Wonton House (Russell St) – MELBOURNE

Address: 181 Russell St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Cuisine: Chinese (Hong Kong style)

Mushroom Ratings:
Food: 8/10

Value: 9/10

Service: 4/10
Ambiance: 5/10 

This place is a cheap and authentic Chinese eatery on Russell St Melbourne. It reminds me of the awesome standard meals you can find in the small café/lunch restaurants all throughout Hong Kong.

For a bit of traditional Chinese nostalgia, Wonton House is my staple place to go. All the dishes are also quite cheap, no more than $20 for a big generous serving of fried chicken. Or even $10 for a smaller serving with rice. This has to be my favourite dish for $10!

Pictured: Spicy fried Chicken spare ribs

Pictured: Special Fried Rice

Next up, Fried Rice.

Fried rice is one of the most simple dishes to make, and normally not even worth noting. But this Special Fried Rice for $10 is definitely worth a mention. It comes out steaming hot and fragrant, with BBQ pork and veggies perfectly cut into small squares. Not too oily or too dry. I can finish this even before the side dishes come out.

The Milk Tea is also the BEST in Melbourne, hands down. And I am quite fussy with the perfection of my milk tea. This is traditional milk tea as it should taste!

Pictured: Milk Tea

Pictured: Veggies in Egg Yolk

For a healthier sharing dish, I enjoyed this one – the mixed vegetables in egg yolk sauce. 

The sauce is smooth and creamy, and is a huge serving enough as a side dish for 4 people, and costing approx. $20.

Wonton House also offers decent standard Yum Cha dishes – Har Gow, Siu Mai, Char Siew Bao. Which sounds like gibberish if you can’t speak Cantonese, but I can assure dumplings are done quite well here. But my favourite dishes are those pictured above.

SERVICE

Food aside, don’t expect too much of the service. They are what you would call 'loud Hong Kong wait-staff', who would shout instructions across the room to another staff. The staff are also generally quite cranky. But for a good cheap lunch or dinner, this place is possibly one of the best Chinese eateries in the Melbourne CBD. Definitely better than any currently down the street of Chinatown!

Word of Caution!

There’s also a second newer Wonton House on Swanston St that opened up a couple of months ago. I find the Swanston St Restaurant a little lacking in food quality. It is the exact same menu, but the Chef is definitely less skilful than the one in Russell St.