I have spent my adult life finding the best Chinese restaurants in Melbourne. I’m not Chinese, I’m Polish, but I’ve been to China to study and to eat and I’m probably Melbourne’s biggest admirer and appreciator of the many cuisines of China.
Trust me or not, here’s where I like to eat.
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Here are our picks for Chinese food in Melbourne
1. Karlaylisi Restaurant – Braybrook
Melbourne’s best Uyghur food from the Xinjiang region of China, known by some of its people as East Turkistan. It also does Melbourne’s best Chinese hand-pulled noodles, best lamb skewers, best everything. Melbourne’s best restaurant?! If you haven’t eaten there yet literally what are you doing tonight??? Say hello to owner and certified angel Dawut for me.
Central West Business Park, 9 Ashley St, Braybrook
2. Shanxi Lee’s Kitchen – Box Hill
If we’re doing a list of Melbourne’s best Chinese restaurants we have to start in Box Hill. This place is not well-known, but Shaanxi cuisine is my number-one favourite of all time so I did the work to find this food it’s probably the best I’ve had in Melbourne. It’s known for the lamb spine hot pot but my favourite thing I’ve eaten there was entrée of mo (unleavened flatbread typical of Shaanxi cuisine) with a cold sliced pork’s head terrine and a vinegar dipping sauce for $16.80. Better than any ham sandwich.
568 Station St, Box Hill
3. Chinger Biang Biang – Melbourne CBD/Carlton (edge of the city)
if you like Shaanxi and Xinjiang food, this place fuses the two. The best Shaanxi-style hand-pulled noodles in the city for the best price. This tiny halal restaurant covers cuisines from the Shaanxi and Xinjiang regions with a stacked menu of rujiamo, noodles, dumplings, soups and salads. The classic noodle is still the best: hot oil seared biang biang noodles with ground beef, shitloads of garlic and chilli and many other goodies for $16.8. This is the best cheap eat in Melbourne, I say.
74 Victoria St, Carlton
4. Seafood Street – Melbourne CBD
The most affordable and most fun live seafood restaurant in the city, Seafood Street is always a winner, from the lobster spring onion and ginger noodles to the XO pipis to the insulated pot of rice for the table to keep it warm. Go here with at least five others.
167 Russell St, Melbourne
5. Pacific House BBQ House – South Yarra and Richmond
A classic. With locations in Richmond and South Yarra, wherever you find yourself in the south, and for whatever reason, Pacific House Seafood BBQ is there for YOU. This Cantonese restaurant is famous for its roasted meat – pork and duck you’ll see glistening in the window. It’s some of the best Chinese in South Yarra and some of the best value lunch around.
Shop 1/210 Toorak Rd, South Yarra
6. Northern Dumpling – Hawthorn
Who knew Glenferrie Rd was so lit??? Its location in the eastern suburbs where Melbourne’s Chinese population continues to swell and thrive means Hawthorn is a hub for Chinese cuisines and some of the best Chinese restaurants in Melbourne. Northern Dumpling specialises in, you guessed it, dumplings from northern China, specifically Beijing and the surrounds. But they also do excellent Beijing banquet dishes like stir fried numbing cauliflower and Peking duck. Make sure you arrive early, the dumplings tend to sell out.
623 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn
7. Shanghai Street – Melbourne CBD (Chinatown)
You ever walk down Bourke St, Chinatown and wonder why there’s always about 50 people standing on the corner of Corrs Lane? Well they’re lining up for the best xiao long bao in Melbourne. This Shanghainese restaurant has never stopped being popular, in demand, hot. They’re known for their perfectly pleated soup dumplings, filled with pork (or pork and hairy crab roe) with gelatinous pork and ginger broth that squirts out if you nibble the paper-thin dough. Line up for the dumplings but also order the cong you ban mian – spring onion oil noodles, a Shanghai staple.
8. Xinjiang Lamian – Melbourne CBD
There are only a handful of cheap restaurants in Melbourne serving Xinjiang/Uyghur cuisine and Xinjiang Lamian is probably the best in the Melbourne city area. It’s also probably the only one serving alcohol. Order lamb skewers, da pan ji (“big plate chicken” with chicken curry and wide hand-pulled noodles) and a bunch of very cheap and delicious salads. Don’t forget to BYO wine.
255 Elizabeth St, Melbourne
9. Shandong Mama – Melbourne CBD (Chinatown)
Another classic. Shandong Mama is famous for its fish dumplings, which are a rare find in Melbourne. These dumplings, hailing from the Shandong province in north-eastern China, are made with mackerel, fresh coriander and ginger. Their zucchini dumplings are also the best vegan dumplings in Melbourne.
Mid City Arcade, Shop 7/200 Bourke St, Melbourne
10. Bowltiful – Melbourne CBD
There are several Lanzhou beef noodle soup restaurants in Melbourne but Bowltiful is arguably the best and certainly the most popular. Choose your noodle shape: round, flat, prism ????? and thickness, 1mm, 3mm, 5mm, and they’re hand-pulled to order. Then choose soup or dry noodles; sliced beef, mince or brisket. Order a cold beef tripe salad on the side for $6 for more meat! All halal.
249 Swanston St and 382-384 Elizabeth St, Melbourne
11. Sichuan House – Melbourne CBD (Chinatown)
Sichuan food, my second favourite Chinese cuisine, and this is a whole house of it. Get the big plate of numbing, spicy fried chicken, cumin pork ribs, mung bean jelly noodles and cold sesame noodles with chicken. And do not, DO NOT, skip the fish fragrant eggplant. An entirely vegetarian dish and a standout. A great Chinese restaurant in the Melbourne CBD for friends and beers.
22-26 Corrs Ln, Melbourne
12. The Best Guilin Rice Noodles – Box Hill and Carlton
They’re not kidding, they really are the best. Guilin rice noodles, or mifen, is one of the most famous street foods in Guilin in China’s Guangxi province. They’re not common in Melbourne, so go to the best, obviously. Soup or
dry, the thick, chewy rice noodles come with a billion different toppings to choose from. A good shout for vegetarians too. One of the most interesting and best Chinese restaurants in Box Hill.
72 Victoria St, Carlton and 05/1031 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill
13. Supper Inn Chinese Restaurant – Melbourne CBD (Chinatown)
An icon, a legend, a haunt, a haven. If you haven’t eaten XO pipis here at 2am, can you even call yourself a Melburnian?
Level 1/15 Celestial Ave, Melbourne
14. Ling Nan – Melbourne CBD
Same as above. But they close at 1:30am.
207 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
15. One Noodle Friendship – Preston
A local favourite since 2011, One Noodle Friendship is one of Melbourne’s best Chinese restaurants in the northern suburbs – which is known more for Middle Eastern restaurants. Another great spot for Lanzhou beef noodle soup and a bunch of other noodle soups. Everything is really cheap, go hear after a run around Preston Market.
16. Fishpot – Melbourne CBD and Doncaster
Chinese hot pot is everywhere but this, this is fishpot. All fish-based hot pot soups with a huge selection of seafoods, as well as meats and veggies, to dip in. It’s premium, but it pays off.
Shop 9/206 Bourke St, Melbourne and 914B Doncaster Rd, Doncaster East
17. Auntie’s Dumplings – Carnegie
Auntie’s Dumplings in Carnegie is a beloved spot among locals, revered for its highly traditional pork xiao long bao with its rich broth and tender pork filling encased in thin, supple dough. Their vegetarian crystal dumplings are also a must-try.
68 Koornang Rd, Carnegie
– Box Hill Central Food Court –
Ok, now we come to the Box Hill Central part of the guide. One of the best food courts in the whole southern hemisphere, Box Hill central has it all – some of the best Chinese food in Melbourne. You can literally eat food from seven different Chinese provinces in one meal and do all your grocery shopping before you leave. Here are my favourites:
1 Main St, Box Hill
18. Kitchen Republik – Box Hill
This place does both Chinese and Taiwanese food and is very popular and bustling from open to close. Go for Taiwanese breakfast, but stay for their signature sheng jian mantou aka sheng jian bao – a soup dumpling made with a thicker, fluffy bao wrapper and pan fried to have a perfectly golden, crisp bottom. A specialty of Shanghai.
19. Blissful Station – Box Hill
ALL VEGAN CHINESE FOOD. Amazing dumplings, buns and pastries stuffed with mushrooms and shitloads of other veggies. They also do cups of sesame noodles that are to die for.
20. Big Pancake Roll – Box Hill
Big. Pancake. Roll. Crepes with braised beef and a youtiao (Chinese doughnut) or crepes with nutella and strawberries, and literally everything in between.
21. Grain Asian Cafe – Box Hill
A Box Hill Central favourite, known for yong tau foo – a Hakka Chinese dish of vegetables and tofu stuffed with meat and fish paste served with broth.
22. Home Souv – Box Hill
Here me out: Chinese souvlaki. It’s Chinese, it’s Greek, it’s Middle Eastern it’s Australian and it’s none of those things. Fillings are textural fireworks from tofu skin and you tiao to black fungus, shredded potato and glass noodles. You gotta try it.
23. Ms Bean – Box Hill
I said that’s Ms Bean to you. Your final destination for Chinese desserts, ice cream and big luxurious cups of freshly made soy milk. Hits every damn time.
Aleksandra Bliszczyk is the Deputy Editor of VICE Australia. Follow her on Instagram.
