Delicious dim sum This is a great spot for yum cha in Melbourne's Chinatown precinct! There is wide range of dim sum and they were all delicious! If you visit on the weekend and don't want to queue, you'll need to make a booking. The service is friendly and efficient, but the trolleys didn't seem to come around all that often - we were on the ground floor so it might be a better idea to book a table upstairs. read more

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This place is great for all people that like Chinese food. It has a selection of dumplings and other great dishes. The service was also excellent as they do yum cha that is delicious. The servers offered us a good amount of food which is great. The place was a little old but not bad. Over all definitely recommend. Will be coming back!! read more

Although I prefer its sister restaurant down the road, Shark Fin House, Shark Fin in is still worth a visit. As Samantha mentioned, it's cheaper than House, but just as busy. They do quality yum cha in a buzzing atmosphere that will leaved you feeling completely stuffed. It's also one of the better spots in Chinatown for an evening meal, with a broad selection of traditional Chinese dishes all done well. For me, apart from the prices and elevator, the key difference between House and Inn is the liquor license status. I always get it confused, but here's the G.O.: Shark Fin House: Licensed, but NO BYO Shark Fin Inn: Both bar and BYO (yay!) read more

Shark Fin Inn - Chinese Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

The Sharks Fin Inn at 50 Bourke street is the older of the 2 Sharks Fin restaurants. The food and cooking is excellent. The Green lip Abalone was very good. The steamed Parrot Fish was the best I have had in a long time. The flesh was soft, not mushy or stringy and the sauce perfect. Other very good dishes are pipis with vermicelli in XO sauce, stir fried fillet steak. read more

Shark Fin Inn - Chinese Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

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My family's favourite restaurant for a get together over some pretty tasty Chinese food and lots of jasmine tea, Shark Fin Inn is also a favourite of ours for Sunday afternoon yum cha. Pricing is reasonable and the selection is good, all the usual suspects will be present. Just remember to book a table because it gets mighty packed in here on a Sunday. The noise factor is high and the atmosphere bustling, which is all part of the fun of yum cha at a proper chinese restaurant. Shark Fin Inn totally rules. read more

Shark Fin Inn - Chinese Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

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My favourite for Yum Cha (dim sum) in Melbourne's Chinatown. I've eaten here many times - today was the first time I've done Yum Cha solo. I had three small plates: crab and prawn dumplings, Sui mai and prawn dumplings. Just enough for one very hungry traveller with three pieces in each steamer. I'm so pleased many restaurants now do Yum Cha for weekday lunch. It used to only be a weekend thing. read more

Thanks Yelp. It was a Sunday morning after a night of relaxing with films and we needed something to brighten up the lazy Sunday. I decided to search for good Yum Cha restaurants on Yelp, found this place, and what a great idea it was. Ambiance: The restaurant looks incredibly classy and clean with rooms off to the side for a bit more privacy. The main room can get a bit crowded and therefore loud, but the tables are still spaced apart alright so you can get around decently. Customer Service: Really good. Unfortunately it was a bit embarrassing because they didn't speak Cantonese and when I asked them for certain meals in Cantonese, a lot of the times they didn't understand me... but that's okay. They were pretty respectful, courteous, and attentive - always coming by to remove finished plates and pour your tea. Food: I noticed that although they do have a good range of authentic dishes on their menu, the majority of it is a tad bit Westernised - meals that I will never see in a true-blue Cantonese Yum Cha spot. Not to say that the food isn't authentic, but they do make the effort to appeal to a variety of food palettes. The food is absolutely delicious though. Everything that we picked out was delicious. My recommendations: Char Siu Bao (BBQ Pork Bun) Ha Cherng (Steamed Shrimp Roll) Ngow Cherng (Steamed Beef Roll) Ha Gao (Steamed Shrimp Dumpling) Gao Zee (Fried potstickers) And for dessert, get some of the Mango Pudding with cream on top. This place makes the best Mango Pudding I have ever had. read more

Make a book or prepare to wait, this place is packed and with good reason. The trolleys come thick and fast and you will be overwhelmed with the choices in each little basket. It's all hot and fresh and the staff are friendly and accommodating, helping with special requests and orders of more chilli sauce (what can I say, I like it hot!) The Char Siu Bao was steaming hot, the filling rich and sticky though I have to say just a little bit TOO sweet. Steamed vegetable and prawn dumplings were exceptional, as were the steamed rice noodle filled with tofu and green vegetable that came with a rich dark soy. I ordered the rice noodles as they didn't seem to be going around on the trolley. I also requested a big plate of green veggies, and this was no problem and delivered within about 10 minutes. An enjoyable Sunday experience! read more

I had a dream. A dream that after a night of bacchanalian revelry with my fellow hedonists we could drag ourselves out of our lair and into the harsh light of a Melbourne Sunday, for yum cha. We consulted the oracles and cast the bone die, and so our quest for steamed buns and tiny Asian ladies pushing trolleys led us to Little Bourke street, to Shark Fin Inn. I had a dream. A dream that mainly involved xiaolongbao and cha siu bao. Unfortunately, Shark Fin Inn is a fucking nightmare. We opened the door to Shark Fin Inn and walked in to the foyer- at which point there was a large bang and a cloud of purple smoke, from which emerged the immaculately dressed maitre d'. He gazed at us with an unfathomable, withering stare, until our own Asian element passed him some kind of unseen telepathic mongoloid signal and he wordlessly seated us. We were led salivating through a byzantine table labyrinth of food, laughter and tea ladies, amazed by the epicurean delights that Shark Fin Inn seemed to have in store for us. We walked past tables heaped with char siew, clutched at tantalizing glimpses of fung jiao, and were so engrossed by the gastronomic mosaic before us we were unaware that our stoic guide had other plans in store for us. We passed through a doorway, and suddenly found ourselves in the white people room. I am not unmindful that we live in a country rife with jingoism, where savage man-baboons turn their noses up at any kind of cuisine that isn't deep-fried or smothered in gravy- but it's another thing for the proprietors of Shark Fin Inn to then say "We hold these truths to be self-evident, and all white people only eat chicken pie". We were seated at what I can assume was a scale replica of Northern Japan for all the solidity it held, and left to appraise our cell. The room in question was a small offshoot of the main dining room, lovingly plastered with peeling faux-wood paneling, lit by a single wavering fluorescent. Adding to the charm was the OCHS-mandatory fire extinguisher mounted on the wall, and the carefully labeled door to the chemical closet. A small array of tables had been crammed in, and then filled with a select slice of the Sunday dining demographic- caucasians only. After some time, a single trolley rolled in, pushed by a belligerent. We were offered gourmet yum cha fare, such as "shickennn pie" and "lemon shicken" When we realised that yes, really, we'd been segregated from the oriental portion of the clientele and were being wheeled bowdlerized, milquetoast gweilo food. Even after specifically ordering individual dishes and making our desires clear in both Cantonese and Mandarin, in case we had found ourselves in some kind of strange restaurant-of-babylon we were still hammered with homogenized dishes by ill-tempered staff. It seems that bad service, at Shark Fin Inn, is a priority service- if the bill at the end was anything to judge from. Visit Shark Finn Inn for overpriced, average yum cha-partheid. read more

One of my favourite yum cha restaurants in the CBD for its consistent production of high quality mainstay dumplings. Their ha gao, siu mai, ginger prawn, scallop dumpling, lo bak go, cheung fan, among others, (I don't know how to spell these by the way) are always good, and are better or close to offerings from other city yum cha establishments. I find that the food range and creativity is lacking compared to its sister restaurant - Shark Fin House and another restaurant - Crystal Jade - found another block down Lt Bourke St. However Shark Fin does the main dumplings so well that you are generally not left wanting for anything else. Sometimes you can get a little cold upstairs, so bring an extra layer of clothing (feels weird writing this about a restaurant). Actually its sister restaurant is even colder. The service is good however I have noticed lately it seems that management have instructed the wait staff to go really light on with the chilli sauce. C'mon guys, its chilli sauce. As a high volume consumer of chilli, this really annoys me. In fact, enough for me to give it a miss and visit other places. I don't want to have to order 3-4 small plates of chilli sauce with one drop in each plate. However it is still one of the top yum cha joints in the city and I definitely recommend it. read more

Solid yum cha in a no-frills setting. I like it a lot, and it's only just behind Shanghai Dynasty in the rotation for me. The best thing about the yum cha here is the great variety of shrimp-and-pork type dumplings. I like ha gow, but I also like to chuck in a few dumplings that have chives, or ginger, or coriander, and this place has a bunch of those types of dumplings. The downside for me on this place is that it's super packed all the time, and can be cramped depending on where you get seated. Outside of the ha gow-style dumplings, they also don't have the broad variety of some of the other places - I'd like a few more choices in the fried dishes especially. It's also a bit drab and lifeless, the setting could do with a bit of an update. read more

My favorite yum cha place in the city, couldn't beat those in Richmond and Box Hill, but convenient, fast, and definitely satisfying (huge pieces of xiu mai, wontons). Everytime we ordered chicken feet, there's always a five minutes wait, though! Usually spent around $45 for 4 people. They serve yum cha up until 2 pm, but go before that or they'll run out of many of the good stuffs by 2pm... got crowded on Sunday afternoon. Waitresses aren't that nice. that's probably my only complaint. read more

Hideous After suffering through an entry full of dirty seats piled up like the aftermath of the cheapest wedding you've ever attended, you'll be ushered up a flight of stairs of carpet so worn you'll wonder if renovations are being held off while the council decides to condemn the building. The staff will continue with the "what's-the-point?" theme by taking your order but not putting it through to the kitchen. Watch for the chick with the "M" earrings, they were almost certainly given to her by a previous employer who was confused by her habit of answering every question with "mmm". In the 25 mins you initially wait for the "lost-in-translation" first course of the "Shark Fin Banquet" you'll probably make a trip to the toilet. After passing clientele who look homeless and stacked-up highchairs in need of a yet-to-be-invented industrial cleaner, you'll return wishing you'd urinated into your handbag. The pink mould and the vomitous smell will have completely put you off food anyway. But you're polite, so you'll wait. And wait. Staring at your friends and loved ones, all squinting and exposed by some of the harshest fluorescent lights outside of a 711. And you'll continue to wait. And by the time the completely disinterested "M" Girl bothers to ask "are you ready to order?" you'll be glad you hadn't really put anyone out, and stand up and storm out. But don't think you'll get an apology. NO!!! Instead the palpably pathetic manager will add $3 on to the menu price of the almost full bottle of Pinot Gris your party left on the table and look strangely excited when you throw extra cash at him. Gross. A complete dump. Hideous read more

The Shark Fin Inn is my Chinese restaurant of choice in the city. Lunch, Dinner and Yum Cha this is the place I try and book for. I first came here over 20 years ago with my family, I remember eating the duck salad and I still think it's my favourite dish here. The Yum Cha will generally require a booking, you might be VERY lucky to get a table in one of the two sittings on a Sunday off the street but that is fairly uncommon. Dinner and Lunch usually have free space but I particularly love that Shark Fin Inn is open until 130 in the morning and they cook fresh right up until this time. So late night munchies can be taken care of with fresh Fried Chili Squid or some Glass Prawns, Hot pot if you want to take your time with food or a tasty stir fry and rice. The service is generally solid until it gets crazy busy and then you may need to be a bot more aggressive at waving down a staff member to get something specific. Yum Cha days you can relax as they come around with trolleys piled high with plates of delicate dumplings and other tasty treats, I love the egg custard doughnuts and tarts. read more

Shark Fin Inn has been the centre of many catchups with our crowd of friends over the years. It's not overly expensive, but it's not your cheap local chinese takeaway either. What is is however, is extremely popular. Don't for a second think about trying to get a table without a reservation. Perhaps most famous for its yum cha, Shark Fin Inn is the centre of the Shark Fin empire so worth a visit even if you're not a fan of the other restaurants owned by the same group. It's also cheaper than it's sister, Shark Fin House (which is just a block away). The food here is very authentic, and a yum cha sitting here isn't so much a meal as an experience. Oh, and you don't have to eat anything with shark fin in it either. read more

I agree that the Yum Cha at Shark Fin is great. I tried this a few months ago. Last night I went there for a pre show dinner and it was good. Not as good as the Yum Cha though. The service was fast and the food came out quickly. It's not the cheapest place in China town to eat and food tasted great. read more

Great food at decent prices. The touch screen ordering systems make this restaurant a blast with small groups. Splitting the bill has never been easier! Heaps of fun. 4 Stars! read more

Went here last night for the second time in a month. So so good. Amazing quality Chinese restaurant with great prices and great service. Last night I had the beef soup followed by combination birds nest truly amazing read more

I've been here for both Yum Cha and dinner; Yum Cha was a solid option for Chinatown, although nothing really stands out in my memory for being particularly fabulous. HOWEVER... For a luxe birthday dinner last night, we decided to go off-road and let the team bring us the best options for the day, banquet-style, and no one regretted it for a minute. For $50 per head (excluding drinks), we got the following - I've left notes for my favourite dishes only, as I was starting to drool all over the keyboard: - Steamed oysters with 2 dressings - Salt and pepper calamari - perfectly cooked, piping hot, crispy, adorned with green chilli, and the perfect size for our group of 4. Winner. - Fish roll stuffed with prawns - when our waiter suggested this I was very skeptical, because it sounded like a fish cake, and in general, I think fish cakes are questionable. But this was actually a whole fresh prawn, wrapped in an exceedingly thin fish fillet (might have even been calamari?) and quickly deep fried. Crispy, golden, packed with flavour, delightful. Everyone was into this, even the picky eaters. It was just too damn tasty. - Peking duck - actually not the best I've had, not by a long shot, as the crepe was thicker than it needed to be. But still good. - Chilli prawns with fresh noodles and egg yolk - lots of delicate flavours, and a lovely silky texture. The noodles were really fresh, as were the prawns, and the whole thing was delicious. Perhaps a little sweet for some people's taste, though. - Chicken with ginger and shallots - Beef with broccoli and swiss brown mushrooms - exceptional quality beef, cooked perfectly. The vegetables were also expertly cooked, and overall this was a really light, non-greasy execution of a Chinese beef dish. Which is just as well, as by this time we'd eaten our weight in food and were starting to question our choices in life. - Fried rice. If you have some time and a special occasion, I would HIGHLY recommend moving away from the menu and asking the experienced staff what they would suggest for a particular budget. However if you want to take the more well-trodden path, you will also find all of your favourite dishes, as well as some really nice, unexpected additions in the Chef's Selection area of the menu. Note - service was quite slow and kind of absent-minded both times I've been. That worked OK for me as both occasions were leisurely affairs, but this isn't the place to go if you're on a time budget. read more

I have been eating here since 1986 - about as long as the head waiter has worked here. Peaking Duck is excellent, King Prawn with Honey or Chicken with Lemon Sauce wonderful. But probably the highlight is Yum Char - highly recommended. read more

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Weekend yum cha - yum. It gets super busy so you have to book. Great for large groups.

Yes it does have the advantage of opening till 130am and your options are limited at that hour but service was horrendous and food was very bland at best. We were completely ignored many times and finally I got someone to take an order. Water was never filled, didn't even get a napkin. I have eaten at many Chinese restaurants across the US and unless you don't eat much at Chinese restaurants or have not developed an intricate taste for good Asian food in general then you will find this place great or even ok. If you're desperate then maybe you will put up with this but if you have other options then I suggest you go somewhere else. Fast food would have been better actually thinking in retrospect. read more

I was told this was the best place in Melbourne for Dim Sum, and they did not dissapoint! The selection of dishes is great and they were all super tasty. The service was fast and friendly as well. I wish I lived closer then I would be back more often! read more

Dropped In one night after a show In the city. Great service And perfect food. Recommend.

Been here for many years now. Their Yum Cha is one of the best in Australia. Don't forget to ask for the XO sauce which is simply the best. We love their Lo Ma Kai, Har Gow and Har Chiong. Food come out quickly. Only very rarely they ran out of something. Only then it will take a while to come out. read more

It's ok, there are certainly better yum cha places in Melbourne but maybe not so conveniently placed for a pre-footy feed. Service is better than food, food is nothing special. read more

Walked in off the street on a Thursday morning after reading reviews on Yelp. We didn't need a booking - in fact the place was half empty. However that obviously doesn't mean anything as the Yum Cha was delicious! We had a variety of steamed prawn and scollop dumplings that all arrived steaming hot. We were also able to order vegetable dumplings for a vegetarian in our group, which arrived within 10 minutes. Decor is minimal and nothing special, but the service was friendly and efficient! A tasty Yum Cha for our last morning in Melbourne, would definitely recommend Shark Fin Inn. read more

Pretentious and rude service. Horribly overrated food. For those who know whereof i speak...Panda Express and PF Chang's has better tasting food. Crystal Jade is better for yum cha. read more

Having being built up as some of mecca of Yum Cha in Melbourne, this was truly a terrible start to our much anticipated week of dining in Melbourne. While the food was passable (I'e had better, I've had worse) and the servers were pleasant enough, the floor managers or whatever they call themselves made a special effort to make us feel rushed, unwelcome and in the way. I think that it would be unfair to tar the whole Melbourne or even Chinatown food scene with this disgraceful establishment, so the best I can do is to assume that they represent the anus of Melbourne's hospitality industry. The sad part was that the locals rationalised this as "just how it is"as the reality is that really couldn't care less what you think, and they will do just fine with one less customer. This is only my opinion and people can do what they want, but I for one would like to thank the managers and Shark Fin Inn for ruining my first day of a week long holiday in Melbourne read more