Dumpling Legend

China Town does a roaring trade in dumplings so when you open a restaurant specialising in them, you might as well call it something that’s going to stand out. Dumplings Legend obviously agreed.

Located on China Town’s Gerard Street, the restaurant is a contemporary take on the Chinese restaurant. Don’t expect a busy décor, the whitewashed interior here leaves it all up to the chefs – visible to the restaurant from an open kitchen – to provide the visual stimulus. The sight of the chefs knocking out dumplings while you eat at least suggests that everything is fresh, however, when it came to sampling the tightly packed parcels, we weren’t blown away.

Rather wet and sloppy, the restaurant’s specialty siu long bao dumplings were disappointing. The flavours of both the spicy pork and vegetarian mix passed us by and it was left up to the chilli sauce to cheer it up a notch. Service was iffy – snatched up plates, stern looks and abrupt comments – while the atmosphere was non-existent. If we wanted to eat in a silent, plain white, over-lit room we’d get takeaway and eat in our bathroom at home.

We also ate a selection of dim sum dishes and while the gelatinous rice was excellent the great flavours in the siu mai and deep-fried crispy roll cheung-fun were let down by the lukewarm temperature.

We had heard good things about Dumplings Legend but our visit didn’t match them. Perhaps we caught them on a bad day. However, Sunday lunch is prime time, ‘dim sum o’clock’, so perhaps not.