Owens Dumpling Noodle Bar — Restaurant in Melbourne

I'm not usually one to give a poor review unless I have good reason. The place is in a pretty good spot - looks clean, pleasant, in a prime location (just near Rosebud pier). Walking in - unmistakable smell of pho - wonderful! The host was friendly and welcoming. That's about where my positive experiences end.

Food: We ordered a variety of food and drinks, including pho, edamame, noodle salad, gyoza, etc. We also got a few drinks, some alcoholic and non alcoholic. Splashed about $35 a head for 5 of us. The pho was quite nice, as was the edamame however the gyoza and noodle salad (bun) were extremely bland - either unseasoned or as if they had been watered down. The noodle salad was full of vegies, which is fantastic but these like the rest of the salad was bland. A laksa also tasted surprisingly watery - considering it's meant to be almost creamy from the coconut milk! The gyoza were also barely tepid by the time they got to the table. I'm not certain that a selling point is that no seasonings are used, as mentioned in other reviews - plenty of seasonings exist not requiring the use of salt or fatty oils to flavour the food. The table does come with a variety of condiments, besides salt, pepper, there's also chilli oil with what appears to be cinnamon sticks as a flavouring agent. I appreciate the fact a handful of condiments are available however much of the dishes really shouldn't require flavourings like this. Other reviews make multiple references to bland, watered down food which appears to be a consistent theme across four years of operation. At its core the food, like the restaraunt seems confused about what it wants to be - is it a live music venue? australian/viet/japanese/malay fusion? a gelato stand? Many places try to do too many things and end up spread thin. A recommendation to the owner - get some data about your popular dishes, focus on them - do a few things really well. The pho certainly suggests you've got cooks able to produce great food. All in all - as a group we were barely able to get through our dishes excepting the pho and edamame due to bland flavourings and tepid heat.

Service: The host was friendly and came to serve us pretty quickly. That's always appreciated. We were advised there was a "happy hour" on for alcoholic drinks which started a few minutes after we arrived - so all of the group but myself ordered a few drinks (rum and coke, etc). I note that we pointed out it was eight minutes before happy hour (i think it was 4:52 - happy hour starting at 5) to which the host said "that's okay, i'll put them through on happy hour prices for you - what's eight minutes!". Lovely! That's a fun little nod that gets people coming back. Except... these were charged at standard rates, not happy hour. If the host went to check with the owner or other staff and was told they could not put them through at happy hour prices - sure - whatever, just tell us instead of sneaking through the regular price. Additionally, and I want to emphasise this - we spotted a roach. It appeared to emerge from the plants on the table rather than anything to do with food, this is still concerning and rather disconcerting.

Atmosphere: It was almost 5pm in a holiday period - just before NYE. Presumably peak tourist season - certainly Sorrento up the road was choked with people! There were a few people there, but the place appeared largely empty.

Would I recommend this place?

Absolutely not - this appears to be a tourist trap. Between bland food, high prices and a central location in a tourist town - avoid. There are better noodle and dumpling places out there.

If i don't like it - why am I giving it two stars not one?

I didn't have an overtly poor experience. This was certainly towards the lower tier of my experiences, but the friendly host, acceptable atmosphere and great location, along with a few positives with the food save this from a 1...

honestly don’t know where to start, have never felt the need to go out of my way to give a negative review until now. They fact they’ve averaged 3.9 leads me to following points. Either these are fake reviews, paid reviews or people enjoy average Asian food and being treated like dirt. The husband wife combo which I believe where running the show or maybe own, should probably wonder whether they stay in hospitality as hospitable is what they are not. Rude to patrons and staff members in front of and towards customers. this year has been challenging for everyone but mentioning that it’s a “peak time” 500 times whilst there is empty tables and at 6pm and demanding patrons order more food is is something I’ve never quite seen before. Also the wife took it upon herself to be the only person taking orders despite it being a “peak time” with other staff memebers told to “man there stations” whilst the where trying to process other patrons orders when they where otherwise else occupied. Immediate red flags when white people try to attempt to create asian food and this was nothing short of a butchering, clearly this coastal town a Has ample access to quality in this department if this tickles there pallate. Also charging 5$ for a glass of flat lemonade from a 2L bottle you bought from coles for 1.50$ should be a violation of some sort of ACC act. Also the menu had crossed out prices and inflated on a printed sheet of operation along with a poorly labeled menu with no starters or mains sections. Honestly clearly they are struggling on the back of a tough year and I get that, but being good people costas nothing and they miss that by a country mile. I’d wish them all the best and hope they turn it around. But I’d be lying. My advice: look elsewhere or drive an hr 20 back to Melbourne...

There’s a reply to your response below the original text for you to read over:

Original: I’m 18 years old and put down almost $60 for inedible, small portioned food which left a bad taste in my mouth and had my partner so hungry we had to grab maccas down the road.

Bao buns tasted like frozen food, dumplings undercooked and tiny, microwave pinging all the time, noodle serving bland and uninspired and $22.80 for something so small I could buy it at Footscray for $8. Chicken in bao buns so bad we couldn’t force ourselves to eat it.

I can’t cook but even my attempts at making asian food have been better so far.

Really dissatisfied and won’t be recommending to anyone or coming back on future travels. Needs a LOT of work in my opinion.

If I get refunded I will remove this review, if not my opinion stands. Visited Monday 22/5/23 and spent $57.01

Reply - We hate mcdonald’s but my partner was still hungry after spending hard earned money on poor food and we had places to be. The chicken in bao buns was so bad she nearly gagged. I didn’t want to make a scene as the two of us were the only ones in the restaurant and my partner doesn’t do well in confrontations so I thought it would be better to not have one at the restaurant.

Even half a refund at $30 for the half of the food we couldn’t eat would be good enough for me to accept the situation....