China Red

Wandering through Chinatown on a busy Sunday afternoon. This place looked nice so we decided to give it a whirl.
Well they didn’t seat us upstairs but rather in the bowels of the place at a rinky dinky 2 top next to the kitchen with no explanation whatsoever. We quickly figured out all communication is through this dang iPad bolted to the wall. ALL communication. You don’t get anything unless you enter it on the iPad.
We ordered tea, fried dumplings, bbq pork buns, and a veggie noodle dish. Everything rolls out pretty quickly once you enter it on the iPad. Dumplings were really greasy as they literally dumped them on the plate with no effort to soak up the oil. Flavour was okay but oily greasy was off putting. Bbq pork buns were the best thing on the menu. The noodles were another round of greasy disappointment with giant chunks of carrot along with Chinese fungus, mushrooms, and some chunks of broccoli.
If you want which cheap but not cheerful come here. Oh almost forgot to mention that the table was not clean. My white shirt managed to get dirty from the underside of the table on what looked like soy sauce and grease. Sigh… Let’s not do that one again …

Our favorite quick and easy dumplings in the city.
The iPad ordering is what made me come and check it out. The spicy wontons are what make me come back time after time.
It’s fast, it’s cheap and they always cater for my 7yo who only wants noodles in broth.

Food was ok but service disgraceful! I was stopped on way in to join a party NO OUTSIDE FOOD! (Last 2 bites of an apple)
They spilt food all over a friends shirt & were unApologetic. 1 toilet cubicle for whole packed restaurant

Food is good, service is okay.
Loved the dumplings — pork buns are specially great.
The computer ordering system is very convenient.
Overall a wide range of food and dessert choices.

I love this place. Love the computer ordering system. My drinks always come out pretty much as soon as I order! The point of this place isn’t service, the focus is all on providing great food quickly. I don’t want to have a conversation with a waitress when the food is so good! That isn’t to say the service isn’t friendly… it just isn’t chapter and verse. Which I love. Definitely go for the San choy bao, the xiao long Bao, the chilli oil dumplings, and last time went back (I’ve gone back plenty!) I tried the crocodile. Be brave! It was fantastic! Branch out and try something new, the prices are affordable enough that if you choose wrong you can order something else! Always worth a visit.

What a pity bad service I ever had. Unfriendly and impolite staff here especially cashier, she didn’t say anything including basic «Thank you», that was a really bad experience for me. The touch screen ordering system was very unnecessary. I advise everyone this restaurant is shit and I never come back forever.

Tried to pay for our group of 7 people with cash and card, nothing complicated just $ 50 cash balance on card. I understand the no split bills policy and get that it would be very difficult to process multiple cards but to not accept our payment and threaten to call security on us is going way over the top.
We come here probably twice a month, and have recommended to many as we find the food pretty good. After being embarrassed and made to feel like fools whilst trying to settle our account we will never come here again and will spread the word about the poor way management dealt with this situation. Way too many other options in this area to have to be made to feel like idiots when dining out

Staff is not friendly or helpful, but the food is authentic and delicious, plus the service is fast. The touch screen ordering system eliminates mistakes or misunderstanding, you get exactly what you’ve selected.

Looking for a quick bite to eat before a show? Or a little peckish, then pop into China Red. In the mall beside JB-​HIFI. Easy to find once you know where it is. The touch screen menu idea is novel (to me) and I was pleasantly surprised at the how quickly my spring rolls arrived, then followed by chicken dim sim. Touched the request for the bill & there it was, too easy. Oh my meal was very tasty, I’ll be back.

Love china red! The dumplings are awesome the service is so quick and efficient and I really love my friends reactions to the automated ordering system. Do they have other items besides dumpling? Probably but I never order them. It can be a little complex to find the first time as it’s in a arcade but it’s worth looking for. It can get busy but mostly I just walk in, no booking. Plus it’s bigger than it looks. It has a down stairs too. Finally the Shiraz is bearable if quite sweet and very reasonably priced.

Look, the real novelty of this place is ordering via the screen above your table. Chuck in an order at any time and it’ll appear like magic. The food itself is pretty delish, more expensive than your average Chinatown restaurant, but tasty too!
Pop by for the fun of it, at least once.

Worse customer service ever! I don’t know if these people are usually like this with clients but for this reason, no matter how good the food, bad service is a deal braker.
There are tons of better restaurants with great friendly staff. Not this one!
All of them had a crapy atitude: the waiter, waitress, cashier.
(For reference: i went there last year with my partner)

I feel mean giving 1 star… but nope. Not for me.
The Lemon Chicken had a neon yellow sauce that tasted like super-​sour warheads.
Corn and Crab Soup. Once is enough.
Maybe it was just a bad night???

Poor cousin of Hu Tong, with the fandangled touch screen ordering to save time and money on waiter staff. We have had a bad experience where the desert arrived before the main course but I put that down to my eager children ordering everything at once. Another time we didn’t receive our drinks which caused a bit of a raucous at the checkout. Dumplings are cooked well, they have a number of veggie options and the price isn’t too bad. My concern is the business seems to be based on turnover — get in and get out quick please, so this isn’t a place for a slow lingering meal. Very very small wine list but reasonable priced.

No, It’s not the touch screens that I love here. Though the child in me gets very excited about ordering food from a screen.
It’s the consistent good food and service.
My favourites are Spicy Wontons (or something similar in name) and Fried Tofu. I will agree that Pork Buns are probably not the best here (in other words, Don’t bother ordering them), not that I care for them so much. By now, I have tried few of main course dishes. Yet to be disappointed by any.
Some of the drinks are awesome (Mostly because they have Mango and Litchi in them). Good BYO policy.
Did I mention quick service? Order a Dish and by the time you decide on the second one, first one is already on the table. Woohoo.

This place can do no wrong!
Reasonably priced, quick service and tasty food.
Very well suited to large groups and BYO, this place is a regular haunt for friends after work looking to unwind, chat, laugh, drink wine and enjoy solid chinese food.
China Red is rock solid reliable and consistent for food and service– we have been more than 10 times.
A quick tip, be sure to arrive before 6.30 if it is a friday night as there is often a huge waiting list.

Meh,
So close to «proper» Chinatown, why bother… but here goes anyway…
The touch screens were fun for a bit but the food is only kinda OK — Spicy Fish in Bourke Street or Noodle Kingdom on Russell Street seem to be cheaper and more tasty.
Come here for the touch screen. Go somewhere else for food: P

The novelty here, the thing that sets it apart from other Chinese restaurants in Melbourne, is their touchscreen ordering system. It’s quite fun really and it certainly kept my party entertained for a little while at least.
The danger of over-​ordering if huge what with the enticing pictures of each dish flashing up on screen, and the fact that all it takes is one little touch to make said yummy looking dish appear before you like magic.
It’s BYO too which is a bonus because the wine list is limited and crap. Definitely, definitely bring your own booze. Otherwise you’ll be pissed off that jasmine tea is the only other good drink on offer.
Overall, the food was relatively authentic and our booth on the vast underground floor was a really fun place to get holed up in for a couple of hours of munching and novelty food ordering.

I would probably be the last person on earth to recommend this restaurant. Firstly, it’s Chinese and it’s in the city, which often means one of two things: it’s either irrationally expensive or it’s just about to fail another health inspection. Fortunately for me, China Red fits neither category.
The visit came at the invitation for a friend’s birthday dinner. I was under the assumption they had chosen this place strictly for its BYO policy (my friends are cheap), and this suspicion was only solidified by the restaurant’s foremost exterior. I say ‘foremost’ because it is located in the middle of an indoor shopping alley that connects Bourke with Little Bourke.
The waitress then approached and on mentioning my friend’s name escorted me to the downstairs area, which was absolutely packed with happy customers chowing down on what looked like delicious food. Each table was accompanied by a screen, which I later learnt was our method of ordering. So long face-​to-​face communication. We passed the tables and headed towards the backroom, which my friend had booked for the occasion. It had a minimum spend of $ 300 but it was worth it for the privacy and sense of authenticity. Call me ignorant because I am yet to visit China but I did in fact feel like I was in China. Failing that, I was at an authentic Chinese restaurant in New York.
The underground element of the place really set it apart from most places I’ve been to in Chinatown. I felt comfortably disconnected from plain old Melbourne and transported to a haven of Asian delight. The food was remarkably good for a great price, and the staff was so helpful and attentive.
So I’ve gone from being the last person on Earth to perhaps the first person on Unilocal to recommend this restaurant, but I do assure you there will be others.

Although I am naturally distrustful of anything resembling self-​service — TESCO, I’m talking to you! — and think automation the enemy of charm, I had a grand time at Melbourne’s first — and I think only — restaurant replete with touch-​screen menus. Yes, touch-​screen menus.
Not for China Red the superfluousness of actual human order taking. This place is the essence of no-​nonsense, DIY dining. Once you’ve been seated it’s up to you. At the end of each table there is a touchscreen menu with which you can order your own dinner with nary a waiter in sight.
I’ve read reviews of this Chinatown favourite opining the dearth of service but I actually quite enjoyed China Red’s no nonsense approach. Once ordered, food arrives faster than the quickest guns in the East and the quality is generally great.
I dined with a group of about seven and we took our own wine — for which China Red charged a very fair $ 2.50 per wine glass in lieu of a corkage fee — and ordered a bevy of awesome meals numbering countless dumplings, a few mains and rice.
My favourite dish? China Red’s awesome Stir Fried Pumpkin with Salted Egg Yolk, a vegetarian treat, which rivals any French fry I’ve ever eaten in its all-​round salty moreishness. The meal came in at around $ 30 a head and we all left very satiated.