With a name like that, I had to go there and check out the goods. When talking about food it would easily be one of my most used phrases.
I Love Dumplings is on Bridge Road in Richmond, Melbourne. Inside it doesn’t really look how you would expect from a cheap dumpling house. It’s much nicer and it’s easy to see why this place pumps in the evenings. Well that and the large bar are pretty good giveaways.
While they had a large menu, we were there just to devour the dumplings. I ordered 8 Xiao long bao, 15 pork dumplings in Sichuan chilli sauce and 15 pork steamed dumplings. Oh and we got vegetables – Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce – you have to have your greens.
Part of the draw for me to dumplings is the delicious black vinegar with chilli oil sauce that you mix together for the dumplings. I don’t even use soy anymore and at the end, if I can manage it, classily I will down the rest of the concoction mmmmm.
Back to the dumplings… unexpectedly, the xiao long bao were some of the best I have had. They had a thin wrap and were all generously full with steaming, delicious broth. So steaming I burnt my tongue a little… I should know better. My impatience and excitement got the better of me.
The Sichuan chilli dumplings were an excellent level of hot and spicy. The pork was juicy with a little crunch from the veggies they’d mixed in. I’m 99% sure the steamed pork dumplings were exactly the same, just not in the same sauce but they seemed to taste different. Different and delicious.
I Love Dumplings!
Dammit, now I feel like dumplings again even though I just had these for lunch.
