The venue? Wellington Street, where many an expat can be found scuttling around in business suits on weekday evenings.
The mission? Find some goddamn tasty dumplings. Stat.
Any traveller will be able to relate to the ultimate feeling of confusion as you stand on a street with a row of restaurants seemingly selling almost exactly the same thing and trying to decide which one to choose. You can’t stand a disappointing meal, but with no personal recommendations to go off, which do you choose?
It was this dilemma we faced on Wellington Street in Hong Kong one Friday night. In the end, we did what any sane person would do. We ate at two restaurants. You know, just to make sure that we weren’t missing out.
First up was Wang Fu, situated at the top of the street. Behind the door sat a bustling little restaurant full of locals and tipped-off expats, so we knew it must be good.
We went straight ahead and ordered two portions of dumplings, both steamed. And we were immediately in heaven. Buttery, light and just the right amount of seasoning. They were so soft that they fell apart at the touch of our chopsticks.
But as good as they were, our big appetites weren’t appeased.
So next up we headed to Dumpling Yuan, which at first had us confused as they have two branches on Wellington Street, across the road from each other, which prosed another problem – which one should we go in?
We opted for the one that seemed more laid back and didn’t have a pushy woman as a tout stood at the door trying to lure us in (a personal pet hate of mine). We definitely chose wisely.
In here, the female owner was hand-making the dumplings in front of us – you can’t get much fresher than that. After suffering from a pork overload I opted for a vegetable dumpling soup and Scott ordered their signature fried pork and leek dumplings. We were even more impressed than we had been at the previous restaurant. The soup was filling and tasty and the noodles had a lovely fresh taste. The vegetable dumplings were stuffed full of tasty veggies and I added a dollop of chilli sauce to give it a splash of colour, which intensified the taste of the broth. The fried pork and leek dumplings were also delicious – not overly greasy and a lovely meaty flavour.
The verdict? We definitely made two great choices here, although for the freshness of both the noodles and dumplings, along with the refreshing broth of the soup, I’d have to give Dumpling Yuan the upper hand.
Leave a Reply