A commenter on Rita's blog, GL, has left the following comment today on my review of Dumpling World from a while back.
I apologise wholeheartedly to poor GL for his shit dumplings. He was going on what I said previously. He went once and was not really impressed but thought he'd give them another try - with the following results.
This is the main reason I rely on you guys to follow up with places I've spoken about here, and if you have a similar experience, come back and tell us, so we know the status quo is intact. If it's crap, you need to come back here as well, and tell us about it. Most of us are reasonable people, and we like to talk amongst ourselves here about these matters. So I thank you GL for the feedback, and that's why I'm making it the subject of my blog today.
"Well, I thought I'd go back and try again. Went for the boiled dumplings due to good review above - and they were crap. Cold in the middle FFS! I asked the guy behind the counter if they are microwaved (you could here it ping and then "Voila!" food appears) and he said yeah. -20/10 I mean how freakin hard is it to cook dumplings when you are called Dumpling World? Hobart deserves sooooo much better than this."
Dumpling World - please try harder!
Wednesday 3 September 2008
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42 comments:
Who runs this dumpling palace?
If you specialise in dumplings, er, you have to get it right, you'd think.
Yes, Sir G, a reasonable assumption!
I have to agree with the comments regarding the Dumpling place after 2 disappointing meals there recently. I had hoped that the first time I received my cold dumplings it was a mistake but the second visit (and the fact that the place was empty at lunchtime on a work day) confirms my gut feelings that standards have fallen unfortunately.
I don't think the standards have fallen. It's consistently low. We had an awful time there just after it opened - thick-skinned chewy undercooked dumplings, none too cheap. I thought it would get better with time and experience, but not so.
Well - the majority speaks - are we all in favour of voting that Dumpling World is off the radar, dumpling-wise?
Such a shame if it has gone downhill. I have eaten there a number of times and been very happy with my dumplings! Mind you, it has been a few months since I was last there.
LT
Utter crap indeed! I visit this place every two weeks or so and don't think that my taste in food is that bad. My dumplings have been consistently good and NEVER cold.
I sometimes think that one person posts a comment, and many join the chase, even if several have never been there!
I too have had a number of good experiences there. I tend to go for the dumpling noodle soup though - dumplings (choice of veg, pork etc.) in a broth with noodles, egg and bean sprouts and various other bits and pieces.
Overall though, I think the dumplings (pan fried) at the place on Liverpool street are tastier.... can't remember the name, it used to be Steves Kebabs and appears to still serve kebabs as well as sushi and other things, strangely enough.
I agree, Mary, that the fried items are not as good as the steamed ones or the tasty noodle soups. The pork and cabbage and the seafood dumplings are very good - whether they are microwaved or not!
I was waiting for you to arc up, Anon2! When they make the Tassie version of Grumpy Old Men, I'm nominating YOU! (And maybe Sir Grumpy as well!!)
Re Dumpling World, I think as they've called it that, they really should be specialists in the art of making and serving dumplings. No one should leave their premises unhappy.
If it was just an Asian restaurant with dumplings on the menu and they were crap, well that's a different matter. You'd just avoid them and order something different.
It's DUMPLING WORLD - ie a world full of dumplings! If it was Oyster World, I'd expect them to excel in oyster dishes, or Pancake World ditto for pancakes.
They need to step up and live up to their name, or change/amend the name of the place!
Thanks for the (possible) nomination Rita.
I'm chuffed at that. Think I'll celebrate with some dumplings....but maybe I shouldn't call my friends that.
Lets be honest the place needs a bomb under it. It even looks closed when it is open
It needs a complete makeover and in the absence of chef Ramsay I am recommending Rita,anon2,mary,Sir G, the gobbler and the long lamented restaurant bitch to spend a few hours and get the place into shape!
Ah Rita you've no need to apologise for my crappy dumplings, with restaurants this poor inconsistency is their key. It beggars belief that they churn this stuff out...half cooked, microwaved dumplings. Anyhow, I'm a long time lurker and your reviews are always great to read, tho' it feels like the whole range of food options is limited by a lack of passion combined with quality. For a capital city to have Dumpling World shoved upon them is bs. I know it's partly due to a lack of competition/population/skill but lots of other restaurants have a poor attitude to what they serve and the $$s they charge. Hobart just doesn't seem to do food very well...
It is often the case, GL.
When you go for humble takeaway and it's rubbish, you ask yourself How Come?
Their whole reason for existing is to make fish and chips, dumplings, whatever.
But still you get greasy crap, burnt offerings and frozen shit that should be fresh and cooked freshly.
Don't these people ask themselves about their standards? How can you cook just half a dozen or so dishes and not end up being an absolute master of it?
Clean oil, fresh ingredients, friendly manner, clean shop, reasonable prices. Check temperature of cooking, watch items for the just-right moment.
No white chips, hard in the middle. Or Brown/black chips and fish swimming in oil.
No dumplings cold in the centre with skins an inch thick.
No curries with sauce congealed and lamb so gristly you cannot eat it.
Samosas with pastry so thick and impenetrable you dentist will be seeing you soon.
Pakoras almost black. Prawn crackers bloody COLD (no, no, no).
Fried rice that's steel hard and as salty as Siberia.
Pies and pasties that should not be considered fit for human consumption.
Hamburgers with the lot wrapped in plastic clingfilm sitting in the bain marie area and so rubbery you gag.
Spring rolls from hell. Souvlakis with the sickest and saddest salad ingredients and meat that is tougher than hell and fatty.
Pizzas with virtually NO topping, bases either so chewy you can't get through or brick hard, and the cheapest topping items money can buy.
The take it or leave it attitude of shops. We should be grateful they believe for being blessed to have them.
How hard can it be? Is it because these people are bored shitless, not being paid enough and therefore don't care about their employers business, or just plain useless. Even the owners seem blind to the shortcoming when they run the place themslves.
Also the big franchises..how often has your chicken with secret spices been crap? The chips soggy, no clean-up towel or serviette and the order wrong.
Aaaaaargh....I give up.
Where's me fucking favourite pan....I'm doing it myself.
And I'm doing it right.
Sorry to go on...it's a pet hate.
Well done Sir G! Couldn't agree more.
I'm with you Sir G! Having spent a lot of time over the past few weeks observing Australia's eaters (in Port Douglas, at Sydney airport in the 4 hour waiting period, in Melbourne at Tullamarine in the 3 hour waiting period, in Hobart and St Helens...etc) I have come to the very sad conclusion that basically the majority of Australians have shit taste in food, and we as a nation get what the majority of us appear to want - as you described above!
I'd love to think that the world (or Australia) was made up of a population such as would read this and other food blogs (ie people with a genuine interest in food). Unfortunately it isn't so. Watching the patrons at Sydney Airport queueing and swarming around the Maccas and other fast food outlets, as opposed to the alternative eating available there encapsulated for me the over-whelming knowledge that we are a nation of philistines, gastronomically.
I'm way over the food you describe above Sir G. I'd rather starve to death than walk into, say, Mykonos for anything that might find its way into my tummy. Mr Mykonos is entitled to make a living but that doesn't mean I have to eat his product. My body doesn't need that kind of 'sustenance'.
i thought i'd check out what was happening back in hobart, funny the latest posting should be about something that is the direct opposite to what we are experiencing at the moment and believe me it's gonna be hard to come home and be served by anyone!
we're currently in kyoto and i have never been to a place that can deliver absolute service for such a reasonable price with total professionalism. even buying a katsu burger for $3.50, cooked to order, delivered to you with 3 to 4 bows and several thankyou's thrown in is a eating experience. (believe me i can't think of it as anything other than fast food done to a 3 star level!)
the food that we've eaten here for the quality, skill in preparation and beautiful service is a bargain.
the key difference i think is the
pride taken, be it serving kaiseki or selling mochi and ice tea.
it may just be a veneer,but they certainly make you feel special.
australian customer service leaves alot to be desired!!
Sire Grump ..... I too have been banging on about sub standard food for the last few years - things aint getting any better.
As a whole food in Melb - dumplings included - is far superior.
Tas ... wake up, catch a plane and sample the food.
CoolRoom
It's not just the entry (entre?) level either, Cool Room, Rita and anons.
Many restaurants are suffering the same malady....ignorance, complacency and apathy.
You're booked in and arrive. No one to meet and greet, say hello and check you reservation (mine's Apache), then show you to your table, furnish you with menus and wine list etc.
You hang about feeling like spare pricks. Sometimes you panic a bit or take matters into your own hands and wander on and sit down.
Staff may be huddled in far corner gasbagging, or at the bar, or in the kitchen and oblivious to you. Or outside smoking.
Inevitably you have to be moved and it is embarrasing. You are chided for your faux pas.
They throw some menus at you. No drinks lists and no one has the bloody nous to get you a drink as you peruse the menu.
No water, badly laid tables, sometimes uncleared from previous sitting.
Long pauses beweeen service. Blind, dumb and deaf waiters who CAN see you trying to beckon them but they are having NONE of it.
First dishes unfinished as mains arrive. OR, seeming hours between first course and mains. No call back to see if anyone needs dessert, cheese, more drinks.
No asking why a shit meal has been left untouched. Freezing cheeses. Cold plates for warm dishes. Pings heard from microwaves. No bread. Worse, shit bread.
After a total LACK of courtesy and service from he or she, waitperson gets all friendsly at the final act of the meal to enhance chance of tip.
No thankyou for coming, was it a good occasion, hope to see you again, as you wander out of the place like a washed-up bunch of farts who were not really in the ``demographic'' of the place, really.
The mark-ups on booze. The lack of local produce and knowledge of it. A lack of even a desire for ANY knowledge of what the state has to offer.
When we all get fed-up (but not fed) and avoid these sorts of places, they blame the economy, customer apathy, costs, et. etc as they go down the gurgler.
Wake-up...I for one have had enough.
Now where's me fucking favourite knife. I'm cooking at home AGAIN.
Sir G, maybe you should avoid disappointment & just stay at home? I have been reading this blog for some time now & have noted that praise is not something that comes easy to you, unless of course it is for the cheap n cheerful. You seem to be perpetually jipped by your restaurant, cafe or take away experiences. Perhaps I am being unfair, but I can't recall a positive word that you have issued about any eating experience here in tassie-Oh actually you did say somethiong good about the old seafood de mayne in Ritas last post.
Whenever someone good naturedly points out an alternative that you might try, like Marque IV, Montys or the like, you always seem reluctant.
What I also find incongruous is that you seem to be well read, informed & interested in food & the scene here, but are ignorant of some of this states major contributors to these efforts, be they chef, restaurateur or critic.
You also hate 'awards' & demonstrate a mistrust of the media attention that a particular place might enjoy
I have often wondered if you speak to the proprietors, the waiters, or the staff who do not deliver to your expectations at the time, which I think would be very constructive for them, or do you wait for blogs like this to vent your spleen?
For someone seemingly left deflated by their out eating experiences, could you perhaps for a change, highlight some of your more positive ones?
I was talking about the bad ones as that was the thread, me old cock.
I was having an exasperated dig at the foibles that have been foisted upon us over YEARS of dining.
I'm not saying it happens all the time, every day and ad infinitum.
But hang about,
where, perchance, do you speak from, oh great and positive wonder?
I do tend to just stay at home, so you won't have to rub shoulders with me.
I feel your defensivess, so suspect you run a greasy spoon.
I have had lots to praise in the past but the fact is that unless you are back-slapping and arse-kissing in the restaurant scene, you are always perceived to be NEGATIVE.
The fact that most of the local sector can't accept their failings is EXACTLY why we are not moving on as fast as we can.
I've long given up on top end dining and I've had my share.
Middle-run is my main attraction because I like the more casual experience. But that does not mean casual as in SLACK.
Can't you face the fact that there is humour as well as disappointment in my view?
Or do I have to tell lies and help perpetuate the shitty things
that go on.
Come on anon....I speak up for the good and bag the bad. I also hold my tongue when fledgling places have been bad but I desperately want them to succeed.
And fair enough, I'll take it on the chin for being crochety.....but I thought it was time for a round up of all our pet hates.
Take it as a blueprint for what NOT to do and you'll keep us eaters very happy.
Feel free to give me another serve (as I said while waiting for hours in a dining room once).
And lighten up.
'Arc up' is a wonderful phrase, Rita, I must try and use it myself sometime.
Grumpy old man? absolutely! though I don't think I could ever compete with the endless ravings of poor old sir grumpy!
As to the actual subject of this blog entry, isn't it interesting at only a couple of commentators have actually been to the place, but everyone is full of opinions about it? Even you, Rita, seem not to have made a return visit, in spite of a quite favourable initial review?
I have, of course, been to finer establishments, especially in Melbourne. I recall, in particular, Flower Drum's scallop dumplings of a few years ago as one of the most memorable things I have ever eaten.
However, I repeat that the steamed seafood and the pork/cabbage dumplings that I eat regularly at Dumpling World are good though not on the elevated plane of some of the great places interstate. I accept that fact and enjoy the product as such. It's just a little cafe run by students, for God's sake! Sure, there are improvements that could and should by made and it is fair to say so.
But for some, I fear, the initial comment that started this discussion has been the excuse for an almighty, self indulgent wank!
If you are really keen on having good dumplings, then I recommend Yum Cha at Me Wah on the weekend. sublime.
LT
Of course some of us have endless rants because we're having a laff and exorcising the demons of the past decades of frustration.
As for Wank, Anon2...oooh the dumplings at Flower Drum were.....give me a break.
And no matter if they are ``just students''...if they set up in business and take your money they should do it right.
I retain the right to be a grumpy old bastard. That way, praise from me is even sweeter!
Plus, I like to liven things up a little, haven't you guessed.
Liven it up for yourself maybe. Some of us like Ritas blog the way it is without you hijacking it all the time. It seems you are the only one allowed to say anything negative about your comments, yet you always bang on at how precious everyone else is for being defensive.
Ok we all get it, no one can cook, serve food or drinks in Hobart. Thanks for your contribution.
Piss off, I eat in Hobart and do alright thanks, at lots of good places.
But some people can'r bear the truth when it isn't ALL GOOD.
Wake up.
Although I use a nom-de-plume, it stays with ALL my comments.
Those who just use anon can duck and weave, so a ``persona'' is never built up for others to look at and check.
I think I'll do that from now on...just anon.
You seem annoyed Sir G.
Whatsamatta, dish it out but cant take it? Dont start on that anon rubbish, you always said it didn't matter, remember?
Hypocrite.
Oh Christ no! sir grumpy. At least we can identify you and the angry blasts the way things are now. If you are going to be another anon, you could at least be more specific - like Anon3 maybe?
Oooooh yes, give ME a break, those scallop dumplings were fabulous!
You must be joking, I LOVE it. You seem to have some hidden upset from the past, but.
I always look forward to some banter on the blogs.
The anon thing doesn't matter but in this instance, all anons are more anon than my Sir Grumpy...that's true.
It's all supposed to be informative and maybe a bit fun, too. Remember.
Hypocrite is a bit harsh. Dithery, yes. Past it, well probably. Opinionated, yes please. But nasty and grudge-keeping, never.
I'll also concede that the old bastard is not fundamentally nasty or grudge-keeping - just sometimes a pain in the arse!
I work in the city and buy my lunch most day’s. I have found myself opting for Dumpling World 7 out of 10 days over the last fortnight. I have either the Wonton Soup (which I LOVE) or the Veggie steamed dumplings (8 pieces) which comes with a nice soy sauce kind of dressing. (sometimes when I’m feeling REALLY piggy I will get both but don’t tell my PT). I love them. But I understand if you have had bad times there you wouldn’t want to go back .
We are all going to have to meet up or go on our own to Dumpling World to try them and compare our skills.
Whatya reckon? Let's all go soon as and report back?
OK - let's give us all a week to get there, and come back here and compare notes on the dumplings at Dumpling World next Friday night. We'll give them another chance. Sounds fair to me. Everyone OK with that?
Yes, and we should gang-bust other places too.
Is it open tomorrow?
Yes, I think so, Sir G. Meet you there for lunch?
I'll be there around 1pm, I reckon.
It's a date!
Hope you don't get stood up Rita.
I'm hoping Sir G is too much of a gentleman for that.
This will be interesting.
I'd never had dumplings until our Melbourne trip earlier in the year.
I kinda liked them, then got home and couldn't find them, so thanks to Maggie and Simon I now make my own.
Not great for spur of the moment though. A little preparation involved.
Great idea. Good to see you all putting your money where your pens are! Enjoy!
Bugger. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday lunch time. Everyone in Hobart was in town. EXCEPT Dumpling World staff! Can you believe they were closed?
Sorry Sir G. I really led you astray.
I ended up at Chill in Kingston, lunching. It was OK. A brunchy place.
We ended up having Baker's Delight ham and cheese croissant things on saturday at Kingston!
I'll get me dumplings yet.
sir grumpy said...
Got round to Dumpling World, Rita.
Sorry, not for me.
I had chicken dumplings in soup.
Filling of dumpling seemed like some sort of chicken sausage meat.
Broth had no depth of flavour apart from a small lake of rough sesame oil on top.
Noodles were okay but slice of boiled egg did not go at all.
I left most of it.
Tried to get some fried dumplings, but there was a minimum of 8, too much and they were inflexible about letting me try just two or three.
Now I suppose some twit will tell me I'm negative.
Got to have a drink to get rid of that acrid sesame.......
September 8, 2008 5:17 PM
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