• Wonton House

271 Swanston St
Melbourne 3000
03 9650 4113

I had been to Wonton House previously with vegetable rice noodle soup the only appealing lunchtime offering.  Finding ourselves at Wonton House for dinner this week, I was concerned that there would not be much vegetarian food on the menu.

“Don’t worry,” my friend assured me, “I have already asked and ordered vegetarian dumplings and custard buns.”

With Chinese food, I have no qualms about eating sweets in between savouries, and being a fan of both dumplings and custard buns, I relaxed.

Trying to be adventurous, I also ordered the ‘sour plum juice’.  It was nothing like the ‘sour plum drink’ I enjoyed in Malaysia with star fruit juice and a solid sour plum – as I had expected.  Instead, it was like Pinetarsol with lots of sugar – strange and not altogether tasty.

The dumplings had very thick skins and were mainly filled with mushrooms.  Strips of carrot and water chestnut also appeared. The vinegar and chilli (alongside soy as the table condiments) were strange colours.  Are these fresh enough to eat safely, I questioned.  They managed to still add flavour.


The custard buns were standard with white, fluffy bao outside and eggy, granular custard in the middle.


My friend also ingeniously ordered “rice noodles with beef and mixed vegetables – without the beef”.  We were concerned that the waitress had not understood but she repeated our order word-for-word and it successfully arrived soon afterwards.  The noodles were not as good as the wok fried ones I ate at Rose Garden recently, but they were still tasty and included lots of vegetables in a thick sauce.


The location of Wonton House is easy and the food is not bad.  The mahogany look furniture and decorative wallpaper give it a pleasant ambience.  We would have been more relaxed with comfortable chairs, even so we were not rushed and managed to have a good catch up over our meal.

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