Dumpling Alley Northland — Restaurant in Melbourne

When this place was open, the food was very good. It then went through a few changes, up and down. I went away for a while because of bad cooking and low quality ingredients. Because the close proximity I always returned trying hoping for improvement. Since a few weeks ago, we discovered a new alarming thing. We both had very bad reactions from the food. Our mouths got very sore soon after, particularly the lips and gums. A few days ago, I tried again. Soon after, I developed a very itchy rash all over, and minor attacks of asthma. I went to my GP who gave me a prescription for the asthma and the rash - the itchiness went down after a few hours but the rash stayed. I'm aware of Chinese cooking using chemicals to help make e.g. beef tender and bread fluffy and I have read a lot of this happening in China. And this last couple of times eating there were the worse. Even the meat tasted and looked dodgy. The oil had a funny smell. I read a lot about dodgy cooking oil used in restaurant in China - it seems like it is HERE. We've decided not to ever go back....

I recently visited this Chinese restaurant and unfortunately, it was a disappointing experience. After being seated, we waited an excessively long time for someone to take our order. It reached the point where we were about to leave, and we had to try to flag down staff just to get their attention—service was practically nonexistent.

When the food finally arrived, it didn’t redeem the experience. The beef noodle on the hotplate was overly oily and far too salty, making it unpleasant to eat. The fried rice was nothing special either—very average and definitely not worth the money we paid.

I don’t plan to return, but I’d suggest the owner consider modernizing the ordering process. Introducing tablets for customers to place orders and make payments would speed things up. That way, with just two staff, they could focus on delivering food and clearing tables, potentially improving the efficiency and experience for...

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed. It seems like the flavors might have been adjusted for Western tastes. The wontons in the wonton soup I had today didn’t taste fresh—the pork filling had a strange flavor, and I could only finish it by forcing it down with the sauce. The spicy wontons were more like a dessert—thankfully there was chili sauce on the side. The worst part was the scallion pancake. You can see in the photo that it barely had any scallions. A good scallion pancake should be fragrant with scallion and oil, but what I had today was full of unpleasant greasy taste and had no scallion aroma at all. It’s already a very low-cost dish, and from the first bite, I could tell it just wasn’t good.

The staff and the restaurant’s appearance were both pleasant, but unfortunately, the food quality didn’t live up...