Handmade Thai dumplings in Adelaide: why we fold every one by hand

10 July 2026 · 2 min read · Rim Thang Thai, Glenelg

Every food culture has its dumpling, and Thailand is no exception. Steamed Thai-style dumplings never got the global fame of gyoza or xiao long bao, which is a shame — a good one, gingery and savoury, with a wrapper steamed until it turns silky, holds its own against any dumpling in Asia.

Thai cooks have been making dumplings like these for generations. You'll find them stacked in bamboo steamers at street markets from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, eaten for breakfast, for lunch, or long after midnight. Ours follow that tradition: small, generously filled and made to be eaten by the plateful.

At our place at 39 Jetty Rd, dumplings have quietly become the dish regulars keep coming back for. The sign out front says homemade dumplings, and we mean it. Every one is filled and folded by hand in our kitchen before service — no freezer bags, no factory pleats.

What goes into ours

The filling is simple and it works. Choose pork, chicken or a mix of the two, seasoned with fresh ginger, spring onion and brown onion. We steam them until the wrappers turn tender, scatter sesame over the top and serve them with soy sauce for dipping. A serve is $16.90 on our starters menu, alongside the spring rolls, fish cakes and curry puffs.

• Pork — the classic. Rich and juicy, made for the soy dip.
• Chicken — lighter, so the ginger and spring onion do the talking.
• Mixed — the best of both, and the one to order if the table can't agree.

Why handmade matters

Factory dumplings are built for shelf life, not flavour. The wrappers run thick so they can survive months in a freezer, and the filling is ground to a smooth, uniform paste so a machine can portion it. That's why they all taste the same — dense, bouncy and a bit anonymous.

Folding by hand lets us do the opposite. The wrapper stays thin enough to go properly silky in the steamer. The filling keeps some texture, so you get real pieces of spring onion rather than a flat mince. And because a person makes every batch, every batch gets tasted and adjusted before it goes anywhere near a plate.

The ginger is doing the heavy lifting in that filling. It cuts the richness of the pork and lifts the chicken, so the last dumpling on the plate tastes as good as the first. The toasted sesame on top adds a nutty edge right at the finish. None of that survives industrial production. It takes longer to do it by hand — that's rather the point of a family kitchen.

How to order them

Dumplings make the natural opener. Share a plate while your mains are in the wok, and browse the rest of the menu while you argue over the last one. They also hold their own as a quiet solo order with a cold Chang. And if the pork-or-chicken question is causing trouble, the mixed option settles it.

We're open for dinner seven nights from 5PM. Find us on Jetty Rd in Glenelg and eat them straight from the steamer under the lanterns, or grab takeaway — dumplings travel better than most dishes, and the soy sauce goes in the bag.