By ANGELINA,
the Hype Hunter
There’s nothing fancy about Tim Ho Wan, the chain that has earned a Michelin star for several of its restaurants.
The smell of steamed pastries and slow-cooked meat wafted invitingly from modest bamboo steamers.
The simple one-page menu is also a makeshift placemat, and the loud conversations can reach deafening volume levels in the 105-seat dining hall.
Such is Tim Ho Wan’s mystique that the prospect of an hour-long wait does nothing to deter the steady queues of salivating souls lining up in Bourke St.
In fact, the restaurant’s queue is already as famous as its dim sum.
Despite the swarming crowd, service is speedy. Young servers manoeuvre around the restaurant floors like lithe dancers, whisking away empty steamers and refilling teacups without prompting.
Within five minutes of ordering, our first dishes land in a glorious puff of steam.
Wrapped in yellow wonton jackets, the pork dumplings with shrimp – a yum cha staple – are dense with fresh prawns and sweet with succulent pork.
Tim Ho Wan's signature BBQ pork buns, which MasterChef's Matt Preston has hailed as the best in the world, are indeed a revelation. Crisp and flaky, the pastry is dusted with sugar and generously filled with oozing, savoury pork chunks.
When the pastry and filling marry in your mouth, they perform a glorious sweet and savoury tango with every bite.
However, the meal takes a downhill dive when the shrimp vermicelli rolls arrive.
Instead of a transparent velvety skin that breaks away easily, the sheets of vermicelli were thick and opaque. They dominate the dish with their floury blandness, obscuring the tanginess of the soy sauce and the perfectly cooked shrimp.
Chicken feet are not on everyone’s list of favourites, but for many who queued hours to try Tim Ho Wan’s, they are left with clawing disappointment.
The Melbourne menu features a bland and runny abalone sauce instead of the rich, dark glaze of black bean that made Tim Ho Wan’s chicken feet so internationally acclaimed.
A dessert of smooth and silky mango pomelo sago ended the meal on a high note. The fresh burst of pomelo in every spoonful makes this quintessential Hong Kong dessert a refreshing palate cleanser to finish off your meal.
The key to a great yum cha at Tim Ho Wan is to order carefully.
WORTH THE HYPE?
Most of the dim sum is definitely over-hyped. They are similar to any other yum cha in Melbourne.
But Tim Ho Wan is definitely worth a try, if only for the curiosity factor and of course, the sensational pork buns.