Six of the best Chinese restaurants in Melbourne

For many years, beef with black bean sauce, spring rolls and sweet and sour pork were the mainstays of Chinese cuisine in Australia. They remain takeaway staples and the local Chinese restaurant is still the venue of choice for that annual special-occasion meal for many. Australia, however, has undergone a food revolution in recent times, and Chinese cuisine is now at the forefront of a dynamic dining scene, especially in Melbourne. Here are six of the city’s best Chinese restaurants, in no particular order and in the opinion of this humble writer.

1 ShanDong MaMa

The “mama” behind ShanDong MaMa is 50-something Meiyan Wang, who looks somewhat like a Chinese opera singer – all buxom and beautiful. Her dumplings – hand-rolled each day – make Melbourne’s foodies sing for their supper. The original ShanDong MaMa (there are now three in the chain, but this is the favourite) is a no-fuss hole-in-the-wall in a tacky, low-ceilinged arcade in Chinatown.

The jasmine-tea-tin cutlery holders and flock floral booths set a simple scene for the traditional dishes from Wang’s birthplace, the fishing town of Yantai, north of Qingdao, in Shandong province. The pan-fried dumplings are unique in Melbourne, “the skins deliberately left open so the excess juice from the filling mixes with frying oil to add flavour to the crispy skin”, according to the menu. Wang’s mackerel dumplings, minced with ginger and mottled with chives, coriander and spring onion, are the establishment’s spe­cial­ity. For a local touch, the Melbourne dumplings are “inspired by Australia’s multicultural food scene”, a combination of diced cala­mari, mussels and prawns minced with lemon rind, olive oil, garlic and parsley. Happily, they still taste like dumplings.