RaRamen – ohdenny

RaRamen is probably my favourite dumpling place in Box Hill. I have tried the popular ones like DC Dumpling, David & Camy and Luyang but RaRamen trumps them all. Their other dishes aren’t too bad too actually, and RaRamen in Box Hill Central also offer free slushies if you so fancy.

Their Shanghai Fried Noodles, like most other restaurants, are on the oilier side of things but flavour-wise it’s pretty tasty.

RaRamen’s Mixed Pork & Vegetable Fried Dumplings were on this occasion fried very crispy but the filling is the one to beat. The Pork Dumplings have that lovely pork flavour and the hint of ginger that complements the pork. The Vegetarian option has become my favourite dumpling (of all time), it has this incredible combination of glass noodles, egg and I believe, chives.

Luckily, you don’t have to dine there to get your dumplings fix. You can also buy frozen dumplings and fry or steam them at home at your own convenience!

RaRamen Box Hill
Box Hill Central
1 Main Street
Box Hill VIC 3128

Lu Yang Dumpling House is a popular Chinese restaurant in Box Hill, and one of the many Chinese restaurants around. It always seems to be full around lunchtime. Wanting to see for ourselves whether the place lives up to its popularity we gave it a try.

Their menu has a large selection of dumplings, pork, chicken, beef, seafood, vegetarian as well as Chinese stir-fried noodles and rice dishes. As the name of the restaurant seems to suggest, they specialise in dumplings so we ordered a mix of steamed dumplings consisting of seafood, pork, and beef, vegetarian dumplings.

I found the skin of the dumplings to be the right thickness but it seemed to be steamed for too long, making the skins to be too soft and when you bite into it, it all falls apart. The dumpling flavours all were unfortunately nothing out of the ordinary. I really couldn’t say any of the ones I tried had great flavours. Even the most commonly made dumpling, pork dumplings lacked ginger and chives. Overall I found the dumplings on the bland side of things.

We also wanted to try the pan fried dumplings, these were the pork specialty as mentioned above it was a bit bland and the overall balance of flavours was not quite there. You had to either eat them with the dipping sauce (Predominantly Chinkiang vinegar) or the chilli oil/seeds to give it a bit of a kick. Another negative was the dumplings were swimming in oil. Taking a bite into them you’ll find oil squirting out of them. Not a particularly pleasant experience and the old Bob’s Kitchen in Glen Waverley (now RaRamen Glen Waverley) makes one of the better dumplings around town.

A pleasant surprise was their Szechuan Noodles, again slightly too oily, but that’s okay because overall the seasoning, sauce all had a good balance. Not overly seasoned with salt, and the fresh vegetables stir fried in with the noodles made it a tasty dish indeed.

Impressions

Lu Yang Dumpling House is a bit hit and miss, and I’m uncertain why it seems to be so popular. I’d also like to mention the service is a bit slow, I believe we waited around 20 or so minutes before the first order arrived with no apology from the waitresses that served us. I guess I can’t expect much from Chinese restaurants. I’d give the dumplings a miss, you can definitely find better dumplings (with overall better skin to filling ratio) elsewhere.

Lu Yang Dumpling House

617 Station Street

Box Hill VIC 3128