I have to say it right here, right now, I LOVE GONG DE LIN. I typically HATE asian food (no comment), especially Chinese food, but this restaurant has completely changed my mind. Naturally, there were virtually no dishes that were oil free, but as I explained last time I'm okay with a bit of oil now, I just deal with the breakouts. I opted for something pretty low in oil (assuming), and stayed away from the mock meats, fried foods, stir fried noodles and vegan ice creams. Gong de Lin is located on Swanston St above Noodle Kingdom, over toward Melbourne Central and QV. You take a lift that's just inside Noodle Kingdom which takes you to level 3 where all the magic happens. Dumpling magic.
I'd been to Gong de Lin once before, where I ordered two rounds of these epic steamed dumplings and this really strange dessert that I probs wouldn't order again :')
The next trip to the city I immediately suggested we go back to Gong de Lin for more dumplings and my best dumpling buddy agreed. This was going to be an epic day of dumplings.
Thank goodness we had an action plan set out to binge on dumplings because Gong de Lin has over 100 menu items that a hungry vegan like me would spend hours eliminating and weighing up my options before the waiter would finally see me make a decision. They mainly have a lot of mock meat dishes such as noodle stir fries with mock chicken/duck/pork or classic chinese takeaway dishes like lemon 'chicken' or barbecued 'pork'. I'm not a mock meat fan at all, and whilst I think mock meat is SO GOOD for showing meat-eaters that they can still enjoy 'meat' without the cruelty, I don't like eating something that reminds me of eating animal flesh. It's just kinda off putting.
I love veggies as they are and I tend to go for food centred around the veggies themselves rather than going for a meat substitute.
And so the veggie dumpling feast begins!
So Katy and I shared:
>>2x Lemon Ice Tea $3.50 each<<
>> 2x Boiled Vegetable Dumpling (15 pcs) $9.80 each<<
>> 2x Steamed Vegetable Dumpling (6 pcs) $9.80 each<<
We both agreed: best vegan dumplings we've ever had.
And according to Katy (who isn't vegan): best dumplings ever.
These are literally my favourite thing at the moment and I'm constantly looking for an excuse to go back. We managed to smash down 42 dumplings between us and though we practically rolled back down to Flinders st station there are no regrets guys. Both the steamed and boiled dumplings have the same filling I'm pretty sure which seemed to be just chives, some sort of greens, tofu, carrot and other veggies. The boiled dumplings were like a kind of ravioli, just veggies wrapped with a chewy dumpling skin. The steamed dumplings were larger and opened to reveal what was in them. The waitress brought us a jar of chilli, a bottle of soy sauce and a bottle of black vinegar. The dumplings are pretty salty, or at least to me given that I don't cook with added salt at home, so I don't think you would need soy sauce, plus they're really tasty! I used a bit of the black vinegar but they're so good you definitely wouldn't need it.
RATED: Success
PRICE: Reasonable
MUST TRY: Steamed Vegetable Dumplings
NEXT TIME: Jade Buddha Temple Vegetable Baozi
--Gong De Lin--
Level 3, 264 Swanston St Melbourne
Ph: 03 9663 7878