Golden Horse Seafood & BBQ Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

Update: Prices have increased and in some cases the quality has dropped.

Ordered: Chive Dumplings - the filling was just as generous and tasty as before but they were over steamed and the pastry somewhat disintegrated when picked up.

Chicken Feet with Black Bean - the over use of rehydrated garlic granules made this dish overly “garlicky”. Completely masked the taste of any black bean. Still 6 pieces. The feet were well prepared but the flavour is not as good as before.

Ginger Shallot Tripe - this was under done - extremely chewy. Not as good as before.

Bean Curd Skin Roll - just as before. Decent serve.

Steamed Prawn Ball with Egg Beancurd - from my previous post, one can see that they have reduced the prawn topping by at least 1/3. Still tasty.

Last visit: We were told that the Yum Cha here was good. Being after 3pm, it was too late to go anywhere else.

This place is like most restaurants in Asia, very basic, no frills, outdated, plastic plates and bowls etc. Their English is sparse so it is best to point at what you want.

Ordered 8 Yum Cha items: Prawn Dumpling, Chive Dumpling, Prawn Dumpling in Ginger Sauce, Steamed Prawn Ball with Egg Bean Curd, Beancurd Skin Roll, Ginger Shallots Tripe, Pork Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce and Chicken Feet with Black Bean.

The dumplings were huge and the prawn fillings were generous. The pastries did not fall apart. They were not too thick either. The Prawn Dumplings had a load of white pepper though. The egg bean curd was definitely “eggy”. The Beancurd Rolls were juicy and succulent. The tripe was tender despite some large chunks and well seasoned. Very generous portion of the tender spareribs with subtle black bean notes and got 6 pieces of chook feet instead of the normal 5. The latter was well cooked and was not too sweet nor salty.

At other places, this would have been just enough but we could not finish them and got them packed away.

Service was friendly with a smile. Chinese Tea was complimentary. Be prepared to wait 15-20 minutes for them to steam the items if they are not available on their ready to go trolley. Bring cash. 50 cents/ take away box.

All in all, a tasty no frills...

When we first got to this place they sat us down without asking us what tea we wanted, which was odd considering the first thing the waiter usually ask is what tea would you like. I'm guessing they don't ask because they dont really offer anything other than Jasmine tea perhaps?

The steamed dumplings came out quick, the lady pushed the trolley straight to us as they notice new customers come in. But if you have been there longer.. They won't push it to you again, you need to place an order if you want more. They have a little menu with pictures on the table so you can order if you like. I guess it's a good thing, at least it will be fresh or made to order. It's not the typical yumcha place where the trolleys keep coming towards you with different food.

They only push the steamed dumplings 點心 and chicken feet 鳳爪, spare ribs 排骨 trolley to you. If you want anything fried like pork dumpling 鹹水角 or 腸粉 you will need to order this. The pork dumpling has big pieces of pork mince inside and some random prawn pieces inside.

Although the dumplings were huge the skin was sticky and stuck to the bamboo steamer or fell apart when we picked it up. This was the same for most of their dumplings... Prawn dumpling 蝦餃, scallop dumpling 帶子餃 chive dumpling 韭菜餃. The skin of the siu mai 燒賣 was soggy.

Then when the beef rice roll 牛腸粉 came out the texture was weird too... It was very watered out and bland I think the rice roll taste overpowered the meat, the ratio wasn't quite right either with the roll and the meat... The roll was way too thick...it should be way thinner. I would definitely recommend going further into the city for a better experience and selection of food . If you don't mind sticky huge dumpling... Than give this place a go. Don't think I will go back anytime. There are much better yumcha places out there.

When we went to pay the lady told us there is a $3 surcharge for any card payments because they preferred cash. We said okay to that but what she actually meant was there will be a 3% surcharge so please keep that in mind if you dine...

Absolutely appalled - consider this a warning for anyone who is planning on coming here.

We’ve been here multiple times and service has often left much to be desired, but that isn’t exactly abnormal at a Chinese restaurant so we’ve put up with it. However, on the weekend, my elderly grandparents came here for a meal and ordered some braised chicken feet and roast duck on rice. When the dishes came, the duck was mostly bones and the portion of the chicken feet was much smaller than usual. When my grandmother asked to speak to their manager to flag this with her (scrolling down I see other reviews which seem to corroborate her poor behaviour), they were extremely rude and standoffish to her, and basically told her that if she didn’t like it she should just leave and go eat elsewhere. When my grandmother went to pay for the meal at the counter, the same lady said she didn’t want her money and threw the money back at her. My grandmother picked up the bill and then promptly left the restaurant with my grandfather, more disappointed than affronted. However it wasn’t even over there. After a few minutes, they were chased down by this woman on the street, who began yelling at them and demanding the money back. She also accused them of dining and dashing and actually threatened to call the police on them, even though she was the one who had thrown the money back at my grandmother and told her she could keep her money. This altercation continued for a few minutes on the street, and my gran (usually mild-mannered and a very reasonable person) was utterly mortified and furious at the scene that she was creating. Luckily, two of the service staff came running out and hauled the manager back to the restaurant, but none of them even offered up a single apology to my grandparents.

Completely disrespectful, dishonest and just unacceptable and awful behaviour. I’m really really shocked. We’ll definitely never be...