CBD Dumpling House was humming away on a Tuesday evening. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
Visiting an old favourite is such a joy. It’s familiar, it’s comforting, and you know what you’ll get. But as a result, there are restaurants in Canberra where I’ve only had one or two dishes on the menu. So when I met a friend for dinner at CBD Dumpling House recently, I resolved to try something new.
I tend to overorder at dumpling restaurants. The individual small size of the dumplings tricks my brain into thinking I can eat 100 of them without feeling full. And then I end up too full to finish the rest of the meal.
So on this occasion, I decided to plan my menu backwards, starting with main dishes and sides before choosing my dumplings. Thankfully, my friends are well used to me ordering for the table, so my dining companion sat back and let me do the choosing.
The tea-smoked duck was smoky, tender and juicy. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
I was intrigued by the tea-smoked duck and the cucumber salad, and figured they’d be best served with plain rice. When looking at the dumpling options, I skipped over the BBQ pork buns and got the shallot pancake instead. And in the end, I couldn’t resist my favourite dumplings: prawn and pumpkin.
I’m always impressed by how many staff there are at Dumpling House: aunties in hairnets busily folding dumplings at the window, stacks of steamer baskets being whisked around by chefs, and waitstaff delivering plates to tables.
We were there quite late on a Tuesday evening, but the restaurant was comfortably busy. This is the kind of place that makes its money by turning tables at high volume.
One group near us was a table of friends who take themselves to the movies every Tuesday and follow it up with a dumpling dinner with a bottle of red (they had seen The Deb and thought it was quite good, BTW). Other tables were full of families, and some solo diners were scattered about the restaurant, too.
This crunchy, spicy, satisfying cucumber salad has become my new go-to dish at CBD Dumpling House. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
Our food arrived in an ad hoc order. The duck was beautifully smoky and still moist, with a nice layer of fat on top of each slice. I ended up turning it into an alternative to duck pancakes, folding the glistening slices between the crispy layers of the shallot pancake.
Surprisingly, the cucumber salad was the real winner of the evening! Chunks of cucumber had been roughly smashed, which creates maximum surface area for the chilli sauce to cling to the flesh. Crunchy peanuts added texture, and large rounds of dried chilli were stirred through. I was initially wary of the chillies, worried that they would be outrageously spicy, but they were actually quite mild and a little smoky. The tongue-tingling sauce obviously had some Szechuan pepper in it, and the whole thing was both moreish and refreshing. I think I’ve just added a dish to my ‘must order’ list.
The prawn and pumpkin dumplings are a long-time favourite. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
And of course, the prawn and pumpkin dumplings were as good as I recalled. We opted for boiled, rather than fried, which results in a deliciously slippery texture. The combination of prawn and pumpkin is simultaneously earthy and sweet, and I would happily do my very best to eat 100 of them.
We washed the whole lot down with many tiny cups of Chinese tea and walked out feeling properly full, and only down $35 bucks each. Not bad at all.
CBD Dumpling House is located in the Canberra Centre, 148 Bunda St, Canberra City. Check Facebook for opening hours.
Original Article published by Lucy Ridge on Region Canberra.
