I am a tad slow with my postings. I don’t know how other working people blog and work and live their lives, because I’m pretty much exhausted and much too lazy to want to do anything after work.

Anyway, today’s post will be about my visit to the newly renovated and refurbished Dragon Boat Restaurant

We actually visited this place during the first day of Chinese New Year…the road (Little Bourke Street) was packed and we were seeking an escape!

We hurriedly ducked into the nearest arcade and decided that it was time to try yumcha at Dragon Boat. What better way to celebrate CNY?

For old timers who might remember the Dragon Boat of old, they still do sell their dim sum’s outside the Restaurant, but it’s only the steamed dishes. We didn’t see any of the nice fried/baked stuff like siew paus (Ms Tinymouse… Laugh and you will be smacked) or egg tarts.

The interior is pretty much brand new!

With shiny new lights…

And friendly staff who don’t speak English or Cantonese and insist on speaking to us in Mandarin… (I fail embarassingly here.. I wonder what will happen one day, instead of replying in Canto, I reply in Hokkien? ROFL)

We were hurriedly seated (I wonder why?!), and the food took a while to come out (we were early… about 11.30am)…

We started with siu mai

We decided to try their version of Xiao Long Bao, and were greatly dissapointed (it was dry and “soup-less”. They shouldn’t have called it Xiao Long Bao as it was greatly misleading.. should have been pork dumpling or something… *sigh*

Then we had Har Gow, which was quite good. It’s hard to find such smooth skin, and Dragon Boat did not fail in this…

Fried Glutinous Rice

Char Siew Cheong Fun or BBQ Pork Steamed Rice Noodles (say it in a wheezing Asian ladies voice, it’s fun!)

Fu Pei Har Guen or Deep Fried Bean Curd Skin with Prawn

NOW WE’RE TALKING!… Best dish of this entire meal!!!!!!!! Hands down, one of the best I’ve had in all my years of eating dim sum! Excellent! Gives Golden Dragon Palace (Doncaster) a fight for their money… *nom* *Nom* *nom*

Pai Guat or Steamed Pork Ribs with Black Beans, which was edible… ^_^

Overall, I’m not sure if I will actually come back for another visit, food was mediocre (apart from the deep fried bean curd dish) and service wasn’t fantastic (blame it on CNY)…

But we did see a Lion….

or two!…

Overall Food Rating: 5/10
Restaurant ambiance: 7/10 (It does look a lot better and brighter after the reno)
Value for money: 6/10 (It cost quite a lot more than my normal visits to Shark Fins House/Inn, and I felt that I was being made to pay for their renovations, as their food wasn’t very memorable… again, apart from that one dish!)

Location:
203 Little Bourke Street,
Mid City Arcade
Melbourne 3000

Telephone: (03) 9662 2733
Fax: (03) 9663 8105

Trading Hours: 8:00am – 11.00pm
Yum Cha Daily 8:00am – 5:00pm
Dinner Monday – Sunday 5:00pm – 11:00pm
Supper Friday & Saturday 11:00 pm till late

How to get there:

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