CBD Dumpling House opened up a couple of weeks ago at the Canberra Centre. Another new restaurant in the North Quarter after Jamie’s Italian, Papparich and Hero Sushi. I absolutely love dumplings so I headed in for a weekday lunch with my partner.
The entrance is in between two buildings (at Scott’s Crossing), just up from the pedestrian crossing between Nando’s and Grill’d. You can see into the kitchen from the street and the row of professional looking dumpling-makers.
The restaurant is quite spacious inside and has a modern, clean and sleek look. Stools line the large kitchen windows where you can watch the chefs do their thing.
I like the Asian-style lanterns hanging down. The counter along the middle, holding tap water and other items, splits the space into two areas. We were seated in the back half.
Menus bound in a nice looking folder were provided, however the good ol’ plastic sleeves are inside holding quite a lot of food items from dumplings, soups, noodles, and hot pots, to your regular meat, vegie and seafood dishes such as Shantung chicken and Szechuan beef. I was happy to see duck san choy bao ($13.80) on the menu. But I was there for the dumplings (at least in the first instance).
I couldn’t go past the Shanghai pork dumplings (6 pieces for $9.80) aka xiao long bao. These dumplings are filled with soup inside. They were bigger than expected and not scaldingly hot as with some others I’ve tried. I thought these were basic and don’t beat those from Din Tai Fung in Sydney.
The special dumplings (10 pieces for $10.80) consisted of three types of different pork dumplings in three colours.
The bright yellow of the trio seemed to only consist of pork mince. Pretty boring.
The white dumpling had an interesting combination of mince, grated carrots, shallots, vermicelli noodles and I think mushrooms. Not bad.
The green dumpling was my favourite – simple pork and chives but with great flavour. Yummo! This was my partner’s favourite as well.
We also ordered the pan fried beef dumplings (12 pieces for $10.80). The outside was firm, crispy and slightly burnt (but I like them a little burnt).
The beef mince had been mixed with some grated carrots. Another simple and tasty dumpling.
Plastic sleeves are taped to the corner of the table with the table number printed on top. Wait staff then place your printed bill inside the sleeve shortly after ordering. I thought service was quick and food only took about 15 minutes to arrive. I’d love to try some of their other dishes next time, like the dumpling laksa and the special red curry duck. By 12.30pm, there wasn’t a single spare table left and the noise levels became considerably loud. I think this place will be quite popular as word spreads of its existence. Loving all the food choices we are getting in civic!
On the way out – green dumplings being made
Things to note:
- They do banquets
- Eftpos minimum $30
- Public holiday surcharge $2 per person
- BYO $6 per bottle
- Open 7 days for lunch (11.30-3) and dinner (5-10.30)
- Phone: 02 6282 8855 or 6282 8866
Foodgasm 6.5/10
