James Buns

JAMES BUNS HAS NOW CLOSED

A long overdue catch up with one of my good friends from high school brought us to James Buns, a place which recently opened up on Gouger St called James Buns to satisfy our dumpling cravings. I had my eye on the xiao long bao because I have always wanted to try them and was very disappointed with the ones I had on my trip to Melbourne.  

Homemade Chinese iced tea $4

I had a sip of Sophie's drink and it was ridiculously sweet. She thought it tasted a bit like bubble tea (which I cannot attest to as I haven't drunk bubble tea years).

Fried rice with prawns $9.50 

I don't usually expect much from fried rice whenever I'm dining out but this was better than I expected. Simple, but a little on the salty side although that could just be my personal preference.

Spicy wonton with pork and Chinese spinach fillings $9.80

So addictive! The dumpling skins were very thin and the sauce was full of flavour, but not very spicy, so this was very easy to eat. My only criticism was that the sauce was far too oily.   

James' pork juicy steam buns $8.80

The moment of truth. The skin of the dumplings weren't too thick, but still thick enough to hold in all the soup. And yes, they contained soup! I think this might be the last time I have something like this for a while however, as I saw that the soup contained a lot of impurities, probably from the meat filling as it was cooked. It looked so unappetising pouring out onto my spoon, I've been completely put off. 

Stir fried vegetables with garlic sauce $6.50

We ordered these just to have some greens on the table. Soggy and disappointing, unfortunately!

Nothing about this meal seemed to have that 'wow' factor. My favourite dish was the spicy wontons, but even they weren't enough to win me over. I read a lot of bad reviews regarding the service so I paid particular attention to this while I was there, and it wasn't bad at all. Not the best I have encountered but the waitresses were friendly and helpful, and the food didn't take very long to come out after we placed our order.
Sorry James Buns, I don't think I'll be seeing you again for a while!