CBD Dumpling House — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

It was Friday lunchtime. There were about 10 tables taken and we got a table straight away. We have been here a few times.

As we sat down a waiter was setting up the table next to us. I was shocked that she used 4 of her fingers to "dip" in the 4 glasses to move them round, and then wipe around the table with the same hand! She then proceeded with more wiping the next table....

We ordered fried rice, pretty bland, certainly not hot when we had it.

This was followed by scallops with XO sauce. XO sauce was a diverse name used to describe seafood concoction with a slight chilli sambal flavour. Well this didn't taste any way near the "sambal" background flavour, more like a "black beans" sauce. The only great thing about the scallops dish is that it has a generous amount of them.

The last dish was fresh fried dumplings. It was freshly made, we were Informed that it will take sometime. The dough was fine, filling was very moist and has enough juices as per tradition, but it did not have any flavour and that was very disappointing.

Service was fine but it took us a 20 seconds of hand waving to attract service for order.

One lady dressed in black top was caressing her ear loop which have stone studs, maybe its hurting or newly punched!

In general, it was an ok place to eat but nothing special. For me, it seems to have gone downhill since the last few time of attendance. Nothing to shout about. Yes, I have visited Shanghai and Peking cities and would say I have taken these style of cooking.

When I paid for the meal, all straight forward .But there was not a "thank you" or have a great day. Not that I need it but if I am the owner, I will want my staff to go the extra mile.

Oh, I noticed that staffs have their own drinking bottles or containers in the bar bench and an assortment of medication/cream on "display". This makes the place "cheap"! Just saying.

Coming back again, yes but i am prepared for what this...

I was trying to go Akiba, but ended up at the CBD dumpling house. It is impossible to get a table at any restaurant at the Canberra centre whether inside the shopping mall or outside. This restaurant luckily has plenty of tables, we only waited a few minutes. There is so much food on the menu to choose from typical of a Chinese restaurant making it hard to choose what to eat. Typically most people choose boiled dumplings and steamed dumplings. We also tried their hokkein fried which was delicious with a nice yellow moist rice with diced mushroom, prawn and scallop. I would have loved if the plate was larger because it’s simply tasty and wanted to eat more. The rice is only enough for 1-2 people only and would require additional plates for large groups. The vegetables with garlic sauce was tasty as well and the portion of this dish was decent for 2-3 serving. Service is great, easy to get a table, food served quickly and friendly staff. Pricing is decent while some of the dishes such as the hokkein rice could have been much bigger my only complaint. Overall quite happy with this dumpling house and recommend to anyone who love Chinese food.

Food ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Price ...

Literally have never found a restaurant that is always so consistently good with their food. Service is good as well, they’re attentive without being annoying eg. your teapot will be refilled once you ask for it but the staff won’t come and ask you how your meal is going unnecessarily.

My partner and I come here probably once every few weeks - sometimes we order new dishes and other times just our usual.

Tonight we got the duck pancakes, steamed bbq pork buns, Chinese broccoli with garlic and fried rice.

Duck pancakes - I like them but traditionally served with spring onion. 4/5

Bbq pork buns - prefer a more fluffy bun but they’re generous with their meat here. 4/5

Chinese broccoli with garlic - larger serve than most Chinese restaurants and cooked perfectly. 5/5

Fried rice - it’s hard to get a fried rice wrong but it’s harder to make it as good as CBD Dumpling House does, great proportion of pork and prawn to rice and lots of prawn! 10/5

It was about $50 tonight with a public holiday surcharge - it is usually slightly cheaper but I thoroughly enjoyed...