1+1 Dumpling Noodle, Footscray by Big Fil

Given that it’s roughly the same size as Europe, has terrain which varies from windswept desert to tropical island and over 50 ethnic minority groups, it’s not surprising that the food can vary tremendously across the Middle Kingdom.  One of the less well known options but which is slowly becoming more common in Melbourne is food from the northwest.  

What does this mean for 1 + 1 Dumplings and Noodles?  Well, when I am ordering, hand pulled noodles, lots of lamb and best of all, lots of cumin and chilli to provide a real flavour knockout!

General consensus is that the lamb skewers are the best dish on the menu.  General consensus is quite possibly right.  If your chilli tolerance isn’t high you should definitely order these non-spicy, as even these come with a bit of a chill jab (as opposed to a full on uppercut).  Full flavoured and not melt in the mouth tender but slight chewy, so that you can masticate over them.

Also good are the lamb dumplings.  After asking the opinion of our friendly waitress we got the pan fried version.  Nicely cooked, the filling is juicy and the use of the spiced (but not chilli hot) lamb gives it more flavour than the more typical pork versions.

When ordering our noodles (again the lamb version) we made one slight mistake.  While I’d remembered to ask for the skewers to be non-spicy I forgot to do so with the noodles.  Result, some nicely textured noodles but a dish that was way too hot for Snooze and necessitated our ordering the dumplings as well.

As you might notice our meal was a little lamb centric, broken up by one salad, from memory golden mushroom with sesame sauce (should have written it down).  The mushrooms were nice, mildly flavoured with a nice slightly crunchy flavour. 

Overall

Somewhere where the food is a little different, with staff who were friendly even if it was sometimes a little difficult to catch their eye and a nicer than usual dining area.

Verdict

Food – 7.5

Service – 7

Ambience – 7

Price – 7

Address

84 Hopkins Street

Footscray VIC 3019

Tel: (03) 9687 8988