By St
Don't bother fronting up to HuTong Dumpling Bar on a friday night without a booking. It's packed and you will find yourself wandering Chinatown to find a good eat (I'm guessing that was the fate of the 2 tourists who were turned away).
Once inside, it looks deceptively small until we were seated up on the third and highest floor. It's interior impressed me with it's dark Chinese-inspired furniture and amber lights illuminating the moody brick walls. I thought HuTong was one of the small and dirty eateries that produce good dumplings but I was wrong about the dirty bit- it's clean and polished with good service and I wished we were seated on the other side of the room with powers to unleash those bamboo curtains for our own little partay!
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| Red radiance and screen mechanics |
Onto the food...
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| Xiao long bao $11.80 |
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| Wontons in Sichuan chilli sauce $8.80 |
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| Steamed eggplant with scallops hotpot ~$18 |
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| Crispy fragrant duck $25.80 |
It might look like enough food for 3 but we ordered an extra dish before the duck came out (hence you might notice the doggy bag below). Here was how the votes turned out:
2-1 to chilli Sichuan wontons! That was the dish of the night. Despite the xiao long bao (soup dumplings) being the signature dish, both the dumplings and wontons arrived lukewarm and the dumplings were slightly soggy and to be honest, mediocre. They do no compare with Din Tai Fung in Sydney http://wokyoutalkingabout.blogspot.com/2010/11/din-tai-fung-sydney-cbd.html . The wontons were saved by the tasty Sichuan sauce that you just want to scoop up and dip everything with it. Talitha and I added extra chilli satay to it to really give it that explosion in the mouth.
The steamed eggplants are always a delight but the scallops were so-so. I would order and try the eggplants with pork mince next time. Timmy's fav was the crispy duck (don't ask me what was 'fragrant' about it).
Unofficially named the best dumpling place in Melbourne, I disagree with this a bit seeing as the non-dumpling dishes were trumps. Maybe we will get a fresh and hot set of dumplings next time to change my mind. Despite this, everything else was enjoyable.
Wok rating /5: 
HuTong Dumpling Bar
14-16 Market Lane (off Bourke St)
Melbourne
03 9650 8128
For a 'proper' review, you can also check out what Matt Preston had to say: http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/epicure/much-ado-about-dumplings/2009/09/25/1253813603716.html
