Dumplings Plus — Restaurant in Melbourne

We used to frequent this place often before COVID. After returning here, I can honestly say we won’t be returning. We lined up for 20mins, as there was only 1 lady on the cash register and order station. This meant that families with children had to line up out the door and stand for up to 30mins because you are not allowed to get a table until you order and pay and get a table number. This makes it very inconvenient and inefficient way to process customers because it’s so time consuming. They need more people on the cash register.

Secondly the food was so disappointing. I ve always had the sizzling seafood hot plate. This time is was tasteless and all the seafood was dry and rubbery, not fresh at all. Half our meals came out quickly like dumplings and seafood plate and the fried rice took so long to come out that half of our family had finished while the others were still waiting for their food to come out.

Husband ordered Peking duck pancakes and even they were dry and filled with fat instead of meat. My seafood dish was filled with so much garlic and the onions were still raw. The dish was very off putting especially in the past the food was cooked to a high standard.

The service was below average. Waiters don’t many eye contact. Literally dump the food on your table and vanish. Not sure if management has changed by damn, we won’t be going back. It’s really sad to see a good local business drop their food quality, service and management so...

We ordered dumplings and a soup and the lady at the cashier asked us if we wanted to eat in or have it take way, we said take away because we also ordered next door at pepper lunch and we assumed we’d eat everything together, she told us it would be a 10-15 minute wait, it was delayed and within this time we received and ate our entire pepper lunch dinner and walked back to dumplings plus which still hadn’t finished making our order, so we decided we’d just sit there instead and eat. A guy cleaning the table next to us told us we couldn’t sit down and eat because they were closed even though people were still ordering at the counter and the restaurant was still half full of customers sitting down just receiving their meal so it didn’t look closed at all. He was extremely rude to us and made us feel unwanted even though we were just as much of a customer as everyone else sitting in that restaurant eating. I don’t understand how we were inconveniencing them if they gave us the option when we ordered to sit down anyway? Either way we would’ve still finished eating at the same time whether it was served to us on plates or in takeaway containers. If anything we helped them close sooner because we didn’t use plates and cutlery. Plus we still finished eating before the other customers anyway. Their customer service definitely needs some...

NOT VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY.

I went into this restaurant recently at Highpoint, only saw one noodle dish labelled vegetarian, so I asked if they had any others. They pointed out the vegetarian dish and said that was it, but they could make the other dishes vegetarian. I took the latter option, but when my food arrived, it was drenched in oyster sauce, which is of course not vegetarian. Granted, I was getting an alteration, and things happen. (It although was very disappointing because I was very hungry and had just paid for a large plate of food only to be completely unable to eat it.)

So I went back and asked for the vegetarian dish mentioned earlier. “Vegetarian noodle soup.” Straight. To the point. It was then that they informed me - most likely only because I had asked what sauce they gave me on the other dish, and complained when I was told that my worries were true - that this dish was served in a CHICKEN broth. The ONLY “VEGETARIAN” noodles that they had were served in CHICKEN.

Now I don’t know if this is lost in translation or if there is a bigger issue but, either the menu needs to be changed or the dish. In the meantime, they won’t be getting any service from me and I will be sure to tell people NOT to go there.

This place is tricking innocent people out of their money, and forcing vegetarians to unknowingly eat...