I am the Dumpling King!!!

I walk past Dumpling King in Box Hill every day on my way home from work, and it is almost always packed. There is also an article on the window about how it was in the Good Food Guide and has won awards for its cuisine, so I figured it must be good.

Tonight, Chris and I decided to head there for dinner. The menu was extensive, with authentic Shanghai and Beijing dishes along with the usual suspects like Sweet Corn and Chicken Soup and Singapore Fried Noodles.

We started with the Lantern Dumplings, which were seafood dumplings wrapped with spinach and cornflower flavoured wheat flour wrappers. I loved these. The seafood was sweet and fresh and went well with the vinegar dipping sauce that came with it.

Next, we had the Tea Smoked Chicken. It was a generous serve of what looked like baked chicken with a sweet sauce poured over it. It was quite tasty but not smoky enough, in my opinion. Chris thought it would have been better if the waiter hadn't poured all that sauce over it, as it drowned out the other flavours.

Lastly, we had the Egg White with Crabmeat and Scallop. This was an interesting dish - I'd never tasted anything like it before. It was basically egg whites scrambled with crab and scallop, and came served with vinegar poured over it, and an egg yolk, and the waiter mixed it all together. It was really tasty, and the egg yolk added a nice rich flavour. The mushy texture may not be for everyone, but I like mushy food, so it appealed to me :)

All in all, the food was pretty good, but I don't really see what the hype is all about. It was completely packed tonight, and the manager had to keep turning people away at the door. Altogether, our meal came up to $50, including 2 soft drinks and a glass of wine. So, it was reasonably priced. The service was 3/5... the last dish arrived really late - I think the kitchen forgot about it.

Chris has booked a B&B for tomorrow night, so it will be a big w/end! I can't wait :) The pics look really nice.