Mr D had a lunch wedding and since I was his plus 1, I got to go too (woohoo!). After a day of eating and drinking in the city, we decided that we needed to refuel and dun dun dun….dumplings were on the agenda. The renown dumplings in Melbourne were at HuTong Dumpling Bar and so off we went inside to fulfill our dumplings desire.
Mr D’s friend really REALLY likes fried rice so we got, you guessed it, special fried rice. This was quite bland and there was hardly anything in it at all. You’re better off getting steamed rice and having main meat / seafood / vegetarian dishes instead.
Special Fried Rice (Large) – $13.80
Whilst looking over on the next table, we saw that they had the wuxi styled braised pork ribs. This had the same flavour as ‘pho’, very star anise tasting and there was a lot of it. The pork ribs were super tender where it fell off the bones but the flavour didn’t tickle my fancy at all.
Wuxi Styled Braised Pork Ribs – $25.80
Since we were here for dumplings, we ordered the pan-fried dumplings. These were juicy and moist on the inside and crispy on the bottom. These weren’t so bad but just like every other dumplings around.
Pan-fried Dumplings (8pc) – $13.20
Finally, the signature dish of the place – xiao long baos (OH MY GOSH IT’S THE JUICY DUMPLINGS!). HuTong is known for these and when I had them, I was so disappointed. The soup itself was AMAZEBALL but the skin was way too thick and chewy. The XLB has gone downhill and the quality wasn’t as great as it use to be which is a shame.
Xiao Long Bao (8pc) – $11.80
The quality of the food has gotten downhill and so has the service. When we went to pay, the staff assumed that we were tipping them and did not give us our change. If the staff gave us our change initially, we would be more then happy to tip them, but the fact that they assumed that we were going to tip them, that was a bit NO NO. Anywho, sorry HuTong but there’s plenty of dumpling places with better XLB with a cheaper price tag. I won’t be coming back here anytime soon.
14-16 Market Lane, Melbourne, VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9650 8128
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