Phone (03) 9663 1878
Shanghai Village is as cheap and cheerful as you’re gonna get in this town. Located in Melbourne’s Chinatown district behind a heritage facade, you will be quite taken with it’s interior; hot pink walls, red leather/chrome seating, Chinese lantern lighting and a quirkiness that just absolutely delights (well…it delights me anyway!).
For around $6 you can get a plate of “whatever on rice” or “whatever on noodles” or a dozen Peking dumplings, steamed or fried. The choices for each of the above are innumerable – you could eat every meal here for a month and never have the same dish twice. And the dumplings – traditional, pork, chicken, prawn, vegetable and every other combination therein available. There is also the option of purchasing a dozen frozen ($4.50) for devouring at home later.
Above is a plate of steamed vegetable dumplings. What was surprising was the lack of cabbage (the great extender), which I was very happy about. Filled with earthy shitake mushrooms (reconstituted), carrot, tofu, spinach/water convolvulus, and spring onions – they are a fresh mouthful of vegetable goodness wrapped in a tender pastry casing. Serve with vinegary soy for optimum effect.
Whilst on the dumpling theme, check out Project Dumpling for some dumpling goodness. The link might be fairly old, but amazingly enough, most of the info is still current.
Yummo. Those pics turned out great too, particularly the stealthy one of the couple. That hot pink really does come up… vibrant.
It’s absolutely yummo. Can’t wait to try it again.
The hot pink is confronting, but the food is excellent. I was infact there last night!
wrt Project Dumpling, Camy’s in Tattersalls lane is closed (second time i’m aware of this year) for what i hear are health code violations. Funnily enough it never stopped us going again (and again and again!).
welcome to Mel’s blog, Keatus hehe. hope all is well
shame to hear about Camy’s, but were you really surprised?! but yeah, we all keep going back for more! it’s great to eat dangerously
Heya Anna – uh huh, my stealthy “camera on the table pointing backwards and hoping to hell I get the shot” actually worked out quite well. I just loved the picture of that little ol’ couple chowing down in front of the hot pink wall. And yes, we’ll definitely be back for more.
Hiya Keat – welcome to the blog
So tell me, what are you favourite dishes at Shanghai Village? I’ve only been a handful of times, so any recommendations would be well received. And hey, don’t let something like a health code violation stop you from a great feed. I’d say half the places in Melbourne could be shut down for their dodgy practices – if they were caught 
.
Hey there EG (xx) – hmm…perhaps we can start up extreme eating challenges and visit venues that have been shut down due to health code violations
OMG camy’s is shut??? for health code violations???!! I’m coming down to melbourne for the long weekend and i’ve had a hankering for their steaming plate of dumplings for a very long time. What a shame! Lucky though there’s shanghai village which i haven’t tried before where i can get my fix for dumplings. Thanks for the reviews! Is there no better tasty morsel in the world than the humble little dumpling?
Went to Shanghai Village for the first time last night, having read your review, and loved it! Have vowed to never go to Camy’s Shanghai Dumpling again (despite my fondness for chilli oil dumplings) because of the mild bout of food poisoning I got there last time. I quite like Chinatown Dumpling (next door to Cookie), but the drawback there is that they won’t give you chilli sauce.
But Shanghai Village will now be my go-to venue for cheap cheap dumplings! As you said, the veggie ones had more than just cabbage in them, and their chilli oil dumplings were tasty too. The staff were smiley and friendly, and the red bean pancake was crisp and not too oily. What more can a gal ask for?
Hey mutemonkey – glad you enjoyed S.V. Yes, food poisoning from Camy’s is really not a very good sign (and an oft reported one too!), as are their numerous code violations of the food safety act
I’ve been to Chinatown Dumpling once, and had a bowl of spinach dumplings with noodles. The MSG was a little overt though – so I haven’t returned since. I don’t mind a little, but a lot just doesn’t do it for me.
But I do like the vegetarian dumplings at S.V. – the fried ones especially. And I just love the building and the decor. That hot pink rocks!
[...] Shanghai Village Dumpling Inn, also hidden off in one of the little laneways. Lots of people got sick here from food poisoning last year, but I notice its still open. [...]
Hi – What are the vegetable-only options like? Camy’s only has one dumpling without meat – which was a bit dull after 10 or so!
Hi Maddie – they’ve definiately got some veg dumplings (which are yum), but can’t remember any other variations.
You might also like to try HuTong. While they only have one veg dumpling version, they also do a rather good veg/mushroom steamed buns. And their veg fried rice is to die for.
I went there about three weeks ago and it was INCREDIBLE. Soooo much better than Camy Dumpling House. These dumplings were … about 10 times better. I actually had dumplings for the first time @ Camy’s in March this year, and I didn’t get the big deal. But now I know what a good dumpling is! We also had a bunch of other veg-friendly nibbles. We were mostly vegetarians who went and we all came back stuffed, four of us for about $7.50 each. Mm. I can still remember the delicious food!
I would like to know what ppl’s experiences have been buying frozen dumplings from Shanghai Village? Is it difficult to heat them up? We’re thinking of using them to cater for a family dinner on Wednesday.
Hope someone can help!
Maddie
Hey Maddie – the frozen dumplings are great. I either boil them up in a stock (ie. dumpling and noodle soup), or I pan fry them (hot pan with a bit of oil, drop the dumplings in flat side down, let them cook for a minute or two, throw in half a cup of water and put a lid on the pan immediately to steam until water is evaporated).
Just make sure you have some good dumpling vinegar to go with
This was like OMG.. I love the wall colour!! it was so awesomeness…
fully sick man…
i loved it!
Andrew A.
I loved their Shao Long Bao (although not as good as HuTong’s) and their Mushroom Vegetable Buns (they were really really good). I was not too impressed by their Fried Dumplings though. They have Gluten Sesame Balls in soup, quite good. Their prices are reasonable. I was surprised by how packed it was Sunday lunchtime.
It was my first time in Melb and I wanted to try the yum cha available. But when I went to this shop, I was shocked as they told me there was no yum cha anymore, although the shop clealy says they have yum cha all day. The waiters there can’t really speak English well and have a problem in communicating, especially when asked whether they still have their yum cha menu. My boyfriend was horrified and we went to another shop for dumpling. Kinda disappointing after reading these good reviews and can’t experience it.
Hey there Samantha – actually, that doesn’t surprise me, as they are not known for yum cha at all, only cheap cheap dumplings
Where did you end up for yum cha?
[...] we eerst een hapje gegeten in Chinatown. Een paar maanden geleden hebben we al eens bij het Shanghai Village Dumpling restaurant gegeten. Tijd om weer eens terug te gaan. Geweldig interieur met knal roze muren en sfeervol TL [...]
I’m down in Melbourne (from Sydney) for the weekend, hadn’t eaten in nearly 24 hours (due to a reeeeeally early flight) so when I found this review, I figured I’d give this place a shot. Cost me about $11 all up, for 8 dumplings, won ton soup, and a drink, heaps better than succumbing to mcdonalds or some other rubbish
Anyone in Melbourne, either living here or visiting, owes themselves to give this place a go, it’s awesome!
- Adam
Went with a group of 6 people. Was a terrible experience. Service was extremely bad. The waiter didn’t seem to understand english very well and at one stage he left our table cursing, he had failed to explain the menu properly. Ordered dumplings to share to begin with, tasted like they had just come out of a packet and microwaved and did not provide any plates or dishes for the soy sauce and had to ask for chilli sauce. He was extremely rude. The staff did not deliver our main dishes to the appropriate person, just dumped the dishes on the table (understandable if you were having yum cha, but we were not). The vegetables with oyster sauce were the most disgusting (steamed bok choy with oyster sauce). Usually the sauce would be cooked with the vegetables and a bit of sugar or something added, as oyster sauce is very bitter on it’s own, but that’s what it was, veges with oyster sauce poured over the top, straight from the bottle, eeeeewwwww. One of the girls meals came out after maybe 2 minutes after she had ordered (how is this possible, left overs from another plate and microwaved perhaps???) I can’t believe how many people have given this place a good rating, obviously they have never had good asian food before, even I can cook better asian and I’m white. I guess you get what you pay for, and this place is cheap and nasty. We had thought about leaving and not paying, that’s how bad it was. That’s probably why they have all the cameras around the place, lots of people just leaving without paying. No surprise, I would not recommend this place to anyone.