Dumpling King Café Restaurant
Shops 4 & 5, 85 Grote Street, just inside Moonta Street
Adelaide South Australia 5000
W Not available
E Not available
T 8212 1886
F Not available
OPEN Sunday to Wednesday 10.30 am to 9.30 pm, Thursday to Saturday 10.30am to 10.30 pm
updated 31 August, 2009
Recommendation of Dumpling King Ma Po Tofu removed and replaced with Maple House — click here
FOOD Oh yummy mummy and there’s a blister on my chin
to prove it. Once on a flight to Shanghai the Qantas flight magazine
described in detail how to eat Shanghai soup dumplings. The article
seemed ridiculous. Two days later having entirely ignored the article
with massed blisters on my lips and a third degree burn on my chin
(very uncool in the coolest city on earth, Shanghai) the sense of the
story was very apparent. Fried Pork Dumplings (15 pieces) $7.80 are the real thing and their mild sweet spicy house made chilli relish that is thick with dried fish is fantastic. The dumplings come soft skinned, with a scrumptious perfectly seasoned piggy centre, crispy bottomed and very hot. Whilst they are not soup dumplings they are filled with boiling juice from their meat filling which, can cause serious burns. So using chopsticks, hold a dumpling in the middle and hold it vertically so the juice drops to the bottom. Bite a tiny hole at the top end and very carefully suck the juice from the dumpling and then eat the rest. If you bite the dumpling in the middle the juice squirts from both ends on to your chin causing instant unattractiveness. Their Ma-Po Tofu on Rice ($6.80)
was the best in Adelaide but popularityhas seen the Dumpling King succumb to a more Western version, loaded with commercial sweet chilli sauce. We now think Adelaide’s best ma po tofu is found at Maple House in North Adelaide - click here to go to their review. We like ma po tofu better when it is not served on rice, but
for those of you used to it being a vegetarian dish at Dumpling King
is meat based but can be had as a vegetarian version. Serves
are enormous but in the real Chinese tradition anything that you can’t eat is taken home. They do collect orders and the dumplings are a great idea for a party – cheap
and delicious.
Their menu listed as Chinese/Shanghainese has plenty of Asian fusion
like Thai fried rice and Indonesian Fried Rice but what the hell so
far it’s very good. Chef Rebecca Stubbs (Chloe’s Restaurant) who has spent time working with us in Shanghai has tried much
more of their menu and says the only things that are missing are crunchy
ducks tongues, twisty intestines and a few of the more way out things
that we love to eat. We guess that the Chinese students who are flocking
to Dumpling King are also hoping for a few wild specials in the near
future. AO
WINE Unlicensed
