Mr Hao — Restaurant in Albert-Eden

We had high hopes about this place especially after seeing all the hype on tik tok.

We arrived a little earlier than our booking and the staff were accommodating. We did find the tables quite close together so much we could almost be apart for the couples conversation next to us. It does get quite busy and with the seating so close together it can feel a little like packed sardines.

We attended for the bottomless dumpling session and the waiter explained to us the two different pricing and how the ordering process works which was quite simple and straight forward. It didn’t take long before our food began coming out and throughout the session our food and drinks arrived very promptly. The session was meant to be 90mins and we had sat down just after 5pm but unfortunately around 6pm, being 1hr of being there we were informed we had only 10mins left as they needed the table for the next people, and felt very rushed to finish up and leave as the waiter began taking everything off the table even though we were still finishing the last dish of food and our last drink. This was the only part of the service that we didn’t love considering we had only been there 1hr at that point and would have appreciated a little more patience as we were already starting to finish up before the waiter came to tell us.

We had a few different cocktails which are well worth the money both in taste and also the level of alcohol in them, definitly value for money.

We had the vegetable dumplings and pork dumplings and found they were quite mushy inside and also lacked flavour.

We ordered the pork and shrimp dumplings in soup and when this arrived it was dumplings in water that had some coriander in it and no flavour what so ever. This was really disappointing as when soup is in the description you expect flavoured soup not warm water.

They provide complimentary noodles, a plain and spicy fried rice, chips and spring rolls which you can order more as you finish them. These were average, nothing spectacular but not the worse we have had.

The fried chicken is all the same with the only difference being the sauces that come with them, we weren’t aware of this as some of the descriptions were misleading such as Malaysian curry chicken we were expecting a curry to come out and it was just the same fried chicken but with a curry satay dipping sauce.

The BBQ pork buns were nice and the buns were so soft. The bao buns were also very soft however the ratio of chicken to the amount of bao buns weren’t quite right. We got a whole plate of chicken and only 3 bao buns so the option to get more bao buns would have been great and possibly prevented us from wasting the extra chicken.

We found there was no salads or fresh dishes to cut through all the starch and fried chicken so for us that would have been nice to include a few fresh options to cut through that. The highlight of the menu for us was definitly the golden buns with condensed milk, that was by far the best on the menu.

Overall this place can be great value for money in the way of how much you get for the price however if you’re looking for somewhere that has amazing flavours in your dumplings and food, then I...

Firstly, the restaurant is ridiculously small for Such a busy restaurant and your squeezed 3inches between others, we felt like we were having dinner with total strangers. It was very uncomfortable. Our conversation was heard very clear by the others beside, no personal space what so ever.

Secondly, as we arrived the guy took us to the table and then just left, no help or assistance with how the placed worked. We understand that it was busy but your meant to make us feel welcomed.

Tell me why as soon as we got seated we were given a plate of food that was cold. It was like they just threw it on a plate whacked some rice on it with some sauce, chips were cold and hard, spring rolls tasted like they just came out the freeze and got heated up but don’t get me wrong the noodles were very tasty and hot. Which is weird because I thought the whole plate is meant to be hot!

Within 3-5mins we had gotten our pan fried dumplings that were also a tad warm. Don’t get me wrong that’s some real quick service but I would rather wait for fresh and hot food because that’s what I’m paying for. We then got the rest of the food and tell me whyyyyy… the portion of meat that we were meant to put in our bao was like a little tiny sauce bowl and then we got the actual sauce bowl and it was a large bowl. I didn’t get that. The portion is out of whack. The dumplings and friend chicken are very good portions tho. Overall the only good thing we got was the fried chicken “besides the sauce that was drowning the chicken” and pork buns, everything else was cold and unappetising. And now we ain’t very picky eaters either but this just made us very disappointed we wanted to leave half way through and we hadn’t even gotten the rest.

Service wise- We had received all our food but didn’t get our drink until like 20mins after our food. We asked the server if we could get one $28 bottomless and one $35 as only my partner wanted the chicken and I was more interested in the dumplings and he said it was totally fine just do it separately. But tell me why we got to the counter and she charged us $77 when it should have been less. We spoke to her and she was soo rude and said no you have to pay the same amount to your partner and I hadn’t even order what he had. She denied we get our refund and then called around for the guy we spoke to and started speaking a total different language! How rude and disrespectful. I kindly spoke as it was very busy and I didn’t want to argue but I made sure I walked out with my refund as I shouldn’t have to pay the full price for something I never ordered.

In the end I think that this place is hyped too much and it isn’t what everyone thinks it is! Definitely not my cup of tea. I will never go back here after the experience we had and i think that others really knoe how it is...

Updating to 1 star after trying their bottomless dumplings. From first look $28 per person seems ok for bottomless dumplings. But after trying, I wouldn't even pay $20 for it. First of all the dumplings choice are all steam dumplings, however the dumplings looks like it has been prepared long time ago and is luke warm. Definitely not a good start. Their fried shen jing bao which is advertised on the menu is no where to be seen in the online menu. Their steamed pork bun just like the dumplings was like leftover, soggy outside, luke warm dry and hard inside. The only things that was served hot was their spring rolls which are pretty much the types you get frozen from supermarket and they just reheat it in airfryer. Only thing I liked was the fried noodles and the glass noodles. Chicken and fries was ok. Hugely disappointed, I would rather go to a proper dumpling restaurant down the road where you get a huge plate of pan fried dumplings that taste good for much less. $28 for some cold steamed dumplings is just laughable. They also removed all the fried options which probably because it takes more effort to make. Highly would not recommend the bottomless dumplings. Previous review can be viewed below, which was much better in quality.

Been wanting to try here for awhile after seeing the reels on this place on instagram. Their tap beer for $5 is pretty decent. Dont really like their other drinks as much but I think the food here goes well with beer.

Ordered a whole bunch of stuff and it can easily rack up $$$ if not careful. Firstly their skewers, all of them are quite good. It offers spicy, no spicy option when ordering on the website after scanning the QR code. Typical cumin spicy flavour, but very yum. Especially love the chicken heart and cartilages. Extremely addicting to eat. The potato piece skewer is kinda weird, I don't recommend it.

We also tried the dandan noodles for $10 which I feel is quite small portion. Tasted not bad, definitely a bit of fusion feel to it. Most likely wont order again.

The wontons were just ok for the price. $10 for 5 pieces I don't think is worth. The dumplings on other hand were tasted much better and was $1 per piece. The skin texture was good and the fillings was just the right amount.

The fried mantou for dessert was not bad, reminded me as a kid when eating it. I think the bun is not crispy enough, but still taste good.

Overall highly recommend the skewers, dumplings and the beer. Can order rice to go with the strong...