Weekends are made for dim sum, and this dim sum experience was an epic one. Joyce invited me to come down to try the dim sum offerings at Yue Restaurant and we tried 25 different dishes. I haven’t had dim sum in quite some time, so this was a great reintroduction into the world of dim sum.
I’ve highlighted my favourites of this tasting (because a 25 dim sum dish review would be too long!) The dim sum dishes here start at $5.85 for their small dishes and go up to $26.95 for their kitchen specialty dishes.
This is one of my favourite dim sum dishes and a quintessential part of the dim sum experience. These dumplings are smaller than most that you would find, but there are five to a basket. The shrimp filling was plump and the skin held up well. These dumplings won the Chinese Restaurant Awards Social Media Choice for Best Steamed Prawn Dumpling in 2015.
Traditionally the rice rolls have the steamed rice paper on the outside and some sort of filling on the inside. At Yue, they intersperse the ingredients throughout the rice sheet. I prefer it this way because each bite had some mushrooms and didn’t fall out of the roll. They have several different flavours (Beef and BBQ Pork with Corn) but my favourite was the mushroom.
This is one of their specialties and was executed perfectly. The skin was crisp and the meat was tender and flavourful.
The green colour of these dumplings are eye catching for sure, and are absolutely beautiful with their perfect pleats. The shrimp were plump and plentiful – a delicious dumpling. There is plenty of shrimp and spinach in the filling and the dumpling skin was incredibly thin but still held up well.
This is another classic dim sum dish and this rendition was quite good. The spareribs weren’t too bony and there was plenty of pumpkin hiding under the mound of meat.
Another classic dish that cannot be missed during dim sum. Similar to the prawn dumplings these are on the smaller side. These were standard in taste, and I personally prefer them a bit larger.
These spring rolls are quite the show stoppers. They are enormous and the way they were cut revealed a lovely shrimp center. These are fried perfectly with a crisp exterior and a bouncy and flavourful shrimp interior. I couldn’t taste or see any cheese, but this spring roll didn’t suffer for it.
These are three come three to an order. The topping was light and crumbly with a mild sweetness. The bun was stuffed BBQ pork and was quite saucy. I enjoyed this combination of salty and sweet.
The black colour of these buns contrast spectacularly with the salted egg yolk filling. These buns were soft and fluffy with a liquid center. There’s nothing more disappointing then ripping into this bun and seeing a solid center.
This was my first time trying Peach Resin cake and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s quite firm in texture – like a dense jello. It was slightly sweet and floral and a great way to end a very filling meal.
The Lychee and Sweet Olive Jello is one of my favourite desserts at any Chinese restaurant. Sweet Olive or Osmanthus is a flower so this dessert is quite flora in taste and smell. It’s another light dessert to cap off a very filling and heavy meal.
Although I am not a fan of durian, this tart was actually not that bad. It won the Chinese Restaurant Awards Critics’ Choice for Best Durian Eggtart in 2016. The durian flavour is light and the tart was more creamy than anything. The pastry was flaky and held up well to the heavier filling.
Overall I really enjoyed my dim sum experience here. Although some of their dishes are more innovative and elevated, at the end of the day their dim sum offerings are classic Hong Kong dim sum. They don’t fiddle around too much with gold leaf, and cute shapes and present dim sum in their original form which really brings me back to my childhood days of having dim sum with my grandparents.
Like all dim restaurants Yue Restaurant gets extremely busy during the weekends so it’s best to show up at opening! If you want some refined classic dim sum, Yue Restaurant should definitely be on your to-try list!