Hu Tong Dumpling Bar, Melbourne

Weekend away in Melbourne, first stop Hu Tong Dumpling Bar.

We flew out Thursday after work, so by the time we arrived and dropped our stuff off to our hotel it was getting a little late, so a visit to a dumpling house was the perfect option for a quick late night dinner.

Down Market Lane in China Town is where you'll find Hu Tong Dumpling Bar.

Walking in, we were welcomed with smiles to a little table for two and provided with menus. Looking at the menu it took me 2 seconds to decide what I was going to order, Shao Long Bao. 

I first had these in London, at a place called Dumplings Legend in China Town.

For those who don't know what Shao Long Bao is, they're little dumplings that are filled with your usual pork or chicken and also with soup. To eat them, you pick one up and put it on your spoon (without tearing it), put a little hole in the top of the dumpling with one of your chopsticks, suck the soup out and then eat the dumpling. YUM!

In addition to these, we ordered a serve of pork wontons in chili and some duck dumplings.

Food came out quite quickly. Duck dumplings were first to arrive. These were nice, not the best but still enjoyable. The filling was a little dry. There were 4 dumplings in a serve.

Chili pork wontons were next. These were yummo! The chilli sauce or oil they were in was the perfect amount of chili. Had a bit of sweetness to balance it out so the chili wasn't too overpowering. 8 wontons in a serve.

Saving the best to last, the Shao Long Bao came to our table. Boyfriend hadn't tried these before and I had been talking them up for the last week so expectations were high.
Picking them up out of their steam basket, you could feel the dumpling was solid enough not to break, we were off to a good start. Piercing a nice little hole at the top of the dumpling, you could see they were filled with steaming soup, more good signs. Eating the dumplings certainly lived up to their expectations. The soup was tasty, and left the dumpling nice and soft and moist. The filling inside was the right amount and just as tasty. Shao Long Bao come as 8 per serve.

Glad we hit this place up on our first night, a good start to the weekend.

Would definitely recommend this place, the service was great as well as the food. 

Would also definitely recommend this place for those who have never tried Shao long Bao... I LOVE SHAO LONG BAO!