Happy & Lucky Family Chinese Restaurant: Yum Cha

Location: 23-25 Anderson Creek Road, Doncaster East

Cuisine: Chinese, Yum Cha

After an unimpressive visit a while back, we decided to give this restaurant another go following rumours that the ownership had changed.

How wrong were we?

We arrived for a late lunch and were terribly disappointed by yet another bad experience.

The first of the trolleys arrived at our table, and the waitress  asked us what we wanted without telling us what was available. We had to point and ask about each individual steamer. We ended up with a range of dumplings and some braised beef tendon.

It later turned out that that was the one and only trolley circulating. The rest either came out on trays or had to be ordered (without a menu).

clockwise from left: scallop dumplings, prawn dumplings,
chive dumplings, braised beef tendon

The dumplings were rather average. The scallop and prawn dumplings had nice thin wrappers, but were lacking in actual seafood content and tasted like they were predominantly filled with some floury base. The chive dumpling was a little better, with a strong chive flavour. The beef tendon had a nice gelatinous texture, with the exception of a few pieces that were slightly underdone.

left: rice paper crispy prawns; right: chicken feet

The biggest disappointment was the crispy rice paper prawns. We should have guessed from the lack of colour that they wouldn't be that crispy, but we didn't expect them to be borderline soggy. It was as though the oil wasn't hot enough when they were deep fried, so instead of frying, the rice paper wrappers just soaked up all the oil. The dipping sauces were the only redeeming features, and they were stock standard sauces.

Unlike the other dishes, the chicken feet came out smoking hot and were cooked well. Nice flavour, actual pieces of black bean and soft chewy gelatinous pieces of chicken feet.

The only other dish we ordered was the fried turnip cake, which had a nice crispy finish, but was a little underseasoned.

The lack of quality in the food was one thing. On the way out, I noticed a dead fish in their 'live seafood' tank. I'm not sure I'll be returning anytime soon, and definitely won't be ordering any live seafood from there.

Overall Impression: 4/10

Dragon Boat Palace

Location: 149 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Link: www.dragonboat.com.au
Cuisine: Chinese

For someone who doesn't enjoy Yum Cha, I sure do end up having it quite a lot. And this time, it was of the all-you-can-eat variety...

We went all out and ate til we had to unbuckle our belts!

Overall Impression: 5.3/10

I do apologize for the decimal place... but I liked Chinatown's Dragon Boat just a tad better. It just had a nicer ambience, I think. And the all-you-can-eat style yum cha at Dragon Boat Palace meant, everyone was engulfing everything pretty quickly so the waiters were under a lot more pressure. So, you end up being surrounded by really stressed people. And then you start feeling really stressed... So, maybe thats why I didn't think the ambience was as good.

Dragon Boat

Location: Chinatown, Melbourne
Link: http://www.dragonboat.com.au/
Cuisine: Chinese

I've never really been a Yum Cha fan. And no, Dragon Boat hasn't changed my mind.
But everybody else in my family loves it so we decided to check out the newly refurbished Dragon Boat in Chinatown.

The service was quick. Given it was very busy, the waiters did very well.

Overall Impression: 5.5/10

Great variety and good service. Highly recommended if you want to get your 'Yum Cha' on.

Kam Fook - Yum Cha

Location: Level 2, Westfield Shoppingtown, Doncaster
Link: www.kamfook.com.au
Cuisine: Chinese, Yum Cha

Having quite enjoyed ourselves the last time we had Yum Cha at Kam Fook, we decided to go there again for Father's Day lunch. I've also thrown in some photos from the last time we went.

Fancy little teapot for soy sauce

Prawn dumplings

The prawn dumplings are a staple to any yum cha meal, and these were probably the best dish of the day. The filling was tasty and had the right amount of the flavour. The pastry was slightly thicker than usual, but it didn't play too much of an impact on the overall texture.

Eel and glutinous rice parcels

The parcel consisted of a layer of glutinous rice and a slice of eel over the top. Not a fan of eel, I only tried some of the rice inside. The rice on the edge was a little crispy and tasted quite nice, the rice closer to the centre of the parcel was softer and tasted too much like eel for me to enjoy.

Shark fin dumplings

Fried stuffed capsicum and eggplant

Double mushroom in glutinous rice dumpling

This was one of my least favourite dishes - the glutinous rice wrapper just did not taste right, and it broke eaily, emptying out all the contents. The filling itself was not all that special either - it was merely filled wiht some corn kernels, two types of chopped mushrooms and some random other bits and pieces. Never getting this one again!

Vegetarian dried bean curd roll

These were again rather average, the bean curd was slightly tougher than expected, and the fillings again quite bland.

Century egg and pork congee

This one was very well done. The serving was bigger than you get at most other yum cha places. There was plenty of century egg (and you should all be less intimidated by it after Poh's dish on Masterchef) and not too much of the meat. The crunchy bits (like asian croutons) were quite nice and helped to break up the texture a little. Could have done with a little more salt and pepper, but on the whole was very enjoyable.

Marinated beef tendons

Not everyone's cup of tea, but these tendons were done extremely well. We didn't find a single piece that was too overcooked or too tough to eat. The sauce was very nice - sticky, salty and slighlty spicy too.

Prawn rice noodle roll

This was pretty good but not as good as expected. The prawns were nice and big, the rice noodle roll well cooked through and soft. The only problem was that the sauce. It wasn't completely off track, but it lacked a very obvious sweetness compared to the all the other restaurants I've had this dish at. My conclusion is merely that either used the wrong soy sauce, or didn't add enough sugar to it.

Shredded duck and preserved vegetables dumpling

This glutinous rice dumpling also disappointed, mostly due to the wrapper, but also that the filling was pretty tasteless. The duck meat was somewhat crumbly, dry and bland, and even the preserved vegetables did not add any extra flavour or moisture.

Tofu with sweet ginger syrup

One of my favourite desserts, and it was done extremely well. The tofu was cooked just right, so that it was soft enough to break easily but strong enough to hold itself together when not disturbed. The syrup was perfect - neither too much nor too little of the sugar or ginger. Left a very nice sweet and tangy taste in the mouth after eating it. Awesome way to end a meal!

The service was quite good, the waiters were attentive and quick responders. Well, all except one waitress who made the mistake of telling us that the deep fried calamari was deep fried white bait fish instead. Upon pointing out her mistake to her, she proceeded to tell us that it was calamari (well yes, that is what we just told you!) and asked if we still wanted it (if we did, we wouldn't have bothered pointing it out to you would we?). We had to repeat our request for her to take the dish away and remove the marking from the order sheet. I think she avoided outrtable for the rest of the meal.

I just love the set up of the restaurant. The tables are nicely spaced out, the chairs are all wooden and a little traditional looking, but huge! There are also a couple of private function rooms which can be joined together or split up as needed.

We will be back one day to try out the dinner menu.

Overall Impression: 8.5/10

Kum Tong

Location: 19-21 Andersons Creek Road, Doncaster East
Link: www.drinkeatweb.com/kumtong
Cuisine: Chinese, Yum Cha

One of our worst dining experiences out in the suburbs. This place was not just slow, but also rude and also very very average. So not worth the wait or the money.

Complimentary soup

The night started out quite pleasantly. We ordered a 4 person banquet which included oysters and abalone and our complimentary soup came out quite soon after. The soup was also quite nice, with turnips and pork bone broth.

Then the waiting began...

The remains of our steamed oysters with black bean sauce, and abalone with spring onions and ginger

As one can tell, I did not get a photo of the dish when it first came out. Why? Because we waited for half an hour after the soup before the food came out - and this was after giving numerous prompts to the waiters. And in stead of just apologising and being polite about it, the head waitress (who I believe is married to the head chef and owner) stated that the reason it was so slow was because we had taken so long to order! We just could not believe she even said it, because we ordered well over half an hour ago, and the soup came out almost immediately - soup does not arrive until you have ordered. That aside, the food itself was quite good (albeit somewhat overcooked), but we were too hungry, too angry and too short of time to care so much.

Special baked salted chicken $21.80

The chicken was quite tasty, and very salty indeed. Again there was a considerable wait between the oysters and abalone and the rest of the dishes coming out, but not as long as the first wait. The chicken could have done with more of a smokey baked smell and taste, but the dipping sauce of ginger and spring onions was the perfect accompaniment. However, it tasted just as good as what you might find at a Chinese roast house - nothing spectacular, and ridiculously expensive for what it was.

Stuffed bean curd in special soup claypot $16.80

This was not what I had expected this claypot to turn out. First I expected some sort of thick sauce, and I also expected the beancurd to have more flavour. Much more flavour. The mince meat that was used to stuff the beancurd had been over cooked and was tough and bland. The beancurd itself was also tasteless. I tried to drink the soup, but wasn't a fan of the nearly absent taste.

Stir fried snowpea leaves with garlic $15.80

Normally, I love snowpea leaves done at Chinese Restaurants, however, this one was a complete disappointment. The veggies were stringy, the stalks were tough and had some form of husk covering most of it - indications that these had exceeded their picking/harvesting time. Mind you, the garlic made the dish smell so much nicer than it actually was.

Service: rude, abrupt, slow, especially from the head waitress

Atmosphere: what a pity, because the atmosphere was quite nice, and there were two birthday celebrations on the other side of the room - identified by the happy birthday song being played quite loudly over the PA system

We are never going back again - we can get the same 'average' food from cheaper shops in Box Hill, or pay the same price and get decent food at the other restaurants in the area,

Overall Impression: 2/10

Happy & Lucky Family Chinese Restaurant

Location: 23-25 Anderson Creek Road, Doncaster East
Cuisine: Chinese, Yum Cha


Originally just a restaurant specialising in Beijing cuisine, Happy & Lucky Family decided to hop onto the Doncaster yum cha bandwagon. Having tried the Beijing cuisine originally and finding the food different, but rather bland, we decided to give the place a second chance and headed there for a yum cha lunch.

I have mixed feelings about the place. The food itself was good. The chef got all the textures and flavours right, and the prawn dishes were especially well done. It was a pity there wasn't a huge range of dishes to try, and most were the just the typical yum cha dishes. I had expected there to be a few more Beijing style dishes to distinguish itself from the all the surrounding yum cha places. (If you don't already know, Doncaster is renowned for yum cha, with at least 6 places that do it off the top of my head.) The other problem with the food was that was not quite hot enough - it bordered on warm. Understandably, the trolleys had to pass through the bulk of the restaurant before getting to our table, but at the same time, one would assume that at least the inside of the food remained reasonably hot (the trolleys are supposed to be insulated), which was not the case.

The service was very gruff and not particularly pleasant. Our crockery was pretty much dropped in front of us. The tea took forever to come out, and when we asked for chilli sauce, we ended up with tomato sauce. The only exception was the guy who refilled the teapots, who would come past and apologise for us waiting for our tea to be filled despite us not having waited all that long.

The layout of the restaurant (including long rectangular tables instead of round tables) also made it quite difficult for the trolleys of food to past through the place, and particularly annoying to spread food out on the table.

All in all, I did not end up very full, but there wasn't much else I wanted to eat (it was all repeats) so we left. Prices were reasonably cheap for yum cha - $3.50 small, $4.50 medium, $5.50 large - but we suspect it is only because the place has just started providing yum cha, once it settles down a little, no doubt we will see those prices jump!!

My own recommendation for yum cha remains the same - go to Taipan.

Overall rating: 6.5 / 10