When we innocently walked into Bar 9 on Whitmore Square, we had no idea that our lives would be changed forever. As our gaze met the ‘Specials’ board, we saw an item previously only thought possible in our wildest dreams: a dumpling burger.
At first, we too were a little confused as to how two of the greatest foods in existence could possibly get even better than they already are. However, after ordering one each of these fantastical creations, we soon realised that they could only get better by combining them.
Housed inside two brioche buns sat four perfectly fried chicken and pork dumplings, with wombok, coriander, sticky soy sauce, black vinegar and kewpie mayo delicately dressing it. Save for the odd soft shell crab burger with kewpie, this is the most oriental burger we’ve ever had, and who knew this innovative mix of asian and western food would work so well.
It had all the amazing dumplings flavours that we love so much, from the mix of chicken and pork, to the crunchy dumpling skin to the special sauce combo of soy sauce and vinegar, and also had the great elements of a burger, with the soft-but-sweet bun, crunchy fresh greens and generous amounts of kewpie.
If this heavenly combo of foods isn’t enough, Bar 9 have perfected the art of brunch dessert, with a PB&J ice-cream sandwich top of the list consisting of home-made grape gel slathered in-between freshly baked cookies and filled with house-made ice-cream. We also tried the brownie, which was oh-so-gooey and reminded us of eating chocolate cake batter when we were kids (or eating cake batter on a friday night on the couch watching Netflix). This was served with a fresh, slightly sour cream and huge chunks of honeycomb which we smashed up and mixed throughout the brownie.
If you too want to try this mashup of two of the greatest foods in existence, head along to Bar 9 on Whitmore Square any day between 8am and 2pm.