Fo0die dined as a guest of O’Wok Shop and as such, the rating does not give any consideration to customer service.

O’Wok Shop opened up mid October 2019 and at the time we dined, they had been operating for roughly a month. The venue offers Chinese cuisine, specifically Sichuan style. What you’ll find on the menu are dumplings which the venue hand makes at the front of the venue every day, entrees, poultry mains, rice, noodles and soup, seafood and desserts.

Located on Burke Road, the venue is a short walk away from Camberwell train station which makes it very convenient if you prefer to leave the car at home.

Interior

Entry to the venue is off to the side with the rest of the frontage occupied by the venue’s dumpling making space.

The venue itself is narrow and between the two brick walls, are tables on either side of the venue. Note that the dining area is a few steps above the ground floor where the entrance is.

Food/Drinks

The menu was quite intense to look through; there were so many sections and so many dishes. From the traditional dishes through to the more westernised Chinese dishes like lemon chicken (which I love even though I am Chinese).

We started with an entree, the steamed chicken with special chilli oil, which apparently is a must have. And we couldn’t agree more. That numbing chilli sensation and smooth tender chicken thigh was so appetising. This was our favourite dish of the night.

Next up, we had to try their dumplings after finding out that the venue made the dumplings from scratch every morning. The pan-fried dumplings arrived and one of the first things we observed was the dumplings had a mix of different styles of dumpling folding which gave it that home-style feel where different people would contribute to help wrap the dumplings. The filling was a little firm for our preference but juicy.

The xiao long bao was unfortunately overcooked with the delicate dumpling skin breaking open and soup roamed free in the bamboo dumpling steamer. However, the filling was finely minced and sweet and the dumpling skin remained soft even after the dumpling had cooled down.

The special salt and pepper chicken ribs was well seasoned, slightly crispy and as expected very appetising. While the seafood tom yum noodles soup had a subtle but present tom yum flavour with soup which was interestingly thickened.

With one of the owner’s owning Okra just up the road (which has been in operation for almost 18 years), there’s no doubt that the team know a thing or two about this particular area and what people are after. Their aim is to provide fresh Chinese cuisine with good service and value for money and while this isn’t a cheap eat, we think it is reasonably priced.

Dishes that make up this review

• Steamed chicken with special chilli oil ($8.90)
• Japanese style pan-fried beef dumplings ($9.80 for 8 pieces)
• Steamed Shanghai xiao long bao ($8.50 for 6 pieces)
• Special salt and pepper chicken ribs with rice ($13.90)
• Seafood tom yum noodles soup ($17.80)