally open at night, but I managed to get in here to check it out, and I have to admit that I do think that this is a pretty awesome place. It certainly does have that Hong Kong feel about it, and the food is pretty awesome as well. Oh, and the prices aren't bad either. Definitely worth checking out.

We were recommended Houhai Dumpling House by our next door neighbours and on a Tuesday evening with…read morenothing organised for dinner, it seemed the perfect opportunity to test them for ourselves by ordering some take away. A simple online search revealed their menu (not just dumplings!) and brought about my ongoing internal struggle - making a decision on what to order! I ended up choosing the Prawn with Ginger and Onion, happily paying the $1 extra to have these pan fried. We called in our order for pick up and were advised it would be ready within 20 minutes, which it was close enough to, however I'm not too fussed on having to wait a few extra minutes - personally I'd rather leave the restaurant with my meal just being freshly cooked than it sitting on their counter awaiting collection. You get 15 dumplings per serve which is MORE than enough for one person, along with dipping sauce for your dumplings. I of course made the mistake of thinking I could finish one serving solo. Which I did, but I regretted immediately after - next time I think sharing two serves between three people would be ideal. Not two serves between two people! I loved the fresh and tasty dumplings that I received (and consumed too many of in a single sitting!) and cannot wait to return and try other items on their menu. However, how I'll stray from the dumpling section of the menu is an issue in an of itself! My only negatives would be the inability to mix and match flavours in the one serving (with 15 per serve, it would nice to be able to sample three different types) and also a lack of choice in dipping sauces (thankfully I always have sriracha at home). Very minor things and not something to deter you at all.

So, this place sort of feels like one of those Hong Kong style cafes, namely because the offerings…read moreare sort of what you get when you fuse Asian food with western food. However, it also feels like a typical Chinese restaurant, to an extent. Yeah, the name suggests it, but the menu is something that stood out for me. It was okay, I did like it, and it was pretty cheap as well. So, yeah, worth checking out.

We were passing by Tim Ho Wan when we decided to grab some dim sum. It was a good size restaurant…read morebut less than half full when we arrived for an early dinner. We got seated right away. Ordering was done via QR code. Bathrooms were not in the restaurant but outside about halfway into the building. It wasn't well signed. We ordered our favorites (BBQ pork buns, shrimp and pork dim sum, bean curd wrap) and taste and quality were consistent. We also tried their congee for the first time and it was quite good. Service was good and when we were finished we paid at the cashier. The credit card surcharge was the lowest of any restaurant we ate during that trip.

Had a won ton noodle soup and my wife spicy chicken noodle soup…read more Wantons were delicious but the soup tasted like boiled water and had zero flavour Quite frankly the meal was not good at all Our meals came out 20mins apart which is terrible when you have a 30min lunch break WILL NOT BE BACK

Cash only!! Bring about $15-20 per person. Low key dining, casual dress code is fine…read more Wandering around after some Spencer street shopping I was getting hungry and turned to Yelp. The dumpling idea sounded just excellent to me so I headed to this spot for their hot & sour soup with dumplings. Upon entering you're greeted by a hostess that speaks quite the broken English. You can place your order immediately and find a seat. The crowd is almost 100% Asian - always a good sign. I got my order within a few minutes. The soup, which is my favorite type, was not good. Its most notable flavour is salt, and a tad too much of it. Hot & sour soup is one of my go-to dishes in Chinese restaurants, so I know this one was below par. The DUMPLINGS inside that soup... Now that's a whole different story. When they said "master dumpling" they meant it. The soup comes with 10 (!) hand made pork dumplings inside ($10.50 AUD). Those are pure heaven and very well made. I saw other dishes come out of the kitchen, they all looked great. I noted that most patrons ordered something to eat and a steaming basket of dumplings to go along - that's probably the way to go here. Stick with their dumplings and you will leave happy. Come with an eating partner, value for your money is very good as well.

Probably more of a 3.5 star rating, but I'll round up since we only got a few items. When we first…read morepassed by this place right around noon, the dining room was packed and there must have been 25 people waiting outside. Fortunately, we had had a late breakfast and weren't looking for a table just yet. A couple hours later we started to feel a little peckish so we ambled back over here, and the crowd outside was gone. The restaurant was still humming but at least we got seated right away. We came here specifically for the xiao long bao. Melbourne is actually flush with XLB places, so if this place hadn't worked out then we probably could have found another equally enticing restaurant about a block away. We got an order of hot and sour soup, combination fried rice, and their basic XLB. The soup was meh - definitely have had much better - but unlike a lot of American restaurants they didn't use an excessive amount of cornstarch to thicken it, which I appreciated. The fried rice was pretty good and wasn't oversalted. The XLB were huge, at least as compared to what we get in the US. There was so much broth inside each dumpling that it overflowed the spoon that we used. The pork filling was delicious. I had hoped to get a second order of a different XLB, but we were already quite satisfied by the time we finished off the tray. Service was just okay, as they seemed to be a little understaffed when we were there. We were given water but not tea, though I'm not sure whether it's customary in Australia to be automatically served tea at Chinese restaurants. The price of our meal was reasonable for the amount and type of food we ordered.

I love this place!!!…read more Great dumplings, especially the soup dumplings, outstanding chili wontons, excellent wood ear salad, and amazing fish with picked vegetable soup. There is often a long line, but its worth the wait.

Food Republik is really fun & a tiny bit overwhelming for first timers. It's set out like a food…read morecourt with lots of little stalls around the perimeter, but is actually one big restaurant with a huge range of options on the menu. The menu is broken down into cuisines (Korean style, Taiwanese style, Japanese style etc) & the cuisines match the little stalls around the perimeter. Everything on the menu is numbered and there is a notepad on the table where you write down the numbers of the food you want & when you're ready, you use the buzzer on the table to buzz your waiter & hand him your written down order! It's actually pretty efficient and it's nice to have it all sorted without having to flip through the menu while a waiter waits for you to find the thing you want to order! You can also buzz for water or menus with different buttons which I loved! I had a phenomenal beef brisket noodle soup (the brisket was so tender, the noodles perfect and the soup delicious) & really tasty fried Korean chicken drumettes. We also shared some dumplings which were underwhelming. Definitely a unique experience and some tasty food to be had next time you venture out to Box Hill!

I love this place. 8 or more eateries under one roof with one menu that covers all the eateries, so…read moreyou can order from the table. Awesome food. The service is fast and friendly. Cash only, no reservations, and there is a line to get in at busy times, but it is well worth the wait. The outstanding dishes for me were: Taiwanese style pork belly burger - these are unbelievable good. Beef wrap - one of the best versions of this I have tried Twice cooked chili with Pork belly - this was also very good Pan fried pork dumplings - perfect execution - juicy, with great flavor, and that cool burnt skirt that you only get at the good dumpling places