Lee's Dumpling Lab is a Nanjing style dumpling and noodle store at the new Sydney Fish Market in Glebe. It is a new offshoot of Lee's Dumplings on George Street in the city. Come along as we try the noodles and Nanjing style xiao long baos.
It's a bitterly cold but sunny Sunday afternoon around 4pm when Sophia and I arrive at Lee's Dumpling Lab at the new Sydney Fish Market. Word on the street is that they serve Nanjing style Xiao Long Bao dumplings that are different from the original Jiangnan style of dumplings. The dumplings are also freshly made and you can see a woman in front who is busy making these dumplings in the afternoon.
The idea here is that you grab a table and then order and pay at the counter. Lee's Dumpling Lab is also fully licensed with cocktails and drinks. Just a little word of warning: on a cold day it is a little like dining in a wind tunnel so bring a coat! We take our number to the table and open our drinks and start sipping our plum drink and then the first items start to arrive.
The first item is the braised beef, one of the cold entrees, served as thinly sliced spiced beef in a spiced soy sauce and fragrant with star anise. It's good but on a cold day like this all I can think about is this on top of a hot bowl of soup noodles.
Similarly the chicken on the bone is also served cold but in a divine sesame oil laced soy sauce. Like white-cut chicken it is a fantastic start to the meal although I would order rice to go with this.
There are a lot of different types of noodles available. Normally I'd get the Dan Dan noodles but didn't today because Sophia can't eat spicy food but I also love Zhajiangmian noodles, which are from Beijing. These are dry noodles so they are not served in a soup but they have a delicious sauce made with zhajiang fermented soybean paste and are served with pork mince and cucumber and have an incredibly moreish texture and bite to them. They're so good that Sophia ends up ordering another serve to take home as a midnight snack.
The dumplings arrive next and the crab and pork dumplings have a strong flavour of crab inside them. So what is the difference between Jiangsu and Nanjing Xiao Long Baos? The skins for the Nanjing XLBs are thinner, almost translucent and you can see the broth inside them. They are also juicier and contain more broth than the Jiangsu version.
We also order the pork and black truffle Xiao Long Baos and these are very strong in black truffle flavour. Out of the two I think I slightly prefer these but they're both absolutely delicious. My only wish is that there were more per serving or that we had ordered more because I could have definitely eaten half a dozen of these, they're that good. I also love that none of the skins broke when we were taking them from the steamer to our spoons even though the skin was thin and they were holding so much broth in them.
They had run out of the wonton dumplings in soup so we quickly improvised and ordered the beef dumplings that are rectangular and crispy, with a sturdier thicker skin and a tasty beef and ginger filling with a nice amount of juicy soup inside.
And if the menu does sound familiar, Lee's Dumpling Lab is also a sister restaurant to Nanjing Dumplings in Haymarket by the same owner Andy Zhou. The menus are also quite similar. However Nanjing Dumplings does not have these amazing noodles that we love but they have dessert there whereas there is no dessert at Lee's Dumpling Lab. But that's an excuse to go walk around the Sydney Fish Market and get dessert elsewhere!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried the Nanjing version of xiao long baos?
This meal was independently paid for.
Lee's Dumpling Lab
Sydney Fish Market, Shop F4/1 Bridge Rd, Glebe NSW 2037
Monday to Wednesday 9:30am-6pm
Thursday 9:30am-7pm
Friday 9:30am-8pm
Saturday 9:30am-8:30pm
Sunday 9:30am-8pm
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