Where to find Melbourne's best dumplings: a Chinatown guide
Melbourne's Chinatown is one of the oldest in the western world and still one of the best places in the city to eat. Here is how to navigate it, and what to order, dumpling by dumpling.
The short answer: head to Chinatown, running along Little Bourke Street in the CBD, and split your visit between a sit-down specialist like HuTong Dumpling Bar for soup dumplings and a no-frills institution like Camy Shanghai for cheap, fast, hand-made ones. Melbourne does dumplings exceptionally well, and Chinatown is the heart of it.
Melbourne’s Chinatown, centred on Little Bourke Street, dates to the 1850s gold rush and is one of the longest continuously running Chinatowns in the western world. Today it is a dense, brilliant eating precinct - dumpling houses, hot pot, barbecue, late-night noodle bars - all within a couple of blocks. This guide is how to eat your way through the dumpling end of it without getting lost. Menus, hours and even locations change, so confirm on a venue’s own page before you go.
Where is Chinatown, and how do you navigate it?
Chinatown runs along Little Bourke Street between Swanston and Spring Streets, in the north-east corner of the CBD. It is small, walkable and layered - a lot of the best eating is up a staircase, down a laneway or on a first floor, so look up and look down, not just at street level.
The lanes running off Little Bourke - Tattersalls Lane, Corrs Lane, Heffernan Lane - are where some of the most characterful, cheapest spots hide. It is a short walk from the city’s rooftop bars and the laneway coffee scene, which makes it an easy anchor for a night out or a cold-weather lunch.
Which dumplings should you order?
Learn a handful of styles and you can order confidently anywhere in Chinatown:
- Xiao long bao (soup dumplings). The showpiece - thin-skinned parcels filled with pork and a mouthful of hot broth. Eat them carefully: nip the top, sip the soup, then eat.
- Pan-fried pork dumplings (guo tie / potstickers). Crisp on the bottom, soft on top, robust and satisfying.
- Steamed pork and chive, or prawn. The everyday standard, and a good measure of a kitchen.
- Sheng jian bao. Thicker-skinned, pan-fried soup buns - a heartier cousin of the xiao long bao.
If you order one thing, make it the xiao long bao; if a place does those well, it usually does everything well.
Where are the best dumpling spots?
Two long-standing names bracket the range, from sit-down specialist to cheap-and-cheerful institution.
HuTong Dumpling Bar, on Market Lane just off Little Bourke Street, is the best-known specialist, with a reputation built on its xiao long bao. It is a proper sit-down restaurant and a reliable introduction to Melbourne’s dumpling scene - popular enough that booking is wise.
Camy Shanghai Dumpling, on Tattersalls Lane, is the other end of the spectrum: a famously no-frills, cash-friendly institution known for fast, hand-made dumplings at very low prices, free tea and a bring-your-own policy. It is loud, quick and beloved, and a rite of passage for anyone learning the city.
Between the two sits a run of Shanghai-style dumpling and noodle houses along Little Bourke Street and its lanes - Melbourne has more good ones than any single visit can cover.
Sit-down specialist versus cheap institution
| HuTong-style specialist | Camy-style institution | |
|---|---|---|
| Feel | Restaurant, book ahead | No-frills, walk in |
| Best for | Soup dumplings, a proper meal | Fast, cheap, hand-made |
| Price | Mid-range | Very low |
| Vibe | Polished | Loud and quick |
The ideal Chinatown dumpling night uses both: a specialist for the soup dumplings, an institution for the cheap plates and the atmosphere.
When should you go?
Go early or be ready to queue, because the best dumpling houses fill fast, especially on weekends and cold nights - dumplings are peak Melbourne winter food. Lunch is quieter than dinner, and a weekday lunch is the easiest way to eat well at the popular spots without waiting.
Chinatown is also one of the city’s better late-night options, with kitchens running later than most of the CBD. If a rooftop bar or the football has run long, this is where to end up.
The one rule
Order the soup dumplings, eat them carefully, and do not fill up at the first place - Chinatown rewards grazing across two or three spots over committing to one. Confirm hours before you set out, bring a bit of cash for the cheaper places, and you will eat as well here as anywhere in Melbourne.