Cheapest Michelin star restaurant Tim Ho Wan opening in Melbourne

DUMPLING mecca Tim Ho Wan opened its first Australian venue in Sydney last year, and now it’s coming to Melbourne too.

A YEAR after it was first billed to open, the date is finally set for Melbourne’s first Tim Ho Wan restaurant.

The international yum cha franchise opened its first Australian venue in Sydney last year, and now the Michelin-starred dumplings will come to Melbourne’s China Town on March 16.

Tim Ho Wan, a Hong Kong hole-in-the-wall dumpling restaurant, is a top-shelf dining experience you can enjoy for about $20. Just one year after it opened in Hong Kong in 2009 it was awarded a Michelin star.

Tim Ho Wan’s spinach dumplings with shrimp.

The Melbourne offshoot won’t take bookings — read: there will be queues, at least at first — but the good news is that its signature sugar-dusted barbecue pork buns, vermicelli rice paper roll, pan-fried turnip cake, as well as its popular steamed egg cake are on offer. As it is in Hong Kong, every single dim sum will be made to order.

The franchise has been working with farmers and suppliers from across Victoria to source the menu’s rare ingredients for the past year (to explain the wait, Melburnians).

Founding chef Mak Kwai Pui will be in town for the launch, but the day-to-day dumpling production falls to head chef Yong Qiang Wei, who previously headed the kitchen at the Melbourne Crown Cantonese restaurant Lucky Chan.

Tim Ho Wan’s pork dumplings with shrimp.

The bright new fit out on Bourke St will seat 105 diners, and if the Hong Kong rendition is anything to go by, service is swift.

The Sydney Tim Ho Wan, based in Chatswood, has had mixed reviews in the 11 months since it has opened, and head chef Eric Koh departed to return to Merivale. But the Melbourne version will be lead by a different management group, so the city’s wait for the world’s best dumplings may just have been worth it.

This article originally appeared on delicious.com.au

Originally published as Cheapest Michelin star restaurant Tim Ho Wan opening in Melbourne