Dumplings Legend

I’ve recently read a good review about this place and since I’ve walked past it so many times I decided to give it a go.  I went with two friends for dinner a couple of days ago and I was left more than slightly disappointed.

Nice front

Given that the place was named after dumplings, I was eager to order some to show my friends what traditional Chinese dumplings were like.  To my disappointment, they didn’t have dumplings on the menu, instead they had Xiao Long Baos, which are stuffed Shanghai buns.  Was it that difficult to get the name right?  Dumplings are dumplings and buns are buns, they are different things.  Dumplings originated from Beijing whilst Xiao Long Baos are from Shanghai, they made in completely different ways.  It’s like calling a haggis a Cumberland sausage… this has already got me started on the wrong note.

Xiao Long Baos making station

Chefs making Xiao Long Baos

I scanned down the menu and was left confused… because most of the dishes were Cantonese, but there were some Malay curries and some Szechuan cold starters.  I really didn’t know what to order, so I suggested we order something my friends haven’t tried before.  So we ordered vegetarian Xiao Long Baos, drunken chicken, Malay chicken curry and a vegetable dish.

Vegetarian Xiao Long Baos

Eaten with rice vinegar and ginger

Drunken chicken

Malay curry

To be fair, the vegetarian Xiao Long Baos were nice – they were well made, nicely seasoned and had tasty filling.  But rest of the dishes were just bog standard China town. I had hoped with the opening of places like Bar Shu and Empress of Szechuan (though both Szechuan style food) signalled the arrival of more authentic Chinese food but Legend just felt like a step backwards.  (sigh….)

To finish the meal off, when the bill came it was headed “Golden Harvest” – seriously could you get anymore careless… I at least expected the name on the bill to say ‘Dumplings Legend’ not the old Chinese restaurant that was once here and had shut down two years ago!

Thank you for eating at... errr... what was that?

My friends were left unimpressed too and had set me a challenge for a better suggestion next time – sorry!