Charlie Dumpling |
Charlie Dumpling
184 High Street
Prahran VIC 3181
Ph: (03) 9510-4213
Last night I attended the launch event of Charlie Dumpling, a slick-looking new bar-slash-dumpling restaurant from Chef Dylan Roberts. A night of cocktails, and dumplings made by one of Ezard's ex-chefs? I was totally in.
The bar |
The bar |
The function room upstairs |
Espresso Martini Station |
Mr C Sheen - Gin, watermelon, lime, agave - $18 |
I don't normally like gin or watermelon, but these Mr C Sheen cocktails were super refreshing and totally hit the spot. As you can imagine, my favourite part was the shredded coconut!
Espresso Martinis |
Espresso martinis |
Espresso martinis are a favourite of mine (judge me if you will, I do not care) - not just for the taste, which I love, but also because the combo of coffee, vodka and Kahlua is the perfect pick-me-up after work and before going out. We really enjoyed these, and I especially liked the dash of cinnamon on the top.
Let's have a look at the food! We were served a good range of items from the menu, primarily focusing on the dumplings. We tried a lot of different items, so I won't go into great detail about each one, but what I will say is that the dumplings were all of high quality, and all tasted different. You know how sometimes you can go out and eat a whole bunch of different dumplings, but they all taste kinda the same? Not here - they all had different skins, different fillings, and each one was unique.
The menu is divided into "Small Bites", "Salads", "Dumplings" and "Desserts", so there don't seem to be a lot of big filling options, but rather a range of little snacky items to have with drinks. The dumplings are priced between $9.50 and $14, with four dumplings per serve. Whilst I really enjoyed the food and would recommend a visit - I would caution that if you want to have a full meal, and not just snacks with drinks, it could get very expensive very quickly.
Salmon Tartare, nori crackers, bonito custard, native lime |
Tuna Sashimi, wakame, wasabi, green tea salt |
The tuna sashimi was super fresh and I liked the combination of flavours that came with it - different enough from regular sashimi with soy sauce to be interesting, but not so different that it was jarring.
Beef balls |
Water spinach, squid, shrimp and curry leaf kewpie |
I think these squid, shrimp and curry leaf kewpie dumplings were my favourite savoury ones of the night - the little fried curry leaves on top really made them stand out.
Steamed prawn and bamboo shoot har gow |
There were big, chunky pieces of prawn in the har gao - yum.
Snapper, chilli, lime, black bean |
Peking duck dumpling and spiced plum sauce |
Angus beef, lemongrass, smashed peanut, coconut |
Charlie’s Vegie dumpling |
I'm sure now you can see how varied all the dumplings were - there were influences and flavours from Cantonese cuisine, Northern China, South East Asia, India and more.
Lemon tart mochi, salted almond |
These little mochi were filled with a lemon ice-cream (which literally tasted like a lemon tart!) and topped with an addictive salted almond caramel.
Soft-centred chocolate donut |
We saw the kitchen making these donuts - a frozen ball of chocolate filling was dipped into batter, and then deep fried so that the outside was crispy and the chocolate was molten and liquid. These were amazing! I could have easily polished off the whole plate. (But I didn't. Promise!)
Thanks to the Charlie Dumpling team for a really fun night and all the delicious food!
Sarah and Jimbo attended the launch of Charlie Dumpling as guests.
5 comments
It is ridiculous - RIDICULOUS - how much I want all of this. Snacky foods are my one true love (#sosingle)
ReplyDeleteArgh can't believe I missed eating half of these dumplings, including the chocolate ones! Will have to return :)
ReplyDeleteThe dumplings all look really good and delicious.
ReplyDeleteYuuum! Love love love dumplings - to me, they're definitely an anytime food.
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean about the price though - at those prices, you're looking at more of a bar snack than a full dinner.
DELISH! Dumplings are good at anytime of the day. And this place sure have good-looking dumplings. And also, that espresso martini looks inviting :)
ReplyDelete