Shanghai Dumpling House

Food tastes good and served fast. The dishes has a homecooked authenticity which I liked. However, the rice was undercooked and was "stony". The pork bun was disappointing, it wasn't fluffy and the meat was dried like it has been reheated. Quite a happening place though with people having a drink and talking over each other.

Probably the worst restaurant I’ve ever been to in Melbourne. It’s dirty, unhygienic, tacky and caters to a crowd of kids drinking out of goon bags! Even the waitresses hate being there and dealing with the ordeal we actually witnessed them console each other! We ordered dumplings and they were dirt cheap, they came to the table one after another and some of the order was forgotten about. They don’t serve chili oil as an accompaniment to the food on the table anymore, instead they had a bottle of chilli sauce with mould on the top of it. (See photo) In the vinegar bottle lived a dead fly which we discovered when we poured some vinegar into a bowl and on the way out we saw a very crusty looking take away container of soy sauce which made you look sick just looking at it. (See photo) Xiao long bao is known for the soupy filling inside, instead it was completely dry. Everything else we ordered was a disappointment. The fried dumplings had a crusty underdone cardboard like taste to it. The only redeeming dish were the pumpkin cakes which were over cooked but still tasted ok. Don’t go here! It should be shut down for hygienic reasons alone,let alone the quality of the food which is abysmal. We contemplated walking away without paying a cent it was so bad. Communication with waitresses would have been difficult which held us back from complaining. Go to Hutong instead which is a short walk away and is a much nicer dining experience.

Shanghai Dumpling House has an all you can eat offer for $19.90. For the cost of an entrée at some other restaurants, you can have all the fried rice, noodles, spring rolls, Chinese vegetables, buns and of course a variety of dumplings, you like. However, to take advantage of this offer you must be on a table of a minimum of 4 people. It’s great value for money and the food is good. The other bonus is that the corkage for wine is only $3 per bottle. If you are looking for a quiet, up market, romantic restaurant, this this is not the place to come to. There are no table cloths, the crockery is cheap, wine glasses are plastic and the serviettes are a box of tissues. It can be a bit noisy, however if the group of 10 I was with are not there it should be substantially quieter. Great place to come for an inexpensive meal. I recommend the custard buns for dessert or you can just try them all.

Cheap and fast dumpling restaurant. Not the cleanest of places or most attractive looking restaurant but if you're after some below average dumplings at an affordable price then this is the place for you. The pan fried pork dumplings we had was very disappointing. I wouldn't even call it a dumpling, too make skin, over fried and lacked content. The fried Shanghai noodles were nice. Also the staff member kept stuffing up the orders and we ended up having to wait to get our dumplings at the end of meal.

I feel the low ratings are a bit harsh - sure they have had some issues in the past, but these guys were the dumpling place to be for the longest time. Before it was 'cool' to have cheap dirty dumplings, Shanghai Dumpling House was the place to be. It was the first place I went to in Melbourne to have dumps back in 2004. I went here last night with a friend, we just got some pan friend dumplings and some mushroom dumplings. They were decent. We got a glass of house white which was.... interesting but for $3.50 I'm not going to complain really - the whole bottle is $15, so that tells you what the wine probably costs retail. If you're here looking for customer service, go to some white person restaurant and pay white person prices. This is Chinatown, you are here for the cheap food, not to be treated like a king. There are better dumplings out here but I do have sentimental feelings towards this place. It's part of Melbourne's history.