Ripples Chinese Restaurant - Yum Cha

453 Centre Rd
Bentleigh, VIC 3204
Ph: 9557 3688

We're constantly scouting restaurants to eat at for our work Friday lunches. One day we decided to give Ripples a try, and found that it was actually good. Situated in the fairly quiet Bentleigh area, we're fortunate that they are open for yum cha daily. The restaurant interior is light and bright and looks quite new. I love the aquarium at the front with the little Nemos swimming around, and the aquarium at the back with the fish, lobsters and crabs swimming around.



The dumplings themselves are all quite nice. There is nothing unique here, but there is quite a large selection. The Sugar Cane Prawn is one of the weaker items, with the prawn meat not being firm enough. The Fried Wontons, Gelatinous Meat Dumplings and Taro Dumplings are all deep fried goodness. There is definitely an overwhelming about of brown items that we eat.



If the items aren't brown, then they're generally white. The steamed dumpling selections is quite large. We always get the Prawn Dumplings and Scallop Dumplings. Then we'll interchange between various vegetable dumplings and numerous other variants of prawn dumplings.


BBQ Pork buns, Pork Ribs and Roast Pork appeal to some meat lovers, while I like the Prawn Rice Rolls. I was surprised that I actually liked the Pork Ribs while I found the Roast Pork to be a bit salty and not crispy enough in the skin.



The item that Ripples do better than other places is their Mango Pudding. At over $4, it's not cheap, but the mango pudding does have the feel of containing real mangoes. I like it served with the evaporated milk, with that slightly salty flavour. Do you normally have it with or without the milk? Seems a strange combination and I'm unsure who first decided to serve it that way, but I like it.


When we go on Fridays, it's usually half filled and has a nice calm relaxing atmosphere. The noise levels are quite good and you can easily hear each other. The wait staff there are all very experienced and do an efficient job. In the Asian manner, some tend to appear a bit stern, but that's nothing new at Chinese restaurants. Price wise, it's not too expensive, with lunch usually costing about $15 each. If you live nearby, it's worth going for your weekend yum cha.

EDIT
Thanks to a reader who has alerted me that Ripples have been fined for 12 breaches in food safety. You can read about it here. It definitely makes me reconsider going back as they were given opportunities to rectify the issues but still didn't. I take food safety very seriously now after falling ill previously to JG Dumplings in Glen Waverley who also received numerous fines for food safety.