It has been a while since we last stepped foot into Chinatown Complex Food Centre for lunch — got to learn about a fairly new stall that had opened its doors in the blue zone of the food centre. Chef Leung’s Soup Dumplings 梁师傅灌汤包 is situated right beside an almost equally new dessert stall relatively near the area where one can find other notable food stalls such as that of Shanghai Fried Xiao Long Bao and 一一五糖水 115 Tang Shui are also located. For those whom find the name “Chef Leung” rather familiar — yes, Chef Leung’s Soup Dumplings is a new concept by the same folks behind Chef Leung’s authentic hand-milled rice noodle rolls 梁师傅肠粉 that is located in the red zone of the same food centre as well. Whilst Chef Leung’s authentic hand-milled rice noodle rolls focuses on both its hand-milled rice noodle rolls and congee offerings, Chef Leung’s Soup Dumplings only serves up three (3) items on its menu — the Soup Dumplings, Siew Mai with Fish Roe and Water Chestnut Prawn Dumplings.

Noting the limited number of items that they have to offer, we found ourselves wanting to go with at least two of their offerings. We weren’t going to consider ourselves trying out the stall proper if we were to skip on giving their Soup Dumplings a try — after all, this is the item that is also mentioned in the namesake of the stall. Chef Leung only serves up their soup dumplings in a single serving size of four (4) pieces; all of their dumplings are made in-house and their staff can be seen kneading the dough for the dumplings or wrapping the dumplings up with meat fillings — some waiting time is required for the food to be served considering how the dumplings are steamed to order. Patrons will also be issued with an electronic buzzer which they would be paged to collect the food from the stall once it is ready. Taking a bite into the Soup Dumpling, we found the dumpling wrapper to be pretty delicate in terms of texture — sufficiently thin to be easy to chew, but still came with a bit of rigidity that held the dumpling together as one picked the dumpling up from the bamboo steamer. We did feel like we have had other versions of Xiao Long Bao elsewhere that came with more broth within, though we did like the savoury notes that it carried; the meat filling does seem to be the central focus here being pinkish, easy to chew through and does not come with any hint of undesirable porky stench.

The Siew Mai with Fish Roe (coming in one portion size of three (3) dumplings per serving) does seem like a more innovative dish here; a bit of a fusion between the regular mainland Chinese sort of dumpling that is served in an open wrapper that is stuffed with meat and mushroom fillings — the filling being topped off with fish roe above. Whilst carrying that firm, meaty bite that one would usually expect with the typical Siew Mai with a slight earthiness from the bits of mushroom, the use of wrappers similar to that of Chinese dumplings also meant that there is the lack of an alkaline-y note from lye water in the Siew Mai with Fish Roe as well. With single portions of their dumplings listed at a flat price of $4.50, Chef Leung’s Soup Dumplings’ offerings certainly does work well as a dish to share across the table or a light meal for a single diner. That being said, we do feel that Chef Leung’s specialty still remains in their rice noodle rolls that is offered by Chef Leung’s authentic hand-milled rice noodle rolls, though the dumplings at Chef Leung’s Soup Dumplings are still worth a try for those whom are curious.