Nam Loong Chinese Restaurant

You must try their wife cake, bbq pork on rice or bbq pork and omlettet, crispy noodles and seafood combination, and ice lemon tea. The best un town.

So we came into a little casual eatery place with nice looking buns at the front. Half full joint at the time.
We ordered fried noodles with beef and ginger, seasonal veges, and three buns; 2x seaweed and pork
1xchicken.
Came very quick, but only the noodles were hot not veges in that dish. The side order of seasonal veges were fine.
Well the buns were forgotten, had to ask 15mins after the first two plates were removed. No serving plates were given when the buns finally came and no chop sticks or anything, do people eat these with there hands? If so no serviettes etc to clean up.
Visit to the toilet confirmed what the place looks like. A shit hole.
Then come to pay and we were told we ate snacks and not mains so cost $ 1 more to do this!

The steamed buns were OK, but not up to what I had been hoping from the other reviews.
The regular menu items were even more disappointing.
Will try again to see if I was just unlucky, but my first experience here was pretty average.

When I am in the city, this is the place I come to get my craving of steamed bun.
Don’t expect anything posh, as its a small dingy place, they offered dining in but I haven’t actually eaten there.
But this is the place I go to for steamed buns, bbq pork, chicken and mushroom, sticky rice, custard… I always seems to go for the standard chicken and mushroom and the sticky rice. You could choose to get warm or cold ones. The cold ones are for you to steam at home, they would sit well in the freezer till you are ready for them. The warm ones… I eat as I walk back to the office.
You need to try this place if you like your buns!

Wrapper torn with zeal.
Inside: a doughy cloud puff
enfolding pork joy.
–Haiku to Nam Loong pork bun

You can always depend on Nam Loong. Open late, cheap but quality food, and super friendly team … You might spread your wings and try out other places, but this is the place worth calling home as far as Melbourne Chinatown goes.

It was a quick stop at Nam Loong — I had one goal — buy a bag of bao. And this is what my rating is based on. I did not eat any of the other food they sell.
It took me less than 2 minutes: sweet red bean, char sui (pork) and chicken mushroom. At $ 1.80 (take home cold) a piece, that’s pretty good in the spectrum of generally high prices in Melbourne. For $ 2.00 you can buy these buns hot. My recommendation: keep it classic and get the red bean and char sui steamed buns!

My Mum has been coming here since the 70’s and swears the menu and food hasn’t changed a bit, and why should it! Famous for it’s take-​away Char Siu Bao, Nam Loong is famous (for me) is the ultimate first date restaurant.
BYO from the wine store next door and tuck into some Singapore fried noodles, peanut butter pancakes, and more serious food like a tofu hot pot, steamed clams and anything /​everything else that’s on the perhaps slightly too extensive menu.
There are lots of dishes written on paper on the walls — so a good time to see how adventurous your (possibly love of your life!) is by suggesting a few of the interesting sounding items, or go all the way and just point to something written in Chinese.
Don’t like what you got? Try something else. Service is fast and the food is cheap.

The hot egg custard buns are superb!

I’ve just recently moved to Melbourne from Canada to do a graduate degree and decided to check out the local eateries. I came upon this place due to the Unilocal reviews. Based on all the other reviews left for this restaurant, I ordered the Pork Buns. They arrived quickly, but I wasn’t «blown away». As an asian person who has pork buns fairly regularly, they were good, but not the best I’ve had. Based on the buns alone, I’d give it ³⁄₅ stars. Then we moved on to the menu. Like many asian restaurants, they have a very large menu and can be overwhelming, so we asked the waiter what he recommended. My parents and I ordered the seafood congee and the spicy crispy pork belly that was recommended by the server. The congee was very bland and the pork belly was overly salty.
However, my main reason for rating it 1 star was the absolutely ATROCIOUS service and terrible treatment we received from what I assume to be the female owner behind the counter.
The waiters and waitresses were nice enough, but any time we asked them something about the menu (ie Can we get the dish on it’s own instead of a rice combo), they had to get the approval of the woman behind the cash register — also the same woman making all the pork buns. The woman would YELL back at us, making us feel like we were a nuisance for asking a simple question. At the end of our meal, the pork belly was just too salty to finish so we asked for take-​out containers — they were $ 0.50 each! I have never been to a restaurant that charged for take-​out boxes.
Lastly, we went to the counter to pay our bill that was just a piece of paper with the items we ordered written in Chinese. My mother asked the woman what one of the items were that was written on the bill and she was so completely rude about it that it took us by surprise. She gave us a dirty look and LOUDLY told us «Didn’t you order the congee? Well that’s what it is.» We had never encountered someone that was so readily to start a fight. My mother told her that we weren’t trying to cause trouble, we just trying to figure out what was on the bill. She then slightly lowered her voice and said that she wasn’t trying to fight either, but that the exhaust hood behind her was loud, which was why she was speaking loudly. Okay, that explains the volume of her voice so we let it go — maybe we were reading too much into her attitude. Then we noticed a $ 2 charge on the bill that shouldn’t have been on there, and once again asked about it. She just rolled her eyes at us and ignored our question… By this time we just wanted to get out of there so we just let it go.
I guarantee that my family and I will absolutely never come here again. It makes me wonder if the reason she’s so defensive about everything was because she’s used to receiving complaints all the time. A warning for everyone else: if you’re going to come here, either get takeaway or avoid the lady behind the counter. She seems nice when you walk in, but if there is any kind of «dispute» or irregularities, she will lose her shit.

Happy New Year 2015! Year of the sheep!
Saw through the tall clear glass that this placed was packed and everyone was smiling. I knew I had to eat here.
I ordered the Deep Fried Spicy Salt Japanese Bean Curd and it was delicious!
My husband order the Deep Fried Spicy Soft Shell Crab and it was excellent. Possibly the best he’s ever had in his life. He also had the Pork as well, which he enjoyed.
My brother in law ordered Seafood with Snow Peas and liked his dish.
We noticed there were many regulars who seemed to frequent this establishment often and keep coming back for more. Next time I’m in Melbourne, I’ll be sure to do the same.

So this place seriously needs two reviews. Review 1 for the buns; and review 2 for the rest of the menu choice and the venue /​service.
So review 1 the buns: Completely awesome taste sensation. These are some top class buns. I tried the pork and they were mega lush amazingness right there. I will be coming back for sure to try the custard ones. Buns go for $ 2 eat in $ 1.80 take out each.
Review 2: Rest of menu, venue and service 3 stars. I chose beef and vegetables on rice. It was ok but not great and lacked flavour. I tried to jazz it up with chilli but the contents of the chilli jar looked like it hadn’t been changed since 1984. Meal choices go for around the $ 10 mark so good value. The bathroom was hideous. You have to walk through the kitchen and it seriously needed a clean. Service was ok; they did the minimum (i.e. took your order and brought food), but with no feeling at all.
So all up I arrive at 4 stars. This place is all about those gorgeous buns, which I will definitely be back to try again very soon.

I’m so confused about how to rate this place — seriously, my head hurts thinking about it.
Started with the Pork Buns — BAM — 5 stars right there. Amazing. So amazing.
Then the mains came. Dropped to 3. I had the beef and vegetables with fried noodles (usually I wouldn’t have had fried noodles but clearly had a brain freeze and was thinking I was going to get ‘normal’ ones). It was a bit oily and didn’t have much flavour. The serving size was quite generous though.
Popped to the bathroom before settling the bill and the stars started to plummet even more. I just squinted my eyes and pretended I was back in my travelling days visiting some exotic place that hadn’t heard of cleanliness before.
Hence my dilemma in writing this review. I’ve settled on 4. Stick to the amazing buns and go to the bathroom before you leave the house (didn’t our parents use to always make us do that anyway?).

There is one thing that I ALWAYS have time for is the pork buns at this place. Famously named the best in the world (ok I named that myself) but omg put these bad boys in a contest and they will come out on top!
I am forever at this place getting me some devious and really cheap buns! Pork ones are my fav also, but I do oddly have the sausage one and also the custard :-)
Yum yum!
I’m still yet to have a sit down meal here, but can’t resist the glass cabinet as you walk in screaming out pork buns!
Everyone you must try these :-) I highly recommend!

Peering through the windows of the store, you would see dozens of bamboo steamers stacked to the sky. Today, I grabbed 3 buns. Namely the Charsiew (Roasted Pork), Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausage), and Chicken with mushroom. At A$ 1.80 a pop, they may be a tad pricey (Asian standards), but then again, this is Australia afterall.
Nam Loong Restaurant is the best place in Melbourne to get your bun fix.

Is there anything better than a steaming hot Char Siu Bao eaten out of a brown paper bag on a street corner? Well, okay so there’s plenty of things better (martinis, nights by an open fire, cheese…) but Nam Loong is getting 5 our of 5 yums from me for their quick and easy take away dumplings that really hit the spot on cold days or after a few too many drinks at one of the nearby bars.

Excellent place to pick up individual steamed buns — because sometimes you just want one or two to tide you over. And the buns here are really good. I love the sweet red bean buns and my friend swears by the ‘golden sands’ bun, which is egg yolk, but I haven’t been game enough to try one yet. Am I being a big wuss? Is it really that good?
The buns are around $ 1.80 each, making it a super cheap snack. You can also dine in — I can recommend the soups, although they don’t stand out above anywhere in Chinatown. For me Nam Loong is all about grabbing a steamed bun on the go — and they do look amazing all stacked up in the counter window.

I look forward to coming to Nam Loong for a late night supper after a gig at Billboard or the Roxanne Parlour across the road.
The food comes fast and it’s all pretty delicious. Love a Chinese that offers congee suppers and these guys are superstars at this.
There’s no mucking around here, just good food, fast and late at night when you really, really need it.

I’ve only ever sat down for a meal at Nam Loong once, many years ago. NEVER AGAIN.
They’re too good for it.
Their food was tasty enough: standard dumpling-​style food, pretty good but ultimately nothing to write home about.
The truth is, the Nam Loong experience is all about the bun and the waxed paper-​bag. You walk in through their narrow doorway, you talk to the guy behind the counter, you come away with one of their pork buns, a barbecue pork bun, or maybe a red bean or lotus egg bun. They’re steamed sweet white riceflour buns filled with tasty tasty chinese goodness.
Many’s the time I’ve dropped past after picking something up at the Bourke st JB, or on my way home from the SLV, and dropped a couple of dollars on a tasty steamed bun or two.
Particularly good in winter.

So, Chinese food is a common place in Melbourne, so it gets hard to differentiate the good from the bad. To better this, some food establishments peak in quality and search for other ways to get you in. They look at speed, turnover of food into mouths into people out the door again. Nam Loong Chinese Restaurant is in the basket. The food isn’t great, but by the time you’ve realised you’re out the door again and off to the bar or home again.
And I have two words for you — Steam Buns. Oh my goodness that magical that is hidden within the fluffy white dough and hot steaming liquid! Meat, Vegetarian and Dessert options here — they’re all good and they’re for the taking away into the street again to a park or your tram home. The locals are eating it, and it’s well priced, you know it can’t be bad.
Looking for a little chuckle to yourself? Check out the sign on the front door. One side? Open. The other side… have a look and tell me it doesn’t make you smile just a little.