Mr Huang Jin
Remember when Melbourne was xiao long bao mad a couple of years ago?
That’s one food trend I’m happy to consume. And when Sarah posted about Mr Huang Jin’s XLBs recently, I was keen to check them out after an average XLB experience the previous week.
Mr Huang Jin are located in the Rialto tower on Collins Street, and haven’t been open for terribly long. And I feel the need to get this out of the way first: they’re not your typical dumpling restaurant where you can eat until you burst for $10. A serve of dumplings at Mr Huang Jin is $18-$20. Is it worth the extra money when you can go to a cheap cheerful place for much, much less? Well: read on.
I rocked up with Alastair and Bro on a warm Wednesday evening. We were the only table, so service was attentive, and very sweet.
For drinks, we went with tea which is charged at $3.50 per person (I know, I know – see that paragraph about it being pricier than usual.)
We were mostly there for dumplings, so started with a round of steamed pork and chilli ones ($18 for 8 dumplings). And they were good: thin skin, juicy meat with a small chilli kick and flavoursome soup.
I really liked them. So much so that at the end of our meal, we ordered another round.
We also had some pan fried pork dumplings ($17 for 8 dumplings). These were also done well: they had crispy bottoms and soft skins with a flavoursome pork and chive filling.
Our last dumpling dish was a serve of prawn and pork wontons with chilli sauce ($19 for 8 dumplings). I really enjoyed these. Encased in the silky wonton skin was a filling made with pork and large pieces of prawn, and all the wontons were covered with a very tasty chilli sauce.
There’s a “Taiwanese Tapas” section to the menu, from which we ordered a couple of things. First was the TFC – Taiwanese Fried Chicken ($11). The chicken had been seasoned and fried and came served with a sweet chilli mayonnaise. (The serving was actually a bit bigger than this photo – I messed up the original photo and we ate a few pieces before I realised I needed to retake the picture.)
And the second item was the Taiwanese beef wrap ($11) – braised beef Taiwan style wrapped in a flat bread with sticky sweet sauce and lettuce.
Dinner came with pickles. I love pickles. 🙂
If you’re not into dumplings – who are you?! Erm. Sorry, that was a bit judgey mcjudge. If you’re not into dumplings, Mr Huang Jin also has other options. Mains are around the $30 mark and include things like a traditional beef curry, double cooked duck, pork spare ribs, and sticky pork belly buns.
We weren’t going to have dessert, but somehow talked ourselves into it. Alastair and I shared a scoop of green tea ice cream and black sesame ice cream, which were just okay.
Bro had a red bean pancake with black sesame ice cream. The red bean pancake was really good, with a shatteringly thin and crispy shell and a mildly sweet filling.
Despite the fact that Mr Huang Jin is a bit pricey, I think it’s worth it for an occasional decent dumpling fix. There’s times that call for cheap, trashy, dumplings, and there’s times that call for slightly exxy, quality ones. Happily, there’s room in my stomach for both kinds. 🙂
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Mr Huang Jin
Plaza Level, Rialto Towers
525 Collins Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone: 03 9077 7937
Peach
November 21, 2012 @ 10:47 am
Wow! I haven’t heard about Mr Huang Jin yet, but the photos and what you’ve written about them makes me want to go there and try! Slightly expensive, but I think it looks worth it!
I love the teapot! Very cute 🙂
Agnes
December 29, 2012 @ 10:41 pm
I definitely think they’re worth a try 🙂
Bryan
November 21, 2012 @ 8:14 pm
Looking at the translucent (thin!) skin of the XLB’s I’m more than happy to give it a try, price notwithstanding. Can’t wait to visit!
Agnes
December 29, 2012 @ 10:42 pm
Go go go 🙂
leaf (the indolent cook)
November 22, 2012 @ 12:01 am
The dumplings look super! I want to try the chilli xlb…
Agnes
December 29, 2012 @ 10:43 pm
They were sooo good 🙂
Daisy@Nevertoosweet
November 22, 2012 @ 9:06 am
Clearly I wasn’t a foodie back when Melbourne had the XLB phase hahaha omg these XLB at Mr Huang Jin looks good…very tempted might go tonight 😛
Love your photos too! I can never take pretty photos of anything but I’m worse at Asian dishes hahaha
Agnes
December 29, 2012 @ 10:43 pm
Hahaha, some dishes are *really* hard to take photos of. I always struggle with meat and roasts and curry. Brown food is the worse!
Hannah
November 22, 2012 @ 11:55 am
Red bean desserts, black sesame ice cream, and pickles. My favourite things (though boo to bad ice cream).
Agnes
December 29, 2012 @ 10:51 pm
Add peanut butter, good chocolate, and it might be your perfect meal. 🙂
Sarah
November 23, 2012 @ 8:50 pm
Oh wow, you’ve tried a much bigger range of the menu than I have! I also think the chilli XLBs are the best! 🙂
Just FYI, they’re a bit cheaper at lunch! (But still expensive). And you don’t get the big sharing dishes.
Agnes
December 29, 2012 @ 10:50 pm
I loved the chilli XLBs. Thanks for the tip off! 🙂
Mr Huang Jin
November 26, 2012 @ 5:54 pm
Hey there!
Thanks for coming by and we’re glad you liked the food. We’ve recently re-jigged the menu so that the mains are tapas size, the dumplings are a little cheaper and available in two amounts and everything is available at lunch and dinner!
Hope to see you again soon.
The team at Mr Huang Jin
Agnes
December 29, 2012 @ 10:47 pm
Hello! Thanks so much for the comment and for the update on the changes to your menu. Will definitely be back sometime. 🙂
Ashley
November 29, 2012 @ 2:53 pm
Wow! Love the look of the place, I’m not huge on dumplings (aghast) but these look like quality. Happy to fork out a bit more if it’s worth it…
Agnes
December 29, 2012 @ 10:48 pm
WHAT. Get out of town! 🙂
msihua
December 3, 2012 @ 8:13 pm
I still can’t believe you paid $45 each for this 😛
Agnes
December 29, 2012 @ 10:49 pm
Sometimes you’ve got to pay more for quality, my dear. 🙂
Mr Huang Jin
June 28, 2013 @ 6:02 pm
Hi Agnes,
Thank you for the review!
We have recently introduced some yummy new dishes that we are sure you will enjoy, including laksa, black tea, pumpkin, and wasabi xia long baos.
We hope to see you again soon!
Agnes
July 10, 2013 @ 9:54 pm
Pleasure! Will try and visit again soon. 🙂