The Best Dumplings in Western Australia Right Now
It can be tricky to land on the definition of a great dumpling. A Shanghainese grandmother will tell you it is all about the soup. A Korean home cook will say it is the fold, the crescent of pressed dough that seals everything in. A Polish babcia will tell you it is the filling – beef and onion, sauerkraut, mushroom, potato and quark – boiled and finished with sauteed onion, nothing more required.
What follows is not a list of specialty dumpling restaurants, as some of the best dumplings being made in this state come from menus that do not hinge on them. This is a guide to specific dishes at specific addresses. The criteria are simple: creativity, ingredients, quality of filling, integrity of wrapper, intelligence of sauce. The rest is geography.
My House Dumplings, Leederville
The wontons in spicy sauce have been a fixture of the WAGFG team’s regular orders for long enough that recommending them feels obligatory. Twelve pieces of prawn and pork, glossy and deeply savoury, with chilli heat that accumulates with each bite. The wonton skin is silky in the way the best wonton skins are – not so thick it dulls the filling, not so thin it tears. My House covers considerable ground, with steamed, boiled, pan-fried, and deep-fried options across a broad range of fillings.
The Polish Jar, Bellevue
Tucked inside the Polish Club in Bellevue, The Polish Jar is a family-owned restaurant with a milk bar sensibility and PRL-era decor that makes the setting feel entirely appropriate for what comes out of the kitchen. The pierogi here are made the way a Polish grandmother would make them – boiled, finished with sauteed onion, and available in three fillings: beef and onion, sauerkraut and forest mushroom, and potato and quark. Each one is a straightforward argument for why the pierogi belongs in any serious conversation about dumplings.
Everyday Dumpling, North Perth
We know one family that drives ten kilometres once a week for these, overriding closer options. The menu is long and covers more ground than most – pan-fried pork and prawn, crystal prawn, cheesy pork and corn, a cheeseburger dumpling that sounds like a provocation and eats like a genuine idea. The Thai chicken dumpling is a better dish than the name suggests. The deep-fried pork and prawn wonton, crisp and yielding in equal measure, is worth building an order around. A North Perth local that rewards the kind of visit where you almost always order more than you planned to.
Dumpling Place, Cambridge Food Court, Wembley
One of the great West Australian Asian food courts is host to Dumpling Place. This stall towards the rear makes xiao long bao with real technical care – the soup-to-filling ratio holds, the skin survives the trip from steamer to table – and the pan-fried dumplings have developed a following quickly enough to suggest the word is spreading on its own. Go early. The queues arrive before the dinner rush does.
Lilly’s Dumpling House, Fremantle
A well oiled family operation nested in the heart of Fremantle. The chive and pork dumplings are the most ordered dish for good reason – five pieces, properly made, the kind of thing that anchors a regular order without ever feeling like a compromise. The kimchi and pork version is worth trying alongside, and the lamb and shallot dumplings are a less expected choice. The Shanghai juice buns round out a menu that covers the classics without overreaching. Straightforward, consistent, and exactly what a neighbourhood dumpling house should be.
Emily Taylor, Fremantle
Emily Taylor has long occupied a particular position in the Fremantle dining landscape – confident, produce-driven, loose in its references without being unfocused – and its dumpling section is where that sensibility is most concentrated. The Linley Valley pork xiao long bao arrive with black vinegar and Sichuan chilli oil that gives the soup room to breathe. The Shark Bay scallop dumplings come dressed in shellfish laksa oil. And then there is the marron, chilli and chive dumpling with Shaoxing butter and ponzu, a dish that sits comfortably among the better things being done with WA produce at the moment, irrespective of format. The lobster and Manjimup truffle version, finished with prawn and sweet aromatic soy, is one of the most luxurious dumplings you will eat in WA.
Fortune Five, Northbridge
The room runs at the cheerful, high-decibel pitch of a good yum cha house, which is exactly what Fortune Five is. Trolleys arrive with regularity. The hierarchy is traditional Cantonese – special XL, large, medium – and the kitchen earns every tier. The Australian scallop dumplings are a standout, as are the steamed prawn and scallop siu mai. The XLB hold their soup precisely. For classical Cantonese dim sum done with consistency, in a city where that combination is rarer than it should be, this is the address.
Double Rainbow, Northbridge
Double Rainbow has two outstanding dumpling dishes that are among the best we have tried this year. The kimchi mandu arrive with pumpkin ssamjang and crunchy chilli vinegar – four pieces, vegan, and more interesting than that description makes them sound. The scallop and prawn dumplings come with miso and shiitake cream and tobiko. What connects both dishes is a kitchen thinking as carefully about what surrounds the dumpling as what goes inside it.
Shanghai Street, Northbridge
The xiao long bao at Shanghai Street are what they should be: good size, neatly folded, with a decent volume of soup. There is nothing showy about them, and in a dish this technically demanding – where some Perth versions disappoint on at least one count – that is its own kind of achievement. The boiled dumplings in chilli oil with peanut and sesame butter sauce are worth ordering alongside, as is the beef dumpling with cheese and beetroot, which sounds implausible and tastes considerably better than you might assume.
Juicy Bao Bao, Victoria Park
Juicy Bao Bao operates with the focused energy of a kitchen that has found its thing. The range is broad – steamed, boiled, and pan-fried across pork, prawn, chicken, and vegetable – but the wontons in house-made peanut spicy sauce are the dish to anchor an order around. Rich with sesame and chilli, with the particular peanut creaminess that makes this style of wonton difficult to stop eating. The sour and spicy version is equally good for those who want acidity doing more of the work. A Victoria Park regular for good reason.
Authentic Bites Dumpling House, Karrinyup
The xiao long bao here come in four versions, which is a commitment worth taking seriously. The braised truffle pork XLB is the obvious headline. The Sichuan hot pot version – spicy and fragrant – is the more interesting choice for anyone who wants the heat to start inside the dumpling rather than just around it. The beef and lamb options, available boiled or pan-fried, are less expected and worth adding to the order. A solid neighbourhood operation with genuine range.
David’s Dumpling King, Morley
There is something to be said for a menu that knows exactly what it is. David’s Dumpling King does one thing well: pan-fried or steamed dumplings across a considered range of fillings. Pork and Chinese cabbage, pork and chive, chicken and mushroom, beef and carrot. Made with care, served without ceremony. This is the kind of place you return to not for novelty but for reliability, and in the dumpling world, reliability is not a small thing.
Miss Chow’s, South Perth
Miss Chow’s brought the inventive sensibility of its Margaret River original south, and the dumplings are where that shows most clearly. The crispy prawn parcel with mayo and togarashi is the dish to order. The wrapper fries to a clean, shattering crunch. The prawn filling is sweet and fresh. The togarashi delivers a dry, spiced heat that the mayo rounds out without softening too much. Not a traditional dumpling by any measure but a very good one regardless.
Ma La Dumplings, Margaret River Farmers Market
Ma La Dumplings is the kind of small operation that makes a farmers market worth arriving early to. Handcrafted and produce-focused, the range leans into WA ingredients with a specificity that feels considered rather than ornamental. The Pilbara-caught rankin cod with charred leek, finished with the kitchen’s signature ma la sauce, is the kind of dumpling that could only come from this state, made by people who understand why that matters. Find them at the Margaret River Farmers Market.
Little Hands, Augusta
Little Hands operates out of Augusta when it chooses to. The pan-fried pork, cabbage, and sweet corn dumplings – ordered by text and available ready to eat – are the reason to go. There is a hot and spicy version, a steamed vegan option, and a tasting set for the undecided. Augusta is not somewhere you expect to find dumplings worth writing about but Little Hands is worth writing about.
Two dishes worth trying at WAGFG two-star restaurants
At Chow’s Table in Yallingup, one dumpling does most of the talking: a large pan-fried pork and chive dumpling, properly blistered at the base and served with black vinegar chilli. Dumplings have long been an essential part of the menu here, but this version lands with particular confidence. Chef Mal Chow describes it well; “filled with Plantagenet pork mince at a carefully balanced 60/40 protein-to-fat ratio, the mixture is worked hard to develop texture and bound with oyster sauce, light soy, garlic, rendered pork fat, sugar and chives for a rich, savoury bite with real depth and we serve simply with black vinegar and chilli oil dressing” said Chow. It’s quietly surprising in a region better known for its cellar doors.
At Tigerfish in Cottesloe, the duck kimchi dumpling arrives in a creamy soy broth with dadaegi and typhoon shelter crumb – savoury, textured, and quietly one of the better things on a menu that already has a lot going for it.
A note on sauces
The dumpling is only half the equation; a good aged soy changes the experience at home entirely. Fuji Mart in Subiaco carries a reliable range of Japanese condiments and is a useful first stop. For chilli oil, The Six-Eyed Scorpion is a team favourite, Miss Chow’s house range and the ma la chilli black bean and aged vinegar sauce from Ma La Dumplings are both worth stocking. If you are making dumplings at home, the Teraoka Organic Shoyu Japanese Barrel-Aged Soy Sauce from Japanese Taste is the one to find first and will give you some serious sauce-social-currency.