White Rose Restaurant - Hoi An Specialty: The White Rose Dumplings @ Hoi An in Vietnam

The specialty of Hoi An, when it comes to food, is supposed to be a noodle dish known as Cao Lau which doesn't appear appetizing to me! For me, the specialty should be the white rose dumplings! 

So unique were the dumplings that you can't find them outside of this UNESCO World Heritage site! Recipe was said to be secret; to the extent that any eateries serving them had to procure them from only one source in Hoi An; the white rose restaurant.

I was expecting a large crowd but maybe because it was still early at only 9.45 am, the usual tourists on day tours had yet to arrive, giving us plenty of tables to choose from.

Step further in and you would see an army of ladies working on moulding the white rose dumplings. They seemed accustomed to my DSLR and continued to concentrate in preparing the signature dish.

Frankly, the dumplings might look like flowers but not in the form and shape of the roses that I remember. Nevertheless, it's still the taste that matters most! Strangely for a restaurant, there were only two food dishes on the menu!

Complimentary glass of Vietnamese iced tea (known as tra da) although you do have choices of other beverages like soft drinks, juices, and even beer. p.s. there were more selections for drinks as compared to food.

White Rose Dumplings - the star of the restaurant! Just to manage your expectations, there were two types of steamed dumplings on the same plate; the signature rose dumpling which was smaller. The larger, plumper ones had the appearance of conventional dumplings, and were stuffed with more ingredients.

Attacking the white rose dumplings first! Please don't discount the small piece of meat (said to be made from prawns but I suspected pork was added) in the middle. It managed to pack a punch of sweet savoriness with the white translucent dough creating a necessary buffer to perfectly balance the flavor. 

Eating it with fried crispy shallots was just pure bliss!

p.s. especially for a person who loves shallots.

The "other" dumplings had fillings like black fungus, carrots and beansprouts. Overall taste was peppery and I would suggest dipping them into the accompanying lime-sweet, fish sauce, for a better flavor. 

Fried Wonton -  I was honestly surprised when this was placed on our table.

Each fried wonton was larger than my fist and this was just incomparable to my other friend wontons I have in my entire life. From far, I actually thought this was a pizza! 

Well, I ate it like a pizza slice too! Tomato sauce and prawn on top a piece of wonton skin, I would say this was akin to having sweet and sour pork, with crunchy wonton skin! Very interesting and definitely excited my taste buds. 

Meat filling in the wonton was quite pathetic though. Most importantly, it didn't a useful role; similar to wanton noodles, where the noodles count a lot more than the wantons. 

Unlike the white rose dumplings, I found the fried wonton cloying after a while even though the blame must be attributed to Alex, who was trying to cut down on fried stuff and literally stopped after just one "slice" of fried wonton! 

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Would be back for both food dishes! My next trip would be with my mom and compared to Alex, she would likely help me to finish the food as she doesn't like to waste food! 

Short video showing how the white dumplings were moulded. 

Address

533 Đ. Hai Bà Trưng, Phường Cẩm Phổ, 

Hội An, Quảng Nam, Vietnam

Map

As above.

Menu

As above.

Pricing

White Rose Dumplings - 70,000 dong

Fried Wonton -  100,000 Dong

Click here for my 8 Days' Itinerary to Danang (The City of Bridges) & Hoi An (The City of Lanterns) in Vietnam