Panda Mama Dumpling

If you are looking for authentic Asian cuisine taste then this isn’t the place. My friend and I ordered Shanghai beef noodles, Spring rolls and dumpling in hot & sour soup. The beef wasn’t good and the dumplings were average. Since Elsternwick is more of a Caucasian suburb I think it’s reasonable to say that they have made the food more palatable to the people in the suburb. We both liked the Dumpling in Hot and Sour soup.

We LOVE this place. It’s a small unassuming place at the Nepean Hwy end of glenhuntly road. It’s our go-to for dumplings. The ingredients are always fresh and perfect. The staff not super friendly (prob because they’re so busy), but efficient. Their fried rice is on the of the best around and their wontons are so delicious that we ate them so quickly and forgot to take a photo! We only deviated from dumplings once (salt and pepper calamari) and didn’t like it, so decided that we’d stick to dumplings when we go here.

Food is alright if you're looking for dumplings and you're stuck in elsternwick, service is always slow and any time they give you for your food being ready add on at least 10 minutes, even when they say it'll be ready in 1 minute after already waiting for ages. Every time without fail. Just be honest about wait times.

So we had the pork fried dumplings 🥟 and the vegetarian dumplings. We also had the vegetable bun. The pork dumplings missed a zing. They were bland and didn’t have a good flavor. They weren’t sumptuous enough to justify this place as a dumpling place. The vegetarian dumplings were not fried well and the plate had left over oil with the dumplings. It just made for a half fried, yet oily dumpling. Their chilly oil was decent though.

Been wanting to check out Panda Mama for a couple of weeks. We decided to grab a quick lunch there yesterday. I got Prawn & Pork Won Tons in Chilli Oil and my partner for the Pork Dumpling and Noodle Soup. Panda Mama's homemade dumplings pack a lot of flavour and everything was delicious. Next time I'll actually try the same Won Tons, but in a Spicy Sauce - I'll think that should add an extra kick. They also serve you a complimentary tea, which was very nice too. The total bill came to $20.60. I'm happy there's such a nice dumpling joint right at my doorstep and look forward to trying out more dishes from their menu.