Poached or grilled, tightly packed with all things sweet or savoury: there’s a lot to love about the humble dumpling.
Have your chopsticks at the ready, we’re going on the best dumplings in Brisbane quest.
1. Harajuku Gyoza
As you step through the doors of Harajuku Gyoza you’ll be welcomed with a raucous chorus of “irasshaimase” (meaning welcome in Japanese). Widely known for making some of the best gyoza in Australia, you can guarantee you won’t find these flavours in any other dumpling restaurant.
We have a lot to thank dumpling veteran Harajuku Gyoza for.
With crispy duck, mozzarella cheese, cheeseburger and takoyaki gyozas, this Izakaya will always deliver. Do your tastebuds a favour and order the one-foot-long fries splattered with kewpie mayo.
The star of the dessert menu has to be the Nutella and salted caramel gyozas, as well as their raindrop cake.
Address: Locations in South Bank, CBD (Albert Lane) and Indooroopilly Shopping Centre
2. Fat Dumpling
Fat Dumpling specialises in plates of plump, translucent dumplings served poached, steamed or pan-fried. Keen to explore beyond the typical pork and cabbage filling? Try the poached chicken and asparagus, pan-fried fish and steamed pork xiao long bao (soup dumplings). Sided with pork spring rolls, a Chinese broccoli salad and the farm egg and prawn fried rice.
These aren’t the cheapest dumplings in Brisbane but each one is made with incredible precision to create a more than enjoyable dining experience for patrons.
These tender juicy dumplings will keep you reaching back for more.
Address: 368 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley
3. Madame Wu
This isn’t your run-of-the-mill yum cha. With an enviable outlook over the Brisbane River, Madame Wu takes your dumpling experience to the next level.
Executive Chef Brendon Barker has made it his mission to incorporate fresh Queensland produce into each of his dishes. You’ll find fancy fillings like wagyu and Jerusalem artichoke, pan-fried scallop and pumpkin and sweet potato… the dumplings here are something else. While they aren’t technically dumplings, the steamed duck buns are lip-smackingly fantastic.
Address: 71 Eagle Street, Brisbane City
4. New Shanghai, Queens Plaza
If you’d like to see dumpling wrappers nimbly stuffed and pleated before your eyes, make a beeline for New Shanghai, which nails the Hong Kong teahouse aesthetic.
These legends can be found in multiple states across Australia, hand-rolling out all of their orders fresh from the kitchen. If you’re after something a little different, we’d suggest you mix it up with the crab meat xiao long bao. Alternatively, you can just stick to the classics and order a plate of prawn dumplings.
Address: 226 Queen Street, Brisbane City
5. Bamboo Basket
The soft, pillowy goodness is packed in with steaming hot soup.
The folks over at Bamboo Basket are known as the xiao long bao specialists. They prepare these soup-filled Shanghai pork dumplings fresh for their customers every day. You definitely want to start with these iconic dumplings, but we’d recommend ordering a few plates of the deep-fried mixed vegetable with bean curd dumplings and the steamed chicken and Chinese cabbage dumplings to accompany it.
Address: 1003-1004/199 Grey Street, South Brisbane
6. Landmark Restaurant
Feed those raging Chinese cuisine cravings with a weekend yum cha session. At Landmark Restaurant, you’ve got trays upon trays of dumplings streaming out of the kitchen every single minute.
Yum Cha is a challenge at Landmark, of course, try to stuff your face.
The hardest part of yum cha is knowing which of the dishes to start with! You can’t go wrong with the following selection: shark fin, the peanut and pork, garlic chives and the steamed beef Siu Mai (opened dumpling) – and the prawn dumpling noodle soup makes for an incredible starter dish.
Address: Gympie Road & Hamilton Road, Chermside
7. Steamed
With fast service and juicy dumplings, what’s not to love about dining at Steamed? Located in Brisbane’s CBD, these leading ladies are working tirelessly to dish up the best batches of dumplings in the area. With only four items on the menu, you don’t have an excuse not to try them all. The Zen dumpling comes filled with shiitake mushroom, seasoned tofu and Chinese cabbage, while the
Chicken Donggu mix is made up of chicken donggu mushroom and Chinese spice. And of course, they have the Harbin pork dumplings mixed with chives and ginger and the ever-popular Pork Clouds (fluffy pork buns).
Address: 95 Turbot Street, Brisbane City
8. Little Red Dumpling
These babies are full of flavour and joy.
All Little Red Dumpling locations pride themselves on preparing their dumplings in house daily, using only locally sourced ingredients. The menu is broken up into categories of ‘start’, ‘dumplings’, ‘not dumplings’ and ‘finish’. While you can obviously branch out and order something from under the ‘not dumplings’ section, it would be remiss of us not to steer you towards the lamb coriander, crab roe and rainbow dumpling selection.
Address: Locations in Newmarket, West End, Pineland Plaza and Victoria Point
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