Long Dragon Dumpling

I went to Melbourne for a conference! The conference had its ups and downs. I missed the arriving flight's check in by 40 minutes, Tiger Air has a strict pre 45 minute check in time with no web check in. so never again! I'm out of pocket by quite a bit of money since the hotel the conference was at was so expensive but all in all I enjoyed the experience!

One of my friend's Aki and lives in Victoria, came to stay with me in my hotel room so I wasn't too lonely. I'd never been to Melbourne before so I had a blast! I really enjoyed how neatly set out the city blocks are because its a planned city, unlike Brisbane and Sydney's narrow, one way street hells. The tram system was interesting and very convenient! Like the width and comfort of a train's seating with the physical size and road capabilities of a bus!

I wish I had more time to explore Melbourne and had bought some checked in luggage, but time was pretty tight since the conference was from 7-8am right unti 4-5pm and then it was bitterly cold since it was winter in Melbourne. For the luggage, I was already strapped for space since I had a near full suitcase when I went down and coming back up, I had grabbed a whole bunch of freebies from the conference. I regret leaving my free yoga mat behind, I came away with about 50 pens, a few lanyards, two cups, three USBs, a water bottle, some Moo Goo skin care products, lots of free chocolate, tea and notepads that I had to leave behind.

I think it goes without saying that I loved the food in Melbourne too, I didn't finish a single dish and the prices were so much cheaper than Brisbane! Plus since they have such a higher urban density, their Urbanspoon is really put through the wringer, the average upvotes for a good place range in the high 800-2000s range! A dramatic difference to Brisbane where a good place will have between 200-600 votes!

This is the first place we went to on the first day I arrived in Melbourne. I got us lost as I was fascinated walking around Albert Park and following the black swans everywhere! They're part of a breeding program Aki tells me, so they all wear neck rings and bibs to identify them. All traffic has to stop when they cross the road, I always had a good laugh when that happened which was pretty frequently!

Hahahaha

Its a very easy to find restaurant from the main road as its a bright yellow sign with lit up pictures of their best dishes.

This place!

I think we arrived during the swap to the evening service, as it was pretty quiet when we came into eat. So quiet in fact that one of the staff members was having snooze in the corner of the restaurant. We were there quite a while so it was about 1/2 full when we left around 7pm.

Quite a plain interior

Lots of comfy black leather seats

All the tables had a container of salt, pepper, soy sauce, black vinegar and chilli and garlic oil on them.

The perfect sides to dumplings

Here is their very extensive menu! The prices are super cheap and the portion sizing is massive!

I ordered the Shanghai fried noodles to share between us, the noodles appeared to be handmade from their slightly irregular appearance and deliciously bouncy texture, they were coated in a sticky soy sauce with black cloud ear fungus, button mushrooms, gai lan, garlic, onion and small slices of pork. Aki and I really enjoyed this dish and we both thought they were very good noodles with an excellent balance between vegetables and meat.

Love saucy handmade noodles

Aki ordered the prawn and pork wonton soup minus noodles, she had just gotten some braces for her front teeth and was still a bit sore from the whole thing. She said that since the braces weren't on all her teeth she could still eat quite well, it was only that she couldn't bite anything and the braces restricted her jaw from opening any further too. She said that the egg noodles commonly used in these wonton soups were often too firm for her liking. The soup was a crystal clear chicken broth with a hint of ginger, very traditional in flavour. The wontons were freshly made we figured since they didn't have that slightly chewy edge from being rehydrated in hot stock. The pork and prawn wonton soup was a minced filling, well seasoned with salt and pepper, a slightly gingery flavour and it had a nice crisp texture to the meat. Yes, there were indeed 15 large wontons floating in this soup. There was also lots of floating seaweed sheets and lots of sliced omelette.

Odd mix of toppings

I insisted that we also get har gao to share since that's the gold standard for a good yum cha place. The skins were thin, nearly translucent with lots of pretty pleats. There was a small butterflied prawn in the filling plus a big blob of minced prawn as well. They were very plump and tasty har gao.

Long Dragon Dumpling:
Atmosphere: 5, your cheap local Chinese dumpling house! Laminated menu and photos of the food everywhere as can be expected.
Service: 5, pretty stock standard.
Food: 8, cheap, tasty and super large portions! What more do you want in a Chinese eatery haha!