We’ve been watching excitedly as the preparations for a new dumpling house take place in East Victoria Park. Finally, the restaurant has opened so we thought we’d better go for a meal and try the food.
I think it’s always a good sign when an Asian restaurant has plenty of Asian visitors so when we walked in, we breathed a sign of relief. It seemed like the Chinese community had embraced this new restaurant.
The restaurant looked cheap and cheerful. Nothing fancy here – just lots of tables in a converted old house.
There were plenty of waitstaff busily taking orders and running around. Most of the tables were piled high with large bamboo steamers full of hot dumplings.
The menu for the restaurant is quite small which I suppose is why they can cook everything to order. There are meat dishes like braised pork spare ribs, stewed pork and chicken. You can choose cold dishes like salads, pork hock, spicy cold beef, hot and spicy pork ear (didn’t really grab me!) or hot and spicy OX triple (which I think means tripe).
But the stars of the meal are the dumpling dishes which come in large steamers of 10 or 12 pieces.
We chose chives, pork and shrimp dumplings (12 pieces) and pan fried pork dumplings (10 pieces). I wish we’d had room for the beef or lamb steamed dumpling or the picked cabbage and pork steamed dumpling. We also tried the braised pork spare ribs (we were seated at the same table as another family because the restaurant was very crowded).
The prices were very reasonable with dishes around the AUD$10 to $12 mark. You can get a bowl of steamed rice for $2 and there is a selection of the usual big name drinks.
I love to eat dumplings with chilli oil and there was a pot on the table. Each table also had Chinese vinegar and soy sauce so you could flavour the dumplings any which way.
First the ribs – thanks to the other family for sharing! The ribs looked like a plate of mainly bones. There was some meat on them but not much. Still, it was pretty good fun to gnaw on the meat scraps! They were tasty and our 4 year old son enjoyed peeling off the fried pork.
The next arrival was the pan fried pork dumplings. They looked very similar to Japanese gyoza and the smell was delicious.
The dumplings were crunchy on the outside and the meat inside was delicately flavoured. There was a lovely hint of ginger throughout the dumplings and they tasted very fresh. The wok was obviously very hot because, although deep fried, there was nothing greasy about this dish.
When we’d finished these dumplings, the steamed chive and pork dumplings arrived. Don’t these look great?
It’s easy to tell dumplings that are freshly cooked: the wrapper is light and not stodgy. If they sit too long, the wrapper hardens and is very unpleasant to eat.
These dumplings must have been cooked just seconds before they arrived at the table. They were steaming hot and fragrant. The flavour of ginger was much stronger this time, so if I wasn’t such a ginger fan I might have found it a little overpowering.
But we ate these dumplings very quickly and they were delicious!
So the verdict? Love MOM is an excellent restaurant for a cheap and cheerful dumpling dinner. The service is very good and the food is delicious. It makes for a cheap meal – we spent AUD$29 including drinks and rice.
The downside? Make sure you book a place or you might miss out.
PS. We found out that MOM stands for Memories of Mandarin when we paid the bill.
The ingredients are variable but there are a couple of rules.
Fry and chop up some haloumi for a delicious salty flavour.
Sprinkle over some crushed walnuts.
