Re’em Yarra Valley is a one hatted restaurant located inside the Helen & Joey Estate. We picked this place because they were doing a special “dian xin” menu for the King’s Birthday on 8th June 2025. It was a fancy experience but definitely a Chinese menu catered to the white Australian man.
The ambience and views were nice.
The server made a big deal to point out their homemade dipping sauce. It was just soy sauce and chilli oil lol.
This was the scallop shumai, Yarra Valley caviar for $33. The sauce was creamy and sweet. The scallops were plump, wrapped in soft wonton paper. This was a safe combo that cannot go wrong.
These were spring roll, truffle mayonnaise, cured egg yolk 2 pieces for $13. It was mild in flavour, with a crispy shell.
This was the last good item before everything went downhill: the prawn roll, crispy soy skin, citrus foam 4 pieces for $25. It was juicy, flavourful, with a nice zest in the dipping sauce.
These were chicken shumai, pickled cucumber with chilli dressing. Four pieces for $30, we were better off buying 40 frozen dumplings from Costco.
These beef meatballs, Worcestershire, pickled radish, 4 pieces for $25 were dry and lacking.
These fried pork and pumpkin dumpling with chilli mayo for $25 was also lacking, with a very thick crust for a ‘football dumpling’.
This was the pork and mushroom xiao long bao for $18 but wtf, why did baos come out? This was atrocious.
Lastly, the prawn and ginger dumpling, with chilli veloute for $26. It looks nice but tasted like frozen hargow.
Service
The service was okay. We were definitely not their target demographic based on how they pronounced shumai and xiao long bao, and how they put so much emphasis on certain ingredients (e.g. soy sauce) as if we should be wow’ed when it’s just a part of the culture.
Review
We couldn’t believe they had one hat. This was definitely a marked up restaurant for those wanting something fancy in the wine regions. Maybe their normal menu is better and this Chinese-inspired menu was their one-off flop. The wines were good.
We will not return.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
We will not return.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
