Locating near the Maroubra Junction hub I always wondered how come Eastgardens doesn’t have a proper and memorable Chinese food establishment? It is true that there is a standard Chinese takeaway place in the main food court area, and later a small Sichuan place up on level 3, but neither of them was memorable for me. This changed when Dumpling Queen opened in an old café location down at the new food court area on the ground level.
For me it was hard to pinpoint what kind of cuisine Dumpling Queen is selling. I would probably say it is more of a northern Chinese menu but that’s not important. The most important part is their dumplings are good! If they want to claim that ‘Queen-ship’ in Eastgardens, then they probably deserved it.
The menu was not expansive. They have a whole variety of dumplings from steamed pork dumplings (Xiaolongbao), prawn dumplings (Hagoa) to pan fried dumplings. When you are selling dumpling as your main menu items, you better to be extremely good at this, and Dumpling Queen does not disappoint. I have tried their Xiaolongbao and it was delicious. The issue with a lot of Chinese places with their dumplings, especially Xiaolongbao is the dumpling wraps, they are either too thick (makes it chewy and too over powering with that flour texture) or too thin (as soon as you touched it the whole thing fell apart). But at Dumpling Queen, the wrapping was just right. It is thick enough to keep everything in place, but at the same time thin enough to send the dumpling jiggling without breaking and falling apart as you touched it. The end result? The explosion of all the juice inside the dumpling as you took the first bite into the dumpling. The freshness of the ingredients will just rush freely down your throat, giving you an exotic and tasty experience with the food. One may wonder, ‘if it is that good why don’t you just eat the whole thing in one go?’ That’s because the fillings are usually very hot, doing that you will risk burning your throat and you certainly don’t want to do that.
Their pan-fried dumpling were equally good as they don’t make it too dry, which a lot of places pan fried their dumplings to a point that they felt like cardboard wraps instead of dumpling wraps. At Dumpling Queen, they pan fried it with just enough heat and duration that they still have that soft elastic feel that dumpling wraps should have, but at the same time, the base is crispy and hot to show a point of difference among the steamed counterparts.
One thing about eating dumplings though is that you should always finish them when they are hot. This is especially true when it comes to good dumplings. The wraps for the dumplings turn either hard or chewy as the temperature goes down. This is how it is and there is nothing much you can do to avoid that. The bamboo container with steam dumplings helps to keep the moister a lot better than just porcelain / ceramic plates, but once turned cold the dumplings will no longer taste like what it should be. So as nice as it sounds to eat them slowly to enjoy the experience, cold dumplings are never memorable experiences.
The other two items I usually love to order are the Special Fried Rice and the Braised Beef Noodle Soup. I am not a person who like full blown seafood in my fried rice, so Dumpling Queen’s Special Fried Rice is right up my alley. Its main ingredients are ham and prawn, which for me is one of the best combinations as you can get the flavouring from the ham and at the same time complimented by the freshness of the prawns. Also, the fried rice is fried to the right spot, which means it is not overly soggy or overly dry like demolished overnight rice crackers. I usually order a Wonton in Chilli Sauce together with the fried rice so that I can add that chilli sauce from the Wonton into the rice, turning it into a plate of heaven. As for the Braised Beef Noodle Soup (I still find it weird to call it a Noodle Soup as it is not really soup), the braised beef is cooked to the perfect texture – it has the required texture without getting too hard or chewy. And the marinate they used for the braise beef adds additional layers to both the beef and the broth. The thick noodle has a great elastic texture to it throughout and managed to stay that way until the last serve. The other thing I love is that the serving is generous – even a bottomless pit like me can be filled up by their servings, and hence one other major I reason I loved to go back. However, if the food is not good, not matter how generous the servings are, they won’t make any difference.
Price-wise, I personally think that it is quite reasonable considering the serving. A Special Fried Rice with a side of Wonton in Chilli Sauce (8 pieces) is just above $20. Personally, I think it is hard to beat that as I considered it extremely value for money.
Dumpling Queen locates on the ground floor food court diagonally opposite to the current Commonwealth Bank at Eastgardens. You can dine in (good seating space), take away or order via meal delivery services. My personal experience is services are extremely fast as compared to take away. You can also visit their website to find out more.
